Thursday, December 31, 2009

Halloween Day and Night...

On Halloween day, Chris and I took the girls to the zoo. It was a gorgeous day and hardly anyone was there. That night, we went to our friend's house for hot dogs, trick or treating and smores.









Kathy (aka Wonder Red) and Rylee (aka Flower Girl)

Hannah, Vadin and Madeline

Jen and Hannah


Chris and Hannah

Hannah and Rylee

Hannah and Vadin (aka bumblebee)

Claire (Tolbyn and Vadin's cousin)

Ed (aka Alpha Pig) Gunner (aka Super Why) and Tolbyn (the cute cowboy!)

Kathy's attempt at a group shot...maybe it'll turn out better next year :)

Gunner (aka Super Why)

October 2009

Madeline and Hannah play nearly every day with our neighbor, Aly. Here are some pics of them being silly in our wagon on the patio.

Bright eyes



Kissy Faces



Surprised faces - I was impressed that Hannah was able to get in on the face theme!

Silly faces

Cheese!!! Show me them pearly whites


My sweet friend Kala and her hubby Wes welcomed their first little angel, Emleyn, and I had the honor of going to meet her in October. My friend Chris and I flew to Philadelphia for a few days. We had lots of great snuggle time with Emleyn and we were able to do a bunch of shopping. The trip was such a blessing.





I LOVE spending time with my oldest and dearest friends, Kala and Chris. We've been friends for over 16 years now. They are such a dear blessing in my life!!!





In October, we visited the pumpkin patches a few times. These pictures were taken during a beautiful, fun few hours at Carmichael's Pumpkin Patch in Bixby. We loved the company of our dear friends, Kathy, Gunner and Rylee!



Madeline smiling with the pumpkins




Hannah shaking some gourds




Miss Rylee and Jen




Gunner and Madeline on a camel ride



Silly Hannah posing for the camera. Poor girl's pants were too big around the waist but too short. Chrissy aptly narrated this picture with these words... "In a VAN down by the RIVER"


We had TONS of Halloween fun in October. Hannah was a Kangaroo and she had a little Joey in her pouch. Madeline had to dress up as a character from a book for her school celebration. So her costume needs some explanation. When she was 3 and 4, we used to read her a book called Tikki Tikki Tembo. It was a favorite of mine from childhood and she loved it too. If you've never read it, you should! Anyway, we looked and looked for a book character costume. And since she didn't want to be a fairy tale princess, we had a difficult task ahead of us. We were shopping at marshalls and found this gorgeous Kimono and immediately we remembered the book. So...Madeline was Tikki Tikki Tembo's mom for Halloween. She had such a great time with her costume...too bad most people didn't know who she was. We had one friend look at her and say "awww what a cute Geisha" :) Aw well, it was fun anyway! Here are some of my favorite pics. Then I'll post some collages.
Hannah and Rylee
Madeline and Chloe (Hannah Montana)

Hannah and Vadin (bumblebee)


In October, we also went on our first annual camping trip. We went with 7-8 other families to a camping resort called MarVal in Oklahoma. Chris and Preston, Madeline Vadin and Tolbyn shared a tent. Ed and Gunner camped in a tent off of their Element. Megan, Kathy, Rylee, Hannah and I shared a cabin and the rest of the families slept in various cabins around the campgrounds. We got to take the kids on a magical pumpkin ride where they received pumpkin seeds, rode on a hayride to a field and planted the seeds. Then (several hours) later we went back out to the field and their pumpkins had magically grown! We took the kids trick or treating that night through the camp ground. I was astounded at the number of campers who completely decorated their trailers and cabins for the weekend! We had a big bon fire dinner and smores. The kids had a blast and I loved watching them run free and play. There are so many great pictures from the weekend that I can't post them all here individually. I hope the collages tell a good story!




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Saturday, December 5, 2009

September 2009 Post #2

Here are some photos from our first trip to Branson this year. We stayed in a couple of condos with Irene, Manda, Becca and Cody and we went to Dixie Stampede and did some shopping!!!







Also in September we had an exciting visit from Chris' sister Joy, brother in law Mick and dog Ritz. We love having them come to stay with us!! Here are some cute pics from their visit.




Some silly pics of the girls...



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Wednesday, December 2, 2009

September 2009

One of our favorite events of September was having some of my oldest and dearest friends, Chris and Brian, and their kiddos Connor and Ashlin come to stay with us in our new house. On Friday night, we took our friends to dinner and out for ice cream and a stroll at the riverwalk where we were eaten alive by mosquitos. Even though we have much more space in the new house, we still have only 3 bedrooms. So we had Madeline, Connor and Ashlin sleep in sleeping bags in Hannah's room. They did amazingly well with this arrangment. We put a monitor in Hannah's room and enjoyed listening to Madeline be the "momma" trying to remind the kids to get to sleep and listening to the other kids chattering and giggling happily. On Saturday we took them to the Jenks Aquarium and then we just cooked dinner at home that evening. That night Madeline chose to sleep on our bedroom floor because "the kids just wouldn't listen" the first night. The the four little ones have a great time with each other and we snapped lots of pics. Here are some of my favorites.

If you click on the collage below you can see the photos in a larger size.

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Ai Ai Yai...

I am so very far behind on posting pictures so I'm about to just flood my blog with information to catch up. Feel free to pick and choose what you want to spend time viewing! I am hopeful that this blog will be around for years to come and can be a neat way to show Madeline & Hannah what our life has been like. So I have many events to post from the last few months. We have been busy and we're having so much fun! Love, Jen