"SANTA CLAUS IS COMING TO TOWN"

We have a holiday kick-0ff where we live. On November 29th we went to the park and had doughnuts and hot chocolate and waited for the big guy to arrive. He finally got there riding a fire truck. The kids were excited to sit on Santa's lap and tell him what they wanted for Christmas.

Chase got to go first because the other two wanted to make sure that it was safe. He asked Santa for an Ice Blue Nintendo DS and a black acoustic guitar like his dad's. I told Chase that he just might get a lump of coal for asking for two big things. He said that he would be happy with either one.

Breeley went next, she asked Santa for a "High School Musical" tent. She was all smiles.

Keaton wanted nothing to do with the big guy and couldn't get close enough to me. Keaton's request from Santa was a dinosaur, although I had to tell Santa Claus because he was not speaking to (or even looking at) Santa. Keaton calls Santa Claus "Ho Ho". We think it's so cute.

THANKSGIVING

We had a really fun Thanksgiving this year. We spent the day at my mom's house. All of my family was there, except for Jeremie's kids, we missed them! Lucky for us they were able to come up that night and spent the rest of the weekend with us.

My three little cutie pies waiting for dinner.

Steve, Chase, and Breeley enjoying dinner.

Keaton was so cute at dinner. He was so tired that he was leaning against the wall falling asleep as he ate. I finally had to hold him, as soon as he snuggled down in my arms he was sound asleep.

My family has a tradition of shooting clay pigeons on Thanksgiving. It's always a lot of fun. Chase kicked butt this year. He almost beat out all of us, it came down to him and Zach in a shoot out. His gun jammed, so I guess we'll have to decide the winner next year. He's a pretty good shot and this is definately his favorite part of Thanksgiving.

Steve-Look at that form, what a stud!

Aren't they sweet? We were actually all trying not to freeze to death at this point, it got pretty cold by the end.

Me attempting to shoot. I am no good at this, but it's still fun. I'm pretty sure I close my eyes when I pull the trigger, probably not a good idea when trying to aim, but Steve's gun kicks a bit. Gina is standing next to me shooting as well. Paula beat out all the girls this year when she hit a clay pigeon. Yes, we're just happy to hit one.

OK, this was by far the funniest moment up there. Laci decided to shoot the gun. We told her to put the gun against her shoulder, but apparently she took that as against her arm. I'm sure you can guess what happened next. She shot the gun and when it kicked it was pretty painful. She left to go to the car in tears-she denies this, but I know that she was trying not to cry. We were all laughing so hard, she didn't get too much sympathy-sorry, Laci! I got the perfect picture of her shot. You can see her hair whipping back as she shot the gun, it really got her good!

On Friday, my mom, Gina, Laci, Madison, Taylor, and myself went shopping. It's always a lot of fun. We came home that night and played BINGO. My mom furnished the prizes. Thanks, mom and dad, for keeping all these fun traditions alive. I know it's what makes our family tick-we love you!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY CHASE-BUG!

My baby boy turned 10 on November 4th. I'm not quite sure how that happened because it seems like I just barely had him. I can't believe he's reached double digits. Since it's his birthday, it's only fair that I tell you how wonderful he is. Chase is just a genuinely good boy. He always tries to do the right thing and has a testimony that is growing and growing. He is extremely smart and can figure almost anything out. He is in 4th grade but is reading at like a 7th grade level. He's a good friend and truly cares about other people and their feelings. He worries about everything, I don't know where he got that from (ha,ha). I am just extremely proud to be his mom and I love him to pieces. Happy Birthday Buddy!

Chase loves to fish, so he wanted to have a fishing party this year. I was able to use pictures of him fishing at Marsh Lake this summer on his signs. He loved that. By the way, this picture was taken the next morning because I forgot to get this picture. I try to take one every year with the sign that has their age on it-yes, I'm a dork, but what do you do?

Chase with his fishing cake. This was a really fun cake to make. Isn't he a cutie pie?

Chase chose to celebrate his birthday at Chuck E. Cheese's. We had a great time. We got home a lot later than we wanted to, but it was his birthday, right?

HALLOWEEN

Halloween is by far Steve's favorite holiday, so when it rolls around, he goes all out. He had his spook alley in our garage again this year. There were cars lined up and down our street all night. He added a new thing this year. He projected some scary Halloween scenes to music onto our front window. We had people sitting on our front lawn just watching the movie. The kids and I were trick-0r-treating with Laci and Brent and their kids, so we missed most of it. We filled each bucket though and the kids had a lot of fun.

Steve's spook alley costume. His theme was aliens, so he was suppose to be some kind of scientist doing research on a meteore or something?!? And yes, we did give almost all of that candy away.

Zach and Paula are always great to come and help out in the spook alley. We hope they actually like it and don't just feel obligated to do it. Either way we appreciate them! We also roped my mom and Gina into running the gate. Thanks for being such good sports and for freezing to death all night-sorry! The best part of the above picture is Laci in the background trying to be funny. OK, it was funny!!! Just look at her face. Classic.

Here are my little ghosts and goblins. Breeley is, of course, Hannah Montana. Keaton is Elmo and Chase is a bleeding skeleton. He's really proud of the bleeding part, and yes, it actually bled down his chest-gross!

This was right after the Halloween parade at the elementary school. Steve dressed up and walked with Chase's class. I dressed up as a queen, in case you couldn't tell, and walked with Breeley's class. It was a lot of fun and a little embarassing all at the same time. Keaton had not dressed up quite yet.

The kids carved their pumpkins the night before Halloween. They have lots of fun, except Keaton won't touch the inside of the pumpkin to clean it out. He thinks it's really yucky.

Corn Maze

Steve and I took our kids to the Black Island Farm Corn Maze in Syracuse this year. It was a lot of fun. The kids especially loved all of the activities that they had outside the corn maze. It was a really neat place. We even saw pigs racing, Keaton thought that was great. We also saw Ronald McDonald. Keaton didn't think he was so great. We steered clear of the scary clown. As we were looking at all the farm animals, we heard a lady say to her kid, "Look at the horsey." I had to chuckle due to the fact that it was actually a donkey. Good Times!!!Steve & The Kids In The Corn Maze

The Kids & I In The Corn Maze.

Steve and the kids going down the big hay slide.

Breeley, Keaton, and Chase at the entrance.

Football Fun!!!

This was Chase's second year to play little league football. He really loves to play, but the practices get a little old. He plays wide receiver and does a great job of blocking the defense. His team had a great season and they, with one other team from North Summit, were the first little league teams from our school to make it to the playoffs.
Steve takes stats for the team. He loves it and Chase loves having him on the sidelines.
My baby boy is growing up and it makes me so sad. As you can see, he is #6. Steve was #66, so I love that their numbers are so close.

Basketball Woes

I decided to be a good mom the other day and play with Chase and his friend, Tristan. They were playing basketball and wanted me to play poison with them. I agreed remembering my good old days of freshmen basketball, I only scored 4 points the entire season. Defense was definately better for me. Anyway, Chase passed me the ball and I caught it with the end of my finger. I seriously almost passed out it hurt so bad. By the next day my finger was really bruised and swollen. We decided to go check it out at the instacare after Chase's football game. Well, I actually broke my finger like a big, dumb dork. I'm in a splint for the next three weeks, so that will be fun. Isn't that just my luck? I'll try to post a picture later. I look pretty crappy today-sorry!