Thanksgiving time

Michael was really hungry...this was just his first plate!

The kids table

We want TURKEY!!



Jack and Gigi actually getting along!

Happy Thanksgiving!

Some pictures from Thanksgiving. I went half the day forgetting to take pictures. I only ended up with 10 pictures!

Christmas Cards...

Really Girls this isn't the cover for Cosmo!

In the middle of this one Gigi said "whats up girlfriend?" and everyone started laughing

My favorite one of Gigi

So its that time of year again the dreaded picture for the Christmas cards. Getting these 4 kids to ALL smile at the same time is like pulling teeth. It is more stressful than Christmas shopping on Christmas Eve. But yet each year I put myself through this torture event. Every year I try to do a fun pose not something so formal or plain, so each year the stress is on to find a creative way to do the pose for the cards. Well this year I had this bright idea to pose the children in front of the trailer which sums up our whole year because of buying the trailer & all the camping we have done. So all morning we have attempted "the picture" but Gigi was in an ultra pose mood and kept doing the silliest poses. Needless to say I went with a plain picture I took on the beach when we were camping!

Samuel P Taylor State Park

The kids on the bridge to our campsite

Point Reyes beach

Shelby Gianna and Sydney on the beach

The Bridge at Samuel P Taylor State Park

Picture from our camp site

Samuel P Taylor turned out to be a beautiful place! I took a lot of pictures of the scenery (something I don't usually do) because it was just so pretty there. But they have a big raccoon problem there and they aren't afraid of people! The best part is we brought Jeff's projector from work and we watched the movie Goonies outside on the back of the trailer. I hadn't seen that movie in a long time and the kids thought it was the funniest movie. We cant wait to go back!

Pictures From Halloween Night

Shelby and Kylee

Trick or Treat

Candy... Shelby's favorite thing in the world

Gigi crying because she didn't want to go up to a door because there was a monster on the porch

Yes Michael wore his regular clothes with his cowboy hat and really did go trick or treating. I was embarrassed for him but then I remember going trick or treating when I was his age (right Necia?) But at least we wore a costume!

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!!

The girls with our neighbors

Halloween Festival at school....Yay!!

I am loving this new school the girls are in! They actually let the kids come to school in their costumes on Halloween. They have never been able to do that at the other school because everything has to be so politically correct these days. But I remember how excited I was to wear my costume to school when I was younger. The girls were thrilled and said that it was the best day they had ever had at school! At 1:00 they (actually me, Jeff and a few other parents) set up game booths and popcorn/ hot dog stand for all the kids. They had a parade and a costume contest for the teachers which Sydney's teacher won so they get $75 for their classroom! Anyway here are some pictures from that day.

Gigi on her 4th cupcake! She kept winning the cake walk

Sydney helping with the popcorn

Shelby and her friends Sally and Kaleigh. I loved Sally's picnic table costume. If only I could be that creative. Who am I kidding even if I was Shelby would look at me and say "you want ME to wear what?!" Not happening!

Gigi in her fairy costume. It was actually Shelby's very first dance recital costume

Need I say more? This picture pretty much sums it up!

Shelby's 9th Birthday Party

Karaoke time!

Waiting for it to get dark enough to start the movie

Shelby working the stand!

We had Shelby's birthday party a few weeks early this year because she wanted to do an outdoor movie night, so we needed good weather and I didn't want to chance waiting until Nov. 10th. All the girls had so much fun. We had concession stands that Jeff made set up with nachos, pizza, soda, candy and popcorn. Sacha, Mary and I all worked the stands and we even had fun doing that! With all the soda and candy plus cake the girls all went home that night on a sugar high...and that is why I don't do slumber parties! We watched the movie Hocus Pocus which a lot of the girls hadn't seen. I was worried about picking a movie that wouldn't hold their attention and having 20 kids running around being bored but that wasn't the case! It turned out to be a great party!

Soccer

Here's a picture of my 2 soccer stars. To be honest I didn't think Syd had it in her to be good at sports because she hates getting "sweaty" and Shelby is the sporty one, that kid is good at every sport she plays but soccer is her love! But I coach Syd's soccer team and she is tough, its like shes playing football out there the way she runs over players on the other team but that must come from having an older brother cause she is a fighter! We are all a little scared of her! Jeff and I always say she's like Joy on that show My Name Is Earl. And she is such a true blond and she knows it. She will mess up or say something ditsy and then say "Oh my gosh I'm so blond"

Dance Class

Gigi is old enough for dance class now so I started her last week. She cried & cried in class and Shelby stayed in class to help the teacher & Gigi still cried and did not lift a leg to do any moves! It drove me nuts watching through the glass window at the only kid in class crying.....MINE! She has been telling me for a year now that she wants to do dance class and now she is old enough and shes crying for the whole hour! So yesterday was dance class again so I put her dance stuff out for her to wear all day and I told her to get dressed but she said "no, I don't want to go to dance class" So I ignored her & let her sit in her jammies all day and finally at 1:00 she came down stairs with her dance stuff on....YES, I win! So at 4 we go to dance and she says "I want Shelby to take me in" Oh no here we go again. So I tell Shelby to just push her into the room and run! (I know great parenting skills) So I waited a few minutes then stood up to look through the glass window at her and sure enough that little brat was doing every single dance move the teacher did and she was exact too she did each move perfectly & with a big smile on her face the whole time! I almost fell over dead! She was the best dancer in the class which I knew she would be good because she copies Shelb & Syd when they practice their dance steps. But she so had me fooled I almost didn't take her but now I'm so glad I did because she is so good at it and she really does like it. She even said "mommy I want to go to dance class again"

Gig and her quad

Gig just loves her new quad she got for her birthday. She has been asking for a quad since she was 2. She would look through Shelby's quad magazines and say "mommy I want that!" So finally she got one and of course the riding gear to go with it which is a little big on her but it works!

So now she has her own like Michael & Shelby even if it is just a power wheels one!

Gigi's Party

We had Gigi's birthday party on Sunday even though her birthday isn't until the 19th. But for her party we turned our backyard into a pumpkin patch and Jeff made a carmel apple stand and a face painting stand. The kids all had fun with decorating the carmel apples.

Gigi's love for pumpkins is how we came up with the theme. I bought her a pumpkin from Walmart and she carries it around and pushes it in a stroller like a baby. When we were in walmart she looked at me and said "mommy my pumpkins name is Coco" She even "feeds" it at dinner time. She has been crazy for pumpkins since she was a year old.

Here you go

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