Saturday, July 23, 2011

Lexie's baptism!

 Even though Lexie turned 8 in January, she waited patiently for
Easter weekend to celebrate her birthday.
 She wanted her whole family there when her dad baptized her.
 Even though Grandparents couldn't make it for Lexie's special day, she was able to wear the same dress that Alyssa did for her baptism in 2000.  It was custom made by Grandma Nancy.
 The usual suspects were present for the big day.
 No one told me to wear white!  ;(
 The after shot.  Wearing her special new Easter dress, a sweater that was mine
when I was a girl, and a scarf purchased for her on the steps
of the Vatican.  Isn't she beautiful?
 After the baptism, Lexie and her friends adjourned to the cultural hall for...
 gourmet cupcakes made by Alyssa and me.  Yes, we are a bit too addicted to the Food Network.
 But you gotta admit, they do look amazing! 
 It was really fun for Lexie to have her friends there to support her,
 and give presents of course!
 All in all, it was a pretty amazing day and she said it was TOTALLY worth the wait!
I love, love, love this picture.

Friday, July 22, 2011

Easter 2011

This spring brought a lot of fun with decorating sugar cookies.  We all got way into the act of decorating and eating.  ;)
  Easter brings our annual egg coloring madness.
 Yes Alyssa, there is an Easter Bunny.  I know, CRAZY huh?!
 Brandon has a future as an egg artist. 
 My cute little pinata; I was looking forward to killing the chicken.  Gary tried in vain to save him.
 There is a reason that Lexie's basket is bigger than she is; that kid made a haul!
 I am sooooo happy that my big kids still love the "little kid" holidays and all the activities that go with them.  I hope our family never grows out of all the Easter trappings.
 I do need to try to convince Brandon that we do not eat the Easter Eggs! 
 I think it took 2 hours to find all the eggs. 
 Some people get a little bored and decide that harrassing their mother seemed like more fun.
Brady is the "numbers guy".  He makes sure that all the real and all the plastic eggs are found and that they are evenly divided. 
In the end...the chicken got what was comin' to him.  But, true to form, his dismembered little body is still in the trunk of Gary's car.  Bwahahahah. ... . yea so we had a creepy little twist--it seems like it may become a new tradition.  ;)

Monday, July 18, 2011

Brady goes out for Track!

Brady decided to go out for 8th grade track this year.

He never missed a practice nor a meet.


















He got really got at throwing the shot put.



But said he only did it to get in shape
for football.

Lexie gets braces!

January 19 was Lexie's 8th birthday.  She celebrated 3 days later by getting her braces on! 

She was really looking forward to finally getting her teeth straightened and having "tooth bling"!

The before shot.  She has a complete underbite
and her bottom teeth are hurting her top teeth.


























Gotta love the goo!  Try not to gag.
She was a total trooper about all the huge stuff they put in her tiny little mouth.  Band colors?  Blue and White.


Saturday, July 9, 2011

The Worst Part of Christmas!

After having her home for almost a month, the worst part of Christmas break was when we had to say goodbye to Alyssa.  ;(
Putting Brandon Hales in charge of the goodbye photos makes for some silly shots.

















Group Hug!  Peace signs included!

Camera Ham!













Gary is looking a bit rough from all the merriment!





























I love her enough to share the last of Amani Snyder's AMAZING little biscuits that she shared for the New Year's Eve party.  They are tasty and it took a lot of willpower for me to share.  True love baby!

Friday, July 8, 2011

Happy New Year Bowling Green!

 Happy New Year 2011!  We are so lucky to have friends here in Bowling Green who happily came and played with us on New Year's Eve.












We played cards, and the wii, and ate lots of yummy food!
 It was one of the funnest parties I have ever had and I was so grateful to be surrounded by such fun and kind people.

Tuesday, July 5, 2011

Christmas 2010

 We spent our Christmas eve decorating our perrenial sugar cookies.
 Lexie has adopted the veil as part of her daily wardrobe.  I think it enhances her cookie decorating skills.
 Brandon patiently decorates his cookies for hours.  They are so amazing looking, it is a shame to eat them.
 This is one of our favorite Christmas traditions.
 Our other favorite tradition is decorating our table for our Christmas Eve dinner.  This year everyone convinced us to let them open one present on Christmas Eve.  They each got new slippers.  What a fun night.
 Santa obliged us with all new Rock Band equipment and the boys made sure they spent the entire day breaking it all in properly.


 The make it look so easy (boring).  They look nothing like the commercials but they sure seem to like it anyway.
 Ginger just loves the fact that she gets the couch all to her self, and all the blankets too!
Alyssa spent the morning helping assemble the new Barbie Dream House and helping Lexie set up housekeeping.  So cute.