NEW JOB!!!

I wanted to thank you all for your prayers and support...

Ben got hired this morning!!!

We are so happy, not only because he has a job, but because this sounds like a place that he will enjoy working! He starts on the ninth...so I have a full week to get him to finish his "honey do" list before he's gone all day again!

We are so thankful!

YEAHHHHHH!!!!!!!

Cleo's 9th Birthday

Today is Cleo's 9th Birthday! We had a little party for her

(just as we did for Genna)

Doesn't she look beautiful in her birthday hat?!?

A happy birthday party...complete with clown (look at Jay in the rear!)
She got a little heart cake and ate it in one big bite!

It was D E L I C I O U S !!!

Lip smackingly so!

Girls Just Want to Have FUN!!

It's that time of year again...Girls Weekend 2009.
This year Jamie was our hostess and graciously

kicked her family out to give us the house!

Missy bestowed upon us the beautiful scarves you see in all the pictures...

she knit them herself (she swears this has nothing to do with her age!)

Here you see all of us at dinner (thank goodness for auto shoot)

in order: Missy, Kelly, Rachel, Tara, Me, Jamie

CHEERS!!!
One chair fits all: Missy Jamie, Kelly, Tara
Don't they look cute?

It was a wonderful time of laughter and memories! It is always a time to relax and remember that we are all people-not just moms/wives. We are lucky to have such a close connection to each other-after many,many, many years.

I am blessed to have these women...my sisters!

HAPPY FIRST BIRTHDAY GENNA!!

Today is Genna's first birthday!!!

It seems impossible that it has been that long, but I guess she has grown!

She was very happy to have us sing happy birthday to her and she loved the cake!She was even patient about wearing the hat!

We all are excited to see her grow in to such a great dog.

Worry not-she still has LOTS of puppy left in her to keep us all on our toes!

"What the heck is this thing on my head?"
Family Portrait

"I really get to eat this?"

"Oh this is GOOOOOOD!!!!"

"I even gave a piece to Cleo...but she woofed her's down really fast!"

For those of you keeping track.

She now weighs in at 120lbs and she is 29.5 inches at the shoulder.

(she's catching up with Cleo who is 165lbs and 33inches)

Bouncing for Joy

My Father in law sent these on from a trip up here to visit awhile ago.

It is amazing to see how the kids look while bouncing on the trampoline.

It's as if they are weightless and flying around.

Check out the distance between Meg and the trampoline!

Even Ab's pig tails are bouncing!

OH My GOSH!!!

They have major bounce here!! I'm glad I don't watch this all the time!

Our New Nephew

I wanted to share the newest addition to the family.

My sister Nicole and her family have just adopted a very cute newborn.

He's a black lab, and they have named him Duke! Isn't he cute?

I told them the fun has just begun...

(we all know God makes babies and puppies cute for a reason.)

But really we are SOOOO happy for them!

A Look Back~

I was looking through our pictures and came across a few that my mother in law had sent on to me. We are about to celebrate Cleo's 9th birthday and thought these were just too cute not to share!

Also notice how precious and little my children are...

Jay (age 2) and Cleo (@6months) are above

And Meg (age 4) and Jay (age 2) and Cleo (6months) are below

Now you can refresh your memory as to how big she is by looking over at our welcome sign. She's gained a little height...and about 100 pounds!

Happy New Year-2009

We spent our new year eve together as has become our family tradition. We open a bag every hour or so. Each bag contains another activity to keep us busy and awake! We ate with chopsticks,made a talk show, and played some games-

"Glow-Stick Hide N Seek"- was the favorite game of the night

even Ben and I had fun with that!

We also watched a movie...this was early on so that Ben didn't fall asleep!!

The kids were wide awake at midnight to blow our horns...

...and throw confetti!

Then they all slept in the tent~in the livingroom of course!

We hope you all had a wonderful new years too!

Happy 2009!

A slumber party for Julz

Julz chose to have a slumber party for her 8th b-day. This was her first one (sad because Meg had her first at age 4) But with her birthday so close to Christmas it is always a hard time to fit it in. So we took down the tree just after Christmas and set up the tent in the living room. The girls had a great time. They made fun crafts and played American Idol on the Wii...

yes it was not a quite night!

Julz wins award

I am very behind on my blog! Here are some things that haven't been posted yet. A very important one is of course that Julz was chosen as

"Student of the Week" for being Understanding.

We are very proud of her, and she was thrilled!