Holiday Pictures

We took the kids to have their holiday pictures taken yesterday morning. Here are a few of the good ones! Ava was extremely tired so she wasn't her smiley self but we did manage to get a few cute ones of her, I don't think we will have any problems teaching her how to open presents from Santa, she has it mastered already!

Turkey Day

This Thanksgiving is going to be extra special for our family. We have been overwhelmingly blessed this past year with Ava's arrival. As I look back at this time last year I wasn't even aware yet that she was a girl. It's just so amazing to think about that when I look at her today.

We are traveling to my parents house this year. I always look forward to my Mom's cooking! Chris's Mom and her husband are joining us, my nieces and nephew and my grandfather is also coming this year. We will also be visiting Chris's Dad on Friday and I am looking forward to a holiday shopping trip with my Mom on Saturday! It will be a hectic weekend but I am sure we will have a wonderful time and pictures to follow!

Just wanted to take the time to wish everyone a safe and happy Thanksgiving holiday, may your lives be blessed with the love and miracles we have been blessed with this past year and my we continue to be so fortunate!

XOXO

Who's the head home room Mom??

That would be me!!! Yippeee!

I was asked two weeks ago if I would be interested in being the head home room Mom for Aiden's class and of course I said YES, YES, YES! I am in charge of planning the winter and spring parties and creating a basket for their fund raiser in February.

I have already started planning the winter party and have decided to go with a snowman theme. There can't be any religious holiday affiliations which I think sucks, but that is the world we live in today I guess... Anyway, we will be playing winter bingo, and a game like hot potato only I purchased a large snowman head to use to pass while playing frosty the snowman! I plan on serving snowballs (powdered donut holes) and hot chocolate with marshmellows and having the kids make snowmen on a stick out of fruit and pretzels. I may also take a few other healthy snacks, carrots maybe some cheese cubes or finger jellos! This is something I have always wanted to do and I finally get to do it! Luckily I have saved enough time and this is my last full week of work for the year so I will be taking ever Friday off in December which means I will have the entire day to prepare for the party. It's being held the afternoon of Dec 18th which is their last day before winter break.

As far as the basket, I would like to make a "family weekend getaway" themed basket with a gift card for the indoor water park Aiden and I just visited or the one closer to our house. I think it would be cute to decorate a bucket or beach bag with a beachtowel, snorkle, goggles and a few things like that! Hopefully we will raise enough $ to do that.

In other news, today is Chris's Birthday! Aiden and I baked him a homeade cake last night and I took pictures which I will try to post soon! It's not the prettiest cake ever but Chris loves it and hopefully it will taste great! We hired a sitter for Friday night and will be going to dinner to celebrate, I am looking forward to that.

Ava is fantastic! She waved bye bye this morning for the first time. She has been moving her hand a little as me and the sitter have been working with her on this task but never actually did it and this morning as soon as I handed her over to Terri she waved, it was so cute! She is getting so big! She is starting to grow out of her 6-9 month clothes already and she just turned 7 months last Friday. Guess that means I will just have to start shopping for more 12 month clothes :-) She has two teeth now, I have been trying to card to capture a good picture of them but that is easier said than done.

I am starting to get very excited for the holidays! We are going to my parents house for Thanksgiving next week. We already decorated our house for Christmas last weekend, we just counldn't wait! I also have most of the kids toys from Santa all ready to go! Only a few more things to purchase and that part is done! I would like to get everything purchased early so we can just enjoy the season and watch holiday movies in the basement and bake cookies during the month of December! The kids are also having their holiday pictures taken this coming weekend for our Christmas Cards. I can't wait!

Co Co Keys Weekend

Kid's Paradise!

The bucket at the top fills with water and falls every 15 minutes or so, when thebell rings to give warning all the kids run under it so they get soaked!

Aiden in the lobby with the giant black bear.

Aiden looking for our room, such a big boy.

He was ready to get wet! But Mommy made him eat dinner first!

That was fun!
Aiden with Co Co the Parrot.


Aiden making calls....why do all kids love hotel phones, not sure how may
people got pranked called while we were there?...oops



Relaxing watching Toons, eating Doritos & drinking Root Beer on Friday night before bedtime.

More water fun on Saturday morning...

Aiden kept trying to make a basket from the slide which
was impossible but he had fun trying!



Aiden and Mom in the Lazy River

Can't wait to come back!!!

Just Sitting Up Playing!

This was one of Aiden's favorite toys when he was younger. Ava is now at the perfect age

to play with it and it helps her sit up like a big girl!

I LOVE this picture because I have almost the exact same picture of Aiden when

he was her age, I will have to look for it and post it!

Adorable!!!!

So serious!

Getting ready to crawl!



Big Brother loves me!

Children's Theatre

I really wanted to do something fun for the kids on Halloween day since it fell on a Saturday this year. As I was looking for things around town to attend I came across a play at the Columbus Children's Theatre based on a children's book called "How I Became a Pirate." It could not have been more perfect since Aiden was a pirate for Halloween and I have been wanting to take him to the children's theatre for a while now. The show was really great, the costumes were so authentic and we all really enjoyed the play. Aiden dressed in his costume and at the end of the show they allow you to take pictures with the characters. Aiden was a little shy with the pirates and didn't want to get to close. Ava was a little more brave!

Superbowl and Team Party

Aiden's last football game of the season was last weekend. All the boys were super excited as they got to play at the new high school stadium. They were on the big field and they even played music and had a little girl sing the national anthem prior to game time. It was more exciting than the Superbowl!

The following Monday, we attended the team party where the trophies were presented. Everyone had a great time, there was great food a cake and they even hired a balloon artist to make balloon's for the boys!