New Year's Celebration!

We had the best New Year's party! Grandma Teri took our kids for the WHOLE weekend while Dave and I stayed home and just did nothing. It was amazing! We even went to see the kids on Saturday evening to see if they wanted to come with us to our party, but they wanted nothing to do with us.

We went to my little brother's new house for our party. Everyone brought their kids but us. It was so nice to not have to worry if our kids were being mean, or breaking things. We just got to enjoy everyone else's kids. And man they are so cute, and have pictures to prove it. I didn't get all the kids so I am sorry if missed some, but they were too busy having their own fun!!

Here is Miss Jocelyn! I love this girl with all her attitude and spunk!!

Little Miss Reecey Pie! She is an awesome dancer, and I love her to death!

Nolan in all his cuteness! Love him!

I love Landon too, but he wouldn't let me take his picture without his mommy!

We had an excellent game of Hedbanz going! His card was by far the best of the night. Some of his questions just made for lots of laughs for everyone, but him!! Thanks for all the hilarity Steven!!

It took me far too long to guess this one.

Ringing in the New Year with a kiss from the best looking guy at the party!!

The kids loved the poppers and noise makers! It was REALLY loud!

I also got a kiss from someone else! Thanks Landon!!

I hope you all had a great New Year's night. And that your New Year is starting out great!!

Christmas 2011

We started our Christmas celebrations on Christmas Eve. For lunch we went to Dave's Mom's house. We had excellent food and even better company. Teri planned some fun crafts for the kids to do. The decorated their own popcorn bowl, and we all got to decorate our own tree ornament!

We then went to my Parent's house for our traditional Christmas Eve dinner. We had a lot of food, and a lot of people. We were pleased to have 2 very special guests come to visit: Santa and Mrs. Clause. Most of the kids were extremely excited to see them walk through the front door. Reece ran downstairs and wanted nothing to do with them, and Nolan was ok as long as his mom was holding him. Funny kids! We were all so excited that no one pulled out their camera. Luckily, Dave gave Conner the Go Pro to wear, so we do have some video footage of them!! We then had a massive gift exchange that started with the kids, and then the parents and then the grandparents! What a fun night we had. We let the kids open their new Christmas pajamas because it was late and they would be asleep before we got home.

I normally like to just get a pic of the kids on the stairs waiting to go open presents, but Vika was really not happy to find out that Santa came while she was asleep and she didn't get to see him. She really loves him. So after us talking her through it, and me taking pics with them she was happy and ready to see what was left for her.

Conner wanted to tear through everything as fast as he could, but we made them take turns opening one present at a time. I'm mean!

Vika is the slowest present opener EVER!

Conner got 4 Ninja Turtles movies! And thats Dave with the Go Pro on his head.

Vika got a pretty new skirt that is just a tad too big. She is just so skinny.

Vika also got new pants, that DO fit her!!

I just love her face here. She holding her very last present waiting for the ok to open it!

Conner is such a stud. He got a new hat that just goes really well with the huge amount of tattoos all over him!

She was ecstatic to open her rapunzel dress! Sadly, it is way too big right now and falls off her.

He was so excited to open his V-neck shirt. This pic doesn't look like it, but he did ask Santa for a V-neck!!

We let the kids ask Santa for only 2 things each. Conner asked for a 2-wheeler bike, and a v-neck. Vika asked for a pink, sparkly bike, and a princess dress! They both got their bikes, but they rode them around the house before we thought to take pictures of them. They were super spoiled and got way too much stuff.

Dave's 30th Birthday Party

I was so excited for Dave to turn 30 because that meant only one thing. We got to dress up 80's style to celebrate! Words don't even come close to describing how much fun we had!

Here we have My 2 sisters and Me, and No we didn't plan to all wear purple it just kind of happened! The back drop was all thanks to Deb, isn't it amazing?

Left to Right: Deb, Nicole, Me

Dave's Mom Teri and her sister Stacy! Teri came pregnant because in the 80's she was pregnant with Dave!

My Mom and Dad! My Dad's hair is normally combed down, but he messed it up just for the party!!

My little brother Steven and his wife Breanne! Sadly, these 2 were born at the end of the 80's so missed out on most of the radness that happened in that decade!

Here is the birthday boy himself! He came dressed as a paper boy from the movie Better Off Dead. I made him his newspaper holder!!

Here we both are: Me doing a glamour shot and Dave doing his stunts!!

I would like to say thank you to everyone that came to his party it was a lot of fun, and meant a lot to Dave to have people here that love and care about him! We had a lot more people here than we have pictured. Not everyone wanted to get glamour shots! We did have some awesome games that we played. I found Trivial Pursuit 80's Style-we just did trivia questions girls vs. boys and the Girls won! We then played Pin the Glove on Michael Jackson. I found a cardboard cutout of Michael performing Billy Jean at a party store, and I made gloves (paper hand cutouts with gemstones glued to them). It was a very funny game. People were supposed to pin it to his glove hand, or his crotch area. You can only imagine the hilarity that ensued.

Happy Birthday Dave!

Halloween 2011

I realize that this was so long ago, but I just barely got my pics off my camera. I will be posting a bunch of events from last year so stay tuned!

We had a great Halloween! If you can't tell Conner is Batman, Vika is Sally from Nightmare Before Christmas, Mine was very last minute but I called myself a Nice Vampire, and Dave was the guy from Teen Wolf (his name has slipped my mind)!

The reason my costume was so last minute was because the costume I was making for myself didn't turn out. I made Vika's dress, yes thank you very much! And I was trying to make one just like it for me, but I wasn't very smart about it and didn't try it on until I was almost done with it. I know I am very smart some times! And I do have my fair share of 'blonde' moments!

Halloween night we invited my whole family to come have dinner and trick-or-treat with us! People were a lot later than expected so it just ended up being me and my 2 kids and my sister Deb and her 2 kids. When we got done everyone was at our house FINALLY! We had a lot of fun even though it was a school night, so it was a very shortened version of the norm. Thanks to everyone that came out and brought food!!

Complete and Utter Randomness

I was going through my pictures and found some that I haven't blogged about. They are in no particular order and are just really random!

The kids thought it would be fun to completely empty the bookshelf. Needless to say I was NOT happy about it and took awhile to clean up.

I went to check on Vika before I went to bed one night and this is how I found her. She was out cold and didn't even flinch when I put her back in her bed.

Grandma Teri bought Conner this Captain America helmet. He loves dressing up in his Super Hero stuff!!

Conner decided to see how many tattoos he could put on his stomach. He put them all on by himself!

Conner has been doing really well on his drums! He is learning something new almost every time we meet with his instructor!

My Dad gave me this old window forever ago. (I forgot to take a before pic) I finally stained it and put flowers in it! It's now hanging in my stairwell.

Conner was just being crazy, and begged me to take his picture!

Instead of taking a nap Vika made a road with her books! She makes me laugh!

Happy 6th Birthday!!!

Conner is 6! When did he get so old? I love this boy more and more everyday! He makes me laugh, cry, smile, scream, you name it. He keeps me guessing everyday, and honestly he changes everyday! I really don't want to know what my life would be without him in it.

Some of his favorite things:

*superheros - he loves them all and it changes everyday (sometimes every hour) which one is his favorite!

*School - he loves school. He would go on the weekends if he could.

*His sister - They have a love/hate relationship, but for the most part he just adores her and wants to spend time with her!

*Doritos - He loves to eat them any time of day. Sadly, because we are all trying to support Daddy he doesn't get them as often as he would like.

*Babies - well small children in general. He is so good with little kids and loves it when he can teach them to say things!

*Friends - Conner has become very social since he started kindergarten, and loves all his new friends, and his old ones too.

*His Daddy - he has his Daddy wrapped around his finger. They are best buds, they even call each other 'Brothers'.

*Halloween - His all time favorite holiday! In his head its like a gift to himself to have such a fun holiday right after his birthday!

I love my duders even when he makes me want to pull out my hair! He really is such a sweet boy, and loves to make others feel good.

1st Day of Preschool

Wednesday was Vika's 1st day of preschool. She was so excited that she woke up super early and got dressed right away. She didn't realize that she wasn't starting until 11:30, funny girl. She loved that she got her preschool shirt just like Conner's, and she got her own bag with her name on it!

She looked so pretty all ready to go and meet her new friends!

I can't believe that my baby is starting preschool already. She grew up way too fast.