Christmas Cookies

We love to make cookies for Christmas each year and this year it turned out to be a 3 day task.

Saturday we made the dough and because of the upcoming storm I was called into work early so we could not finish them

Sunday night we rolled out the dough and and baked them. It was getting late when that was finished so we stacked up our cooled cookies and I put everyone to bed. When I came back into the kitchen I noticed that some of the stacks of cookies were missing and came to the conclusion that our dog must have eaten them. So we only ended up with half the cookies (silly dog).

Monday night John got to work the early shift so he was home for family home evening and we decorated our cookies.

We had a ton of fun and it is always nice when we are all home together because that doesn't happen very often. With all the busy and crazy things going on this time of year we love to be able to stay home together as a family and take the time to to remember the true meaning of Christmas! ~ Merry Christmas To Everyone~

Swimming Katie

A couple weeks ago Katie had her second swim meet and she did great!

She was in 5 races in all. She did the 25 back stroke and got 2nd, the 25 free and got 2nd, the 50 free and got 3rd, and then she was in 2 different relays and she did the free style in both and they got 4th in both of them. It was a long day at the pool but she had a lot of fun and she is learning so much so fast.

She has been working on new strokes the past couple of weeks. She worked on the butterfly last Friday, and yesterday she worked on her breast stroke. Its fun to watch them teach these little girls how to a new stroke. They first do it on a bench, then they get in the water and work on the kick, then their arms and then they put it all together. After that she worked on her starts. She has never even gotten up on the block before and one of the captains of the team talked her into trying it once and she did great. They use a hula hoop to dive through to get use to it. She really is becoming a good little swimmer.

Winter is here

The past couple of weeks we have had a few storms that have given us about 6 inches on the ground so far.

Our kids love to go outside. Summer or winter they love to be out of the house.

These pictures are after the first storm we had. They couldn't wait to get outside and be in the snow. There wasn't much at that time so sledding didn't last very long and it was a fluffy snow so a snowman was out of the question. So Zach made a volcano and Aaron made angles and Katie just wanted to eat the snow. Everyone had a great time.

If this is a clue to what our winter is going to be like we might be in for a long one( what else is new here in New England). We look forward to many days of being able to step outside our door and have our own sledding hill so I can watch from the comfort of my warm house looking out the window.

Happy Birthday Katie

Today Katie Is 6!!!

She is growing up so fast and becoming a wonderful girl. We are so grateful to have her in our family. She is full of life and a joy to be around.
We all Love our Katie!

We had her Birthday party on Sunday at Nana & Papa's house and had a great time.

Before her party Nana had a special girls day planned and we went to the Nutcracker!
We had a great time and Katie really enjoyed the Ballet. We are looking forward to making this something we do every year.

Since Katie was turning 6 this year she is now allowed to have Barbies so of course she had a Barbie party. A friend of mine make her cake and it turned out great. We had a great day together as a family.

~Happy Birthday Katie~

The Best Phone Call Ever

Today I received the best phone call from my mom!!

My mom had her 100 day check up last week where they did tons of tests to see how she is doing after her transplant.
Today she went back to see what the results were. She called me right after with the best news ever.

She is now
Cancer Free!!!

We were all hoping and praying for the best, but its so great to get the news and not have to wonder any more. My mom is a fighter we knew that she could make it through this challenge. I want to thank everyone for all the call and note's and prayers that were made for my mom. It has been a tough year and now we can start to look ahead again!
Great Job Mom I love you!!

Busy Life

The past 2 weeks have just been busy so I thought I would give a quick recap.

My kids went camera crazy one morning before church so here are a couple that they took. I think that Zach took both of these pretty good for 7.

We decided to buy a shed to keep all of our yard things in and we needed to get it up before the snow came for the year.

So 3 men 3 kids and 2 days later, we now have a shed.

Katie had a party with her swim team and one game they played was to bite an apple without using your hands. Katie needed some help with that so Megan came to the rescue.

Halloween was a lot of fun this year. Katie was a Purple Pixie, Aaron a Fire Fighter, and Zach was Bumblebee from Transformers. We started out visiting Johns Mem & Pep.

We love to go over and visit with them whenever we get a chance and this time it came with some yummy candy!!

We went to the mall to trick or treat and then went to our other grandmothers. Halloween is Grandmas Birthday so we had a little party and then went out trick or treating again. Zach had a blast handing out the candy to the other kids after we got back. John ended up having to work later than expected so as every other year he was not able to go out with us, there's always next year.

Zach had a choir concert at school the next week and he did a great job!

At first he didn't want to be in the choir but his teacher was a huge help and got him to just go and watch and before we knew it he was singing. Great Job Zach

We have had a busy couple of weeks, but I will try and be better at keeping up.

The Results Are In . . .

Take A Look And See How She Did . . .

1st Place In Her First Swim Meet. We Are Very Proud Of Her!