Caris & Kiley's Birthday Lunch

On Friday, Kiley and I were finally able to get together with our friends, Robin and Caris, to celebrate the girls birthdays. Caris was born 9 days after Kiley. We have been trying to get together for weeks now and it has been hard to work around Robin and my busy schedules and the girls naptimes. We had lunch and opened presents and then the girls played for a little while.

Mom & Dad's New House!

Since Mikey and I had 2 Christmas Parties this last weekend, Kiley got to go stay at Marmee & Guys' brand new house for the weekend. Mikey and I missed Kiley so much, but we enjoyed our kid free weekend. On Saturday morning, we took the Jeep to breakfast. Then we took the dogs to the park.

Boo had so much fun running all over the park and looking for squirrels.

Buddy chased his brother for a while and then came up on the bleachers by us.

We relaxed the rest of the day and enjoyed our Christmas Parties.

On Sunday, we went down to Mom & Dad's for the Cowboy Game. They built a brand new house and it is absolutely gorgeous! I didn't get a picture of the outside because it was dark. It is brick and stone, on an acre of land, surrounded by trees. Very peaceful. The Entry Way, looking at the front door. The office is on the right.

Dad and Mikey watching the game.

Mom and Mycah in the kitchen. We had tacos for dinner, yummy!

One of my favorite details in the house. When Mom was in Napa earlier this year, she collected tiles from each winery and they are in her back splash throughout her kitchen. It looks so great!

The dining room, looking out to the back yard. You can see all of the trees.

Thanks so much to Marmee, Guy and Mycah for taking care of Kiley this weekend. She had so much fun and we can't wait to see the house again.

The Belvin's Christmas Party!

On Saturday night, our good friends, Michael and Katie Belvin, hosted a Christmas Party. We took a quick picture before we headed over to the party.

Michael and Katie really outdid themselves. The Christmas lights on the house looked so good and the decorations on the inside were so pretty. In addition to their beautiful house, they made some delicious food!

We spent most of the night by the fire talking with everyone.

The Girls, Lacey, Sara, Katie Rose and KC

The Boys, Heath and Michael

Thank you so much Michael and Katie for a very special Christmas Party!

NMFN Christmas Party

On Friday night, Mikey and I attended the Annual Northwestern Mutual Christmas Party. We had The Rhine's and Belvin's over for a cocktail before the party, but we couldn't figure out how to get a picture of all of us in front of the tree, so we took couples' pictures instead.

The Bairds

The Belvins

The Rhines

Tait and Joy were wonderful hosts as always. The food was amazing the it was so much fun catching up with our Northwestern Family. Merry Christmas Everyone!

Girls Only Christmas Party!

Our first Christmas Party of the season was for the girls only. Kiley and I went over to my Friend, Stacy's apartment to celebrate with the girls. We all brought our favorite dish and had a delicious dinner. After dinner, we took our picture in front of the tree. (Top: Tricia, Lacey, Kiley & Stacey Bottom: Ashley, Stacy & Shannon)

Each year, we draw names names for our Secret Santa Gift Exchange. Kiley enjoyed helping me open my gift. She liked the ribbon.

It was fun to sit around and catch up with the girls.

Kiley was such a good girl!

Unfortunately we had to leave earlier than the rest of the girls so that Kiley could get home for bedtime. We made the best of our time and had so much fun. Merry Christmas Girls!

We are ready for the Holiday Season!

The Holiday Season (aka Busy Season) is here and I am already behind on my blogs. I will do my best to get caught up as soon as possible.

On Saturday after Thanksgiving, we went to get our tree. Kiley came last year, but she was just a couple weeks old. She is so excited about her Christmas Tree!

So most of you know that Mikey and I like the biggest and the best, so when picking out our tree this year, we got so excited about how pretty and perfect that it was, we didn't pay attention to the size. We came home with a 12 foot tree!

We trimmed a little bit off of the top and bottom and it fits perfectly! It is the most beautiful and full tree we have ever had, and it smells so good!

Last Christmas, Mom gave Kiley a bunch of photo ornaments. We bought her a 4 foot tree for the ornaments. We are putting family members pictures in all of the frames. When she is old enough to understand, she will be able to decorate it herself and we can talk about all of our beloved family that we don't get to see on Christmas! It has colored lights and we put it in the playroom with Frosty.

We finished decorating on Sunday. I put real tree trimmings on the mantle.

Our stockings. Obviously with all of our fires in the fireplace, I couldn't hang them on the mantle so this was the next best place.

Some of my fun silver decorations.

There are more pictures of our Christmas Decorations to come. Wait until you see the lights on the outside. Mikey has outdone himself once again. Stay tuned for more pictures. In the meantime, we have already been to 3 Christmas Parties and I will be blogging about them shortly! Merry Christmas!

Thanksgiving 2009

We had a wonderful Thanksgiving.

This year, we went to East Texas for Thanksgiving weekend. We felt that Kiley's Camo outfit was appropriate for the occasion. Her cousin, Macy, wanted Kiley's boots.

Thanksgiving morning, we took a girls picture. Kiley, Mycah, Lacey, Emily, Macy, Molly and Elana.

We took some pictures of the girls outside.

They were more interested in each other, than looking at the camera.

Mikey had recently watched the food channel and learned how to carve the turkey. He wasn't brave enough to take on the task himself, but he did "supervise" and it actually turned out really well.

Mommy & Kiley ready for the Cowboy Game.

During the Cowboy game, Mikey was out "playing" in the woods and found what he called a "log" and what my cousin called a "tree". They took the truck to go get it, but it turned out it was too heavy and they had to get the tractor out.

Success!

Since the Cowboys were doing so great, Mikey's focus turned to the "Aggie Bonfire" to get ready for the big A&M vs. tu game. The toilet paper is a symbol of the outhouse.

The girls were there for support. Even though the Aggies couldn't pull it out, we were very proud of their effort against the #3 team in the Nation.

This Summer, we all bought matching t-shirts in New York. We took a picture family picture. QKA is actually an abbreviation for one of the Finger Lakes in New York, Keuka Lake.

Playtime with the Girls.

Kiley had so much fun playing with all of Macy's toys.

On Saturday morning, Daddie took Kiley on her 1st 4 wheeler ride.

After her ride, we took her in the truck to go see the Cows for the first time.

What are those things? They are kind of like big doggies.

They make very funny noises. Too interesting to look at the camera.

Kiley and Daddie with the Cows.

We had so much fun spending the weekend with family. I always love Thanksgiving because it consists of all of my favorite things: Fun, Food, Football and most of all Family. We have so much to be Thankful for. I love you all. Happy Thanksgiving!