Fun family time...

The last few days my Grandma was alive, she kept saying how she wanted all of us to stay close to each other.  She was the mother of 13, and had MANY grandkids and great grandkids.  She expressed many times that she wanted everyone to always be there for each other, and maintain a good relationship.  Today marking the anniversary of her passing, we figured we'd do something together. I had hoped it would be something that all of us could do, but didn't work out that way.  Ended up just being my mom, her 3 kids and her 6 grandkids.. We went rollerskating, and then my mom and one of my sisters came over for dinner afterwards.  We had a great time!  Here are some pictures from our night.

My sister Johann with my niece Emma

Peyton making his way around the rink

Aleena with her cousin Emma

Me with my niece Lacie

Johann, Me, Melanie and our mom

My mom with my 3 kids.

Me and Aleena

Me with my baby sis.

Me and my mommy..

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Fun day with Lacie

This morning my sister called me asking if I could babysit my niece Lacie for a few hours! 
Lacie turned 2 in July, and she never ceases to amaze me.  With my kids being older, its easy to forget how fun these years are!  She tagged along to soccer practices and loved the playground, and the pond, and just running around everywhere!! Here are a few pictures of her today on our fun time together...

She seen a plane in the sky and was running around with her arms out saying "In the sky".. :-)

A few weeks ago I went skating with some family members, and Lacie was there, she REFUSED to go skating!!  Kicking, screaming, red in the face NO she was not going to go skating!!  We were talking about Dora, and I told her that if she'd put those skates on and go skating I'd go buy her some Dora skates!  After 1.5 hrs of fit throwing, she obliged, and put on the rental skates and had a great time for an hour.  So I held up to my promise, and today I went on a hunt for Dora Skates!

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Christmas Post.. Better late then never??

We had a busy, but VERY fun and relaxing Xmas weekend! I had to work Xmas eve and as soon as I got off we went over to Jeff's Brother Marks house. Mark had to work Xmas day so it worked out great for us to all get together on Xmas Eve. The weather was great and the boys tossed the football around outside for awhile. We then enjoyed a nice ham dinner, exchanged gifts, had some fun and laughs and came home to get ready for Santa. This post will include lots of pictures over that weekend!

My proof to Daddy on who ate all of the white trash I brought! :-) My niece Cheyenne

My Great Niece Chelynn

Niece Shiloh

My niece Che getting tackled Aleena, her daughter Chelynn and Sister Shiloh

My Nephew Blake taking a nap; guess its hard work getting older? His bday is on Christmas. :-)

Jeff's Brother Mark

Then we came home to get ready for Santa. The kids made up some cookies, we tracked Santa on NORAD, and I got busy wrapping gifts. One thing we forgot to do this year was read "Twas the Night before Christmas". It's something we started doing about 3-4 yrs ago; and we were so rushed when we got home I forgot. :-( I put trace the kids handprints each year so we can see how they grow as well (Thanks Donna for that idea)...

Here are the kids tracking Santa

Then we woke up Xmas Morning and opened our gifts..

Santa's cookies, milk and letter left behind.

Our gifts under the tree

our stockings and Santa Gift

LOL Don't we look so happy so early in the Morning!

After opening our gifts we went to my Sister Melanies house for Breakfast and a gift exchange between my family. I forgot to bring my camera so I'm bumming some pictures from Melanie
:-)
Melanie and my niece Lacie
Niece Lacie and Nephew Austin

Yeah I'm a dork; those are soccer cones on my ears..

My Brother in Law Michael and Jeff Showing there Xmas Spirit for there teams...

After having breakfast at Melanie's we exchanged gifts and hung out for a bit.. She was trying to get lunch ready for Michaels family, my mom, sister and cousin and her family. So we left and came home. We lounged around for hours playing games with the kids, waiting for my mom and sister to come here for dinner. It wasn't quite the same, but it is what it is! I am used to having a big meal on Xmas with lots of family... Anyways.. then we spent the weekend playing games, ALL weekend.. Battleship, Bingo, Xbox, Chinese Checkers etc. I think on Friday I stayed in my PJ's ALL day! That felt great....

More posts to come soon...

Lots of pictures!!!

OK; I finally got the pictures to upload to our desk top (laptop still out of commission). Here are a few pictures from the past few weeks!! You should be able to click the pictures to view larger? I've never done my pictures like this before but with having so many to post I was trying to find a way to minimize them on my blog...

First; our Cheetah Girls Concert! Aleena had such a great time!! Below is a picture of the 2 of us before leaving the house, Aleena Marissah and Thalia waiting for the show to start, The Cheetah Girls on stage. and then a picture of Aleena with The Cheetah Girls about 5 ft behind her. I hate that the flash made her white like that.

How we spend our weekends!! Here is Jeff playing his 1st game of soccer (his team is currently in 1st place!!), Peyton doing some weird pose while playing defender??... My nephew Austin during one of his games.. And my niece Lacie loving on her baby!

A few random pictures.. Joey before going to his Homecoming dance, him with Aleena and Peyton.. Me and Peyton on the couch watching a movie before bed (yes I know I need a new pillow).. And this is how you will find Peyton on most nights. This child has such a great love of reading; he will read easily for an hour a night, and many weekends he'll read for well over 2 hrs. I love it!!!

Pumpkin Patch! We met up with some friends and there girls for a fun filled afternoon at the pumpkin patch; then went to McD's for dinner... I was so excited to have some kettle corn! LOVE that stuff!!!!

5th Grade Camp!!!! Aleena had such a GREAT time at camp!!!! She talked nonstop about it for hours that night. She was gone Mon-Wed. That Monday night we had some horrible weather, and tornados were hitting about 15 miles or so south of them. I as a Mother have never felt so helpless, sitting there watching the news. Praying with tears in my eyes that it wouldn't go near them. Aleena later told me that they were all bawling at camp, scared of what was going on outside. I'm glad it didn't stick around and they were able to enjoy the next 2 days. I picked her up from camp on Wednesday with intentions of taking her and her friend Aslynn to McD's to enjoy some ice cream. That would give us some free time to talk about camp. Both girls were starving when they got off of the bus so we got kids meals as well.

Pics; Aleena all packed and ready to go, giving me a pretend pouty face, self portrait (I really need to make sure I'm running around with makeup and hair done at all times ;-) ).. Aleena and her friend Aslynn at McD's, and the girls attacking there brothers on there arrival home.