vacation 2011....grand cayman, and cozumel....

we had such a great time relaxing and spending the week in the sun. our cruise had stops in grand cayman and cozumel where we did a little shopping, eating , snorkeling, and enjoying the different culture. we missed the girls and they missed us , but they had a great with their grandmas. it was so nice to have time with jeff and enjoy time together. can't believe we had 70's and 80's last week and now we have had a blizzard and no school for the last two days. dreaming about the vacation.

packing

sorry for no posts lately but i have been packing!!!!.....hubby and i are going on a cruise in another week. no kids. just us. we are so excited. western caribbean. will so miss the girls. but they will forgive us when they are spoiled by grandma. we love grandmas. both the girls grandmas are helping. we are so thankful and blessed.

christmas day

we had such a good Christmas morning....I made the girls wait until 700 to open presents but they could look in their stockings any time. about 4 or 5 in the morning i heard them sneak into the living room and go back to paiges room to compare what treasures were in the stockings. my sister and i did the same thing growing up and it was sweet memories ....i made a overnight baked french toast which was yummy. paige got the DSi that she really wanted and laine got the doll she wanted and they got lots of other toys on their wish list too. we invited our family and some friends to our house for dinner. we ate ham and the traditional Christmas dinner foods. it was so good. we played some games and had a great family day. it was a prefect day!

christmas jammies

christmas lights

i played around with my settings on my camera to get these cool shots of our christmas tree lights.....

sledding with the family

Sunday we ended up staying home from church. Laine was getting over an illness and she needed more rest...but by afternoon she wanted to play outside and we went sledding. It was a wonderful family day with some baking ( saltine chocolate toffee....go there for the recipe), and Christmas music, sledding, afternoon 3 mile run, Wii mario cart games, dinner and coffee and snuggling with the family on a cold day. I am so blessed to have a family that makes living so much fun. We are looking forward to the next few days and gatherings, and being thankful for Christs birth.

December Pictures

fall photo shoot

fall time

The girls already have their halloween costumes picked out and had a trial run over the weekend. Laine is Daphne from Scooby Doo in cause you didn't know, and if you aren't in the know regarding Tinkerbell and the fairies, Paige is Vidia. We have been busy with school starting and Laine is doing so well in Kindergarden. We had considered waiting another year, but her school offers 1/2 Kindergarden class. She loves her small class of 16 kids and 2 certified teachers. It is a great Academy here in our town. They require uniforms and it is so easy. White shirts and Navy skirts or pants. Makes getting ready a breeze for her. Paige started 4th grade at her school. She goes to public school and loves her teacher and has great friends. We have been busy with soccer (both girls are playing, Laine's coach decided she might as well play on offensive cause she is going to run the entire field anyway...ha....She does well at taking the ball down the field and trying to score....not so well at playing defense where she is standing in front of her goal and protecting it....doesn't get it), paige has piano and we have church on Monday nights. The kids love the program of AWANA that our church does and are excited it starts tonight. Oh yeah and I work part time too.....

I love fall and started decorating already. Paige helped me put up my Department 56 New England village with 14 little buildings and fall trees. The day after Thanksgiving we let it snow in the village and all the fall trees and accessories come down and the evergreens and snows comes out. She loves helping me with it.

I love these things about this fall.....love stopping to get coffee and having some free afternoons which I haven't had in 10 years with both girls being at school, pumpkins, candles burning, our church which is inspiring and growing and building us as a family, sitting in our new hot tub, looking forward to a vacation with just hubby and I this winter for 6 days, and Thanksgiving, and I could go on and on.... God is good.

first day of school