7 years old!

Timothy turned 7 on Monday.  Thankfully there were no snow days yet this year, so he had the day off from school and we made it a fun day of celebration.  He was up at 6:30 and ready to start the party.  He very patiently waited for Troy to return from the gym to open his presents.

Ready to start opening!

Teresa slept in a little, but shared her gift when she got up.  It was a picture of Timothy complete with a belly button!

Timothy's choice for breakfast was cinnamon roll bunnies.  A touch of spring I guess!

In the afternoon we headed down to the Grand Harbor water park for an afternoon of swimming.  We had fun on the water slides, little pool, lazy river and hot tub.  Timothy even tried the big tube slide with Troy and loved it!

After swimming we headed to Happy Joe's for some pizza and a birthday sundae.  It was very busy, but Timothy and Teresa passed the time by watching the pizza makers.

Pizza is good, but the birthday sundae was the highlight.  That along with the quarter games.  It all make for a very happy birthday boy!

At Happy Joe's they have the whole restaurant join in a birthday song!

We are proud of our son and how he is growing up.  He has such a kind heart.  He is constantly learning new things and becoming a great reader.  He still loves to play with his friends and be active outside.  We wish him a great next year of life!

Birthday party!!

Timothy celebrated his 7th birthday with friends this weekend.  And once again, lots of kids were able to come.  It was a fun and energetic morning with 8 friends to play with.  (I was worn out by the end, but I think the kids had a good time!)

 We started the party with a little word search fun.  Everybody is working hard.

 One of our main activities was making a gingerbread house.  The kids had a lot of fun.  Timothy was pretty proud of his creation!

 We had the donut game again this year.  Always a favorite.

 Special this year was the Asbury Santa fire truck visit.  Santa even got out of the truck to greet the birthday boy and give him some special treats.

 Another favorite is when the parachute comes out.  That kept us busy for a long time.

 Opening presents might have been Timothy's favorite part!  Here he opens a RC car from Anna.

After a bit of energy burning ball tag outside, the kids came in for some birthday cake.  It was Laval from Chima on the cake this year.  It was a super day for a very special boy!

Teresa's Christmas program

Teresa had her school Christmas program this past week.  She was an angel in it.  She had been telling us all about her golden wings that she painted.  She also practiced her songs a lot at home.  And in our opinion, she was the best little angel there was!

Singing and doing the actions with lots of enthusiasm!

Teresa and her best buddy, Sophie, another very cute angel!

After the program we had cookies and juice to celebrate the evening.

During the refreshments, a special visitor surprised the kids.  This was the first time Timothy and Teresa visited Santa.  Teresa asked for a tiger and Timothy asked for video games.

Cousin fun and Christmas program

It was the weekend of the Christmas program.  Troy worked hard to organize it all, and it happened without any real problems.  We were happy to have my parents and a niece and nephew join us for the weekend.  It was fun to have some company at Christmas time.  The cousins enjoyed their meals together, a sleepover under the Christmas tree, movie time, lots of play time and a Christmas light drive last night.  It was a very fun weekend!

Eating Santa pancakes together!

Grandpa told them all to grab a present and give it a shake to guess what was inside.

Troy hard at work directing the Christmas program.  He did a great job!

A sleepy little sheep taking a rest during the program.

A king gives the audience a big smile!

A mom and her girl.  And a Grandma and her grand daughter.

Big smiles from the cousins after the Christmas program.

Everyone busy in the morning before we headed to church.

A Fun holiday weekend

We had an early holiday celebration this weekend with a trip to my aunt's home.  We only had one overnight with her, but it was fun.  We get to enjoy all her beautiful Christmas lights and candles, and decorations, spend time visiting and playing.  We also opened a few gifts.

Timothy is now a Packers fan.  He has been trained by Aunt Mary on this one.  And let's face it, being a Packers fan seems to bring a bit more hope!

Teresa got to go to Build a Bear and pick out a stuffed animal.  An early gift from Grandma Rebecca.  At the store she quickly decided on a horse and she did not want any accessories or clothes.  I tried to find something for her horse, but all she would go for was some colorful hair extensions.  She loves "Brownie!"

Timothy and Teresa enjoyed watching videos on Aunt Mary's phone of them dancing during our last visit to her house.

And a picture of me being surprised by the gift I picked out!  We had to be back home for church since Troy is in charge of the Sunday school Christmas program.  After church we went to the River Museum to see scuba Santa!

Teresa enjoyed floating her boat in the water play area after seeing Santa.

 Timothy worked hard at designing his own boat. A great weekend of family time!!

Thanksgiving vacation

Our thanksgiving vacation was a little shorter this year due to Troy's travels and school, but we still packed in lots of fun.  We drove up to Susie's on Thanksgiving day.  Grandma Judy was there along with Trish and her family, Justin and his family and Uncle Davie.  It was a houseful and that meant a few kids for Timothy and Teresa to play with.  The loved that.  Judy had to get a few pics with her little girls.  The blond, blue-eyed beauties looked great in there matching outfits and it was much easier to get a few smiles this year.  Timothy got a special pic with his Grandma too.

We enjoyed a wonderful meal, some movie time, playtime and a restful night.  We are thankful we can see Troy's family and mine in one weekend!

I did not snap any pictures from my family Thanksgiving on Friday, but it too was a fun day with my parents and brothers and their families.  Troy and I are blessed with such special families!

We enjoyed one extra day at my parents house.  Timothy worked on his school gingerbread boy--Lloyd from Ninjago.  The kids watched shows, played Mario, played dress up and several other things through the morning.

Relaxing during a viewing of Tom and Jerry, a current favorite.

The kids helped Grandpa Ken and Grandma Rebecca move the real tree inside.  They had to use their strong muscles!

Later in the afternoon Timothy and Teresa helped decorate.  I helped too so a few ornaments ended up on the top branches!  Teresa tends to hang several ornaments on a single branch.  This could have been a cute picture, but we were in the no brushing my hair mood that day!

We also spent a little time outside in the tiny bit of snow that had not melted in the 40 degree weather.  Timothy liked trying snowboarding.  Teresa got her daddy to pull her around and around the yard.  Timothy ran after the sled trying to catch his "train!"

All in all it was a wonderful few days of fun and family.  We are ever grateful for our families and the love they give!

Cookie fun

The month of November has gone by quickly and we are almost to Thanksgiving.  Our house, however, looks like Christmas.  If Timothy had his way, we would have decorated about the first week of November.  I held him off until this weekend...a week before Thanksgiving.  I grew up decorating the day after Thanksgiving, but since we tend to travel, the new tradtion seems to be before Thanksgiving.  I have to admit I do like the decorations too.  I love the lights of Christmas.

Troy is away at SBL for a few days.  To make these days fun without daddy we are doing some special things.  We slept by the Christmas tree on Friday night which was really fun.  I promised we could do it again in the next month.  We also made some cut out cookies and decorated them.  Shortly after Thanksgiving Troy is hosting a little party for a few students.  I figured why not get a jump on making cookies to use for that.  The kids had a blast with decorating as usual!

I am thankful for the fun memories that I have of the holidays and I am thankful to be able to create new memories with my kids!

 Rolling out the cookie dough.  It was a pajama day and a face painting day...in case you wondered!

The finished product ready for eating.  Yum yum!

Little baker

Teresa has commented lately that she does not think she wants to have kids.  The reason...she does not think she will know how to bake!  To fix that, she has been helping me bake and cook more.  She helped me make an apple pie for Troy.

Her is the little baker with her pie ready to put in the oven.  She is well on her way to being a great baker.  And she is really good at tasting something at the end of her baking project.  Licking the spoon is her favorite part!

Pumpkin Fun at Grandma's

We had the chance to visit Grandma Rebecca and Grandpa Ken last week.  And a trip to the cities in the fall means a pumpkin/fall fun day with cousins.  Here are some picture highlights from our visit.

Timothy and Teresa helped make spider cupcakes for our evening treat.  They were from our Halloween cookbook which we have used a lot this fall!

While waiting for the cousins to arrive Teresa and Timothy did a little leaf pile jumping.

The girl cousins cozy up for a cute picture in the afternoon.

Fiona and Teresa, & Timothy and Broder worked hard on coloring pictures and word finds.  The older two cousins were outside making the leaf piles even bigger.

Making full use of the leaf piles with all the cousins...even little Mattias got in the action!

The next day at Grandma's, Timothy and Teresa discovered the box of dress up.  They had lots of fun showing off their new outfits.

It was a great weekend of family and fun!