pumpkin art

For family night this past Monday we painted up some pumpkins.

It was big fun, the kids did a great job creating some masterpieces for our porch.

Thanks to Grandma Lynn for the cute art smocks!

They came in quite handy, especially for miss Maggie.

Maggie's Purple Pumpkin

Ty's Vampire Pumpkin

Jaxon's Spider with blue background

mom also went with a spidey theme

Lia went with the cute face and multi colored hair

Good times getting ready for Halloween!

something missing

maggie has a fun new habit..

perfectly good toddler bed.....no toddler

right in front of the door to the girls room....sleeping toddler
she has fallen asleep like this every night for the past week -
not exactly sure why, she just makes a little bed for her and her stuffed animals and snoozes :)
silly girl
i love how they each have a pillow :) so sweet

Lia's B-Day Party

Time to Party!

We had Lia's B-Day Party with friends this past Saturday (the 17th).

She chose a Luau theme and invited 14 girls + her siblings so it was quite a crowd!

this is my 1st attempt at fondant...not great, but hopefully i will get better withe time :)

ready for the guests to come...looking so grown up!
oh i love that 7 yr. old girl...and the little messy haired girl in the background too!

some of our Hawaiian decor

and the party begins...

we played pass the coconut (..hot potato) and did the limbo

look how cute all these girls are!

down to two players

we did a little crafting

opened some gifts ..i'm not sure why this picture is so fuzzy??..

lia has such sweet friends, it was great to have them in our home!

we love you lia it was great to celebrate with you!

Trip to Kentucky

Over Lia's Birthday weekend we took a trip to Kentucky(just across the river from Cincinnati) to visit Jenn and Gary and their family. My parents came too and it was a great trip. We started off the weekend with our nephew Ethan's baptism Friday evening. A few of us participated in the program - my mom gave a talk and my niece Audrey and I sang (accompanied by Jenn). Then Ethan was baptized by Gary and confirmed by Grandpa Steve (my dad). After the baptism my dad took us all out to a yummy BBQ place. The amount of ribs consumed at our table was quite a sight! My 14 yr. old nephew put away the most...sharing one (somewhat begrudgingly) with Grandpa....because, well he did buy them.

It was so fun for all of us to be together!

here are some pictures of the baptism...

Ethan and Gary

some of the crew,

Ethan apparently the only one who was paying attention to Grandma taking a picture.

Saturday was Lia's actual birthday! Jennifer planned a joint B-Day party for Lia and Ethan. It was great fun. We decorated individual birthday cakes, created some artwork on the tablecloth and ate Graters Ice Cream (so good).

Here are the kids decorating their cakes

jax with his cake creation

check out my dad's cake....perhaps he missed his calling in life and of course the kids opened some presents!
a new webkinz from g. lynn and g. steve

here's Ethan opening his quilt (or comforter if you will) from Grandma and Grandpa. They make one for every grandchild when they turn eight. He of course could not be bothered to quit snarfing his ginormous chocolate bar....which was from Tyler and I.

Maggie waiting to open her present from the grandparents........yes, all of the kids got presents birthday or not - because that's just the way grandma rolls

ahhh...a pink Packers jersey :)

Jaxon yet again adoring Ethan as we are singing to the kids

look at Jaxon's excitement when Lia opened her Jersey...so funny

Ethan with a new tie

the boys had cute Halloween boxers in their gift bags from aunt Jenn - oh the excitement

Sunday afternoon Jenn took me, tyler, maggie and my mom to do some sight seeing in Cincinnati. We had a great time! It is a beautiful city. My mom rented a six person bike and we rode around looking at the sights. I somehow deleted the pictures of the bike - so mom if you wouldn't mind sending them again that would be awesome! :)

my sis and I being silly

All in all a great trip! Thanks Jenn and Gary for your hospitality!!!

an early b-day post

My Lia is turning 7 this weekend. Where does the time go? I just wanted to give her a shout out and let her know how very much I love her. She had blessed our lives immensely in her 7 years. I can't believe how much she has grown up in the past little while. I love seeing her read books to herself, listening to her sing along to her music in the car, and read stories the she writes and illustrates. All signs that she is definitely growing up.
Lia's is smart, strong and capable. She has a great love for learning and rarely shies away from trying something new. I could not ask for a better role model for our two younger kids. She has been so helpful this year in making Jaxon feel at home at school. She walks him to class in the morning, plays with him at recess and in generally the 1st one to ask if he stayed out of trouble during the day. She is Maggie's second mother and absolute favorite person in the entire world. They can often be found getting dressed up, putting on make-up and dancing together in their room. Lia shares her dad's love of sports and math (her favorite subject). She reminds me of Tyler in her intense approach to both. She does say she wants to be an artist when she grows up and loves to draw, paint and tell me EXACTLY how her room should be decorated. I suppose in that way she is like her mother. My favorite thing about Lia is her kind heart. She is friends with anyone and everyone and tries hard to do what's right.
We love you so much baby girl. Happy 7!

a few pics of our girl..

1

2
3

4 5

6

7