First snow of the season

It wasn't a lot of snow, but the kids were very excited to get to go out and play in it.  Matt helped them build a snowman, and I was able to get Baylee to smile for a picture.

Thanksgiving

I love Thanksgiving, it's my favorite holiday!  I just love being around friends and family, and really wish I didn't have to wait for a holiday to be with my family.  This year we had Matt's sister Melissa and her family, our good friend Slim, and my dad.  Even though hosting Thanksgiving is a lot of work, I still really enjoyed having everyone at my house.  I didn't get any pictures on turkey day, just too pre-occupied with cooking and chatting, but here's a couple to share...

Here's one of all of us, in the van, hahaha.  If you look closely you'll see the top of Isaac and Aaron's head!

Here's the kids watching a movie on the laptop

Our friend Slim, the hairdresser??

Here he is again as the handy man...

I'm very thankful for Slim helping Matt replace the window he broke while hanging Christmas lights.  Otherwise our house would have looked like this until spring.

Trick or Treat

The kids are the perfect age for trick-or-treating, no more strollers, no more being shy, & no more crying at the scary costumes.  I'll be so sad when they out grow this, I just love dressing them up.  Alivia, my little princess, had her costume picked out for months. Aaron the frog, played the part well, jumping all around.  Baylee the little lady bug, loved wearing her costume all day.  And Nathan enjoyed scaring the little ones with his skeleton costume.  We had a great time, with lots of fun activies, but I think the kids favorite part was being able to do all these fun things with Grandma.  My mom came to town for the weekend, and before that, Matt's parents for here for a few weeks.  We love having our family here, and can't wait 'til the next visit.

Fall Fun

Fall is here, and it makes for some great "playing in the leaves" photo ops!

 

Little Ballerina

Alivia has been taking ballet classes for about 6 weeks now, and she just loves it.  It's not easy getting a good picture of her dancing, but here are a few that Grandma Linda was able to capture.

Random pictures of cuteness

The other day the kids watched daddy plant some beautiful new flowers in the yard, today, it's their turn.  No flowers though, just some hotwheels cars.

A sleeping child is always cute

The look on Baylee's face was no accident, she kept making this funny face, so I had to take a picture or 2

My little ballerina, starts ballet classes this week

What I did on my summer vacation

Almost as soon as school got out, Nathan took off to see his dad.  He got to fly up to Sacramento all by himself, what a big boy he is now!  That left me down one kid, so why not pick up another one.  I was lucky enough to get to take in my cousin's daughter for a few weeks.  I'm such a grown-up now, having someone trust me with their child for several weeks!  I remember when I was little and I stayed with my grandparents for the summer. 
Akailah was a joy to have around, she is just a few weeks younger than Nathan, so a big help with the kids.  And of course the kids LOVED having her here, Alivia tells me Akailah is her best friend and asks me all the time when she will come back over.

Next up, Reno.  After Nathan spent time with his dad, and Matt's parents he eventually made his way to my mom's house in Reno.  I had to make the 7 hour drive up there with just me and the little ones.  It wasn't that bad, except for I had to stop every hour and a half to put in a new DVD and hand out snacks and drinks.  I love being free to just pick up and go whenever I want, unfortunately Matt doesn't have that freedom, plus he already used his vacation days going to Europe with his mother, yeah, not fair. Of course the kids love being at grandma's house and seeing all their cousins.

I got to see my cousins too!  Yay!  I took a trip within a trip up to Oregon where my family is from.  We had a family reunion and I got to see family I haven't seen in about 20 years.  Had a great time rafting, playing games and enjoyed a good old fashion BBQ! I was only able to stay a couple days, but it was a great weekend!

I had some good times with my sisters as well, rafting and pedicures, check this out for pictures.  I was also able to catch up with some great friends and even met some new ones!  Can't wait til the next visit, we will definitely go out again! 

Happy Birthday Nathan!

Happy 12th Birthday Nathan!  It's been so long since I've actually been with you on your birthday.  Thanks to lots of great grandparents you spend most of your summers away from home.  I was glad we got to spend some time together this birthday.  You're just growing up so fast, starting middle school in a few weeks, I can't believe it!  Thank you for being such a great big brother, and helping me around the house.  You can be very sweet when you want to be.  Love you!

A homeowners work is never done

Out of the blue Matt says, "Lets build a rock wall."  I say, "Sure, why not."
Three weeks, three broken backs, and lots of sore muscles later we have a beautiful rock wall and a whole new front yard! (half a front yard to be exact) I figured it wouldn't be easy, but I was up for a little hard work, until I wasn't anymore.  My cousin's daughter was staying with us, and she was great at finding the perfect rocks.  But of course it's not as easy as just stacking rocks, after all it has to look good and stay standing.  Plus we had to put in a whole new sprinkler system, ugh. Let's just say I'm glad it's finally done.

 Here's some before pictures to compare...

 * Flashback moment *  I found some pictures of my very first yard project, this was 5 years ago at our house in Greenville, SC.  We added the planter bricks around the tree and about 50 square feet of grass around it. Ahh, so proud of myself!