Happy Birthdays!

The first week in January is a busy one for us.  Avery turned 10 on New Year's day.  She's a lucky one.  She gets fireworks!

I saw these on the web and thought they were such a cute idea so I made one for Avery.  It's a picture every year starting when she was born.  Its fun to see how much they grow up. 

I made one for Josh too but didn't take a picture of it.  Next year I hope to make it cuter.

 I've been waiting for the right time to paint Avery's room and decided to just get it done even if I don't have all the supplies right off hand.  I LOVE the color and more important she does too.  I'll post more pictures of what her room looks like, even if it's a work in progress.

 Getting sung to is always so embarrassing for me.  I think Avery is the same way.  10 candles crammed onto that little cupcake she requested.

Blowing out those double digits.

Josh's birthday was six days later and I'm embarrassed to say I just figured out that my camera has video capabilities.  I've had it for over a year and I never knew!  Oh, all the fun things I missed!!

Birthday boy turns 3! (with frosting on his face)

So yes I had my birthday as well.  It looks like I turned 63.  I look good for my age wouldn't you say?!

After singing happy birthday twice, having cake, and Josh opening his presents we decided to head to the park across the street.  We had Jackson & Joseph, twin cousins 10 days younger than Josh, over to help celebrate.
They all had fun sliding, swinging, and playing on the equipment.

Josh

Emily

Jack

Joey

Before Spencer & I headed out for our date for my birthday I opened my presents.  My last birthstone for each of my babies.

I also got more toys for my camera and Lightroom so I can play with the pictures I take.  I just started to take the classes that came with the camera so I sure hope I learn something and my pictures improve.

Christmas

So Christmas was very wonderful and the kids had a chance to sit on Santa's lap at a Christmas party at our church. 

Christmas Eve we traditionally go to Grandma & Grandpa's, have our big family dinner, do a gift exchange: one for the kids and then a while elephant gift exchange for the adults.  It's crazy with all these busy grand kids but a TON of fun! This is most of the grand kids that live here in Texas.  The other half of the grand kids are up in Idaho.

Christmas morning brought 3 bright eyed kids and one sleepy head we had to wake up.

We start with our stockings and Santa brought each of the kids some coal.  They were so cute with the snowman painted on that Santa couldn't resist! 

Of course we can't forget the puppy!  Harley chewed this thing until it was soggy and so gross.  Luckily he buried it in the yard before I could throw it away.

We headed over to Grandma & Grandpa's home to exchange gifts for a little bit.

One of Avery's gifts was tickets to the Nutcracker Ballet.  Just the two of us.

Eagerly waiting for the show to start! Funny enough we sat in the same row as friends from church that we hadn't seen in almost a year!

We are blessed to know Sara who danced the Sugar Plum Fairy and was kind enough to give us a tour backstage.

Football

We enrolled Jake in flag football in the fall and he absolutely LOVED it!

It was so much fun to go to his games and cheer for him and his team. 
I loved seeing these little boys running and playing a great game together. It was so great for Jake.
His team name was the Patriots.

 He played center.  What that means I have no idea but he was the one to pass the ball to the quarterback? Did that sound like I knew what I was talking about?

 This is what Emily and I would did before one of his games to get some of her wiggles out. 

 I loved that Coach Larry had a playbook to show the boys certain plays and get them motivated.

 I love this picture of my little boy.  Playing with his flags.

 This is another cute picture of them when defense was playing. Josh would be watching a video on either Mom's or Dad's iTouch while Avery would be reading or watching something on her iPod too.

 Another funny thing with flag football is having the coach on the field when the boys are playing. 

 Some of the boys waiting to play some flag football.

 Jake getting the game started.

Ok, so this picture is after Jake caught a pass and was running to make a touchdown.  Unfortunately his one of his flags was pulled so he wasn't able to make it the whole way but it was really close.

This is a video of Jake catching another pass at one of the Championship Games at the end of the season and scoring a touchdown for the team.  It was so bitter cold and I was watching from a distance in the car with the other kids.  It's a bit hard to see but I'm proud to say it's Jake!  He was so happy! 

Harry Potter & Another Visitor

Oops! I skipped Halloween!  I'll squeeze it in here quickly.  This is our pumpkin.  Ummmm... let me clarify that. This is our Jack-O-Lantern.  We only did one this year and I'm fine with that.  After five days Emily told me she liked the scary black spiderwebs I put inside.  Yeah, I didn't put any spiderwebs inside "Jack."  He soon found his way to our trash.

Since our summer movie marathon of Harry Potter my kids love Love LOVE all things HP.  Avery was Hermione and her friend was Bellatrix (total coincidence they both say. Yeah, right! I say)

So for 2011 Halloween we had Princess Emily (again), Hermione Granger, Spiderman, and Ninja Jake.

I love the after Halloween sales.  I was able to plan a HP party for the kids.   I found so many great ideas from Pinterest.  (I'm obsessed!)  So anyways, the kids each got an owl with post inviting them to the party.

This was my platform 9 3/4.  Although Josh is crawling under it you can walk through it, safely.

Some of the food from the party.  I forgot to get the main course which was spaghetti  & meatballs but of course labeled in a fun HP way.  Desserts were also fun.

Doesn't Jake look like Harry?  I wasn't really anyone. Bellatrix maybe?

So we had (starting from the smallest) Draco Malfoy, Professor McGonagall, Harry Potter, and Hermione Granger.  I lined up a quidditch lesson and short match to play outside.

Brooms and flying lessons are a must for every wizard.  In this case we were short on brooms so we had to take turns.

Dementors loomed. Luckily, Olivander's wand shop was open so we could get our wands.  "EXPECTO PETRONUM!!"

It was a fun day!  We also let the kids watch the last HP.  That was the biggest reason for this party.  #1 to see if I could pull it off. #2 they'd been asking about the watching the last movie. #3 I thought it'd be fun.
On to Thanksgiving.  Mom came to visit for a couple of weeks.  It was really fun.  Except for that week off of school.  Man the kids gave me a run for my patience.  I lost it a few times!  Ok, maybe a lot of times. Just before their school break Emily had a Thanksgiving play.  I know she's hard to spot.  Look in the middle section, second row, first girl on the right. 

I feel bad for not taking many pictures but we had a really good time!  We had another HP marathon, well, one dose of HP a day.  My mom had never seen them!  I had to "ssshhh" the kids at least a dozen times each movie.  Like I said test of patience. We did some Christmas shopping.  We had a great Thanksgiving with the Allred family- all 25 of them.  It was crazy fun with lots of food!  Yumm!

A picture of Grandma Kathy and the kids. (there always has to be one kid pulling some kind of face.  why is that? I should pull out my camera and make them practice smiling nicely more often.)

A great picture of my mom and I together.

Avery with my mom.  This was her last day just before driving her to the airport.  It was a great visit and a great Thanksgiving!