Santa Time

The past few years we go to the Christmas parade and then see Santa. Since we have been going it has been the same guy who plays Santa, and he is wonderful. Real beard, rosy cheeks, and he never seems bothered by the "criers". I know this because every year at least one of my girls cries.


Look at the look on Gracie's face!

I think this picture is funny, because if I had to guess she is telling him that she wants an iphone for Christmas. The look on Santa's face is priceless...............and no she is not getting an iphone! We told her Santa does not give 6 year olds cell phones!

Jadyn carried on the tradition this year by crying. She was terrified of Santa. This was as close as she got, and momma had to tell him what she wanted.

He tried talking to her, but she never would really look at him! Maybe next year!

Skating fun

This past weekend we went to a skating birthday party for our niece and nephew. Even I put on some skates and managed to not break anything! Jadyn (who has never skated) loved it! She is my fearless one! Gracie has not skated since she was probaly 3, so being my careful one she hugged the rail!

Jadyn and Judd. They had so much fun, and if one of them fell the other would fall too!

Gracie- holding on tight!

Jadyn about to jump!!

Well, at least when she falls she has a smile on her face!

A moment of braveness!

Daddy and daddies little girl. She sure has him wrapped around her finger. =)

After this party, I don't think I have to worry about Gracie wanting a skating party any time soon.

A first............

For days we have been trying to convince Gracie that her tooth was ready to come out. She wanted it to come out on its own, without us pulling it out. (and by us I mean Jerred because loose teeth make me sick to my stomach!) While wiggling it to see how loose it was today, it came out!! She is beyond excited! Looks like the tooth fairy will be visiting tonight.

Cinderella and Tinkerbell

This year I decided to make both girls costumes for halloween. I wanted to save a little bit of money and I haven't had too much luck with store bought costumes. After doing some shopping on etsy ( i love that site! you can get so many ideas) I decided that Gracie would be some sort of princess and Jadyn would be Tinkerbell. Gracie of course decided on Cinderella. The original plan was for Gracie's to be more of a strapless tulle gown, but that would take so much tulle and as it was I ordered the wrong color and had to send it back. I found a free tutorial on how to make a Cinderella dress based on one of your child's tops and just went from there.



I told her to act like a princess, this is what I got. So cute!

Jadyn, Jadyn, Jadyn.............next year you will be lucky if I just take a white sheet and cut holes out for eyes because you fought me every time we put your costume on. We're talking about full melt down. These pictures are AFTER the cookie bribe. I think they turned out good considering 20 minutes before she was all red in the face, wet cheeks, and snot nosed from all the crying.

"Fly Tinkerbell!" I bet you didn't know Tinkerbell wore nikes? =)





Are these costumes perfect? Well, no but neither are store bought costumes!

Magic Springs Contest

If you have a facebook page, please, please, PLEASE go to Magic Springs and Crystal Falls page and "like" this picture of Gracie and Jojo. You will have to "like" the Magic Springs page first. The contest is for best pet costume. The contest ends tomorrow at noon and the winner gets a 2011 Magic Springs Season Pass!



A little information, this is JoJo, our 150 pound great dane. Gracie was little red riding hood and JoJo was the wolf dressed as grandma. I did not buy his costume as is, I had to find a grandma night shirt (goodwill) and make some alterations. Dressing JoJo in this costume was also quite interesting since he kept laying on his back!!

Please go "like" our picture!!!

Thank YOU!

Family Farm Pumpkin Patch

After reading one of my favorite bloggers recent trip to the Family Farm pumpkin patch, we decided that we would try there this year since our busy schedules didn't leave much time for us to go to Mayflower. It was only five dollars for us each to get in, and we all got a pumpkin! All the activities once you are in are free. Everyone that worked there was super nice and we all had a great time.



Daddy and his girls. These girls were in no picture taking mood. They saw all the fun stuff to do and didn't want to stop to take any pictures.

Gracie was squeezing my neck and pulling on me. This was right before we all fell over! LOL!

Playing in the hay.

This is one of my favs! These girls are my everything!!!

Holding hands...............

If you know this girl, you know you have to just nearly have to beg for a kiss. I missed her actually giving him one so we tried to get her to do it again.

They have a kids zip line. Both of my little dare devils LOVED this!

A rope swing to play on.........................

Hidden tunnels under the hay.

and of course lots of pumpkins!

Happy Fall!!!

Lake Catherine 8/13- 8/22/2010

When it came time to talk about our vacation this year, we just kept putting off that discussion, and before we knew it it was nearly August. Between softball, Gracie starting kindergarten, and being sure to give my daycare parents plenty of notice, that didn't leave much of a vacation to actually get away. So, we decided to plan a stay-cation. The only week we could set something up was the week that Gracie started school since she was starting on Friday. We decided to spend some time in Hot Springs since we live about 45 minutes from there. Lake Catherine State Park has a beautiful campground, and you are close enough to Hot Springs that you can still go out.


We LOVE camping, but for this little girl when comes time to go to bed she wants to go home. Jerred told her " this is your home, at the lake. When we are at the lake that is your room. So go to your room and go to sleep." LOL! She got in her bed and went to sleep. If only it was that easy at home!

Gracie spent the night with a friend Friday night, so mamou and Olivia brought her to the lake. We went horseback riding, and these girls loved it! Especially my little cowgirl!

Although, you see the massively giant horse in the back? This big guy scared her! His name is Big Foot, and he is the most gentle horse they have! He is the kid horse! His ears are as long as my hand!

We have some impatient cowgirls on our hands!

Taking a group picture of the girls and this horse gets closer and closer.............

To Jadyn's head. He was licking her helmet.

Gracie riding Ernie.

Olivia riding Pepsi.

Jerred and Jadyn got Big Foot. Jadyn was so mad

at her daddy, because she wanted to ride by herself.

"this is MY horse!

It was VERY hard to take pictures while riding. Especially since my horse wanted to try to rub my leg on EVERY tree we passed.

These geese (and a few ducks) came to our campsite every day at about the same time. We fed them some crackers and bread. Our last day I saw a sign that said "Do not feed the geese" Ooops!

We did a lot of this.

Just hanging out.

Cosmo went with us. He is a great traveling dog!

Who would have guessed a malshi would LOVE the water so much?! He got off his leash a few times and took off into the lake.
When I looked through the camera to look at all our pictures, there wasn't very many. I guess I spent more time relaxing then documenting our vacation. Oh well. It was nice.

The last weekend a bunch of family came up and we hung out. These three girls are best friends, no matter their age difference.

We did a lot of hanging out, kayaking, boating, fishing, swimming, and card playing. It was a great week, but I was so glad to be home! After living in the camper for a week my house felt huge to me. Since we made a couple of trips home during the week, our laundry wasn't that bad either!

I'm ready to go back though.