First Snow and Gingerbread house

The first snow. The kids were pretty excited. I was a little excited too, for a little while, we wanted to all go out and play in the snow. The girls have been asking when is it going to snow, when is it going to snow and sure enough we got about 4 inches of snow.


We built a snow man as soon as they could go out, which took forever to get them dressed. Even Jaden was excited, although he lasted a total of 5 minutes before he started complaining because it was cold and wet. He kept falling in the snow (it was pretty funny) because it was hard for him to balance in the snow clothes. Yes it is a little excessive but it kept them all dry.
Later we decied to build our gingerbread house, it was definitely hard keeping Madison and Jaden from eating the decorations for the house.

And keeping Jaden off the table.

Our final prodcut, you can't see the top but it has huge gaps from where the candy should have been.

Tree Set Up

We got back from our trip and decided to start setting up the Christmas lights and decorations. The kids had been asking when we would set up our tree and the train set we usually put out. I told Michael not to put up our Christmas village this year because it was hard enough to keep Madison away from it last year, keeping up with two kids was more than I could handle, so we skipped out on it this year, maybe next year. However the train we put out this year for a short while and Jaden and Madison just LIT UP, so cute.

You can see the excitement in his face it's so cute.

Everyone wanted to wear their Santa hat.

Cut my hair

Yes before I left for GA I cut my hair short, I would actually have liked it a little shorter but I am OK with it being this length. You can't see it 100% clear in this picture so I guess I'll have to find another one or take another one soon.

Final Pictures of Catch up from Thanksgiving

Here are the final pictures from our Thanksgiving week. Hoping to post from the rest of this past week, we have lots of pictures to catch up on.

Our last day we went to this great park called Kids Post (I think) It was a huge park behind this enormous church, it was great. We were a little nervous about the weather because it was only 35 degrees in the morning and windy. So we made sure we bundled up and wore hats but by 1:00 it was in the 50's and really pretty nice. We must have spent easily 2 hours there and then had dinner together before Michele and I out and we headed home to VA on Saturday.

One of the few times she smiled, she was so cranky this week, she's really having some rough sibling jealously lately.

My niece Chloe and my sister-in-law Michele.

I love his smile.

My niece Ally.

Caity, Chloe, Jaden and Kaleigh.

My sweet baby girl.

This net thing was awesome it had to be 15 feet off the ground and yet Jordan my sweet girl who is afraid of heights, climbed it with a rare confidence, I was so surprised, I can definitely see how gymnastics is helping her in her confidence along with everything else we are doing.

There's our one of our Monkey's Kaleigh almost at the top.

My nephew Jake at the top.

We had a great time visiting family, but it is always nice to come home.

Catch up Continued

On Wednesday, I was able to do a little shopping Michael and I and the two little ones, Jordan and Kaleigh stayed home with their grandparents, the weather was finally getting nice, it rained almost the entire time we were there.

We took some family pictures and although I brought my camera I felt funny taking pictures with them because I didn't want to step on the professional photographers toes so I will post some of those when I get the proofs from her.

Wednesday night the girls stayed with their cousins at my sister-in-laws and Michael and I went to the movies to see The Blind Side (it was very good - I really liked it and the movie theater was packed). It was the first time we went to a movie since the summer...can you tell we don't get out much..

Thursday we went to my sister0-in-laws early so we could help with the food and eating of course. The kids had a blast. Movie night for them plus pedicures (thanks Aunt Michele).

This would be first on my kids Christmas list if we had room in our backyard.

This phone kept him occupied for the longest time, it's an old blackberry it was hysterical. (And yes his shirt says Lock Up Your Daughters...I couldn't resisit).

Did he learn this from me?

Putting his blackberry in his pocket.

Again, I didn't do well with pictures from dinner with the 15 of us around two tables. I have more from the last day we were there but I will post them tomorrow I am beat and have to go to bed.

Getting Started on Catch Up

OK so here is the wrap up of our trip.

After we arrived on Sunday we had dinner and let the decompressing from a very long previous week (Michael was in LA and TX all week) begin. The car ride was long 10 hours or so and Jaden complained a lot. The girls did great but he was frustrated that he had to sit for so long. We didn't take long breaks but we did take some, we stopped went to the bathroom, stretched our legs and got back in the car. We left around 6:30 in the morning (that was a little rough for me) but got to GA around 4:30-5:00pm. In time for dinner and in enough time that everyone could unwind and still keep our bed time routine (sort of).

We did our schooling on Monday (it was definitely hard for Jordan to focus with the excitement of pending cousins arriving at grandparents shortly) but we managed to get it done. Michael had a meeting in Atlanta Monday morning so worked for a good part of the day. The girls were excited to see their cousins once they arrived and it was good to see my sister-in-law.

Tuesday after we did more schooling we went to the American Girl store and cafe, where we had lunch, just the girls and Jaden of course.

We are currently reading the Josephina series, the girls were excited to see the items from the stories (of course they are excited any time we go to an American Girl store).

We had to sit at two seperate tables because there were a lot of us and their restaurants are usually small, but we were right next to each other, and of course I cut off part of my neice Caity, and of course Madison who did not smile much around anyone but her Grammy. Sorry Aunt Betty I didn't mean to catch you blinking it was the only picture I took at the restaurant.
At the other table sat me, Jaden, Kaleigh, Chloe my neice and Michele, my sister-in-law, eventually Madison joined us, she was having a bit of a rough day.

All in all we had a great time that day and the girls loved shopping.

So much to catch up

OK So I will be posting pictures later, just trying to get back into the swing of things since getting back from our trip down south after our crazy week while Michael was away on business the week before.

Definitely enjoyed our somewhat vacation, visiting family. We got to see our neices and nephew, I read two books.....finally caved and had time for the Twilight series, I'm now trying to get through Eclipse, although not at such a feverish rate since my sister-in-law is not behind me telling me to hurry up....LOL.

Went to see two movies...The Blind Side (it was SSSOOOOO Good, I'd see it again if I could) and New Moon (not so great but entertaining and enjoyed the time with my sister-in-law (hence the hurry up and finish so we could go to the movie).

Ate lots of food, played with kids, did school work and just in general had fun. I did not enjoy the car ride either way (Jaden cried for long stretches and was not easily entertained)...he cut two teeth and the ride home took an extra 2 hours because of traffic but all in all it was a good trip and will definintely post pictures tonight.