i love this 10 year old

She's fun and silly, sweet and unselfish, generous and an absolute joy to have as a daughter!

halloween 2010

This year we had two adorable dancing bumblebees.

And one super cool snowboarder.

Ava and Elle led the way most of the time as we went from house to house.  It wasn't until the last house that she had Dad carry her. 

11 years old

Thomas turned 11 years old yesterday! 

Elle and I came up with this birthday card for him.  He said it is the best birthday card he has ever received.  :)

He chose steak with sauteed mushrooms, potato chive pancake, and corn on the cob for his birthday dinner.  We got a kick out of that grown up choice.  What happened to tacos or pizza?!  His other choices for the day were donuts for breakfast and pigs in a blanket with Dutch Crunch jalapeno cheddar chips for lunch.  His meals were very thought out!  Peanut Buster Ice Cream Dessert was his birthday cake of choice. 

Love this picture.

I have no words for this picture.  It cracks me up everytime I look at it.  We know how to party here! 

Happy Birthday Thomas!  We are so blessed to have you as our son.  We are proud of the young man you are becoming!  You keep us laughing for sure!

girly girl

Ava got her ears pierced for her birthday.  She's been wanting to wear earrings for a long time, especially since Elle wears them.  Specifically she wants cupcake earrings but for now she picked out flowers, in pink of course.  I think these are the cupcake earrings she's dreaming of.  So cute! 

She was very brave.  She didn't really know what was coming or I don't think she would have gone through with it.  Thankfully there were two girls working at Claire's so both ears could be pierced at the same time otherwise I am sure that we would've came home with only one ear pierced.  A few tears were shed but they quickly stopped after a hug and a lollipop.

She loves them and thinks they are so sparkly.  I think they look so sweet on those little ears, framing that precious face!

my baby turned 4 yesterday

And it was a happy day!  There was lots of bubble blowing, sandbox playing, bike riding on the big girl bike....the two wheeler with training wheels!  Elle made up a little carnival for her and she loved that.  She chose a 'chocolate cake with brown frosting and a lot of decorations' for her birthday cake.  After her favorite dinner of sageppi (spaghetti) she fell asleep on the couch watching Toy Story completely worn out from all of the fun.

clark & rusty got the lights up

Rusty needs to spend a little time finding the bulb that needs replacing in that bottom string of lights tomorrow! :)

thanksgiving 2009

Happy Thanksgiving! We had such a nice day. I was thankful for my helpers in the kitchen this year! Thomas and Elle enjoyed helping prepare our lunch....well, except for all of the dish drying!

Here's the plate of food picture for our family in Nebraska. We pigged out! The meal turned out good but my favorite was dessert. I made creme brulee and it turned out! We hope you all had a great day. We were thinking of you and are looking forward to seeing you next month!

wish this was on video too

See if you can tell what happened just by looking at these pictures -



As soon as the last word of Happy Birthday was sung Ava jumped up on Elle's chair and blew out almost all of the candles. The little turkey! It was hilarious! Did you notice the sheer joy on her face in the first picture?! We relit them so Elle could blow them out. I love that last picture with Thomas's hand over Ava's mouth. It was a good laugh!

happy 8th birthday elle

Our sweet Elle Marie turned 8 years old today! It's been a fun-filled day around here. She's raced to the phone every time it's rang. She ran out to the mailbox as soon as she saw the postman and was so excited to get 4 birthday cards. Later she walked into the post office with the biggest smile on her face to pick up her package from Grandpa and Grandma. It's so fun to watch her enjoying her special day so much!



She chose strawberry muffins and pepperminty white hot chocolate for her birthday breakfast. The kids always crack me up in the days before their birthdays trying to decide on their birthday menus. It's a big deal for them and they always change their minds over and over.

Thomas couldn't believe she would choose veggie wraps for her birthday lunch. He opted for some leftovers in the fridge instead. :)

Thomas got Elle a new lego kit so there were hours of lego construction going on here today.

Along with some sewing practice on her new Hello Kitty sewing machine. She is going to have so much fun with this thing!

10

Yesterday Thomas turned 10. Ten!!

He went and golfed 9 holes with Dad. He loved that!

He spent lots of time working on putting together his new Star Wars Lego kit too.

Chocolate sheet cake was a great way to end the day after his birthday meal of grilled steak! It was so cute to watch him to try to come up with his birthday menu for the day. I think he changed his mind on his cake 4 times. The only thing that he could decide on for absolute sure was steak for dinner!

summer fun

Hi! I hope you all have been having a great summer. We've been soaking ours up!

We've had fun -

watching the 4th of July parade

eating big, drippy waffle cones

relaxing on the lake

and playing with friends

till we're all tuckered out!

happy easter!

Today our Easter Sunday involved -

A little egg dying.

A little egg hunting.

Lots of pictures.

The traditional treasure hunt.

And too much candy!