My little Brother is taller than Grandpa!

Well, we knew it was coming because Cole grows like a foot each year! He has finally surpassed my Grandpa in height! This is the side of the family where all the height comes from anyway, so now he on to catching up with Uncle Mike...6'7" here he comes!!

After our annual Big Sandwich Christmas party with my Mom's Dad, Jade and Cole had to show off their turkey spirit! They found this fun hat and had to model it for us!

Decorating for Christmas

This year was super fun as we got to decorate for Christmas with two little helpers. Jade was so curious about everything. I think having kids helps bring in the true spirit of Christmas, so innocent, so pure!

Here are a few shots that we finally got of both of the girls. It is a downright miracle that they were both smiling in this picture at the same time! (We had to take like 50+ pics to get this one, but wasn't it worth it!!)

We started off by adding some window decorations in the kitchen. Jade loved taking these on and off and rearranging them to make different shapes.

Kiera's favorite part was playing with the candy canes and figuring just how to get that plastic wrap off! She liked looking at all the lights on the tree too.

Jadee and Mommy

Our 2 smiley girls...

Jade putting her first ornament on the tree. This was the first year she could be trusted to do this! Last year we only decorated the top half of our tree because she would grab everything and shake the tree! It was so fun starting this tradition with the girls.

Kiera staring at the Moose. I wonder what she is thinking about this funny looking thing just staring at her!

Finally, when all was decorated, Ben lifted Jade to the top to place our star!

And this is how I finished the evening!!!

Early Christmas Present...

We could not resist and gave Jade one of her Christmas gifts a little early this year! We thought she would have more fun with it before it got too cold and snowy! She has an absolute blast jumping on it and we were very pleased with how well she does in it.

We probably should have kept it up a little longer, as we still do not have any snow!!!

Kiera Bear is 8 months old!

Time has flown again and our little girl is growing so fast!  This month we celebrate her 8 month old birthday.  She is still a very pleasant baby and always has lots to say.  She can now clap and babble and loves to do it all day.  She still screams this most awful and high-pitched scream for no apparent reason.  She is also not liking it now when she is in a room alone, so we always have to be in her sight. 

She is eating mushed foods, applesauce is her favorite, but she is really liking those yogurt melts for snacktime. She does really well at sitting up on her own now and rarely falls over.  We still cannot get her to lay on her tummy for very long and she has no desire to roll over.  I am starting to get worried about the non-rolling thing, but I just keep telling myself she is probably just fine.  She is a big girl and has a lot of weight to move around when she does roll over. Plus, from day one, she has screamed whenever we put her on her tummy.  She will probably walk before she crawls!

She loves singing and dancing with her Daddy!

She loves to eat and play in her highchair...

Such a happy girl!

Trying to get her to like being on her belly, she loves to roll on this thing...

 Our big girl! 8 months old!!



Thanksgiving 2011

Thankful, Thankful, Thankful!

Family is what I am most thankful for. Here is a fun shot of some of us on our after Thanksgiving walk. This is the first opportunity I had to use my new camera!

Jade had never had a whole piece of pumpkin pie to herself before. She started out very daintily with a fork, but soon that was way too slow. She just picked the whole piece right up and shoved it in to devour the pumpkiny sweet goodness!



Grandma had a fun idea to make turkeys with Oreos, candy corn, and other yummy ingredients. Jade thoroughly enjoyed herself and her favorite part was eating all the turkey parts! I love that she is finally at the stage where she has an attention span to do crafts like this! She was so attentive and loved every minute of it!

This is Grandma's beautiful turkey!

Grandma & Jade with their turkey...

Baby Doll! She had a blast that day with all of her family loving her!

The yummy meal....I have to say it was one of the tastiest Thanksgiving meals I have ever had. Thanks to my wonderful family, thanks to Mom for teaching us all how to cook!

Jade, Cole, Troy and Ben played a little Rock Band...

And then it was time for a walk to help digest our big meal! It started out with a race...

Cole vs. Jade!

Then there was some swinging... once we started though she did not want to stop!

And she even got her aunt and uncle to keep swinging her almost the whole walk!

Ben tore off a "weed" and Jade called it her "fluffy" and carried it around like a magic wand and did some sweeping with it. That is now the cleanest pathway you will ever see!

Finally, Grandpa helped Jade feed the ducks, she kept trying to feed them rocks!

A view of the beautiful sunset at the pond. The perfect ending to a perfect day with family. I am so thankful for my family and all that we have been blessed with.

Fall Leaves Fun!!

Our girls had a blast jumping in the leaves!  Because of the late winter, (still no snow!!) the leaves did not fall until the last of November.  Ben raked them all into a giant pile and Jade started jumping for joy!  She was so fun to watch as her face showed pure joy! 

Jadee had lots of fun burying her Papa....

Where's Jadee???

If that is not a face of pure contentment I don't know what is!  Jade loves to play outside and help Daddy with the yard.