Happy 3rd Birthday, Andrew!!!!

Happy 3rd Birthday, big boy!!!! I can't believe you are three already, I have no idea where the time has gone. It seems like we were just celebrating your first birthday yesterday, and now you are already 3! You have grown into a very handsome young boy and I'm so proud of you! There is not a day that goes by that you don't make me laugh so hard. You always know how to make your momma smile, especially when she needs it the most. I love you so much Andrew!
Here is some pictures of your birthdays over the years.
Your very first birthday where you happily devoured your cake! And you made sure we all knew that you were turning 1!
Here is your second birthday. Not quite as messy as your first, but still a great birthday!And of course your third birthday. Wow, how you have grown up! You are the sweetest little boy ever and I couldn't love you anymore than I already do!!!!

Thanksgiving in Branson

Every year for Thanksgiving my parents rent a large house in Branson and my sister and brothers plus our families all stay in together. Its always so much fun spending the weekend together and catching up, especially since my youngest brother and his wife live in Oklahoma and we don't get to see them very often. And of course while we are in Branson we always spend a couple of days going to Silver Dollar City, a family favorite. So get prepared for all the pictures, as you know I like to take a lot of them!
So here is all the cousins together right before we had lunch with Santa. In order from oldest to youngest is Kaitlyn, Jacob, Adriana, Andrew, and baby Joey. Here is Aunt Kimmie and baby Joey while we are at the Santa lunch.

Here is Kaitlyn and baby Joey with the Coca cola bear and a friendly elf.Here is Adriana and Andrew petting the baby goats. We also got to hear all about the differences between goats and sheep which I will be happy to enlighten you all with the story sometime.Adriana and Andrew standing in front of the story of the candy canes, another very interesting story that I will share with you some other time (especially since I can't really remember it right now anyway!)Adriana and Jacob taking time out to stop and decorate some sugar cookies.....just what they need, more sugar!And of course Andrew will never turn down a chance to gobble up some sugar.Yes, Jacob turned 9 over the weekend and yes he still likes to cuddle up with the wittle bears....ahhh wittle Jakie Bob! (I'll really be in trouble if he reads this!!!!)See baby Joey was still with us! Daddy and baby Joey getting in some snuggly time.All my favorite guys!!!! Chris, Joey, Andrew, and my dad-PawPaw.

I love this picture of Chris and Adriana! And no her hair didn't just grown six inches over night, it was a light up hair extension she had bought down there.I think this picture was just a little out of place because I think it was taken back at the house. I just thought it was a fun picture of the kids laughing and having fun!

Here is Adriana and Jacob riding one one of the rides. This one you have to use the rope to pull yourself up to the top then you slide back down. Andrew and I rode it together also. He was just verily tall enough and he had the whole crowd cheering him on hoping he would make the height minimum. So of course he thought he was riding on a major ride! But since I still had the camera, there was no picture of him up there :(

Each night they have a big tree lighting ceremony when they light up the big tree. Here is Chris and Andrew watching the show.

And here is a picture of the big tree all lite up.

They had a really cute Frosty the snowman show. At the beginning of the show they invited all the kids up front to watch the show on the stage. Andrew even went up there to watch, of course he had to sit by Jacob though. It even had pretend snow falling during the show. I think this was my kids favorite activity of the night, because you know frosty is real....right!!!!!

Here is all the kids at the end of the show. I couldn't get any good pictures of the kids up there because they were in the middle and there was just no good spot to try to get a picture.

Andrew taking advantage of the opportunity to make another sugar cookie, thats what happens when you go somewhere with grandma and grandpa!!!!

Each night they put on this awesome light up parade. Adriana was off with my parents and Jacob so I only had the boys with me to watch it. Andrew was just in awe over the parade.

This guy is one of Chris' favorite guys. He is close to seven feet tall and he has been working at Silver Dollar City for as long as I can remember. He always dresses up as the toy soldier for the parade.

And whats a parade in the winter without Santa!!!!

And Andrew's favorite float, the train!

The candy cane house.

And my favorite float, the nativity scene with an angel over looking it! The true meaning of Christmas!!!!!

I won't bore you will all the float pictures I took. But along the way, Andrew did make friends with several unique guests. I only got a few pictures of them because I was too busy watching the parade and not paying attention to who is coming over to my sons. Oh well, here is a couple of pictures.

This one is the ginger bread man giving Andrew five.

And a snowman posing for a picture with Andrew.

And I will end my long slide show of pictures with one final picture of the big Christmas tree, because I love that tree so much!!!!

So that is it until next Thanksgiving!!!!!

Visit with Santa #3

I know, I know.......common enough pictures with Santa, right? Well this one was taken while we were down in Branson for Thanksgiving and we had lunch with Santa at one of the restaurants in Silver Dollar City so we had to do it!!!! It was actually a lot of fun, we got to have great food from a buffet then Santa came to visit. They also had the Coca Cola polar bear there and several people dressed up as elves and ragedy ann dolls. The kids loved it!
So once again, here is some more pictures of the kids with Santa. Adriana is looking a little scared in this picture and Joey is just mesmorized by Santa.I thought this was so sweet with Joey and Santa, and yes momma was trying to cut the other two out of the picture....what a bad momma!!!! But it was so cute of Joey and Santa!

So this time we tried to get a picture of Joey and Santa doing it again, but of course it doesn't happen again. So here is just a picture of Joey and Santa, but hey still no tears from anyone!!!!!

Thanksgiving at MeMaw and PePaw's

We spent the first part of our Thanksgiving day at Chris' parents house with his brothers and families. We had a great time catching up with the whole family and eating some delicious food, I probably gained 10 lbs there alone :) The kids had a great time seeing their cousins and playing. Although it can get a little crazy with 6 kids ages 5 and under running around! Baby Angeline and Aunt Maria were unable to make it this year because of being a little under the weather so we really missed visiting with them! Here is a picture of all the cousins, minus Angeline of course.
In order from left to right there is Gabe, Adriana, Joey, Ryan, Andrew, and Mikey.
BTW-Joey does have clothes on, its a beige Thanksgiving outfit, so no I really don't let my kid run around naked in freezing cold temperatures!

The Castle

The other day we were driving to Toys R Us with my mom and the boys (Adriana was in school) so Andrew could show Maw Maw what he wanted for his birthday and Christmas. Well on the way to Toys R Us, Andrew spotted All Saints Catholic Church off behind the building. "Look mommy, a castle" he exclaimed loudly. "I see it" I told him. Then out of no where he exclaimed "I want to take Sissy there to dance with here because shes a princess and I'm a prince. She would love it!" What a sweet little boy! I thought that was the sweetest little thing!

Jingle Bell Race

On Sunday morning the kids and I participated in the arthritis Jingle Bell Race. It was so much fun! Last year I signed up to do it (not sure what I was thinking nine months pregnant) but I was put on bed rest so was unable to do it. This year however, I was able to make it. It is a 5K run for me and a tot trot run for the kids. I organized a group for the Fit Mommas that I belong to. We had 7 of us in our group. Luckily I had a couple of the other girls to run with and they kept me running the whole time! I was very impressed with myself as I have not run that far in a long time! I'm not sure my finish time yet, but I think it was around 30 minutes. After my run was the kids run. They were both so excited and showed me how fast they were going to run! Well before the run Fred Bird made a surprise visit for the kids. But Andrew wasn't liking it and was scared. So at the race, Fred Bird was the one to tell the kids GO and Adriana took off as fast as she could, but Andrew stayed at the start line scared because of Fred Bird so Daddy had to take him on the run. They had fun and both won a medal and stuffed animal along with a few other items. We had a lot of fun and I think this will become a regular event for us. Next year I'm trying to talk Adriana into doing the mile run with me since the tot trot was such a short race. She said she would so we will have to see.

Here is a picture of all the mommas that ran together. I tried to get a picture of the kids running and wouldn't you know it, my camera decided then to die :( So no pictures of the kids this year.

Jingle Bell Race

On Sunday morning the kids and I perticipated

Visit with Santa #2

We had our second visit with Santa on Saturday. Chris was once again out of town hunting so I was trying to find something fun to do with the kiddos. Bass Pro shops have a special for the holidays where you can go get a free picture with Santa plus have lots of other activities to do with the kids. They have an area to do a free craft, which Adriana did, and another spot where they have some bow type guns to shoot, which I had a very hard time dragging Andrew away from. Looks like I will have another family member MIA during hunting season when he gets a little older. They also had letters you could write to Santa, remote control race cars you could demo, and several other activities. Each weekend they have a different craft so we may have to make this again in a couple of weeks. It was really a lot of fun and I even got a picture with the three kids and Santa and no one was crying!!!!!!
Some of the pictures I took.

Spa night

I always dread this time of year because I become a single mom to hunting season. So once again Chris and my brother, Kevin, made their way up to our property for hunting season, but not before momma got to have her night out! So Whitney hosted a Spa Party at her house the day before Chris left. It was so much fun! We got facials (which I can't even remember the last time I've had), special lotions for our hands and feet, head and foot masages, and some botox in a bottle to sample. Plus we can't forget that its never a night out until we get to have some margaritas to help us relax! We really had such a great time that I agreed to host the next one at my house in December to help relax during the holiday craziness and another in January after the holidays. Whitney loved it so much she decided to start doing them and she is hosting my party in December!
Here is a pretty scary picture of Whitney and I with our facials!

My sweet little kids!

On Tuesday night we went over to my friend Whitney's house for a pizza party with her daughter Ava. There was a lot of kids there and I always get a little worried on how well my kids will behave. Well they both played so well with all the other kids and listened to what I told them. I was so proud! But my proudest moment came when we were on our way home. Adriana told me that she would really like to invite Ava over to our house for a playdate sometime and I said "sure, we can do that." Then she went on to say that Ava could pick out a barbie from her collection and she would let Ava take it home to have. I said wow Adriana that was very nice, but what if Ava wanted one of your favorite barbies? She thought for a moment then replied that would be alright and she could have it. That just broke my heart that she could be so sweet! If you know Adriana then you know how much she loves her barbies so that was the sweetest thing that my 5 year old little girl could have ever done!!!! I just had to share my proud momma moment!