Steel Magnolias

Jenica is currently in the play Steel Magnolia's at her school. We went last night and HOLY COW!!!!!! She was AWESOME!!! She plays My'Lynn, the mother of a daughter (Shelby) who has terminal diabetes. She is a typical mom who would do anything for her daughter, including giving her a kidney. The setting is a beauty shop in Louisiana, there are only 6 girls in the play. Really, I was so impressed with all of them. They all had to learn southern accents and A LOT of lines!! It was so good and we are so proud of her ! Way to go Jen-Boo!

My New Toy

For Christmas I got a new "toy"! I am so excited about it! For the first few weeks I was terrified of it and it didn't come out of it's box because it has so many "bells and whistles". However, now that I've attempted to play with it, I LOVE IT! Can I say it again? Let me try to make myself clear. I. LOVE. THIS. MACHINE. I LOVE IT!!!!!!!!!
I made this little table runner, the whole thing, piecing, sewing, QUILTING and BINDING!!!!!! On the MACHINE!!!!!!!!!!!! I am so excited!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! YAY!!!!!!!!

Christmas fun!

Christmas is always so fun. The highlights were, Santa, at Disneyland!!! The Polar Express and the North Pole, sleeping under the tree on Christmas Eve, Eve, The Nutcracker, Seeing the Christmas Carol play at the theater, lights, friends, Christmas morning surprises! (cool shoes, new rooms, PSP's, Nintendo's and Barbie castles!)But most of all, and most important, playing together with friends, cousins and each other. We had so much fun sledding, sleeping over, playing rock band, eating lots and lots of junk food staying up late and just enjoying everyone. That's what Christmas is all about and now that the festivities are over and the tree is down, those memories will last for the rest of the year!!

Disneyland Birthday's!!!

We surprised the kids with a trip to Disneyland for Brennan's 11th and Tyler's 9th birthday's! We had a blast!! They were SO excited and Disneyland is absoloutely beautiful at Christmas! We went to Universal Studios too and had a great time there, especially on Jurassic Park and The Mummy!
I can't believe my two middle boys are getting so big! It was fun to get them their buttons and have so many people throughout the park wish them Happy Birthday! They got to ride all their favorite rides (Splash Mtn, Space Mtn. California Screamin, Pinnochio and of course BIG THUNDER!!!!) It was a lot of fun to be together and to enjoy their special days!! We love you so much boys!!!! What an AWESOME birthday!!!!!

Thanksgiving and Brennan's Arrow of Light

We celebrated Thanksgiving twice, once with the Chisholm's and then with the Bennett's! It was lots of fun, food and family!!!
Brennan earned his Arrow of Light, the highest level of Cub Scouting last month also, we are very proud of him for working hard to accomplish it! (considering his mom is not the greatest scouter in the world, this really was almost all him, so it's really great!!!) Way to go Brennan, you are AWESOME!!!

Happy Birthday Gracie!

Gracie was born on a beautiful fall morning! We were so happy to have her join and complete our family!
She has always been a sweet, happy little thing and, of course, being the baby is spoiled rotten, as any true princess always is!
Some of Gracie's favorites are, reading her favorite books, Fancy Nancy and Pinkalicious, playing chef in her kitchen and helping mommy bake for real. She loves to play on slides and swings. She takes after her mom and loves to go to the mall, especially the Disney Store and Build a Bear. Gracie's favorite foods are: Cookie Crisp, Steak, and "wolly-pots" (lollypops). Of course anything about a Princess makes her happy. We love our baby so much and are so glad she's part of our family!! Happy Birthday sweetie!!!

Night of the Big Pumpkin

I love Halloween! I have loved it my whole life, and I think I've passed it along to my family!!!! We have so many special traditions that it's hard to name them all! Lots of them involve food, traditional dinners, drinks, treats etc. Some of them include chicken noodle soup on Halloween night in pumpkin bread bowls with brain jello, pumpkin pancakes with boo hot chocolate, graveyard cake, brew, witches brownies, chili. We have lots of fun sharing them with friends and family. We always go to cornbelly's at Thanksgiving Point and Gardiner Village. We play in the leaves and have a picnic. We have 4 traditional songs we sing, 5 Little Pumpkins, BOO BOO BOO, Mr Jack-o-lantern and Have You Seen the Ghost of Tom. We have favorite stories we read, especially BIG PUMPKIN, and Happy Halloween Stinky Face. Of course we have to watch It's the Big Pumpkin Charlie Brown and this year we got to go see Little Shop of Horrors, which was very fun!
This year Jen was in Dracula the Musical, in which she played the mother, and did an EXCELLENT job! Josh had a party with 4 friends and their dates, they had a Dopes Dinner, which is something I did when I was a teenager, SOOO fun! We had 2 family parties with all the cousins and a few fun friend ones as well.
I love this holiday because it's just fun, no strings attached. We can just be silly and crazy and there's very little stress.
WE HOPE YOU HAD A HAPPY HALLOWEEN STINKY FACES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!