Oh Christmas Tree, Oh Christmas Tree

During the ice storm we were lucky enough to have some tired, cold, lightless visitors. Grumpy, Granny and Aunt Hannah were a great help decorating our Christmas tree. Actually we all did very little, Madison pretty much tackled the entire thing on her own.

Here she is looking for her next ornament...she wouldn't even stop to pose for a picture.
Lillie...well, she just wasn't sure about the tree. She would stare at it for a long time then reach out and touch it and scowl.
Eli was his usual crazy self. Here he is about to pounce on Granny...again.
We were lucky enough to capture this one picture of the three of them. One of the only good pictures of the season. Most of the time we are having to hold Eli down to get him to take a picture with his sisters.

Ice Storm 2007

Some of you who live out of town have asked about how we weathered the ice storm. Although everyone we knew lost power, somehow we were fortunate to keep the lights on through the whole mess. However, our street was devestated by fallen trees. Here are a couple of pictures of our neighbors yard.

Unfortunately, the yard wasn't the only thing that suffered.

Thanksgiving Day

This year we enjoyed Thanksgiving at my mom's. We had 19 people all together and it was lots of fun and very yummy. In the morning all the little kids came to our house to play and decorate cookies and then we loaded up and went to Granny and Grumpy's for lunch.

Here they are decorating their cookies...

Eli was not sold on the decorating. He really felt like they was no reason to do anything with a cookie or the decorations besides eat them. I did manage to get one picture though.

Here are all the kids eating their dinner...

And of course, the sleeping baby...

Thanksgiving at Arrowhead

So I always hoped that I would be one of those super moms that manage to go to every school event but I'm not. Madison has so many fun things in her class but unfortunately I have not been able to really make it to any of them until their Thanksgiving Feast. They had a little meal and performed songs about turkeys and being thankful. As you can see, they got to dress as Indians and Pilgrims.

Madison and Hope...

The Whole Class...

Madison the Indian...

The Feast...

Friends...

Fall Fun

A couple of weeks ago we finally got motivated to clean up the yard. Little did we know what a huge chore this would be as we have a couple of large trees in our yard that have dropped a ton of leaves. However, we had lots of fun. Dan would blow all of the leaves into a pile and the kids would come right behind him and jump into the piles which were sometimes waiste high on them.

Sweet and innocent, right?

Madison loved jumping in the leaves and then picking them up and throwing them in the air and letting them land on her head. She actually was a great help getting the leaves into the trash bags. At one point I looked and her and she as she smiled real big at me I noticed her smile was brown....she had laughed so much while jumping in the leaves her mouth was full of dirt. I wish I had gotten a picture but instead I got her a big glass of water.

Eli was crazy (surprise, surprise). He was hard to get a good picture of but I thought this one was pretty cute. He loves to do anything outside, expecially if he can follow his dad around and pretend to do what he is doing. I'm pretty sure he is watching Dan with the blower here.

This was Lillie's first day in the walker, which she loved. It was the perfect day outside and she could look around and watch the kids play. She sat in that spot on the patio for nearly an hour that day while we worked and played. What a great baby!!

Chickee Poof - Broken Arrow Costume Contest Winner

Well, I couldn't help but brag....isn't she so cute?? We had a lot of fun posing for the judges on Main Street. Lillie stole their hearts!

Pumpkin Patch

Saturday we decided to break down and take the kids to the pumpkin patch. It was crazy windy so we didn't stay very long. It was painful trying to get good pictures...the kids were not really in the mood (except for Madison who wanted to pose for every shot and "Pumpking Patch smile" so all of her pictures she has her mouth in some silly position that looks nothing like a smile.)
Eli was happy to climb from pumpkin to pumpkin and Lillie just pretty much slept throught the whole big event.

We going to have to work out the picture taking kinks before Halloween actually gets here.

Zoo Pals

Last week we took our little "village" of friends to the zoo. We had so much fun!! It is amazing though that the most exciting moment was when the older kids found a caterpillar on the ground. Surprisingly, Madison was the first one to let it crawl on her finger...she is braver than me!

Eli's favorite exhibit was the penguins...I tried to get him to waddle but he looked at me like I was crazy and ran off to watch the water spray into the air at the sea lions area.

Madison just enjoys her friends...as you can see. It was so cute to see the three girls in the wagon and their handsome little prince, Corbett walking along side watching their every move. We love our moments together and thank God for such amazing friends to walk this journey with us.

Bebe Pod

We have a new toy that we have just recently begun using. Lillie loves to feel like a part of the hussle and bussle around the house but it is hard when you are still such a little baby. So, we have started putting Lillie in whatever room we are in sitting in her little Bebe Pod. She often serves as the center piece at dinner time...occasionally making it difficult to concentrate on eating instead of cute little...or not so little....grin.

Picnic Fun

Wednesday night we decided to go on a family picnic. Luckily the whole family was able to come.....Granny, Grumpy, Aunt Hannah, Uncle Rick, Aunt Barb and even cousin Jarred. We had so fun much eating, swinging and running around. Hopefully this can become a new family tradition.

Friends

Madison is just now at the age that she is really enjoying her friends. We have been very fortunate to get hooked in with some wonderful families that have wonderful children. Luckily, Madison even gets to go to school with a few of them as well. So today we are thankful for our friends.

Some of them old friends....

and some of them new.

Disney on Ice

Last night we were lucky enough to get to take Madison and her friend Austin to see Disney on Ice. The girls sat astonished as one Disney Princess at a time would come out and perform a little piece of their story. We got to see Mickey and Minnie Mouse....

Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs....
Ariel (she was our favorite).....
and of course Cinderella!!

There were others too but these were the ones that we anticipated the most. Afterwards we went to the fair and rode the ferris wheel and merry go round. We had a blast!!