Katie's Friend Party

 This year we decided to let Katie have her first friend party.  She invited 6 girls but 2 were only able to come but we made the best of it and had a good time with the 3 girls.

Amanda was very kind to come over and help me by doing the girls hair and nails since Katie wanted a make-over party.

 We played some games, like pin the candle on the cupcake.

 Somehow the candles ended up on the girls faces.

 They played twister and musical chairs for a while.  They ended by playing freeze dance and were so silly they ended up on the floor most of the time.

 Katie got these really cool fuzzy slippers and earmuff head phones.

 We ended the party with ice cream sundays. Even though it was small we had a really fun time and Katie had a good party.  What a great way to spend  your birthday with your best friends and no boys in the house!!

Happy 9th Birthday Katie

 After the Nutcracker we went to Johns Parents and had Katie and Papa's Birthday party.  We got Papa's favorite pizza for his gift from us and then went right into opening Katie's gifts.

 Most of her gifts were Lalaloopsy things and she loves them.  She now has a village and a bunch of girls.

 Katie is known as the skunk around our house so when we found this hat it was a perfect fit for her.

 Katie is back into swim team again and taking it very serious this year so we got her a team bag, cap and a new swim suit.

 John's gift to Katie was a Freebie and she loves it.  Seany didn't really understand what it was for but he wanted to carry it around the house.

 Katie wanted an ice cream cake this year and it turned out to be pretty good.  It was a fun and busy day but its nice to be able to spend some time together with our extended family.  Happy 9th Birthday Katie!!!

Annual Nutcracker Outing

Every year since we moved here we have had a girls outing for Katie's Birthday to the Nutcracker and this year was no different.

We got all the girls together and had a wonderful day together.  Katie was able to get her picture taken with the Sugar Plum Princess before we headed into the auditorium.

We go and see a local youth company and they do a great job and every year it gets better.

We had a great time together just us girls and its a great way to start the Christmas Holiday.

Back to Basketball

 Basketball has started again this winter and we had to make a change from last year. We decided not to do travel ball since all of the games are played on Sunday afternoon and that meant missing a lot of Church and we didn't want to do that again this year.

We decided to do YMCA basketball and Zach is doing really well. The first game Zach had 16 points and they won 32-2. They are off to a good start and its a good building year for Zach.

John loves not having to coach for once but he can sit in the stands and watch his son.  John does a good job of helping and teaching Zach and he is learning a lot from his father.  I like basketball because its always inside so no more sitting out in the cold, what is better than that after a long soccer season.

Decorating for Christmas

 We love to get our tree up and the house ready for Christmas as soon as we can each year and this year we were able to get it all done on Saturday after Thanksgiving.

 Everyone is very helpful and they all love to be a part of getting the tree ready.  They all take turns handing me lights to put on the tree and then they get to put all the ornaments on the tree.

 Once we got the tree done we moved on to putting up the Village and the Nativity together.

We love Christmas and the kids have such a good time getting the house looking good for the holiday.  What a great way to start off the holiday season.

Relaxing Thanksgiving

 We had a wonderful Thanksgiving and Aaron came home with this cool hat to start off our weekend with a festive touch.

 We had dinner at Aunt Jan's with the Shattuck side of the family and we had a great meal together.  The boys pitched in to help with the dishes and did a great job.

We wanted to take advantage of the whole family being together so we all went outside to take a family picture.

While we were waiting for everyone to come out the kids all sat down together and we were able to get a great picture of them, so cute!

 We had a good day and the best part was the kids all went to Nana's to spend the night so we could go Black Friday Shopping.  Best way to end a fun day.

Technical Difficulty's

We have been having some problems with our web site but my very smart and wonderful husband figured out the problem so we will be up and running again soon.  I will try and do a recap so we can be caught up before Christmas.