Gingerbread House

Well, it took us about 10 days, but we finally finished the gingerbread house this morning. It's not quite as fancy as the one last year, but overall, we are pretty pleased with it.

And of course, Danny supervised the entire project.

Here are a few pictures from all the possible Christmas card poses. These did not make the cut.

I ordered our cards last night. They are by no means perfect, but I'm running out of time so I did the best with what we had. I hope they arrive by the end of the week so I can get them sent out and in your mailboxes before Christmas. We will see!

The perfect picture

I have been trying for days to get the "perfect picture" for our Christmas cards. 127 clicks later and I still don't have the shot I've been looking for. I think Natalie speaks for us all in this photo. This is how we all feel after one of our "photo shoots".

I did manage to take a picture of Danny holding her finger though. I will save this for blackmail use later in his life.

Our shining star.

Warning - do not try this at home.

Every year I add new ornaments, and I always have my favorites, but this year these are my favorite. They are front and center. Click on the picture to enlarge and get a better view.

So, just a warning, our cards will be late this year. I haven't given up hope yet that the perfect picture is just one photo shoot away. Wish me luck.

Let it Snow!

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas! Today we got our first official snowfall of the year with accumulation.

The official reading at our house at about 4:30pm was somewhere between 4 and 5 inches. Please excuse our antique measuring device. This was my brother's ruler from middle school. The reason I know that it's Eric's is because it used to have his name and room number on it. Why do I have this?

Our neighbor's house looked so pretty with the wreath and trees.

Making snow angels of course.

No pictures of Danny today. He is a little under the weather so he got to enjoy his first snow from the warmth inside.

You Win Some ....

You LOSE some. It does my heart good to post this picture. For those of you that don't know, Karen is a die-hard Steelers fan. So the smile here is totally fake. Karen is making good on a bet that she LOST when the Ravens beat the Steelers last week. Final score: Ravens 20, Pittsburgh 17.

I think she looks good in the purple and black, don't you?

Black Friday Madness

Every year on Black Friday, instead of hitting the malls, a bunch of us get together at Willow's house for our own chaos. This year it was 4 old friends from 3 different states, six kids and one husband who ran for the hills. It's such a fun time to reconnect and the kids just have a blast playing together.

Avery took a ride in the Tonka truck. Natalie and Maria took a break from playing to watch a movie.

All of the kids... You may be wondering about the outfits but the 3 oldest were playing dress-up earlier in the day and never changed.

Joey (3), Maria (5), Matthew (7 months), Avery (1), Natalie (4) and Danny (3 months).

And of course we had to get a picture of the 4 of us. Apparently Willow did not get the memo to wear her cream colored turtleneck sweater.

And today we stopped by Karen's house and Hope was in the best mood. I just had to snap a quick photo of such a cutie.

Happy Thanksgiving

We headed over to Mimi and Papa's house yesterday for Thanksgiving dinner. Here's Mimi and Danny.


Garrett got to carve the turkey. Yum!

The family gathered 'round the table.

Aunt Liz, Ray and Danny.

Uncle Pat and Natalie making faces.
Uncle Steve and Natalie worked with play dough.

We all had a great time.

Happy Thanksgiving to everyone!

We're Back!

Phew! What an adventure, and boy am I tired. We arrived home late last night after a great trip. We saw grandparents, aunts, uncles, cousins, dogs .... and even Santa Claus! I took a million pictures so I loaded them onto an online album.

Click here to view the pictures! 

There are some really cute ones and many attempts at the perfect picture so bear with me if some of them seem similar. Especially trying to get 4 cousins to all look and smile at the same time. Not easy!

I've put just a few here as a teaser.

Danny meeting Auntie M for the first time.




Greg's grandmother, Mamaw, got to spend time with Danny and Natalie.

And here we are with Greg's grandfather, Papaw.

Greg's Grandma Lois in Chicago.

Sydney and Natalie having a tickle contest.

The 4 cousins being so patient for me.

Santa was at the Bass Pro Shop.

Fishing at Table Rock Lake in MO. They weren't biting.

The weather on Sunday was beautiful. Sunny and 75 degrees.

It was great to see everyone.