Snow Day!

This was January 8th ... we woke up to everything covered in white. School was closed so we bundled up and went sledding down the long hill in our neighborhood. One of our neighbors recently told me that she saw us all coming down the hill; Rob in his camo and beard, Roscoe not on a leash and me with a baby strapped to the front of me and she thought we were a hippie family - "mountain people" was her term. Nice.

Sunny is FOUR and Wade is ONE!

Let them eat Cake!

My friend Tricia made these cakes for the kids for their birthday party! A princess and a frog. The princess was a white cake with a thin layer of raspberry and the frog was a red velvet cake. We were able to remove the frog off the top of the lily pad and let Wade feed himself. He loved it! Riley was so proud of her cake too!

Christmas 2009

Long overdue but here are a few Christmas pictures. It was sad to not be with family but it was also wonderful to not travel. We put out cookies for Santa on Christmas Eve and when Sunny woke up in the morning, the cookies were gone and there were LOTS of presents ... it was so much fun!

December 2009

There are polo fields near our house with horses roaming free. The owner plays polo there and allows the public to bring kids and dogs and to pet the horses. It is beautiful; we plan to go back when it's warmer and take Roscoe!

The Stephan Elves

http://elfyourself.jibjab.com/view/urm6ncCVQ5j0s5LNaXzz

My favorite pics of November

Thanksgiving and Rob's 39th (!!!!!) birthday

We were in FL for 8 days; able to spend half the time with my family and then headed South for Rob's birthday and Thanksgiving. We had a bbq at Brett's house, dinner at mom's house and spent time with Poppie. I did come down with a nasty bug one day so luckily mom was able to help Rob out with the kids.
I met Lisa!! I have been asking (begging, pleading) Oma to let me go the next time they head to Italy but they have not made the trip - and don't plan to anytime soon. Rob has given me the green light to book a trip next year. YAY!

At Sunny's Thanksgiving presentation at school.

At Sugar Mill Gardens with Mimi!

Everyone helped blow out the candles. Wade is not sure what is going on .. or maybe he just can't wait to dig in to that cake!

One of the best things about Thanksgiving ... spending time with family you don't see very often - or in may case, are meeting for the first time :)

My 31st birthday

This will be out of order since my birthday is after Thanksgiving, after Rob's birthday, and after our trip to Florida; however, I haven't had the chance to go through all the FL photos yet. We got home from FL at 2 am Sunday morning; so we unpacked, I went for a run, the kids napped and then we went down to a little creek by our house. We got one family photo (where all our faces are visible and all eyes are open) - thanks to my new wireless remote! Rob cooked eggplant parm for dinner and we had carrot cake for dessert! The perfect birthday, really!! I am so grateful for another year full of amazing memories!

Thanksgiving Celebration in Sunny's class

Every year each class at Sunny's school does a small Thanksgiving presentation. Afterwards, we all meet in the fellowship hall for a Thanksgiving lunch so all the families and students can eat together. Here are a few of the songs Sunny's class sang for us this year.

Wade laughing at Rob being silly

Rob and Sunny pretend to sneeze into a tissue and think it's hilarious. Wade thinks so too now.

Costumes: Part Two

The kids had to be in costume for the school party, the Moms Club party and then Halloween itself. For all these events we were running around crazy and didn't have a chance to get any good pictures. I put the kids on the deck and tried to document Halloween '09 but Wade did not want to be held and Roscoe wanted to be part of the session. Here are just a few (there are about 15 others that are not good) that turned out okay. That is always the way it is with kids; thankfully my camera is digital!
Wade ... 10 months ... crawling, standing, destroying everything in his wake, saying "maaama" amd "dadda" and "uh oh".

Sunny ... almost 4 years old ... spelling, dancing, singing, and saying things like, "mommy, I heart you; heart means love".

Sunny detaining Wade right before the meltdown ...