On the Go!

Sometime in January Andrew decided that he wanted to learn to ride his bike without training wheels. He was determined. When this kids gets an idea in his head, there is no stopping him. He begged and begged for us to take him out to ride. Only problem was that the sidewalks were covered in snow and it was freezing outside. Finally in February it warmed up a bit and the snow melted away. I took him outside, gave him a little pep talk, he jumped on his bike and took off!! He did it first try! I was so proud of him. Especially because I thought it might take him a few tries and I didn't want him to get discouraged. But, his mind was made up. He was going to ride without training wheels, and he did! So proud of him!

Drew is 5

My sweet happy boy turned 5!! 

We had a bowling party to celebrate with the Jones' and his friend Hunter. THe kids all had a great time!

Can you tell that he is excited for his present? A new Scooter!

Happy Birthday Bud! We love you!

Bath and Stonehenge

We took a little trip to Bath and Stonehenge in December and had a great time. It was freezing, but nonetheless amazing to see all of these historical sights. We think that we are so advanced today, but when you see these amazing things that they built hundreds of years ago without all the modern technology, it really makes you think about who is "more" advanced. It makes me think that we are just lazy. They did it all the hard way, with their own bare hands, and their creations are breathtaking!

My camera started acting up on this trip and I was lucky to get the pictures I did. RIP  my camera :(

I thought this bird hanging out at the top of one of the stones was kind of cool

Christmas 2011

Christmas eve

The kids in their new jammies

Christmas morning on the stairs waiting to go down and see what Santa brought

Avery must have been a really good girl. Santa brought her her very own pink camera! Sje was so excited!

Drew opened his present and said "Look mom, Santa brought me a flippin' car".The way he said it was so funny.

Grandma Cindi gave Livi an American girl doll baby. She names her Baby Grace and LOVES her so much.

Off to  church on Christmas morning

Look Whooo's Seven!!

Avery turned seven in December and I can not believe it! Seven seems SO old because now she is almost eight which means she will be getting baptized! I know I am jumping the gun a little, but it seems so weird that I will have a kid old enough to be baptized.  When did that happen? It makes ME feel old! Anyways, back to the birthday girl. Here are 7 facts about my baby girl:

1. She is ALL girl. She comes home from school every day and puts on my high heels and wears them the rest of the day. She loves to do makeup, paint her nails, and dress up. Everything she owns MUST be PINK and glittery! :)

2. She is a home body.  She is taking ballet and piano (which she loves) but says that she doesn't like either of them because she can't stay home after school and has to go to her lessons. She would be happy playing school all day long in her room and never leave if she didn't have to.

3. She picked French Dip sandwiches and squishy squash (zucchini) for her favorite birthday meal

4. She loves Barbie movies

5. Avery is a really good big sister and plays house with Alivia all the time. She also begs to have Alivia sleep in her room every night. They giggle in bed and read stories together. It is so sweet!

6. Avery adores her daddy and loves to go on dates

7. Avery wants to be an artist, ballerina, and teacher when she grows up

Seven is Heaven! We sure love you Avery Jane!

We had a night owl pajama party for Avery and it was SO much fun. The girls were a blast and acted just like girls should at a PJ party :) We danced, sang, giggled, ate, and had a blast!

Avery helped me make the invites

I made each of the girls an owl. This was my favorite part of the party. Once I got the hang of it, I had so much fun making these guys. When my mom came to visit she brought me some fabrics scraps and look what we were able to create! I kind of had a hard time giving them away because I spent so much time on them and loved them with all their quirks and imperfections :)

Each girl was given an adoption card with their owl and named it. The names that they came up with were really cute. Avery named hers Blossom and some of the others I remember were Delilah, Chocolate, and Pinkie Pie.

opening presents from her grandmas. An american girl doll from Grandma Cindi which she adores and names Emily, an owl towel (can you just hear her saying "hooo hooo"), and a Barbie fairy secret doll (she loves this movie). We are so lucky to have such awesome grandmas!

Happy Birthday!

rochester castle

We were So lucky to have my mom (aka Gramley) come and stay with us for a few weeks around thanksgiving time. We planned a trip to the London temple and on the way there we decided to look for a nearby castle. We ended up in Rochester which was, for many years, the favorite place of Charles Dickens. He based many of his novels on this area (including the beloved story "A Christmas Carol"). The town was very quaint. I loved it! The town holds several festivals during the year to celebrate Dickens. They were setting up for the Christmas market while we were there. It looked like so much fun. We will for sure have to go back during one of them and take in more of the amazing history of this town!

The 2 main attractions that we saw were the Rochester Castle and the Cathedral. Both were spectacular. 

Here is the Cathedral

Gramley and the kids outside of the Cathedral

The castle

View from the inside. This castle was 4 stories high!

The old canon out front

 High Street

We had such a great time with Gramley. Wish she could have stayed longer!!

Ciao

*warning serious picture overload!!*


A few weeks ago Andy and I went to Italy sans kids! It was a whirlwind of a trip. We woke up at 3:00 am Friday morning to head to the airport. We landed in Bologna, Italy at about 10:00 am and headed to Venice in a rental car. This may sound silly, but it felt so good to get into the car on the correct side of the car ( that being the right side for the passenger) and to drive on the right side of the road again. The drive was really pretty. There were grape orchards and brightly colored old farm villas everywhere. The first day in Venice was kind of a blur. We were SO exhausted and had to force ourselves to keep going knowing that we only had 2 days there. Venice it quite amazing. I felt that there was SO much more to see then what the exterior facades portrayed, like the real story and beauty of Venice is inside all the hidden courtyards. I wanted to get a peek inside So bad. When you are walking around all the alleys, you can basically touch wall to wall and you are overshadowed by the tall buildings. It is one big confusing labyrinth. We got lost a few times but enjoyed the scenery!

My favorite thing about Italy was the language. I fell in love with it! I want to learn Italian. I also loved listening to them speak English. They add an "a" to the end of everything. For example, we asked for directions and the guy said "are you going by a-foot-a or by a-boat-a?" It made me giggle.

I thought this fruit stnad boat was so cute. We bought some grapes, and they were seriously amazing!

Shoe art in the middle of the water

We caught the very tail end of the fall leaves and they were beautiful!

Adorable outdoor cafes, just like in the movies. I kept thinking of lady and the tramp and singing "WHen the moon hits your eye like a big pizza pie"!

This is the inside courtyard of the Doge Palace (it was the seat of the government for centuries). The building is quite amazing. The Doge commissioned famous artists to paint the walls and ceilings in all the rooms. It was amazing to me that many of the pieces of art were centered around Christ and that they believed the Doge was protected by Him. Christ was the center of their government. I wish this was still true. I don't think you would find many government buildings today covered in images of Christ.

On our Way to Venice we stopped in a little city called Monselice. It was up on a hill and this was the view from the top

On Saturday morning we didn't want to get out of bed. Lounging around sounded so enticing, but it was our last day. We had a little visitor help get us up and going. Nothing like a HUGE spider on your arm to make you scream like a girl and jump out of bed!! I'll let you decide who did the screaming and jumping like a girl ;)

In front of St. Mark's Basilica there are a ton of pigeons that will eat out of your hand

 in front of the basilica

view from the car window on the way back to the airport. Sunset over a grape vineyard!

I have loads more pictures, but this will have to do for now. I haven't been the best at blogging, so I am proud that I got this much done!