Christmas Gatherings Galore

I have NO pictures from our first Christmas. It was at Grandma Eileen's on Saturday Dec 19th. The kids had a good time playing with their cousins and opening gifts.

The next Christmas gathering was at my parent's house last Wednesday night (the 23rd). The kids went over early and made cookies and the table decorations. As always the kids had a blast! (the adults did too!)Reece and Blake are dancing, looks like Frosty is getting trampled!!

Aunt Kim and Uncle Trent got the boys games. We have been playing lots of games over break!!!!

AJ with his little cousin Blake.

My wonderful parents, aren't they just so cute?!?!?!?

Mom is passing out more presents! Lauren and Reece are checking out their goods.

This is the whole table of kids and food!!! We did have a little mis-hap with the turkey strips and the grill but it all worked out in the end!!! (funny funny story for years to come, my poor dad!)

Then on Christmas Eve day we went to Jake's parents house for Christmas.

AJ and Alex are opening up their stockings.

This is Christmas Eve, we made cookies for Santa. I have a picture of AJ when he was 7 months old with the same little plate and mug for Santa. EVERY year I have taken a picture of the boys next to the plate. They are SO much bigger than the plate and mug now, can barely see it on the fireplace.

Sleepy reece getting ready to open presents. AJ had to wake him up at 845, he was still snoozing. He is my little sleeper!!

This was the year of Jersies for AJ. He had about 10 jersies (sp?) on his Christmas list this year. He ended up getting 3, pretty good I thought.

This is him in his Adrian Petersen Jersey. He also got a Notre Dame #23 and Dallas Clark (colts).

Reece got a dry erase board for his room. He loves to draw and do spelling words on it. (love it!!).

The day after Christmas (the 26th) we headed up to Indy to spend the next couple days at my Grandma and Grandpa Hawkins'. We had our Christmas there at noon that day. My mom's brother and his family from Maryland, my mom's sister and husband from Arkansas, and my cousin Carey from Florida all flew in for Christmas. It was the first time we were all together in 5 years. It was great to visit with everyone. That night me and Jake took the boys to a Pacers game. They really enjoyed that! (will post pics later)

Well, we had a great Christmas. It seemed to fly by. We have another Christmas in Odon on Sunday afternoon and then they are all done.

Happy New Year!!!

making cookies......yummy

This afternoon me and the boys made homemade sugar cookies. They love to cut them out and then decorate them. Reece is trying his best to get the dough just right, he got it a little too thin so we had to start over! For some reason every year when we do this he is shirtless. I guess the shirt gets in his way! Thankfully these were just cookies to make and keep at home, Reece kept licking the icing.....

AJ only decorated 3 cookies this year. While we were doing our traditional cookie baking the doorbell rang and a friend of his stopped by to play. They rode bikes for a little bit then went to the basement to play XBox. So, I only got half the time with AJ. Oh well, guess I better start getting used to that!! Reece stayed with it the whole time! He and I decorated most of them.

This is the finished product! They look pretty good and taste very good!! Now I've got to clean up the kitchen and figure out what is for supper................maybe cookies?!?!?

Brrrrr

THIS is what my boys are looking forward to............................ playing in the snow and then coming in for hot chocolate!

Can't Wait!!

Give Thanks

I am Thankful for...........

my sweet and healthy little boys.

my sweet and caring husband.

my family & friends.

During this busy busy season it is easy to overlook all the important things. We are busy getting ready for holiday parties, christmas shopping, christmas decorating, etc. Sometimes I am too busy with all that stuff and I don't take the time to just relax and enjoy my family. A lot of that is my personality, I want everything to be just perfect, the house clean, the laundry done, perfect, perfect, perfect. I am working on letting things go a bit and just enjoying them while they are young and are at home and want me to play games with them or color with them. I know too soon they will be grown and out with their friends and won't really want mommy around all that much! Until then I need to slow down and enjoy them more!

I am also thankful for my salvation. For a God who loves us, cares for us, forgives us, and sent His son to die for us. This past summer AJ made Jesus his 'Forever Friend'. He was saved and baptized in June. Jake and I were able to baptize him. Jake had been baptized when he was younger so he talked with my dad about things and decided he would like to be baptized in our church. It was so awesome. Me and my dad baptized Jake, then Jake and I baptized AJ. That was definitely the highlight of 2009 for our family :)

I am so thankful that AJ came to the realization that he needs Jesus in his life. We have gone to church, prayed with him, and read the Bible with him his whole life but the day he came to us and said he wanted Jesus to be his Forever Friend and wanted to be saved and baptized was just awesome! I am sure Reece will come to that realization soon...... although after AJ and Jake were baptized he said he wanted to be baptized too so he could swim in the water. SO--until he realizes the meaning of it all we will wait a bit with him!

Happy Thanksgiving!

Happy Halloween

Last Sunday after church the boys carved their pumpkins. This was the first year I let AJ do a lot of the cutting. I was nervous with him having a knife but he did pretty good. I did the major cuts, he did the rest.

AJ w/his pumpkin (& knife)

I LOVE the look on Reece's face while he is getting the yuck and seeds out of his pumpkin. It is too funny!

We recently got new countertops and new sink, of course Jake had to make a couple Wal-Mart trips to get the plumbing complete. He didn't have the drain things in yet so Reece played a joke on Tyler. Tyler spent the night with us last Friday night and when he got to the house we told him to wash his hands, this is what he saw! He just giggled and said he recognized Reece's hand!

Reece as a pirate before Mamau and Papau's annual Halloween Party!

AJ was dressed as Wolverine (X-Men character). Wolverine has black hair so for trick-or-treating we bought black hair spray paint (i forgot to get it before the party at mamau and papau's)

My little pirate and Wolverine fighting before the party.

This was the Halloween Party and mom at dad's. The kids had SO much fun. Jake and I and Kim and Trent went to Vincennes to eat dinner, when we got back in town to "pick up the kids" we first went to the garage where mom and dad had spooky music and decorations and we dressed up and scared the kids. The big kids liked it, Reece and Tyler were okay with it, Blake didn't care for the masks!

Have a safe and Happy Halloween!

Reece's Flag Football '09

Reece had his first flag football "scrimmage" on Saturday morning. He ALMOST got a touchdown but someone grabbed his flag. It is SO cute to watch these kids play. It is K-2nd graders. We just so happen to be playing against Reece's cousin Tyler's team. So they played against each other. Tyler is in blue, #4 below.

Here are Reece and Tyler running. Looks like Reece is giggling about something. Too funny.

Well, he has 3 more games, the next 3 Saturday mornings.

Are You Ready For Some Football?!?!?!

Doesn't he just look so cute in the little white pants! Last year they wore black pants to games, which was nice.... This year I have to pre-treat and treat again for the stains.
Oh well, that means he played hard!!

The pic below is AJ in a stance (i guess) I really should have Jake write about the football stuff. Not too sure on the correct football terminology!

AJ had his first football game this afternoon. I just love watching this age group play. It is 3rd and 4th graders. He absolutely loves playing! (daddy loves that too!)

AJ is the only one on the team with a black helmet. I like that because it is very easy to find him out on the field! The YMCA provided the equipment but of course Jake got ours through the school, he says it is much better quality. So he has a black helmet.

(again I just love the little white pants!)

oh yeah, we WON our game today! 14-0 Go Steelers! AJ's biggest fan, Reece, had the best seats up on top of the booth at Hatchet Hollow. Reece starts flag football soon. He played last year and really enjoyed it. That age group is very cute to watch. It is K-2nd. He can't wait until he gets to wear all the pads and hit, that part makes me nervous for him. Hopefully he gains some weight and gets some meat on his bones before 3rd grade!!!!

Well for the rest of this month and all of October we are full force in to football! AJ has games every Saturday until the end of October. He usually has practices 2-3 nights a week.

Reece will soon have practices and games every Saturday until the end of October.

And of course Jake is JV Coach for WHS so he is always at football! Also, AJ is one of the ball boys for the high school games on Friday nights. He enjoys that very much! He rides the bus with the team to and from the away games. (i think he likes the snacks they have for the bus rides home!) Plus he likes to be right there with all the action during the games.

Garage Sale this Friday!!!

Well, over the long weekend me, Jake, and the boys went furniture shopping. We looked at furniture around this time last year and decided to wait another year. I absolutely LOVE what we picked out and it will be delivered tomorrow!!

That being said, we had to clear out the living room. We were filling the garage with furniture, etc and I decided I needed to have a garage sale to try and sell the furniture, along with other stuff!!

This Friday, 11th, 8-??
11 Morningside Dr.

Couch, Loveseat, Recliner, kid recliner, toys, kid/adult clothes, and household items.

We shopped at the furniture store for over 2 hours. The boys were so good, including Jake! After that we took the boys to the movies and watched Ice Age 3 in 3-D, it was very cute. I think that made up for the LONG shopping trip!!

Hope everyone had a great weekend!

Time For School!

Today was the day........first day back to school. AJ got up on his own at 6am this morning. I think he is really looking forward to the 4th grade! HOWEVER, Reece struggled to get up (like always). He did finally get out of bed at 7am, ate a bowl of cereal and then laid on the couch until it was time to brush teeth and get dressed.

AJ kept telling Reece to hurry up and get dressed, hurry up and put your shoes on, hurry up and get your backpack. So, I was glad for that, he is excited.

We walked in to North, AJ went straight to his classroom, Mrs. Smith, didn't really tell me bye, just went right in. Reece was walking behind me down the hallway, we walked in to Mrs. Lannan's room, he seemed fine, THEN the tears started!!! NO, NOT AGAIN THIS YEAR!! He did this a lot last year but I chalked it up to being in school full day for Kindergarten, a lot of adjustments. Even though last year he had Jessie Davis (our cousin) he still had tears from time to time.

Well, before I left his classroom his tears slowed down a bit. It is SO hard to leave your child when he is crying. But, he is in 1st grade now so really the crying should stop!! I was trying to be stern with him, telling him that he is big now, in the 1st grade and that he really shouldn't be crying. Deep down I just wanted to cry and take him home with me!!! I know I can't do that.

Boy, talk about having 2 different boys! At least they both aren't mommy's boys!!! Now I just can't wait to pick them up at 3 and see how their day was!

I can't believe the boys are in 1st grade and 4th grade! I REALLY want things to slow down so I still have my little boys!!! They are growing up to be such handsome and kind boys! When we went in to school today AJ opened the door for a little girl, I really thought that was sweet. He is a little gentleman (plus she was cute!)

Hope everyone has a great day at school!! Hopefully Reece has no tears tomorrow!

An Overnight Guest

We recently had a sweet little overnight guest. My nephew Blake spent the night with us!

AJ and Reece got a little taste of what having a little brother would be like. (not gonna happen!)They watched Noggin with him which of course they haven't watched Noggin in quite awhile. They also had to put away Lego creations that they had spent lots of time building because Blake likes to un-do the creations! too funny!

I overhead AJ tell Reece to get Blake side tracked on something else so they could do Legos without him. He is such a good little boy though! We had a lot of fun and of course I pulled out the camera to get some pictures!! having a little bedtime snack and reece being goofy!

Hope everyone had a nice summer......... back to school on Monday! The boys are kind of excited to start a new school year. We had a great, busy, and fun summer. Now football starts for all 3 boys real soon! more busy times ahead!

Horsin' Around

Last weekend me and the boys headed north to Danville to visit with my grandparents, aunt, uncle, and cousins.

We first stopped by my aunt and uncles house to visit. My uncle had his horse out so the boys round around on Rio for awhile.

We don't own any cowboy boots, they are wearing crocs and sandals....

Brooklynn, Bradley, AJ, and Reece.

On Sunday afternoon we met up with our cousins and went to the local park which has a spray park/pool/waterslides. The kids had a blast!!

Of course, while staying at my grandparents (which the boys call GG) we had to play Dominoes. They just love playing games with GG and Papau Joe.

Skateboards & Mohawks

my boys used to be so clean cut and proper, well now they want mohawks and to ride skateboards........ i think we've created monsters. (cute monsters though)

reece worked on this mohawk the other night after his bath and then insisted i take pictures of him......

both of the boys have wanted to have long(er) hair, like all the boys are wearing these days

(oh the peer pressure in kindergarten and 3rd grade)

of course we would never allow them to have very long hair but we have let them keep it a little longer...

enjoy the pictures!!