Party Weekend

The day after Levi's birthday, we got to celebrate Aunt Jennie's day! It was "Happy Birthday, Dear Jennie," indeed! Blueberry pancakes and plenty of bacon (that we didn't have to cook!) Yummy! It was a fun time. We love you, Jennie!
And THEN....
The day after THAT, we got to celebrate JOE'S BIRTHDAY!

And, yes this picture is BLURRY...it's the SMOKE from all of the BIRHDAY CANDLES!
(Cough-Cough )

Licking the candles is a FAMILY TRADITION!
Happy Birthday Daddy! Hope you have the
BEST YEAR EVER!!!

Dance Party

Okay, this is probably over-indulgent, but I love to watch Levi dance. We were en route to the tub after his cake, when he was intercepted by music. The clip is 3 min. long....couldn't help myself. Besides, what's a party (esp. for Levi) without some DANCING?!

Pre-Party Giggles

The big ONE

It's Levi's Day!

Today is such a special day. Our sweet baby turns 1 year old! What a blissful year this has been with this adored addition to our family. It didn't take long to figure out that Levi was born with a HAPPY heart and a JOYFUL spirit...with MUSIC in his soul. He is a guaranteed smile-maker and he brings us laughter every day with his giggles, fun antics, endless jabber, and rockin' dance moves. We love you Levi! We hope you have a HAPPY DAY!

First Tournament

Jacob competed in the Johnson County Classic Wrestling Tournament, which involved over 1,000 wrestlers from across the state. Full house. This was his first ever wrestling tournament, and I have to say that as a novice "wrestler's mom", I probably learned as much as he did. Jacob got to compete in 3 matches, and he received his first reality check right away when he learned that his first match-up was with a GIRL! (He belongs to a club of over 30 BOYS!) That took awhile to sink in, but by the end of the match, he got over his initial incertainty and beat her 9-2. Whew. His second match was short and not-so-sweet as his opponent got him down right away, and pinned him good. But by the third match, he was amped and ready to go. It was a great match, and we were so excited that we missed taping the first bit of it. Darn. Nevertheless, he WON that match, and ended up winning a 2nd place medal in his weight class for the tournament! Whoo hoo!!! Anyway, here he is in the final part of his winning match. Way to go Jacob! GO COUGARS!

The Day After.....

The day after Christmas was the best day ever. We got to entertain family and friends from out of town. My sister, Delight and her family, AND our dear friends, Matt, Carrie and Jordan Craft, all came up from Augusta to visit us. It was so good to see them all and to have them in our home. The day was further brightened by the fact that we enjoyed unusually warm weather that day, and the kids got to play outside part of the time! Our time together was celebrated with a huge feast, and lots of PLAYING that included lots of Wii games, fun board games, and even a Nerf gun fight that involved a military man and former cops! We had such a good time....having them all here meant so much to me. We hope they all had a good time, too. (And, I have decided that I hope my house is ALWAYS too small to hold all my friends and family! It means I am blessed with MANY special people to love!) I love having them all around me.

The next day was our BIG DAY in the BIG CITY. My sisters and I took all our children and hit CrownCenter in downtown KC. Meanwhile, the dad's all went out to do "Man-stuff" (like, Bass Pro Shop and Cabela's, etc.!) We decided our outing would be to CELEBRATE Catryna's birthday(who gets to share hers with Jesus!)...First we went to Kaleidescope. Then we took them over to see the Crayola Christmas Play Area in Crowne Center. Then it was off to Fritz's for lunch. After standing in line for a long while, we were rewarded with exclaimations and squeals of delight when our lunch was delivered to us by train!!! After lunch, we took in the sights and sounds of the Center...a huge Christmas tree that was suspended from the CEILING; a beautiful Gingerbread Village was created by the Hyatt chef's and wowed even the smallest in our crowd; and the gigantic Christmas tree at the Hyatt was a great place to stop for a photo shoot. We delivered the children to the daddy's, totally and utterly exhausted. (Yes, the kids were tired, too!)
After the "parent-swap", we 3 sisters got to go by ourselves for an evening out. Talk about a treat! You can imagine how nice it was to be able to shop and talk and eat all by ourselves, with no time restraints. Yep-it was splendid.

Moments like this are what put the "HAPPY" in my holidays!!!