brothers

Even though there is a big age difference between them, Garrett and Jack are great friends. They can play together nicely (most of the time), they even ban girls from the room. Grace gets a little jealous when they do that though.

sunday at the park

It was such a beautiful day on Sunday so the kids and I took a walk down to the park. Grace rode her bike and Jack walked with me. They both love going to the park and playing. They always find some "buried treasure" in the sand. It is a good way for them to run out their energy and a good time for me to catch up on some reading.

Oh, and for Maggie-her hair is smashed from wearing her bike helmet, it was cute in the morning :)

owie!

Gracie got her finger smashed in the car door a couple of days ago. She was screaming so loud I thought her whole hand had gotten stuck in there. She is doing fine now, as you can see, but I am just waiting for her poor little fingernail to fall off. Maybe we will get lucky and it won't fall off, but I am not holding my breath for that :)

garrett's birthday bash

Garrett had five of his friends sleep over on Friday for his birthday party. Just imagine 6 boys between the ages of 7 and 10. It was loud and roudy, but they had a lot of fun. Man, can those boys eat the pizza-2 large pizzas just for them! You can see the aftermath of the night, they were up till after midnight watching movies and playing games. All in all I would say that this party was a success!

I had the wrong settings on my camera so the pics are all fuzzy.

happy happy birthday to garrett!!

Garrett opened his presents this morning after breakfast. He loved everything he got, as you can see from the pictures. He will have a party with his friends this weekend.

He got clothes from Aunt Maggie and Heath, Bakugan stuff and a Club Penguin DS game from Grandma Barb, and some cash from Grandma and Grandpa Cooper.

Be sure to check out the birthday post on Grandma Barb's blog!

playtime!

gracie-striking a pose

christmas bikes

All the kids got new bikes for Christmas this year. Grace did really great on her 2-wheeler (with training wheels, of course). All she wants to do today is ride her bike.

Garrett's bike has pegs for people to stand on while another person rides. He and his friend took turns pedaling his bike and riding this morning.

christmas mayhem

christmas morning

Before the madness begins...

christmas eve

We decorated cookies for Santa on Christmas Eve. I let the kids do it all by themselves as I am sure you can tell. Then they each got to pick one to put on the plate.

After cookies they put on their jammies we read some Christmas stories to get them settled down and ready for Santa to come.

merry christmas!

Merry Christmas to all our friends and family!

chatting with santa

This year we visited with the Santa at Bass Pro Shops. He was a great Santa and the kids gave him a quick list of what they wanted. Jack ran right up to him and climbed up on his lap as soon as we were to the front of the line. It was so cute! It is a Christmas miracle that all the kids are looking at the camera and smiling at the same time!

party time at peter piper pizza-grace

Lots of time spent playing on the toys.

Cute shoes and socks from Aunt Maggie.

Play make-up set from Grandma Olsen.

Lots of My Little Pony toys and My Little Pony movies from Grandma Barb and Grandpa Mike.

A set of all the Disney Princess dolls from Mom and Dad. I would say that the December 2009 birthdays were officially a success!

party time at peter piper pizza-jack

Playing on the toys.

Socks and shoes from Aunt Maggie.

Car mat from Grandma Olsen.

Cars and car track from Grandma Barb and Grandpa Mike.

And last but not least a Handy Manny workbench from Mom and Dad. We had a great time at Peter Piper playing games and opening our presents.

happy 5th birthday grace!

Today Grace is five! I can't believe it, before I know it she will be starting Kindergarten and then she will be graduating from high school! Grace is a very strong willed girl who knows what she wants. Of course, she loves all things girly and pink and princessy. I love you Grace, Happy Birthday!

i can't believe my baby is 4!

I seriously can't believe that it has been four years since this sweet little boy was born. He is such a loving and affectionate kid, he reminds me a lot of Claire and it just makes me want to hug him all the time. Of course, he has his moments (a lot of them) but we are so glad to have him around to keep us in line.

thanksgiving 2009

Here is our Thanksgiving Day spread. It is extremely hard to get all three kids to smile and look at the camera at the same time. This was the first year that I have made Thanksgiving dinner by myself. I have always either been at my mom's house or she was at my house. I would say that it was a success, everyone ate until they were exploding.

street football

Garrett and his friends like to play tag football in the street. As you can imagine, if they trip or try to reach for the ball, there are some scraped knees and elbows involved. There is a great big part just around the corner from us, but they insist on playing on the asphalt. I guess that's part of being a kid!

trick or treat

Here are the cute trick or treaters all ready to score some candy.

It is great to be able to actually see what costumes the kids are wearing instead of their winter coats covering them up!

Jack has said that he wanted to be a pumpkin from the very beginning. Pumpkin costumes are actually harder to find than you might think, but we lucked out this week and found one 50% off at KMart. He was thrilled!

Grace is a tooth fairy princess. I spray painted her pumpkin white and put some feathers on the top to make it more fairy like.

Garrett waited until the last minute to decide what he wanted to be so he got to be the only costume I had in the box, a doctor.

I took the kids out for about 45 minutes and they got enough candy to fill half their buckets. Garrett stayed out with his friends for another 30 minutes and filled his bucket to the top. Those little pumpkin pails look small, but they can actually hold a lot of candy!

carving pumpkins

We really waited until the last minute to carve our pumpkins this year. The beginning of the month was so hot, so I wanted to wait so our pumpkins wouldn't rot.

Then before I knew it, Halloween was here and we hadn't done our pumpkins yet! We bought them earlier this week and finally carved them last night.

I have to say that I really appreciate the fact that it is warm enough to carve pumpkins outside so that the mess is more easily cleaned up and I don't have to worry about pumpkin guts getting all over my kitchen!

All 3 kids did a great job of scooping out their own goop. Jack told me what he wanted for his face. You can see on the forehead of Grace's pumpkin that she drew the face she wanted. Garrett also drew his face on, but more to scale.

I have the perfect old bench in our front yard to display our little pumpkin family.

sounds sensational

Tonight we went to the 3rd Grade program at Garrett's school. It was called Sounds Sensational and it was all about different instruments and the sounds that they make. Garrett had a line to speak. He did a great job. His whole class played the ukulele for the song Kookaburra. Then at the end Garrett played the morracca for the finale. It was a great performance and a fun outing for the whole family.

You will have to excuse the horrible pictures, I think the kids dropped my camera one too many times, plus the battery was low.

happy birthday reese!

Today our cute niece is 1 year old! I can't believe how fast time flies! We only wish we lived closer so that we could see her more often!

gracie

the boys of summer

Just hanging out in the pool on a HOT afternoon!