December Fun 2011

Another month has come and gone and of course December brings lots of activities for us! We have been busy with ballet, piano, Christmas crafts and goodies and of course our Elfie has been very busy this month as well!
We have finally slowed down since school got out last week and are enjoying more down time. I have tried to plan something fun for the kids to do each day to keep them from being "bored", a favorite word here.

To start off, Paxton received the Presidential Fitness Award this month. He was one of 6 first grade boys to get it. Now we all know he doesn't get that athletic talent from his mom! We were super proud of him for this award!

Lorelei and Paxton with Lala, Pam and Von before Paxton's piano recital.

He played Pastorale and Deck the Halls. Of course he did an excellent job, even managed to scratch his head while playing, such talent!

Paxton has taught himself how to play Carol of the Bells and Gonna Shake Heaven from just sounding it out on the piano.

Here the kids are making their Christmas lists to take to Santa.

Lorelei did a great job writing her list and sounding out her words.

Paxton's work is more detailed.

Hey Santa, don't forget those batteries!

Me and my girl.

Lorelei and Jilly, her AG doll, dressed alike and ready to hit the mall to see Santa. I hear Jilly will be having a nice Christmas as well this year, at least from the looks of the list she will be getting quite a few things for herself!

The adorable but obligatory Christmas photos of 2011.

Daddy was making some kind of crazy faces behind me to get these laughs!

Gingerbread house this year.

It didn't make half the mess that our Christmas cookies made this weekend!

Love it! And this year we put Daddy on tight restriction, no picking candy off the Gingerbread house. He has done a good job of staying away!

Miss Lorelei and her friend Avery before their ballet recital.

Lorelei takes ballet at her school now and they dance to Christian songs. It was a very well done recital. All the girls did great. Lorelei was adorable with her little smile on her face the entire time!

Lorelei with Pam and Von.

The happy ballerina with her fans!

Gobble Gobble

An early Happy Thanksgiving to everyone! Or late if you are reading this after it. Not much new here, just crazy busy as always! Just wanted to post some quick shots of my kiddos this morning before church in their Thanksgiving attire.
We had fun last night get boxes together for the Good Samaritan project at church and the kids had a great time picking out gifts for their AGAPE kids yesterday too. They were so sweet by offering up their allowances as well to help pay for everything!

Also, here is my Harry Potter dressed up for book week this past week. He is currently almost finished with book 2, he gets to watch the movies after he reads the books! A funny on him from this morning: People were getting up in service and testifying about how God's grace had saved them and how we are all apart of God's family. Well one man got up and started by saying "By God's grace I haven't had a drink in 35 years." Paxton leaned over to me with big eyes and said "Really? He hasn't had anything to drink in 35 years?!!" Hahaha, too cute! Josh and I were cracking up! Hey, at least he was paying attention, gotta love those sermon notes they do every week!

Catching Up

Yes, once again life has gotten in the way of blogging for me. I have been so busy being room mom and subbing and running to the soccer fields that blogging has gotten left behind. So here is a quick recap of what we've been up to the last few months!

Here is my Super Girl ready for trunk or treat! And boy let me tell you she is a Super Girl! She is loving kindergarten and reading on a end of a second grade level! Last week she ran a whole mile at the stadium for the fun run without stopping! Something that I can honestly say I never thought she would be able to do! Her daddy and I are so proud of her!!



Trunk or Treat with Maren

Lorelei, Belle and Katie. All three girlies go to the same school this year, different classes, but I look forward to seeing these close friends grow up together!

Trunk or Treat was a huge success this year! Way to go Campus! There must have been over 1500 people there!

SuperMan (Will) and SuperGirl (Lorelei)

Paxton was able to join us at Trunk or Treat at the end due to a soccer game. Good Friends!

Our good friends the Duncans moved to our neighborhood in the spring and we just had to get this picture. 2011 . . . . .

Plus 5 precious children!

Same place 2001- 10 years of Friendship!

Pumpkin Princess Sunday Morning.

Paxton has been playing Travel Academy soccer with the U9 team this year. He spends 4 days a week doing soccer. He is the youngest on the team and doing really well. It has definetly improved his game by playing up and so much, still more to learn but we are super proud of him. Anyway, this is how we spend most of our Saturdays and Sundays now.

Just a picture of my cutie!

Pumpkin Patch Time!

Corn Maze Fun!

Handsome Pumpkin

Cutest Pumpkin in the Patch!

First Day of School Pictures- yes that is how far behind I am!

Love this one! Granddaddy is so happy to have his grandkids at school with him! He even gets to take them to school some days- yeah for that too!

My Birthday boy Post VERY LATE

Ok, this is my second attempt at this blog! And no I have not been really slacking either. New computer, new job, new routines, etc. have kept this blogger from not blogging!

Anyway, Paxton turned 7 last month and had a great swim birthday party. We had 10 energetic boys come over after school for some pool fun. They spend most of the time beating each other with swim noodles!

Paxton is loving first grade this year, he has an awesome teacher! He is also playing travel Academy Soccer this year with the U-9 team. He spends a lot of his time these day practicing or playing soccer games, but he loves it and is learning a lot!

Paxton on his birthday.

Excited for his Nerf Gun Wii Game!

Somebody was a wii bit jealous that day!

Birthday party with the fam!

Blowing out the candle on his cookie cake. And no I wasn't lazy in making his cake, he just didn't want anything on it, not an icing fan! He actually wanted to give everyone chocolate chip cookies but I convinced him a cookie cake might be better!

Let the craziness begin!

Boys will be boys!

Can't forget this cutie! What a great little swimmer she became this summer!

Some good food and fun!

Pizza, donuts and a pinata, need I say more?!

Paxton wanted a donut cake for this party, he also had donuts for his friends at school on his birthday too!

Blowing out the candle for year number 7!

A little Pinata fun!

Whew, that was some party! We were all exhausted when it was over, you should have seen that picture!

Where have I BEEN?!!!

Wow! Where did July go? Well we spent most of July one the road! We have been all over the place! We had the most wonderful vacation to Washington DC, New York City and Philadelphia! Here are some preview pictures of our fabulous trip!

So the reason for the delay is when we returned home from our vacation, we found that our house had been struck by lightning. We lost our water, garage door opener, security system, TVs, phones, computers, WIFI, etc. So here I am typing on my husband's laptop, trying to update this blog. Oh and did I mention that last week our air conditioner leaked and sent water pouring into our family room. Yes, the handy man is here now redoing our busted and stained ceiling. Good times, you know.
I will try to update the blog with more pictures later but for now here are some quick highlights from our trip this summer to the Northeast.

The White House

Washington Monument

The Vietnam Memorial

Washington Monument

NYC, on top of the Empire State Building