let it snow!!

This past weekend, we got hit with a great snow storm!  I don’t know who was more excited about it – me or the kids!  (It may be a tie…)  We had a lot of fun with the kids eating the snow, sledding on the snow and building snow families!  It’s not every day it snows around here, so we have to take advantage of it when it does!

All day Friday it snowed and was a little too cold to play in it yet, so we had a fun day with friends inside.  Michelle had the idea to make snow cones with concentrated apple juice!  HUGE hit with me… I mean the kids! : )

Saturday, however, was the perfect day for sledding with about 5 – 6 inches of powdery snow and sun and no wind!  We found an inner tube that I bought for the summer and went sledding down a little hill by our house.  It was the perfect first hill to get used to sledding on.

Audrey loving it!!

As did Connor!

Waiting for her turn!

Audrey’s turn – whatever Connor does, Audrey will try!  Sidenote: Major props to David.  He worked harder than anyone playing with kids.  Carrying Audrey up each hill cause her little legs couldn’t make it, pushing the kids down the hill, carrying up the tube.  He scored major Daddy points today!

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After over an hour of this hill, Joe and Joey came over, and thus began the hunt for a BIG hill… It took a couple of tries and we finally found it!

Joe tried it out first to make sure it was safe, and it was awesome!  Yes, he was flying down the hill on an air mattress and yes, there is a road at the bottom.  Thankfully there were a few people who were watching for cars… : )

Joey and Connor having a blast!

The long climb back up the hill.  Once again – thanks Dads for being up for this!

Joe and David with the kids.  Michelle stayed home with Kylah who was taking a nap – she was missed!  She came out at the end of our time sledding, but the mattress popped about 2 minutes before she arrived, so she never got to go down the hill… Sorry Michelle!

Uncle Joe with Connor and Audrey.

Our family – taking a breather.  Actually, I didn’t do anything all day since I’m getting bigger by the day, but it was great getting to see the fun!

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After the snow melted for a couple of days, the snow became the perfect snowman-snow.  So the kids and I set out to make a snow family.  I want to say it was blissful and all cheery attitudes, but it wasn’t… We had to stop at one point to have an attitude check!  : ) They didn’t catch the vision until the very end of the family when we were accessorizing the family with carrot noses, scarves, and hats.


Connor dressing Snow-Mommy.

Audrey placing Snow-Baby-Matthew in his proper spot.

Taking a little taste of Snow-Daddy

Posing with Snow-Audrey

The Snow-kids and real kids!

Our little Snow-Family!




Back to Christmas…

Well, I never did post about our Christmas, so here it goes…

This doesn’t seem like the normal, fun Christmas photo, but it represents what was going on in our house… David, Connor, and Audrey all got H1N1 the Monday before Christmas, so that began a long week of taking care of sickies!!  We were scheduled to drive down to Alabama to spend Christmas with David’s family, but with fevers still high, we could not do it without infecting all 28 people who were together!  So we ended up staying at our house until we knew with a doubt that we were not contagious!   It was a huge bummer, but ended up being nice in the long run.  Finally after watching David’s temperature like a hawk (kids were fine earlier in the week), it broke late Christmas Eve and was still gone the next morning.  So we packed up and left around noon on Christmas day.

Here are some pictures from Christmas Eve and morning at our house…

Since we were staying home, I realized that we don’t have a lot of family traditions when it comes to Christmas because we are always at someone else’s house.  So I was scrambling to find fun things to do with the kids that we can continue doing as they get older.  One thing that came to mind was decorating their bedroom door.  When I grew up on the Anastasis, we would do this every year to our cabin door, and I remember loving it!  So decorating their door it was…

We had painted Christmas ornaments earlier in December and hadn’t done anything with them, so it was a perfect accessory for the door!  Audrey was pretty cute as she only put ornaments on the tips of the tree branches and not anywhere else!  Connor glued his to the middle in random order… This seemed a little backwards considering Connor is so by the book on the things, but hey, it’s good for him to be a little “crazy!” : )

The finished product in their matching Christmas pjs.  It turned out to be a hit!  So fun!

Christmas morning could not have been more relaxing with the kids.  First of all, it snowed outside!!!  The kids have never seen snow on Christmas morning, so that was a HUGE treat!  It was so magical for the kids!  They were more excited about that then they were about all the extra presents that were under the tree!  : )  At about 6:30am they were running back and forth between the front door and the back door exclaiming, “It snowed!!!!”   After David and I crawled out of bed, we opened stockings.

Reading a Superman book with the kids that was in Connor’s stocking.  Apparently Santa switched a Dora toothbrush with a Spiderman toothbrush… Connor was pretty confused – but with a quick switcharoo, all was well!  oops! ; )

This was their big present!  They picked those to open first cause the package was the biggest! : )  They wore their costumes the rest of the morning and brought them with us to AL.

When we went to Six Flags, I picked up a Superman cape for David without him knowing, so that was his gift from the kids.  Before now, they had just been wearing blankets as their capes – which is great for imagination – but now that they have the “real” thing, it is pretty cool!

Trying out her new laptop!  Still wearing her supergirl costume!

Soon after we piled in the car and started driving for 10 hours down to AL to celebrate with David’s family!  It was a bummer we missed out on the Christmas Eve and Christmas morning activities, but it turned out to be a nice relaxing time with our little family!




my baby girl…

Tonight marked the first time that Audrey has put on my wedding dress!  I really loved watching her excitement when I asked her if she wanted to wear it – to which she responded by jumping up and down – and then when I put it on her… SO adorable.  The pictures speak for themselves.

Coming down the hall for the first time to show Daddy.  She could barely walk in it! : )

Posing for Daddy.

Seriously… Could she be any more beautiful???

I’m going to LOVE comparing these pictures when she gets married one day… : )

Checking herself out in the mirror.  She could not stop looking and swaying and smiling…

What a sweet girl!!  I’m sure that one day I’m going to look back at this and think, “Where has the time gone!”  What a wonderful memory for me tonight! : )




December at a glance…

Wow – it has been WAY too long since I have written anything, so this entry will be one enormous entry!!  I’m going to cover December’s activities from the beginning… One day I’ll print this off, and this will be our journal of memories for our family… one day!!

Here we go…

Every year, the Dunns and our family have a Christmas party, and this year’s get-together was a blast!  We went over to their house around 1pm and opened presents from each other and Auntie Elizabeth (our friend from growing up in Mercy Ships), played with toys, took naps, ate dinner, went to a Christmas parade, made ginger bread houses and ate lots of candy, and crashed!!

Opening her awesome stroller! Check out her cute sweater dress and matching shoes! I secretly want that outfit! : )

Making ginger bread houses.  This was something that Krista and I did when we lived in Texas.  More like her family did it, and I did it a few times with them.  Love the tradition!!  Krista and I are so blessed to get to continue it with our kids! :)

The dads getting involved!  It was such a fun evening!

The finished product!

The four kids – Jack, Audrey, Connor & Sam

I’m not sure they could be any cuter together!! :)  Thanks for a great night Krista and Jackson!

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The kids in front of our tree.  It took a while to get our tree to stand up straight – it actually fell over at one point… Finally, after about an hour of messing with it, we wrapped dental floss around the tree and a hook in the wall!  Kind of ghetto, but it works!!

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On December 6th, we got a new roomie… Uncle Joe!!  Because his job started a month earlier than Michelle’s job, he stayed with us while Michelle and the kids wrapped up thing in Nebraska…why are they wrapping things up??? They are moving here!!   Actually, tomorrow is the official moving day!!!  We are SO excited to have them around, watch our kids grow up together, play endless card games, do fun family things togther, etc…:)   Anyways, it was really fun having him stay with us.  The kids really bonded with him!

Joe skyped with Michelle and the kids quite a bit, and naturally, our kids joined in.  I took this picture cause both of the boys stripped down to their undies to show their belly buttons off!!  They were having a blast over the computer – imagine what it’ll be like when they are here!

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The next weekend was my Grandmother’s 80th birthday, so the kids and I packed up and joined the party!  It was so fun to have another weekend with my family.  Connor and Audrey always love it there!  Sidenote: Doesn’t my Grandmother look AMAZING for 80????  It told her I would be very happy if I looked like her when I grow up! :)

We went to a children’s museum one of the days that we were in Texas.  The kids loved it.  Audrey especially loved the kitchen part.  She could cook and watch herself on TV at the same time.  She would have stayed there for hours if we would have let her!

She also loved the singing part.

Connor was checking Audrey out in the ambulance…  Notice he strapped her down so she couldn’t move!  :)  She was a good sport getting shot after shot!

Audrey had some much needed tickle time with my Dad.  It had been too long since we had seen him!

Somehow she figured out if she asked him for a hug, then he couldn’t tickle her!  Has she been watching boxing on Nick Jr instead of Dora???  (isn’t that what happens during boxing??)

While we were waiting for my Dad to pick up my aunt and uncle from the airport, my mom and I took the kids to dinner and then a live nativity set.  They loved it!!  They responded to everyone perfectly and wished each person there a “Merry Christmas!”  So cute!

Hot chocolate…

and kisses were to follow! :)

Connor playing the card game War with my Grandmother.  I love it!  I remember playing games with her when I was little, so it is pretty special to see her engaging with my 4 year old! :)

One of the perks about visiting Texas is getting to see my sister and her kids!  So fun!

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Back in Arkansas, Connor had his Christmas party at his Preschool.  Audrey and I have gone to their parties, and everytime, Connor is so sweet to Audrey.  He really includes her and is proud to show her around.  I love it!  Here they were making snowman ornaments.

Connor’s best friend in his class – Michael.  I asked Connor what he likes about Michael to which he replied, “he’s funny!!”  I think he appreciates humor because of David! :)

Connor’s class and Mrs. Hatcher after they did their little Christmas book exchange.  How cute!

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On the 19th, David and Connor went to Addison Penner’s 2nd birthday party while Audrey and I stayed home cause we were both sick.  Little did we know, this was just the beginning of our house being inundated with sickness!!!!  To sum up… David, Connor and Audrey all ended up having H1N1 starting the Monday before Christmas… (that whole saga will be saved for another post…)  Audrey and I were very sad to miss the party – espcially cause it was a complete girlie – Dora – themed party!!  Could it be any more perfect??? : )

Well, for those of you who actually made it to the end of this post, you are a true friend!!  : )  More to come from Christmas and Thanksgiving and our trip to Colorado… but for now, Good night!! : )




A big day for the kids!!

Today was the day of performances for our kids!  At 9:25, David and I met at Church to watch Audrey as a little lamb, and then booked it over to Connor’s school for his Thanksgiving songs at 10:30 where he was a turkey.

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Audrey momentarily doing the hand motions to one of the songs.  I had bought her a little white shirt not thinking there were convenient pockets for her hands right in the front of the shirt… So almost the whole time, her little hands were in her pockets!!  Ahh.  You live and learn…

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On stage – hands going in her pockets!

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Just too cute!

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All the little lambs in the pen.  They were doing a Q & A time asking, “Does the Shepherd love the lamb?” Kids say, “YES!” and so on.  At a few of the quiet moments, Audrey spotted David and me and yelled, “That’s my Daddy… That’s my Mommy!”  : )

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Spotting me at the end!

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Connor getting on stage.  This is when David and I were holding our breath!  The few times that he has done anything like this before, this is the time when he freaks out!  But, he followed the kid in front of him and stayed up there!

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He was very serious with his motions to each song.  So cute!

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At the end!  He was so proud of himself for making it through the songs – as were we!

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Our turkey and little lamb.

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After Connor’s song, we had lunch with all the kids and their parents.  It was a fun day for our kids and for David and me to watch them!

Today – making it on stage.  Tonight – going out for ice cream!