Valentine's Day

This year for Valentine's Day we bought the kids marshmallow roses and a game for the DS. Here are our cute Valentines:) Gary and I got to go out while the kids stayed home and played with Mary Anne. I took Gary to Climb Time Indy (we found out we're not expert rock wall climbers - but we had a lot of fun anyway)!

Gary had the kids make me this awesome picture (that is now hanging in our downstairs bathroom for all to enjoy)! We had a very nice day!

SNOW!!!

Yesterday we bundled up and headed outside to play in the snow! Bri and I usually don't make it too long but it wasn't windy so we were able to enjoy it a little more! Gary thinks it's his job to throw snowballs at everybody - and it hurts! One of these days we'll get him back!

The slide was crazy fun! It had ice on it so we just flew down it!

Boston still loves the snow! He's so cute running around in it! If you make a snowball he comes and bites it out of your hand every time! He hates snowmen - and if you make one he ruins it!

Brayden and Brianna were loving all the ice that broke off of the swingset - Brianna was eating it like candy!

After school Brayden didn't know I was watching him, but he decided he needed to make himself a path on the sidewalk with the shovel! It was so cute - he did a really good job! Afterwards, he said his back hurt! He has a new appreciation for snow shoveling!

31st birthday... Yikes!

On wednesday we celebrated my 31st birthday (nothing too exciting about 31...) Gary and I went out the night before to The Melting Pot while my mom stayed home with the kids. Very yummy dinner! On my actual birthday my brother Daniel and his wife Kim flew in from California so we got to spend some time with them - we don't get to see them often so this was extra nice:) We went out to Sushi on the Rocks for lunch - so tasty - and then spent the afternoon watching Daniel and Brayden play Super Mario Bros. on the wii - too bad he lives so far away! That night we took Bri to gymnastics then came home for an amazing steak dinner! (As you can see, our celebrations revolve around food!) Unfortunately, there weren't many good pics taken...
Bri was upset because she didn't get to blow the candles out - so we had a re-do! Present time!

This pic is unrelated to my birthday... Sophi had come over a few weeks ago and she and Brayden had got all dressed up - it was hilarious!!! I had to take a picture for blackmail later!

A quick sledding trip!

Just before the snow melted completely we decided we ought to get in a sledding trip:) We went over to the park close to St. Francis... We had a really good time (although we couldn't go down the bigger hills because the snow wasn't deep enough and it was rocky). Here are a few pics! Despite hating the cold - Brianna loves to sled! Brayden doesn't mind the cold - he always wants to try to hit us with snowballs!

The other morning Brianna's friend Ellie from her class and church came over (with her mom and little sister). They were super cute - dancing to music and being girlie together!

Christmas Part 2 - 2009

Part 2 of Christmas break in backwards order;) On New Year's Day I had to work (this is the year of working all the holidays for me) so we didn't do too much on New Year's Eve... The Polleys came over and hung out with us until 9:00 then we just watched tv until we fell asleep - Happy New Year! Here are the kids being cute!

Over break we went to the Children's Museum. They just opened the Barbie exhibit - it was really cute! They had a runway that the kids could model on - Brayden and Brianna were so serious about it! Too sweet - look at Brayden's arm around Brianna! He was nervous that people were going to laugh at him until he looked in the mirror and saw how handsome he was;)

After Christmas we went to Ft. Wayne to celebrate with my family. Brianna got this water fairy outfit from my Grandma Bryan - this will probably be her Halloween costume this year!

Here's Brayden sporting his new outfit from my mom - hilarious!

My grandma Rousseau always manages to find something that the kids love!

Matthew and Bona (too bad Matthew didn't know he was getting his picture taken)!

This is the other side of the room! Just thought you should see everyone (although - for some reason you don't see either one of my grandmas in this picture).

On Christmas Eve, Gary's family came down to celebrate with us! Here's Brayden cheesing about his money from Grams!

A randomly crooked picture of Brianna opening a present in her pretty Christmas dress (yes a repeat from last year)!

Here's a view of the group eating!

2 more teeth out!

During Christmas break Brayden lost both of his top teeth. The first one came out while he was eating bread on Christmas Eve. For some reason he refuses to actually pull them out so he does anything else he can so they will just fall out! He didn't even know it fell out - I had to tell him to spit his bread out because I noticed his tooth was missing - and sure enough there it was! Unfortunately, we think Grams threw his tooth away:( I had set it on a napkin in the kitchen - which went missing... Brayden was ok with it though.
Here's a picture of him after losing the 2nd tooth - Gary pulled this one out! Brayden is scared of me because he knows I get way to intense! I want that tooth out - NOW!
Just a random story - while we were in Ft. Wayne, Brianna decided she should put a booger in Brayden's mouth!!! I didn't see it happen but my mom did - she said it was stringy - YUCK! When Brayden told me the story later - he said he was "kind-of mad at Brianna"! I would have been furious!!! He's so sweet! Such a gross funny story!

Christmas part 1 - 2009

This year we had to celebrate Christmas a day early because unfortunately I had to work 12 hours on Christmas day... We ended up having a nice couple of days though. On Christmas Eve Eve (our Christmas Eve), Brayden had the stomach flu so we all kept our distance... The rest of us managed to avoid it somehow. These pictures are out of order like always;)
We suprised Brayden with a family gift from Boston - the Nintendo DSi! We thought he would be so excited when he opened it - but for some reason his reaction was so boring (probably because he had been so sick the day before)! Either way, we know he loves it - and here is a picture of what we had hoped he looked like when he opened the gift:) The kids gave me an adorable Precious Moments - Brianna as a princess and Brayden as a pirate - too perfect!

Here is Brianna opening her gifts on Christmas morning - she loved everything she opened! She kept saying, "this is just what I wanted!" She was so much fun this year - loved every minute of it!

Here is a picture of Brayden secluded on his sick couch Christmas Eve! This is as close as we would get to him - poor little guy! Like I said, it was still a nice day spending time together at home - just long distance!

This year we tried out the Christmas at the zoo! Aside from the beautiful lights, our favorite part was doing the scavenger hunt in the Gardens - they had a live reindeer too! Here's a picture of all of us - hard to come by!

Just loved this picture of Brianna:)

This year we got many of the kids together from our street for a gift exchange - the kids got along great! Left to right: Caleb, Cameron, Brianna, Brayden, Sophi, Brayden Polley, Chloe, Evan, Collin, Isaac