Ice Skating @ Riverscape

Owen

Our future skaters

My boys

Ashton

Today we spent two hours ice skating. It was the first time the boys ever put on a pair of skates. Ashton held onto the sides until about half way around the rink and then bam ... he took off. He was skating fast and went round and round without any trouble :) Owen took a full trip around holding on to the side then he was off skating like nobodies business. I am very proud of the both of them. Justin even got to wear his skates again. He did really well and only fell once (thanks to Ashton that is!) Ashton come barrelling around the rink and slammed right into Justin knocking him down... all I can say is HILARIOUS! I didn't skate but instead I photographed our very momentous day. It was a wonderful way to spend 2 hours and everyone was so exhausted when we came home. We had hot chocolates and watched some tv :)

JJ

Justin and STEVE

Justin and Jake

Justin and JJ

Ashton and his new best friend

Justin got a new dog for Christmas. He is a rottweiler named JJ which Justin would like to change to snots like on the movie National Lampoons Christmas Vacation. Justin has always wanted one so now he has one :) He is a great dog.

Merry Christmas

Ashton opening up his presents

Owen opening his presents

Santa brought them a new wii game, a psp, candy, and Axe soap

It is hard to believe that it is Christmas time already. It seems like yesterday that we were opening the pool and getting ready for summer and now Christmas is here :) The boys are so excited and I think they had a great Christmas. According to Owen it was the best Christmas ever! Owen got tons of Legos and Ashton got tons of clothes. They have 1 more Christmas to go. We will be heading to Indiana next weekend to have Christmas with my family! Hope that everyone had a wonderful and safe holiday! Merry Christmas from our family to yours!

Christmas Eve

Their sweatshirts from the Bradys

playing a game :0)

The present they picked out to open

We started our own tradition this year. Christmas Eve the boys were allowed to chose a present to open then we watched Christmas Vacation then bedtime. The Brady family invited us to come over for dinner so we had Christmas dinner with them and did the kids gift exchange. So they were all happy that they got to open presents:) So after dinner, the kids played while we played a board game. Then it was home for showers and the movie then off to bed so Santa could stop by our house.

Christmas @ Mamaw & Papaws 12-18

Top to bottom:
Chris, Maddison, Reagan,
Owen & Ashton
Alexus, Emilee, & Tess

Ashton

Owen

This year the boys went to Mamaw & Papaws alone. Justin had to work over Christmas and I stayed home and enjoyed some quiet time. I got lots of reading done and watched some Christmas movies. The boys were well behaved and had a blast with their cousins. The even got to go spend a couple of hours with my mom, Aunt Berb, & Evalyn.

Happy Birthday to me!

an icicle

i love how the branch gingerly holds onto the snow without bending :)

Taylor, Riley, Ashley, & Owen

Owen & his sled

Well I had a great birthday even though it snowed all day. Meegan and I had to go to the school today and relieve Mr. Arnett (Ashton & Riley teacher) & Mrs. Ward (Owen's teacher) so they could go to the teachers Christmas lucheon. I have a lot of respect for these teachers. They have some out of control students that they have to put up with on a daily basis while managing to teach the rest of the class. After the lucheon we headed to Walmart to finish up some last minute Christmas shopping then home to wrap presents. When the kids got home the roads were still terrible and it was still snowing so we skipped dance class and the kids played outside.

Daddy & Owen 12-12

Owen taking time out to pose for a picture for me! He was having so much fun building his city with his daddy.

Justin smiling for the camera! He was not impressed by me taking pictures but its what I do. I have to capture these moments because they aren't going to last forever.

Daddy & Owen building their Lego City

Owen & Justin built a Lego city in the snow unfortunately a snow storm came thru their city that night and buried it in snow :) Ashton didn't want to go outside so he stayed in and played his video game while the other 2 went out. They had originally wanted to build a snow man but he snow was not sticky enough so they settled for the Lego City. They stayed outside until they both were frozen then came in and we watched movies :)

Brady Christmas Party 12-10

We had a wonderful time @ the Brady Christmas Party! The adults did a goofy gift exchange! Some of the gag gifts were hilarious! We had a bathroom cleaning kit, bean-O, gas x, cans of baked beans, a kids tool kit, Playdoh with cutters, and it went on & on :) There were some really creative gifts. The kids also got a to do a gift exchange. Most of the kids were so happy to open their presents and were really greatful! WE did have 1 that complained but I suppose there is one in every group... I am just glad that it was not my boys. Owen got a Lego sticker book and the Lego encyclopedia of characters. He was so happy. Ashton got Cuponik! (basically like beer pong Justin says) He loves it and couldn't wait to get it home and try the trick cards. We had great food and some awesome desserts. It was a wonderful night to be with friends just hanging out and having fun!

First big snow 12-04

view from our driveway... love that the sun is trying to come out from behind the clouds. That is what it looked like for a couple of days. Grey and cold was our scenery :(

Meegan and I took a walk down our street looking for some cool pictures to take while the kids played outside in the snow. They made forts for their snowball fights and went sledding down the neighbors hill :)

Owen

Ashton

Well it has been awhile again since I have posted something to the blog. December is quite a busy month for everyone I am sure so while the boys are occupied I am taking the time to catch up our blog.

We got our first big snowfall this year in December considering last year it was January (just after the kids went back to school) that we got tons of snow. The forecast is calling for 47 degrees at the end of this week so I am okay with that. We had snow for Christmas and that is all that matters :)

My Birthday/Girls Gift Exchange

Meegan, Me, & Jane @ the Green in front of their awesome Christmas tree! It was blast being silly and posing for pictures. We made some really awesome memories today :)

Jamie, Cheri, Meegan, Me, & Jane @ Mimi's Cafe. Thank you for our hostess for taking time out and snapping a shot of all of us together! What a silly bunch of ladies we are :)

We met up today for breakfast @ Mimi's Cafe to do our Christmas gift exchange and celebrate my birthday! We had such a wonderful time and it was the first time in a long time that all 5 of us were together! I got some wonderful birthday presents and some great Christmas gifts! I am very lucky to have such great friends!

the first bit of snow that fell this morning

Owen trying to catch some flakes in his mouth @ the bus stop. He was the first one to look outside today and when he saw it snowing he ran into my room to tell me. He was so ecstatic but I on the other hand was not.

Ashton trying to catch some snow flakes in his mouth. He was trying to get a mouthful before the bus got there. Unfortunately whenever they would hit his mouth they would melt :)

Boys tree

The boys and their own little tree (Thank you Miss Meegan). They were so happy to have their own tree and decorate it all by themselves. They wanted to set it up next to our big tree so that Santa knew to put their presents underneath it :) Ashton was very adamant about making sure that the tree was right there to help Santa out :)

Decorating their tree :)

The boys tree before decorations