Merry Christmas

I love Santa pics! I especially love it when the kids in them are screaming. This is what memories are made of, right? I have a picture of each one of my kids sitting in Santa's lap and screaming at some point in time. This year was Leah's turn.

She pointed and said "Santa!" But the closer we got, the tighter her grip got on me and as you can see by the picture she was trying her best to get out of her brother's lap.

Thanks to Megan for some fast camera action in capturing the picture. This whole scene went down in less than 3 seconds flat!

I know they will all hate me for it one day, but my favorite part of Christmas decorating is getting out these pics and lining the dining room with them :) And of course, the laughs and memories!

All Dressed Up

Well, this is definitely a late post, but sometimes life gets in the way of blogging. We started off our Halloween weekend with 60's day at school. Crazy thing is, we had the clothes to wear because it's all coming back in style.

Then we went to a friend's for Halloween dinner and then some fun trick or treating! Check out the food spread...it was YUMMY! The punch was soooo fun for the kids, it smoked and bubbled just like it was in a mad scientist laboratory.

This is what I call trick or treating in luxury. She rode from house to house in the wagon and ate her treats as she went. I think she had a good time!

Picture of the day...

A couple of the parents from our football game today had this adorable puppy and Leah fell in love with it! When we took the puppy away to give it back she had a major meltdown...I'm not exaggerating. She cried for 20 minutes for this puppy!

Happy Halloween!

Click here to view our Halloween dance!

Cole's Love

Cole loves football. There is really no other way to say it. Some kids watch cartoons, he watches ESPN. He actually records (DVR) games and watches them over and over.

One day I asked him why he was watching the same game again and he said..."Mom, if I'm gonna play quarterback, I gotta see what they're doing." Seriously? Did he just say that to me?

I know some people may think that we have created this. You know, pushing sports on him and constantly nudging him in that direction. But that is just not the case. This is his LOVE!

This is our second year of flag football, and boy what a difference a year makes. Last year we didn't win a game. Honestly, I'm not even sure that we scored. It was a tough season. This year Cole has just 'blossomed', for lack of a better word.

I love that he is so passionate about this game. He sits in his room and studies his playbook. I'm not kidding! (He had friends over and they were all in his room and they were playing and he was sitting at his desk reading his plays.) It's nothing that we have done, it's just something that he connects with and loves.

He knows the plays, he knows where every player is supposed to be in each play. And I must say that I had a really proud moment Thursday night when he threw a 25yard pass for a touchdown. I was shocked! Did I mention it was also the most perfect spiral and was right to the receiver?!?!

I love this kid and his heart! It's big...and right now, he dreams of playing college football. And I say..DREAM BIG! Sure, I know that only 1% of kids actually make it and he may not be in that 1%. BUT I know that sometimes heart and determination take you a lot further and if anything, he's learning a lot of great life lessons along the way. I can't wait to see how his story unfolds.

His dreams may change tomorrow, and that's fine. We will be behind him no matter what his dreams are. For now, it's football and I'm loving it!

Happy Birthday!!

It's official...she's 2!!! I think she had a great birthday. It was definitely a busy day, especially since it started with an early 8am football game for Cole. We had lots of family and friends and it wouldn't have been complete without the Elmo cupcakes. One of her favorite gifts was her computer, which you can see below that she wouldn't even put down for cake. She is getting so big and growing so fast and learning new words and tricks every day. One of her favorite words is "no!" And it's usually emphatically no! Life is never boring for us and I wouldn't trade it for anything...

The Verdict is In

I think we have decided which picture to use for Leah's 2 year old portrait to match her brother and sister. I don't have the other two on digital media so I had to take a picture of their picture, but you get the idea.

I can't tell who she looks like...I thought she was looking like LauraBeth, but she really sort of favors Cole. Maybe she looks like both of them. Anyway, we decided to pick the one we did because it really captures her personality. Just like the pictures of the other two. When I look at these pictures, I can really vividly remember what they were like at that age and at the moment the picture was taken.

I can't believe my babies are growing up sooooo fast!!