Merry Christmas!!!

We were very blessed this Christmas to be able to share great memories, gifts and food with many of our family & friends. The girls seemed to be especially excited on Christmas morning this year....Ella the most. She looked for her name on the packages and started to rip in. She was most excited about her Barbie Diamond Castle while Emma found Santa left her a play store. Together, they got a Wii which has been a big hit. The girls love to bowl. Taylor and I have also tried our talent at tennis, as well. Santa even left Romo a new cat climber which he loves and Champ got a new pig ear. Daddy got many new Dallas Cowboy nicknacks that were needed to complete his basement collection and Mommy was spoiled with a new camera, Ugg boots and perfume to name a few. The girls had fun shopping with daddy this year to pick me out lots of "girly" things. We wish all of you many blessings, happiness and good health for 2009! HAPPY NEW YEAR!!

We were very disappointed to find out that Emma & Ella's preschool Christmas program was cancelled due to severe ice that we had on December 19th. The girls were very much looking forward to it and so were we. Mrs Hummel, their teacher, has never had to cancel in 20 years. I had the girls perform what they could remember in front of our tree at home so I could video tape them. It was too cute listening to them sing around the house for the past month that they have been practicing at school. I couldn't just let it go. I think they had fun, too. This is just one of many songs...Enjoy!

Christmas is coming....

The girls and daddy had great fun getting ready for the holidays this year. They all loved getting out the decorations and helping put everything out. It has become a tradition for daddy and the girls to decorate the sugar cookies. Mommy gets to cut them out with the girls and clean up. This year they attempted their first gingerbread house which turned out pretty good considering the girls ate half the candy that was to go on the house. Taylor always gets to put the star on the tree top.

Happy Birthday!!

Wow...Taylor is 8 years old! We celebrated her birthday with dinner (sloppy joes, chips and cole slaw) of her choice at our house with Nana, Grandpa Jim, Great Grandma & Grandpa, Aunt Tammy, Hope and Calla. JT and Uncle Tom were home sick with strep throat. Taylor is also not much of a cake eater so she wanted brownies with ice cream. She was very blessed with many new gifts. A few of her favorites were a new bitty baby, she named Gabriella, and a digital camera. Our baby is growing up so fast....right before our eyes. It is amazing to see how she has grown and matured into a young lady. She is very well mannered, caring and polite. She is still taking piano lessons and gymnastics which she loves doing both. Taylor does great in school and has become quite the reader, which I admire because I am not.

Elf Yourself

Send your own ElfYourself eCards

Let's Party!!!

Taylor had her first sleepover birthday party on Saturday. There were 7 girls total and my best friend Tracey(Toree's mom) that stayed to help out and keep me company that met at the house at 5 for pizza and then on to Build a Bear where they each got to make and dress their own bear. Then back to the house for cake, icecream, presents and lots of "girly" fun. The girls were very good and had lots of fun although some didn't fall asleep til 4am. Lots of cleanup for mom on Sunday but then we all took naps in the afternoon. Emma and Ella got to spend the night with their cousins Hope, Calla and JT so they had their own fun and were quite tired, as well.


Front L to R: Mia, Taylor and Rachel
Back: Alyssa, Molly, Ashley and Toree

Forgotten Photos!

Here are a few photos that I had forgotten were even on my camera. They are too cute not to share. The girls were lots of help on a beautiful Indian Summer day raking leaves and then jumping in them so I had to start all over again....which is all part of the fun. On the flip side, Emma and Ella also had great fun with the first snow of '08. Ella definitely is much more of a snow bunny than Emma or Taylor. She stayed out for over an hour (by herself) just running around making snow angels, snow balls and sliding down the slide...you go girl!

Visit to Grandma Bs

I actually have no pictures of our trip to Illinois. It was very uneventful (which is good) but lots of fun. We all got to visit with Aunt Becky, Aunt Sues and Aunt Jane. The girls spent a day with Aunt Jane, Brittany and Olivia shopping, baking and having lots of fun while I took mom to lunch and Christmas shopping. We also got to watch Brittany #10 in a basketball scrimage. It is hard to believe that my "baby" niece is a freshman in high school. And of course, we got to eat taco pizza at Happy Joes and had lunch at Roy's Taco House which is always a must. We are hoping to have family visitors to our house in 2009(hint-hint). Our next visit to Illinois will be our usual summer week in July.

Happy Halloween

The girls had great fun celebrating Halloween this year. We all carved pumpkins together and saved the seeds which we roasted with a little salt and olive oil. We all loved them! Taylor enjoyed a costume parade and party at school while Emma & Ella had a Johnny Appleseed party at school. Taylor and Emma dressed up for trick or treating while Ella decided to be herself and stay home to pass out candy with daddy. She had no interest in dressing up and going door to door . We thought there is no reason to push her into it...she is definitley old enough to make her own decision on something like this.

Emma aka a cheerleader

Taylor aka Hannah Montana

Happy Birthday to Mommy!

This is the girls "rock" version of Happy Birthday! Don't mind Ella...with no pants on. She rarely wears them when at home so I am very used to it. I had to laugh when I noticed she didn't have any on in the video. They also decorated a very yummy cake for me!

Wedding

The girls have been looking forward to Denise and Kevin's (Dave's Cousin) wedding for a long time. Ella loves to watch weddings on TV and this is the first real wedding that she is old enough to remember and I think is was everything she expected from the dress to the dancing and cake. Daddy was her date of course.

Emma with Great Grandma Bonnie and Great Grandpa in the back ground.

Emma dancing with Jonah who would be her 2nd cousin. Both Emma and Ella had great fun dancing. Emma even asked Jonah to dance. Taylor is a little to shy to enjoy dancing with so many people around to watch her.

Party Time!

The girls had a great time at Toree's birthday party last friday night. They always look forward to going to Lima for Pizza. We even got to bring left overs home this time. They loved playing follow the leader on the hay bales around the fire and bobbing for apples. Emma is still the champion and is not afraid of getting wet....no matter how cold out it is and it was COLD! Ella took the easy way out going for the apple stem.

Field Trip

Last week I was able to go with Taylor on her 2nd grade field trip to The Toledo Art Museum and MacQueens Apple Orchard. It was a great day and all the kids had so much fun.

Mrs. Siravo's class at MacQueens Apple Orchard.

Our small breakout group listening to the docent at The Toledo Art Museum.

Taylor picking the perfect apples. The kids all got an educational tour of the orchard, apple cooling, sorting and bagging area, and apple cider press. They each got to pick 4 apples to take home and enjoyed fresh apple cider and doughnuts.

Taylor and Alyssa

Apple Picking

Last Sunday, we enjoyed a great day of picking apples at MacQueens Orchard. It was in the 70s with lots of sun and low hanging apples just right for the girls to pick. We got a good variety of Golden Delicious, Ida Reds and Jonathans. We also ate their famous apple cider sugar doughnuts with fresh apple cider to drink....YUM!!

Random Updates....

Emma with Chloe the 9 foot python snake that she held during our visit to the African Wildlife Safari Park. Way to go Em!

The girls during a recent family outing to The Toledo Zoo.

Look mom....no training wheels! Ella has been riding with no training wheels since mid-August. We just took them off one day and she peddled away. Emma isn't quite ready yet but soon will be. I can definitely see getting new bikes for Emma & Ella's next birthday.