Bound to happen

Well, it was bound to happen...Cody decided to give himself a haircut yesterday. I was sitting on the couch feeding Boone and I heard him yell "Dane, I cut my hair!" YOU DID WHAT??? He was all happy about it until I had him go look at himself in the mirror and then as you can see in the pictures he wasn't so thrilled with the big hole he put in his bangs. Then I found out he cut Joelle's hair too! I was ready to skin him alive until I found out he only cut one curl from the side of her face and it is not even noticeable. Lucky him!!!

Nothin' but socks!

I think we may have found the replacement for the famous "Naked Cowboy" who used to play his guitar, on the streets of New York City, wearing just his underwear. Here is Cody going one better playing his new Paper Jamz guitar wearing nothin' but socks! I think we may have the makings of a real rock star here. What a character!

Christmas day

Here are some pics of the kids from Christmas. It was mind numbing chaos for the parents...pure bliss for the kiddos! Most of my pictures came out blurry...what a bummer!

"A real harmonica! Like on Polar Express! I can't believe he remembered that I wanted this!" ~ Dane

Joelle loved opening all her presents. She tried to open her siblings presents as well. I was hard to keep it all strait.

"More footies! My favorite!" ~ Cody

My smiley little guy didn't smile once while we opened presents. He just looked around like "What the heck is going on?"

Christmas Eve

When I was young we had a tradition of being able to open one present on Christmas Eve. We got to pick something from under the tree. So this year we let the kids open their presents to each other. Dane got a G.I. Joe action figure, Joelle got a My little pony, and Cody got a Mator the Greater from the Cars movie. They were all very happy with what they got. Dane did not like the idea of having to use his own money, to buy his siblings a present, but he came around. Cody and Joelle were happy to hand theirs over. The kids were so excited Christmas Eve. Dane sat in front of the computer and watched Santa making his rounds on NORAD. It was hard to get him to come listen to the Christmas story, put out the cookies and milk, and leave oats and glitter on the front lawn so the reindeer would find us. He was very concerned that Santa was going to get close to our house and he was not asleep yet. Santa was up wrapping presents until 2:30 am and was very tired Christmas day!

First tooth

Boone turned six months old last Tuesday and he cut his first tooth to celebrate...it's been a long week! You can see it in the first picture under his ring finger. He's smiling for these pictures but he's been a big grouch! Dane threw up this week and Joelle was sick too. She didn't throw up but she laid around and whined all day Wednesday. I was sick to my stomach, then a sore throat, and now chest congestion. Tyler came home from work tonight and said he's got it. I hope nobody is really sick on Christmas day.

Getting so excited!

They're getting so excited....counting the minutes 'til Santa comes.

Bathing beauty

My beautiful bathing beauty! What geourgeous eyes!

Orange Belt

Here is Dane receiving his orange belt in Tai Kwon Do after passing his test. He took his test very seriously and really did the best he could. He was so proud of the board he broke with his elbow and will go get it to show visitors what he did.

Exchanging of the belts

Dane and his instructor Tony

Dane with his first broken board

More pictures from the zoo

Here are some more pictures from when we went to the Fort Worth Zoo when my parents were here the week before Thanksgiving. What a great day!

Much to be thankful for!

My parents had planned to spend Thanksgiving in Baltimore with my oldest brother Kent so they came to see us the week before Thanksgiving. It worked out great because I was having some minor surgery that week and they were here to help out with the kids and make sure Tyler was fed well! :) We had Thanksgiving dinner a few days early. Thanks to my mom did most of the work.

We went to the Fort Worth zoo while they were here and had a great time. The weather was perfect and a month later Joelle is still talking about it.

I love this picture of my mom and Boone grinning at each other. I think my parents really enjoyed spending time with their youngest and last Grand child. This was the first time my dad had meet Boone. Boone definitely loved having more people around to love on him.

Grandpa and Dane enjoying the animals.

I have much to be thankful for. Especially for such wonderful and generous parents. They worked really hard while they where here. They put up chair-rail in two bedrooms, my dad and Tyler made a huge picture frame for a special poster of Dane's, my mom made thanksgiving dinner, and probably my favorite project they completed was recovering my kitchen chairs in vinyl. My cloth covered chairs were getting so gross from all the spills from the kids that I could hardly stand to be in the same room with them, and I would find myself getting so upset with the kids when they would spill, which was often! But now...I wipe them off and they are good as new!!! Yay! Such a relief! Thank you Dad and Tyler...I know it was a challenging project but I am so grateful.

Thank you Mom and Dad for all you do for us. We love you and were so glad you came to visit
us! We look forward to seeing you again soon!