It's Mario Time!!!

TREY TURNED 7!!! Can you believe it? Yeah, neither can I!
We talked him out of a train party again this year. (does that make me a bad mom? I'm just running out of ideas for train cakes. Truely I am) So, second best is......Super Mario Bros.
We had a lot of fun with games; a coin hunt, hot potato with a Mario Bros. bomb and mushroom lottery.

It was a great time!! Here's to another wonderful year filled with joy!!

Party Time

We had a holiday party to celebrate Christmas and New Years with our church youth group this past week. And we came filled with holiday spirit!!

It was an ugly Christmas sweater night....any guesses who won???

Then there was the ever popular human snowball making race.........

The ornament relay race................

Acting out the 12 Days of Christmas..........................

And no party is complete without a good old fashioned game of santa beard making.

And Trey closed out the evening by leading the group with a little caroling. (I'd call it Christmas caroling but the songs were ....of a different variety.

Other sweater runner ups!

Christmas Come and Gone

Did Christmas fly by or was it just me? I want a do over!

The excitement is just building by the second as mom fiddles with the camera to get just the right lighting!

By the time the picture actually took and I viewed it on the play back screen, I blinked, and did you see it????? yep, it's over and the floor is covered in brightly colored red and gold wrapping paper. The kids got headphones for Christmas and a Wii. I'm shocked they wanted to try out the head phones first. Go figure!!

Gliding Around

It's been cold around here, really, really cold. Which is bone chilling but wonderful for ice skating on our pond. The amish neighbor boys are out in droves, crowding the ice with vicious games of hockey and our kids are staring in awe, anxious to skate as good as them.



But it's not long before their little butts are cold and sore from all the falls so it's time to just horse around.

We always start with some structured practice techniques and end up..................practicing some dangerous stunts.

While the boys search for dead fish that were frozen under the thick layer of ice.

And just when you think the ice skating was contained to the pond....think again

out come the roller skates till it's time to go out to the pond again.

Slide on Down the Rainbow

Well we now have a 5 year old on our hands! It was Bre's birthday a few weeks ago and she wanted a "rainbow" party. Believe it or not but the decorated cake was all Bre's idea, she knew exactly where she wanted the rainbow, clouds and rain drops. I thought it was extremelly creative!!

She even did a few of the clouds and the dots on the rainbow

If you look closely at that slice of cake you'll see what the inside looked like!!

RAINBOW TIE-DYE" (so easy to make and so pretty to look at....the taste....um...red #5 anyone?)

Then we decorated the tables with puffy clouds, an arched rainbow and a bowl of skittles.

She got so many nice gifts but the biggest one was an American Girl Doll.

What a fun evening we had and what a great celebration of the wonderful life we all were blessed with.... Breanne. We love you!

The Woods

Every year we go to the mountains with my side of the family and it's always a load of fun. So much to do for the kids and so much relaxing to be done with the parents.

This year acorn picking was a huge hit!!! With the kids and the squirrels. The pile was so big the squirrels thought they hit the jack pot.

The Stoner Cousins

Another "Pass Time" activity was making parachutes and paper airplane to toss off the balcony railing while us adults got plummeted with the air crafts.

It was cool enough weather to be warmed by the fire.

And roasted wieners were on the menu

Can't forget this pumpkin!!

As you can tell we are out growing this cabin. Bre and Trey shared the top bunk which they didn't complain about but it won't be long before they are kicking each other in the face.

The Grandparents and Grandchildren

Just us!

School Days

We'll the time has come! I now have two of....all of....my children in school now. Granted Bre is only in preschool but it's still time away from mommy two days a week.

Trey is now in 1st grade and loving it as much as kindergarten.

Since Bre doesn't go to preschool all day she is desperately lonely for someone to play with. So she literally follows me around ALL DAY and wants to help with everything. Which is great, but so boring in my eyes.
We've done a lot of baking, cooking and canning since school started.
But clean up is her favorite. She begs to wash the dishes and it usually means a sloppy, wet cleanup for me afterwards. But how do you say "no" to a request to do dishes???