An evening with Santa and Disney on Ice

A couple weeks ago we took the kids to see Disney on Ice - Brayden's favorite part was the Halloween celebration (he's come a long way!) - Brianna was in heaven the whole time (she loved all the princesses!) Little princess (eating a sucker) with her daddy!

Me with my handsome momma's boy:) If you look closely you can see he is missing a tooth! He has several more that are loose!

At South Creek they hosted an evening with Santa. Unfortunately, I was at work, but Gary took the kids.

Getting ready for Christmas!

One night we decided to take a quick family picture to give to a few people (I'm not very good about Christmas cards). As you can see we're not really dressed for a picture - but everyone was looking and smiling! The kids were so cute with Santa this year! I think this is the first year I didn't have to walk over with Brianna! Brayden wants a Spongebob snowcone machine and a zero gravity remote control car... Brianna wants the Disney Princess Castle and make your own jewelry...

After decorating the house for Christmas - the kids got into a pretty typical pose:) I'm so glad they like each other (although the times that they argue are increasing).

As I get out our Precious Moments Nativity Scene - I'm teaching Brianna all about it! Gotta love the look on her face!

This year we made a Gingerbread village! This set was really cute - has 5 different houses/buildings to decorate! Of course Brianna did a lot of chewing!

A little behind!!! Thanksgiving 2009

For Thanksgiving this year we went to Lukas and Jodie's house in Zionsville with Gary's family! We had a good time - the kids are having more and more fun playing together as they get older.
Here's a picture of Landon - he was sleeping during the picture we took of all the kids: Here's a picture of the rest of the kids - Sam, Brianna, Brayden, Grace, Grant, and Logan:

Brayden once again got the smaller half of the wishbone - we're gonna have to work on strategy for next year!

Our contribution to the meal this year was fruit - so we decided to jazz it up and bring a fruit turkey:)

Here are the kids doing "The first Thanksgiving play" at our house! We frequently get a show after I come home from work!

Gator GREATS

Brayden and his friend Sophia from his class tried out to sing the Gator GREATS song on the morning announcements and they won. I was able to watch them yesterday - they were a little quiet - but it was really cute:)

Halloween 2009

We had a very fun Halloween this year! I took the day off of work and my parents came down:) Brayden decided he wanted to be Dracula (because he's been so scared of Halloween in the past I was really shocked that he wanted to be Dracula - but I decided to let him to see if it would help him get over some of his fears. Amazingly this year Brayden was so brave -still afraid of our neighbor's decoration though;)
Here is a picture after trick-or-treating! Enough candy for a few years! Every year we go trick-or-treating with our neighbors - here's most of the group with a few missing:

Cinderella! Thankfully she recovered from the flu soon enough to go out!

Beauty and the Beast!

Our pumpkins this year: TinkerBell (Lee Anne), Cinderella (Brianna), Ghost (Brayden), GI Joe (Gary)

For school Brayden had to pick a vocabulary word and make a hat to wear that represented that word - he chose Rattlesnake!

Happy family (who just finished passing around flu/pinkeye/ear infections)

The ladies:) (There's a little place on Thompson and Arlington that we like to go to every year to pick out pumpkins - this is a picture inside the blowup haunted house they have there.)

I was able to go with Brayden's class on a field trip to Waterman's. Usually we go there as a family every year but Brianna was too sick. Besides, it was a complete mud pit! Here are Brayden and Nolan! Aside from all the mud, we really had a good time!

Brayden's 6th birthday!

While we were in Tenn. we celebrated Brayden's 6th birthday! He wanted to have a Mario Brothers Cake... Gary did an awesome job on it (but it never even was cut - we ended up eating the cupcakes instead)! We had a great day at Wonderworks, Tony Romas, playing Bingo, and breaking a pinata!

Tennessee

For fall break this year we went to Tennessee with 3 families that live on our street - Polleys, Kecks, and Hassingers. We stayed in a 5 bedroom cabin that had a fun movie room in the basement and a bunch of different arcade style games. The kids got along as good as they possibly could have! Everyone stayed healthy - until we got home anyway;) Here are some highlights from the trip!
Walking to Grotto Falls (1.4 miles each way with 8 adults and 10 kids)... The kids were awesome! And we only got a little muddy!
Look carefully and you can see me and Brayden behind the waterfall! Gary carried Brianna the whole time!

Gorgeous! If it had been about 15 degrees warmer you probably wouldn't have been able to pull me away!

Here's the whole group!

Crazy hot tub time! No relaxing for this group!

Wonderworks! Very fun!

A few other memorable things: Long showers;), 3 colanders and no pot, and seeing a black baby bear run across the parking lot as we were leaving the cabin!

Presents!!!

Brayden got a lot of fun gifts today! Uncle D, Aunt Kim, Uncle Matt, and Bona got him these cute frogs! Brayden's face was SO CUTE when he saw them for the first time! Now we just need to name our new family members!

Gary and I made the kids a clubhouse in the basement under the stairs. He had to complete 3 missions before he could see it...

#1 Target practice (shoot down the cobras)

#2 Boot Camp (complete the obstacle course) - Go Sam!

#3 Report to Headquarters (find the clubhouse behind the mountain picture)

Lower level of the clubhouse (Brianna showing him all the accessories)

Upper level of clubhouse!

Gary got Buckeye cornhole from my family!

GI Joe Party!

Today we had a GI Joe birthday party for Gary and Brayden today. We had our families over to celebrate with us. Here is the cake: Happy Birthday Gary and Brayden!

Make a wish!

Just thought this pic was cute of Boston, Bri, and Aunt Alli!

Gary's 32nd Birthday:)

Yesterday was Gary's 32nd birthday! We had a fun day:) It was too wet and cold to go golfing (which was his birthday wish) - so instead we went to the Golf Dome (indoor driving range). We had the whole place to ourselves - which is a good thing since I stink! Later he opened presents and we went out to BJ Brewhouse for some awesome food!
Here's Brayden and Brianna giving him the poster we had made of the Buckeye stadium: Spread the germs - I mean love...

"The best presents ever!"

#1

#2

(They were so funny wrapping themselves up!)

At BJ's Brewhouse getting ready to eat his free pizzaookie!