New Year and Olivia's 9th!

Haylee's favorite book!  She asks for it as soon as she wakes up and spends lots of time everyday reading it. She calls it her turtle book.  It's a Franklin turtle book.  It's lots it's cover, back and almost all of the pages are now 1/2 pages, but she continues to love it.  I tried at one time to keep repairing all the rips, but I couldn't keep up and so I gave up!  I would trash this thing, but I'm afraid of all the tears there would be.

Aaron helping the kids build an igloo.  What a cool dad he is!

The kids were so excited for this.

Carter trying to help get more snow for the igloo.

All done and big enough for three!  Carter and Olivia really wanted to sleep in this. I guess I shouldn't have told them about how I slept in one when I was younger.

Ryan gives us loads of smiles!

Olivia is definitely better at guitar hero than I am. That isn't saying much though. She got really good over the break.

Ryan's first church outing.  I LOVE this little shirt. It was a gift from some great neighbors of ours...it's even a onesie!

Olivia's favorite Christmas present, her ipod nano went bad on her within a week of Christmas and so we splurged and got her an itouch.  She LOVES it!

Mixed emotions about seeing another possible thumb-sucker.

Haylee honestly zonked out like this!

Olivia got brave and got her ears pierced for her birthday this year. Can you tell how nervous she was?

It's done!  Finally!

I got to take Ryan and Haylee to Olivia's school on her birthday and surprise her with McDonald's for lunch.

Unwrapping presents.  She got a printing calculator to make receipts for when they play store.

Presents from Aunt Shellee and Uncle Daniel.

Fabric from Grandma and Grandpa.

And just before bed (we had a very busy day...talent show try-outs and dance class after school), we squeezed in time for cake and icecream!

Three boy friends!

On Wednesday we were able to take her to her favorite restaurant...La Pinata!  

Happy Birthday my Livy Lou!

Christmas holiday 2012

Haylee got this adorable Mother Goose from our neighbors. It's the cutest thing!

From our same great neighbors, came this awesome t-shirt for Carter. They know my kids so well!

Christmas Eve seemed busy this year.  The kids were okay to just leave Santa some popcorn instead of cookies this year too.

Santa Came!  He even ate the popcorn!

He delivered lots of fun gifts.

This is what it looked like when...

the kids woke up and came out of their rooms!

Ready to tear open presents!

Olivia got the marionette puppet she had asked Santa for.

And a new sewing machine!

Ryan found it all quite boring!

Olivia's favorite...her ipod nano!

Haylee got a pink ballcap so she looks a little more girly and that orange laptop toy is something she wanted for awhile.  She called it "buttons" and always asked for it.

Carter loves his Skylanders.

Wow!  Did a bomb go off or what?

Haylee and Olivia playing with a new puzzle/learning gift she got from her Grandma and Grandpa.

Ryan slept through most of it.

Carter decorating his room with his new Angry Bird stickers.

We woke up on Dec. 26th to our first snowfall of the year!

Luckily Grammy and Papa left Georgia early to arrive before the snow.

We've had a fun month

The month before our little guy arrived was a busy one!  I finished up my Christmas shopping (with much thanks to Shellee and Daniel and another marathon/super fun Black Friday).  

November 10th was our Super Saturday. What a fun, crazy busy day it was!

November 16th, Aaron and I were able to go to see Brian Regan with a bunch of friends.  It was a blast and we laughed  a ton!

Haylee recently had an obsession with this blue hat of Carter's.   She would wear it everywhere and only backwards.

Olivia had a school project due.  She made this model of Fort Hamilton.  Aunt Shellee helped a lot with it!  

Yogurt cups can be so much fun.

Haylee got a new pair of shoes!  Since she wears orthotics in her shoes, this is always a big deal. Not only is it expensive, but she pretty much wears these shoes everyday. Shellee helped me with finding the right pair of shoes (there was no way I could bend over to try on all those shoes on her by myself) and then we went to see a therapist so they could fit her with new orthotics.  It's nice to have shoes that fit her again!

Haylee loves going to therapy with Mrs. Cindy Heinze at the Elementary school.

The kids love building with gingerbread.  Well, Olivia loves to build and Carter loves to eat.

This year we made a tree.  Carter ate half of it (bleh!).

December, 15th was Olivia's dance recital at our Community Center.  She absolutely loves being on stage and definitely has the prettiest smile up there!