Thanksgiving

Well now that it is time for the Holiday Season the craziness of it all begins. We are preparing for Thanksgiving. Thanksgiving was celebrated at our house due to last minute emergencies. You know me, I thrive on the craziness and enjoyed getting ready to host my family for this holiday. We spent the day with my parents, sister and Jake and Lacey. It was a good day. We all went to bed with over-stuffed bellies. But hey, that's what the holidays are for.



Emily had insisted that the Christmas decorations needed to be put up before Thanksgiving. I did not oblige. I still have my standards. I have to keep reminding my child not to rush through life ( I know she takes her que from me). We did get to put up the decorations the day after Thanksgiving which is our tradition.

Halloween was an absolute blast. The kiddos had a great time trick-or-treating. Rick and I actually dressed up this year as we had a couple of parties to attend.

Fall Fun

Today we joined Madison for her 1st Birthday. It was an afternoon spent at the Boo at the Zoo. The kiddos dressed up in their Halloween costumes. It was lots of fun.

Believe it or not, this was Rick's only second trip to the zoo. His previous visit was to visit the Christmas lights.

Emily's Very Busy Fall

So this summer/fall was not only busy for our entire family, Emily had a very crazy August. Poor kiddo started school, turned 5 and was in two weddings between August and September.

I was so excited to see my little girl start off on a new adventure. I was also more scared than I have ever been. It is frightening to send your little child off to the world of the unknown. Much to my surprise, Emily handled this all much better than I did. She has so far enjoyed being a big kid with the cool "Bratz" backpack (which by the way is bigger than she is. Hopefully she'll grow into it by the end of the school year), riding the school bus and making lots of new friends.

Emily turned 5 just a week after starting Kindergarten. She had her friend, Regan, over to enjoy the day with her. (I hope you enjoy this video as much as I did creating it.)




Our charming daughter also was the flower girl in back-to-back weddings for my brother's (Anthony & Mirinda) wedding in August and our nephew (Jake & Lacey) in September. She was so excited about getting to wear "princess" dresses. We all know that they were not really princess dresses, but who was going to burst my little girl's bubble?

The summer was pretty filled with comings and goings and trying to keep dates straight.

Rick joined a horse shoe league (yes, they really do have a league for this sport) that he played in on Tuesday evenings. We made some new friends, which is always exciting.

Along with the horseshoes, he introduced a game called corn hole to some family and friends. It's an odd little game, but people seem to enjoy throwing bean, pardon me, corn bags to a platform that has a hole in the center of it. Like I said, it's odd.

The kiddos and I made our annual trip to the zoo and the aquarium. It never ceases to amaze me how much they still enjoy these types of outings

Emily took swimming lessons that didn't go over very well. She doesn't like to get her face wet, so that posed a bit of a problem. Since swimming wasn't her forte, she tried her hand at gymnastics. Which was fun watching her trying to be athletic and graceful. I think we'll hold off on the gymnastics for a little while longer. Poor kid does take after her mommy.

We worked on our backyard landscaping this summer. We planted several evergreen type trees and a shade tree. And lots of flowers.

One afternoon this spring, Emily and I planted two very small tomato plants. I never really thought the plant(s) would grow. Much to my SURPRISE did one of these plants grow, and grow, and grow, and grow some more. I am not exaggerating. This plant got so big, that it basically killed the other tomato plant. And the surrounding plants that were in its path.

I did everything with these tomatoes that I possibly could. We ate them, I had to freeze them (which my mom and later used to can homemade salsa), and gave them away to anybody that would take them. I am now known as the "Crazy Lady with the Tomatoes." I briefly entertained the thought of a tomato stand, much like a lemonade stand, to get rid of these dreaded tomatoes. This plant yielded probably 30 dozen tomatoes. All I can say at this point is that the tomato plant is now a thing of the past.

Rick was pretty certain if there was a record to be had for the world's largest tomato plant, I would have won that prize hands down.

We did manage another trip to Daytona Beach and Disney World again this summer. Ty was a little older so he got to actually enjoy this trip. Myy sister, Becca, joined us. It was her first trip to DW. I'm pretty sure that she enjoyed it as much the kiddos did.




Oh yeah, Rick still thinks Pochantas is the most beautiful of all the princesses.

In May, James and Sara had two healthy baby girls. Isabella Lynn and Sophia Marie. What is very neat about these two babies, is that Isabella resembles James and Sophia looks just like Sara. It's almost scary how much these girls resembe each one of their parents.