Merry Christmas!

Christmas Calico Giveaway

You'll love these giveaways and her blog. Go link.

A Thanksgiving of Wonders

As a surprise I gave Doug tickets to fly to Utah over Thanksgiving. Every year as a tradition his dad and others go on a backpacking trip to the Grand Canyon the day after Thanksgiving. Since we have lived in Tennessee Doug has missed out on the tradition. I decided that Doug is so busy and works so hard always doing things for other people that he never has time to do fun things for himself. This was the perfect opportunity for him to get away. These are a few pictures from his trip. They pretty much hike and make up their own trail down so it is a dangerous. This time they actually found a new route to the bottom of the canyon that is much shorter than the other hikes they have done. He had a great time enjoying one of the greatest wonders of the world!
This is a panoramic picture of Doug standing on the edge of the Grand Canyon

Here is a picture of the ring tail cats down there that come out at night!

This is a fresh spring coming out the side of the rock

A night on the town!

So a couple of weekends ago Doug and I were able to go on a real date. The law firm he works for paid for us to go to a dinner that celebrated those attorneys that have been practicing law for over 50 years. The founding partner of his firm was honored that night so we were invited! It was so fun, we got all dressed up and went to the art emporium for a buffet dinner and a live band. It was a real black tie affair! We had a great time together, and I think the last time I got to where a fancy dress was on our cruise 7 and 1/2 years ago! It was so fun!

We are still here!

Well, long story short my camera busted so I cant post pictures, all three kids have been way sick. Parker has had two ear infections in which we have tried two different antibiotics which didn't work and so he has had to have two rounds of heavy duty antibiotic shots! Poor kid! Brielle and Bens have had a bacterial infection called Microplasm that settled in their lungs. So between nightime wakings, antibiotics, breathing treatments, cough medicine and being quarantined to our house for a week I have not had time to blog. But we are all alive which I am grateful for. Here are a few updates:

Parker: We took him to the doctor and he weighs 20.6 lbs! What in the world! He is my biggest kid by far, but I absolutely love all his rolls. He is almost crawling and is only seven months old. The other two didn't even attempt til they were at least 9 mo. He does the army crawl to get everywhere! I need to baby proof my house again for sure! He is still the best baby ever and never cries, even with 2 ear infections he has been a happy camper.

Benson: Well Benson is still Benson. He was standing on the dresser the other day and fell and busted his lip open. It was bleeding everywhere! Does that surprise anyone? I wish I had a camera so I could post picts. He is all boy . His new favorite thing to do is to help me clean up. To do this he cleans things up and then throws them in the garbage. It doesnt matter what it is, it all ends up inthe trash. So funny.

Brielle: She is still my great little helper. I really don't know what I would do without her. She is always keeping an eye on her brothers for me, or feeding parker his bottle. She plays the motherly role great. I am going to be really sad when she goes to Kindergarten. We went the other day to get our haircut and she kept saying, "Mom I really love being a girl so I can do girl dates!" I am so happy to have her as my little girl!

Well, that is the update for us. I will post again soon, but until we get our new camera for Christmas I will be posting only picts taken by others!

My life is never dull

This is what Brielle did with her lunch instead of eating it. She made a ham face (notice the eyes, nose, and mouth, they are hard to see but they are proportionate with the face), a grape and string cheese body, cheese cracker legs, and carrot arms. Pure Creativity! And I know after all my posts you are wishing you had a 4 1/2 year old with a fantastic imagination and love for life huh?

Is it too late??

I know Halloween was a long time ago, but I had to blog it so I would remember. Arent they super cute!


Brielle as a mermaid fairy? We don't know where she came up with it either, but it really was just a mermaid costume with wings!


Benson the fireman who absolutely loved his helmet and would not take it off!
Parker dressed up as Benson's Fire dog dalmatian! Don't you just want to squeeze him?

You want to wear what?

I told Brielle to get dressed so we could go to the store. She came out in this. Did it stop us? NO way. Wierd looks at the grocery store are no match for my Brielle's independence! It makes me love her even more.

P.S. Doesnt the Ballet move look great?!

Can he grow up? YES HE CAN!

Last Monday was my little Benson's second birthday. I cant believe that my little man just turned TWO! We had such a good time on his birthday and thanks to everyone who called, sent stuff, and came to his party, he had a great day.

We woke up in the morning and he chose what he wanted for breakfast: Trix cereal and gogurt. Okay, not to hard. Then we planned on going to lunch with Doug because Benson's only thing he wanted to do that day was to see Dad. So of course we picked up some good old Chick-Fil-A and went to Doug's work to eat with him. It was so fun, we sat in the little lunch room and got to meet a lot of people Doug works with. They were all so sweet and they loved meeting all the kids. Then it was home for nap time so I could finish last minute party stuff and make Benson's Bob the Builder cake! I love decorating cakes so this was fun. Benson is wild about Bob the Builder and the days leading up to his birthday he would walk around the house saying, "Bob cake!" over and over again. So this cake was a must.

At about 6:00 some of our dearest "Tennessee Family" came to celebrate with us. Of course everything at the party revolved around Bob the builder so I have included some pictures to show even the food was labeled to go along with the names of the trucks on Bob. (for example, Roley's Roll-ups go along with the little roller truck named Roley! Scoop's Scoops, etc. :) We had a great time. We roasted Hot dogs and marshmallows on the fire, (we love having a fire pit in our backyard) and ate and ate and ate. Then the kids took turns hitting the pinata, and of course presents and cake and ice cream. Benson got all kinds of trucks and balls, and trains! He was stoked about having some of his own boy things to play with. Overall it was a success, but I have to say I am a little grateful we do friend parties every other year cause they are a lot of work!

Leelou Blogs

This is a darling site! Check it out!

a