A Very Merry Christmas to all.......

Garrett's Christmas drawing

What a wonderful Christmas we had!!! After being woken at 4:30a.m., presents were opened and the kids made out like bandits; getting LOTS of new toys and clothes and electronic stuff, a fluffy lamp, chairs and much more. Whew, it makes me tired to list even just some of it! We had a nice quiet day after presents and breakfast and ended the day at Ben and Kritin's house for a WONDERFUL prime rib dinner and MORE presents!

Caroline made an EXCELLENT Santa this year......

Emmy, that professional opener of presents......careful, don't try this at home!

beware, here there be dragons......

Sweet Peri, patiently waiting to be unwrapped......

What time is dinner?



Christmas giggles!

Happy 12th Emmy-Lou!!!!

We marked the wonderful occasion of Emmy's B-day with a slumber party as well as a family dinner at one of our favorite restaurants, Feast. The girls had a great time at the party without being too rambunctious and we all enjoyed the movie, "Enchanted". All in all, a successful birthday!

oooooo, what'd she get?????

birthday snuggles are the BEST!

Gotta love a good burger.........

We've Elfed Ourselves.......

Check out this crazy link where Caroline, Emmy and Garrett boogie as elves!

http://www.elfyourself.com/?id=1254671819

Happy Thanksgiving......

We have so much to be thankful this year, topmost is of course being back in Georgia with family and friends! Thanksgiving was held at our house this year, and it was a smashing success with lots of delicious food all of the family gathered together for the first time in years!

The week before, Caroline and I collected leaves to make prints with Cooper. We used them to create a "tree of thanksgiving" for everyone to write they were thankful for this year.

make sure you cover the WHOLE leaf with paint......

Of course, I forgot to take a picture of the tree in all it's glory. It WAS beautiful though, and is definitely a tradition that will be repeated in the years to come!

The young artist anxiously waits for the paints to be mixed.....

Halloween

Well we survived our first Halloween back in the states and it was a major success! We allowed the kids to go out alone for the first time ever accompanied by Caroline's cell phone. Bill and I manned the homefront with candy duty and a good time was had by all.

Happy Halloween!

Emmy checking out this year's haul

Beware, the blue eyed ninja is afoot.....

And they're off!

Our First Annual Pumkin Carving Party

YUMMY, want some?

To honor our first Halloween back in the states and Bill's homecoming, we had a pumpkin carving party. What fun!!! We got to gather together so many friends, new and old, and family to catch up on old times, snack and of course carve our pumpkins for Wednesday. It was a fun party and everyone, kids and grownups seemed to have a good time. I'll definitely do it again next year!

Garrett giving specifications for his design


Caroline and Alex are totally absorbed in carving their pumpkins

Emmy and friend Emma working their groovy gourds, work it girls!

Lots of pumpkin goings on......

So we're goin to the mountains and we're gonna pick some pumpkins.....

Dad, CC, Emmy, Garrett and me

So my Dad told me about a great place to go see a pumpkin patch with games and fun stuff for the kids in the mountains. We went this Saturday and Dad's friend Kathy was able to go as well. We LOVED the pumpkin patch- actually planned on buying ours there but they were WAY too big to carve so we just enjoyed browsing

Emmy with "Fred" the pumpkin

This one's mine!

Miss Caroline & Pumpkin

We also got to do really fun things from painting pumpkins, finding the way through an amazing maize (corn) maze and, Garrett's personal favorite; apple vaulting.

All in all, it was a really good day!

"Apple Vaulting"

Simply Amaizing!