Vacation pics

This should take you to all of the pics. i will write more when I have a bit of time! I hop eone of these works, you will have to copy and paste because I can't figure out how to post a link.

http://share.shutterfly.com/action/welcome?sid=0AZNGLRk2buGLpw

http://share.shutterfly.com/action/welcome?sid=0AZNGLRk2buGLpw&emid=sharshar&linkid=link5

O Christmas Tree, again this year

Us in front of the tree before it was cut down.

Drew cut the tree this year! He was so proud!
Khloe
Drew hanging all of his ornaments on the same branch!

This is so cute, it is probably the last year he will do this!
Kait hanging the rudloph nose.
The finished product!

Christmas Program

The kids had their christmas program tonight. Here are several pictures to share. http://share.shutterfly.com/action/welcome?sid=0AZNGLRk2buGLnI&emid=sharview&linkid=link5

Here are just a few...

My pride, my joy, my life.

I cannot believe how much they grow. I will have to try and do a blog entry with a Christmas Picture from in front of the tree for each year that has passed.

It is amazing how quickly time goes by.

My Drew bird, my Moochie Head. Oh what this boy has taught me about having a son! He still likes to snuggle, he still lets me rub his head and give him kisses. He is an excellent reader. He loves to create and explore. He loves Jesus. He has his first loose tooth. I will be sad when it falls out. He loves his Mama and his Dad, and will use “who’s baby are you” to his best advantage! He is not so much a baby anymore. He likes for mom to have a happy face and does not like to disappoint me. I think he will always be a mama’s boy.
My Khloe girl. She made banana bread last month all by herself! She wants to be a Mommy. She is going to make someone a wonderful wife and mother. She is so affectionate and will smother you with cuddles. She has beautiful eyes that she got from Rich's mom that passed away when he was 18. She has a wonderful laugh, and when she laughs, those eyes sparkle. She has just started piano lessens. I cannot believe how grown up she looks in this picture!

My Kait who is so smart and driven and independent. She has a bright future in front of her. She is so much like me it is sometimes painful! She is beautiful, she is funny, she loves to sing, she loves animals she loves American Girl Dolls (at 10!! I am so thankful she is still playing with dolls!). She plays the piano and the clarinet. I think that someday, we will be best friends.
Kaitlyn playing piano durring the opening of the Christmas Program at school tonight.
Khloe had her first lessen this month. She also performed tonight at the opening of the Christmas Program. She did a wonderful job!
This program is K-4th grade. Here is the finale.

American Girl Trip

The girls and I took a trip up to Chicago to the American Girl Store. Each girl got to invite a friend. Kaitlyn took Cali Jo and Khloe invited Makayla. Makayla's mom Trish came along and so did Grandma Penny!

Here are our girls at Ed Debevics.

The waitress did not like American Girl dolls and made them sit at their own table!!

The beautiful windows at AGP.

All of the American Girls in their holiday dresses.

Khloe & Addy, Cali Jo & Marisol and Julie, Kaitlyn & Julie and Felicity, Makayla & Julie

Our girls getting ready to go in to see "An American Girl Holiday".
These are the actresses from the play.
We sure had fun!!
Is there any room for the girls??

A cozy home!

I was so excited to have an Interior Designer come and visit this weekend! She takes things that you already have and changes it into something wonderfully new! She helps with room arrangements and placement. Here is what she did in the living room. I wish I would have taken before pictures! You should be able to click on the pictures to enlarge them a bit.

This is my favorite thing that she did.

It's my favorite little spot!

She took this out of the dining room.

It looks so great in here!

I have struggled with this room for 5 years not knowing where to put the furniture!
It looks so great the way she has arranged it!

This picture came out kinda fuzzy, but she had me put all of my books up

above the mirror. I love how this looks!

Books are one of my favorite things

and it is great to have them on display!

She said that you should display things that reflect your personality and/or passion.

After much struggle, she finally talked me into taking down the border.I loved that border, but she explained how it takes the focus away from the wood.There really is a big difference!
Here is what she did in the family room. I sold ALOT of my Americana things on E-Bay last week, and so we tried to simplify things in here. I am sooooo pleased with the end result! I can't wait to have her back in January to work on a few more rooms!

First Day of School

I simply cannot believe that Kait started 5th grade this year!!! Oh my goodness it seems like yesterday when I was in 5th grade! I remember it was a big year for me. The year when it started to matter where you bought your clothes, the year you started to notice boys and if they were cute! The year it mattered who your friends were! I can't believe my baby is in 5th grade!! Khloe entered the 3rd grade this year. Her last year before school actually gets hard. Drew is the "helper" for Kindergarten this year. We knew going into Kindergarten last year that he would most likely do it twice, and at the end of the year we all felt that it would be in his best interest to repeat the year. I am happy with the decision. He is a smart boy and can read whole books, but he just has trouble sitting and listening. He has a hard time concentrating in class and I think a year is going to make a big difference for him. I would so rather have him at the top of his class rather than always trying to keep up. The had a good first few weeks and then a week off for vacation. Now tomorrow is back to school all over again!

Day 8

All of us at Chef Mickey with Minnie and our mouse ears!!


Each night when we came back to the hotel the maid had a new scene in the window waiting for us. the kids couldn't wait to see what it was each night!
This was coming home. Once we neared the airport in Bloomington Kait looked out the window and said "Ahhhhhhhh, sweet country livin'!" It was so funny!

So we are home safe and sound, wishing we were still in Florida!! We had a great time! This year Disney's "theme" was The Year of a million Dreams. Well they exceeded my expectation a million times over! It was a great time with great food and I can't wait to go back!

I'm hooked!

Day 6 & 7

day 6 we spent at Typhoon Lagoon. They had a water coaster! That was fun. They also had a saltwater tank that you could snorkel and see the fish and sharks!! Khloe screamed they whole time and had to be hauled out by the life guard!

Day 7 we headed over to MGM to see some shows. Drew and Daddy went on the Tower of Terror!! Then we saw the Doodlebops in concert! That was fun!
After the Doodlebops we headed to Beauty and the Beast. This was a beautiful show!

We also got some pretty good seats for the parade at MGM. This was the only parade that we made it to.

After the parade we headed over to Epcot for our dinner reservations. We ate at the Coral Reef, which was neat. The main wall was a huge aquarium! There were sharks and huge turtles! Kait had salmon and loved it! We went on Soaring! Khloe and I were scared to death but the boys and Kait loved it! Khloe was crying and the lady next to us said if she was a big girl she would give her Princess ears to Khloe. You can see Khloe in her Ears below!

Day 5

It was another busy day in the world that is Disney!

We headed to the Magic Kingdom and enjoyed a day with few people and lots of entertainment!

We rode many of the big roller coasters today!

Splash Mountain, Big Thunder Mountain, Space Mountain!!! YAY us!

All of us girls were scared!

I didn't let it show though! I was the brave Mommy that told the girls that it wouldn't be so bad when really I was trying to convince myself!

It was a lot of fun, there were no lines, it was great!

We also toured Mickey and Minie's houses...

This is Minnie's fireplace.
This is a show that we watched in front of the Castle.
This was taken with all of our mouse ears in front of Mickey's house.

These next pictures loaded weird, but I didn't want to have to redo it. This was probably my favorite part of our trip. The kids all got dressed up for our dinner with the Princesses. Drew was Peter Pan, Kait was Belle and Khloe was Tinkerbell. The were all so cute! The girls got matching dresses for their American Girl Dolls. Walking through Epcot all heads were turning to look at our cute kids and their dolls. We had many comments and people stopping us! Kait said she felt like a movie star!

We had dinner at the Akershus Royal Banquet Hall.
There is just somethig magical about the princesses! They are so beautiful and their dresses are so beautiful, it is like the just stepped out of the pages of the storybook!

This is the kids with Belle.

Kait & Felicity

Khloe & Samantha

and Mr. Drew.

I just love this pictre of my litte Princesses!! (left)

Here are the kids with Cinderella.

(below)

This was Jasmine. (Yes, her breasts were hanging out.)
Ariel, The Little Mermaid. She was soooo beautiful!! They all had these tiny princess voices! They were all so great and talked to the kids, the did not rush like other places that we have been.
The kids with Aurora, Sleeping Beauty.

It was another magical day at Disney.