December Traditions

A few things we do every December are included in the slide show found at the link below. We decorated our tree, saw Santa at our church Christmas party and we played at Bass Pro Shop and had our family picture taken with SANTA AGAIN!!! I just LOVE this time of year and all of the fun memories we make!!!

Enjoy!

http://www.photosnack.com/9EAB95B8B7A/ph9fdqeq

Icy Texas!

TEXAS TIME!!! We were sad that Rich had to stay behind and work last minute but we decided to make the trip just me and the kids. This was my first solo trip anywhere with the kids driving over 2 hours. We made it there in about 9. Thanks to McDonalds, the iPad and multiple cell phones the trip went great! Bailey discovered a love for peeing on the side of the road and Kenz discovered she gets car sick if she reads. But then she swears she is fine and reads again because "this book is SOOOO good mom!!!" and gets even more sick. Just glad she didn't turn into a Barfing Bookworm!

We got to the new, awesome house on Monday night and played with Grandma, Pa Pa & Matthew. On Tuesday we "worked" on the tree lots. The kids absolutely loved it! Braxton dove right in and was trying to help customers and load trees. He was cracking me up. It's just in his blood : ) On Wednesday we were Pa Pa's chauffeurs checking on the tree lots and running errands. Pa Pa took us out to lunch at Chick-fil-A and we had a great day! Thursday the kids played with Ragen and Hunter while Sarah and I were "Gettin' It" at Lifetime Fitness. Afterwards we had lunch and played at Mike & Sarah's house. We headed home early to beat the storm. Storm is right! I have NEVER seen that much ICE! It was absolutely crazy! We were stuck! We planned on leaving on Saturday but couldn't even get out of the driveway until TUESDAY! Yah - it was that bad! The kids loved playing on the giant ice skating rink that was my parent's yard. We found all kinds of treasures frozen outside. It was so cool! The ice turned all the plants into popsicles! We were missing Rich really bad but I am grateful we got to stay because Faye, Melissa & COLTON came on Sunday night!!! We didn't think we would get to see them after their flights got messed up in the beginning of the week. I can't tell you how great it was to hold my sweet nephew for the first time! He is so stinking cute and I could not get enough of him - neither could my kids : ) It was so great to see Faye and Melissa, too! We miss them so much!!! The kids had a blast playing and having a sleepover. Finally the ice thawed and we had to head home. It was bittersweet since we were ready to see daddy but we knew it would be a LONG time till we would see Mitchy's sweet family again. Life sucks sometimes. I am just grateful for the time that we did get to spend with Grandma, Pa Pa, Matthew, Mike, Sarah, Ragen, Hunter, Faye, Melissa, & Colton. Thanks you guys for an awesome time! We love you and can't wait to see you all again soon!!!

Texas Trip Slide Shows...

Part 1: "Working" at the tree lots and playing with Ragen & Hunter
http://www.photosnack.com/9EAB95B8B7A/p7tk5huh

Part 2 Icy Fun & Bug's mini party
http://www.photosnack.com/9EAB95B8B7A/ptj07fii

Part 3 Faye, Melissa & BABY COLTON!!!
http://www.photosnack.com/9EAB95B8B7A/ptclri99

Bailey Bugger's Birthday!!!

WHAT? SHE IS THREE ALREADY? NOOOOOO!!!

Every Birthday I blog about how big they are getting but THEY ARE DANGIT! IT SUCKS!

Bailey's birthday was on a Sunday this year so she got to pick a family night out the night before. She picked Chuck E. Cheese...   : O (That is my sarcastic shocked face) We had a blast as always. Braxton and McKenzie were so sweet. They gave her their prize tickets so she could buy a princess crown. If you know my kids, that was a HUGE sacrifice LOL! The next day we went to church and I couldn;t resist taking some pictures of the kids all dressed up. Bailey was all about it of course, Braxton... not so much, but he sucked it up and smiled. We had a great day making her cake, relaxing, riding her NEW MINNIE MOUSE BIKE, opening presents and eating the nastiest pink cake and pink ice cream I have ever tried! Seriously... it went in the trash the next day. Oh well, it made her so stinking happy to make her own cake.

Happy birthday to our sweet little baby girl... I mean BIG girl : ( We love you so much!

I am trying something new for this blog post... a slide show! I really like how it turned out : )
Here it is...

http://www.photosnack.com/9EAB95B8B7A/p7pfdqeq

Gobble, Gobble, MOO, MOO?

HAPPY THANKSGIVING!

For the first time in a while we had our own little family of 5 Thanksgiving. We missed having family here but we made the best of it. Rich said, "Let's just do it simple this year." This idea quickly evolved into the following...

Lunch: Prime Rib, Garlic Mashed Potatoes and all the fixins! Oh my HEAVENS! UHHHHMAZING!!!
I love Rich's Before, During and After Regret pictures : )

Dinner: Home Smoked Turkey and a full Thanksgiving spread!
The missionaries in our ward got permission to watch football on Thanksgiving so where do they end up? Our place of course! They joined us for the Cowboys game and dinner! We stuffed oursleves silly as always.

White Trash Smores (Over the Turkey Fryer Propane Burner)

Little Models!

I have a great friend here in St. Louis who is ridiculously talented! She has her own online boutique business that sells hand-made accessories like bubblegum necklaces, hats, headbands, etc. They are so stinking cute and so is she!!! She asked if she could take some pictures of my girls wearing her gear for her website. Heck yes! FUN!!! While she did a little photo shoot with the girlies I did all my Christmas shopping for all my neices from my kitchen table! SCORE! McKenzie and Bailey had so much fun! Ever since then bailey can't take a picture without popping her hip and giving a model "glare" lol. They loved it! As if this experience wasn't cool enough, my friend is working her tail off making and selling these accessories to help raise money so they can adopt their third little Marshallese baby! Her other two beautiful kiddos, Grant and Emory, were adopted and now she and her sweet hubby have the opportunity to adopt Grant's sibling when he/she is born in March! Super cute stuff for sale that benefits an amazing family! McKenzie and Bailey have their pics on the site now. Check it out...

http://www.yourbubblegumboutique.com/

Bailey

McKenzie

I paid Braxton to throw on a decent shirt and smile... his services are not cheap!

SuiKim Friedmann, you are awesome! Thank you! We love you!

Spoiled Buggy

Sometimes I feel guilty as I go through my pictures because I have so many of Bailey Bug. The big kids are in school and I get to hang out with her all day every day. Plus she is ridiculously silly and cute so that naturally leads to many more photos than the other kids get. Can you blame me? She does, however, have a hard time smiling when I tell her too. I usually get crazy faces. Oh well, what can you do? We get to have all kinds of adventures like gymnastics story time, the Magic House, and playing with great friends! I am so grateful that I get to stay at home with my little spoiled buggybug : )

Birthday B!

HAPPY 6TH BIRTHDAY BRAXTON!!!

I can't believe my baby boy is so stinking BIG! 

Bailey and I brought him his favorite lunch in the entire world... McDonalds (big gross shocker) and we brought Angry Birds cupcakes to share with his class. 

This year we weren't going to do a friend party but Rich suggested he just have a few friends over and have some pizza and hang out. I thought that was a great idea. Here is what REALLY went down. We invited a few kids and then the list kept growing. He didn't want to leave anyone out or hurt anyones feelings. In the end 12 boys were invited. It was a weeknight, school night AND it was Parent Teacher Conferences for every single boy that was invited. I figured no more than half would RSVP. Right? WRONG! Our "have a few friends over" party turned into a dozen 6-year-olds! They had an absolute blast though and Braxton could not have bene happier! He was spoiled ROTTEN by all his buddies. We had pizza and cake and played life-size Angry Birds. Then they spent the rest of the time chasing eachother around and wrestling... boys will be boys! 

Happy Birthday B! We love you so much and we are so grateful you are ours! You are such a sweet brother and a caring friend. We are so proud of you!