Beautiful Fall Day at Hocking Hills Park

 Admiring the view.

 Our family minus Andrew.  He was on a scout camping trip.

 Luke and Brooke - my nature lovers.

 Brooke being a goofball  skipping stones.

I am so happy we have this beautiful treasure just an hour from us.

We had lived here for over a year before we visited the beautiful Hocking Hills park.   It was so lovely and peaceful and we enjoyed a perfect fall day.  There were lots of hiking trails and Macy was in heaven.  You can rent cabins there which we plan to do sometime.  There is also a zipline but we didn't do it this visit.  Andrew actually came here for a boy scout campout later in December and loved it.  We had such beautiful hiking trails all around Akron and loved to spend time exploring them so we were thankful to discover this scenic area.



Brooke's 8th Birthday!!

 One happy girl!

 About to enjoy homemade pizza with her friends.

 She wanted a pink cake of course.

 Playing with the barbie hair salon which was one of the only things she wanted this year.

Adoring her older brother Andrew!

Brooke loves her birthday and starts planning it several months in advance.  This year we kept it simple with 2 friends for homemade pizza, a movie, and sleepover.  I had decided that this would be the year I was going to take Brooke to the American Girl Doll Store in Chicago.  I made an invitation for Brooke and gave it to her the morning of her birthday.  The trip included going with her best friend, Meghan, so she was doubly excited.  She had a great day and I love the kids' birthdays because it is the one day when they are guaranteed to be extra nice to the birthday child.  Such sweet harmony.  Happy 8th Birthday Brooke!



Krissy's 40th Birthday

Krissy looking beautiful at 40!
She is not afraid of 40!

Fun and high spirited Shani and Krissy!

Enjoying the beautiful Four Leaf Towers in The Galleria.

It took us forever to get in this pose, well it took me forever to get in this pose because I just don't know how to do it. We were trying to imitate all of the young girls who do this pose. It is everywhere. Traci had it down and had to teach me how. I never got the head tilt quite right. I am so not cool.

Our view of Houston from Four Leaf. It seems like forever ago I lived there.

Roomies forever!!

Out to dinner in a charming area of Houston I had never been to before.

Ready to tear up the place at Howl at the Moon Piano Bar.

We made Krissy dance on stage to Pour Some Sugar on Me. She was awesome!

Me dancing to Hey Soul Sister with "Dancing Mary." She was the life of the party!

We had so much fun cruising downtown in the souped up Minivan!!

Trust me - we were too cool in the Honda Odyssey!

In front of Buckingham Palace
Taking the Royal drive in our "Bentley."

This year the trick or treating was really about survival of the fittest, or who could run the fastest throughout the neighborhood. I LOVED watching about 10 boys sprint through yards at full speed. I kept calling out to them to remember their manners. I do not think I was heard.

The Royal Couple with a sweet ballerina, and a grim reaper, and Jason. Definitely the Royal family gone astray!

The crew this year!

Paying homage to our WORLD SERIES WINNING SAINT LOUIS CARDINALS!!!! So exciting!!! We were thrilled!!

Dinner of Mummy Dogs.

Tombstone cupcakes!

As I was glued to my TV last April 29th watching every bit of the Royal Wedding, (yes even the boring parts), I knew right away what our Halloween costumes would be. Luckily, Matt is a great sport and will wear whatever I give him. I remember my mom waking me up in the middle of the night when I was 8 years old to watch Diana and Charles marry at Saint Paul's Cathedral. We taped the wedding on an audio tape with my black tape recorder. I kept that audio tape for a long time and would listen to it again and again. I can still hear Diana saying Charles' name wrong during the ceremony, "Phillip Charles Arthur George" instead of Charles Phillip Arthur George. I remember standing in Saint Paul's Cathedral in London while in college, experiencing the awesomeness of it while relecting on the wedding I had watched take place there.

I remember my teary eyed dad coming into my room when as I was home for a weekend visit to St. Louis as I was planning my own wedding, telling me that Princess Diana had died.

So it was very meaningful to be able to watch another Royal Wedding, this time with a daughter of my own who was one year shy of the age I was when I watched.

I think Kate Middleton is such a breath of fresh air in our saturated culture of trashy celebrities who are famous for acting like morons. She is graceful, classy, kind, tasteful, elegant, smart, and beautiful. Who wouldn't want to be Kate for a day?! Or least for one Halloween night. I found a dress on ebay that was a replica of hers. I couldn't believe how many people asked me if it was my wedding dress. First of of all, do you not pay any attention to detail? Don't you know what Kate's dress looked like?? I am wearing her dress!!! Her veil!!! Second of all, the ebay dress cost $30 and looked like it! It was huge on me and I had it pinned in several places and it really looked dime store. We had a fun time playing royalty and once again we had a beautiful Halloween night. I wish I could be Kate every year.......sigh.....

Andrew's 12th Birthday

I saw this dice game called "Greed" and had to get it for Andrew since he loves money (in a somewhat healthy). Disclaimer: He came out of the womb with this love and we had nothing to do with it! Notice Luke's reaction in the background. He loved it the game! It was something easy we could all play.
Andrew has given up on doughnuts for breakfast for his birthday since he is becoming more health conscious. Here is is surrounded by chocolate chip bagels and his presents and Baylor colored balloons.

He doesn't like cake so I made him a cookie cake. My friend was horrified that I made it look like the ones from the store with flowers on it, but it was my first one so next year I will do a football theme.

I can't believe my sweet boy is 12!!!!! He is our joy!!

It is hard to believe that I will have a teenager next year so I plan to enjoy this year before we begin teh teenage journey. Our sweet Andrew has brought us more happiness than we could have ever imagined. He also keeps us on our toes by his constant arguing, or as he likes to refer to it, "reasoning." He is full of life and his mind and body never stop. He is most happy when he is fully engaged with us and I am truly blessed to have a son who allows me into his life as he does, sharing the ups and downs of adolescence. I never take fro granted our close relationship and I hope that it never changes! I am so thankful for the blessing of Andrew the fun he brings to our family. This was a special birthday for him as he received the long coveted CELL PHONE!! He really wasn't sure if he was going to get one which made it very fun for us to give it to him. We had it wrapped up in a gift bag and after he had opened up all of his other presents we called it! So the bag is ringing and he starts going crazy!! It was hilarious and fun to watch his expression. He had so much fun spending the rest of the day handing out his "own number" to his friends and texting his friends and families. It has also been fun for us to be able to exchange texts during the day. He has been so responsible with it and we have had none of the problems we anticipated. We love you, Andrew!!

Football

First Day of School

Luke - 5th grade and Brooke - 2nd grade.
Brooke is so excited that Kate is in kindergarten and can ride the bus with her now.

Luke with all the girls. He wasn't crazy about being the only boy at the bus stop.

Andrew - 6th grade. First year of middle school!!

Andrew and Dominic. I am so glad he has a friend at the bus stop!

The kids had a great first day of school and they are all having a great school year so far. I can't believe I have a middle schooler! So far so good and he comes home happy every day telling me everything that happened throughout the day. I am so blessed to have a son who shares everything with me. I hope that never changes. Andrew gets home 30 minutes earlier than the other two so on days I am not working we get a quiet time to sit and talk.

I have found that Luke and Brooke have gotten closer as a result of having more time with just the two of them in the mornings. The years keep moving faster and faster and I want to slow down time and make this year last a long time. It is nice to have the kids past the first year of being new again (even though Andrew was new to middle school so was everyone else) and knowing that everyone is happy!!