A Christmas Tradition.

I'm trying to get caught up on blog posts.  I know Christmas has come and gone, but one of the things the kids look forward to doing with their Dad is baking and decorating cookies.  They missed out on it last year since he was gone, so they had been asking and begging every night!

Getting all ready for the decorating.

Being silly.

Let the decorating begin.

Tasting.

Happy eating.

We ended up eating most them.  We didn't get around to delivering any because they kept disappearing...oh well, there is always next year!

I'm making some progress...3 posts in one night...I'm on a roll!

A quick trip to D.C.

Earlier this month we took a quick trip up to D.C. to visit with some of our friends from our time out at Beale AFB. One of the best things about the Air Force are the people you meet along the way.  It is so fun to be stationed out here on the east coast and get to see the friends we met on the west coast.

We left the kids with a babysitter and rode the metro into old Alexandria for a fun lunch with the Warnock's and Armstrong's.  Of course the ladies needed to pose for a pic...

Colby, Rebecca, and Cara.

On our way to the restaurant we saw this cupcake place we knew we had to stop by after lunch.  Colby and I had went for the vanilla bean with chocolate frosting...YUM.MMY!


It was a fun little afternoon date with some great friends!

Still wishing we weren't 2 1/2 hours away, but we will take what we can get!

Big Apple~Day 2~My Birthday!

Saturday the 27th was my birthday, so we left all the kiddies home with Rachel (thank you, thank you!) and headed into the city for a fun day with no kids.  First on the agenda was to try and get my fake coach handbag from Chinatown.  Kerri and Paul dropped Dale and I off at Broadway and Canal St. to try to quickly get the goods.  We had quite the "underground" experience locating my much desired bag, but in the end we found one and thankfully Dale was with me to negotiate!  Sorry no picture of the bag...but I love it!  After that we headed to the theater district for our show.


I have wanted to see Mamma Mia on Broadway for sometime...I love Abba!  It was a fun show, especially the 6 or 7 encore songs they performed in spandex...the whole audience was up dancing...it was so fun!!!  I'm so glad Kerri made this happen for me, she is such a great friend!!!




After the show we made the trek up Broadway to a very delicious and highly recommended Italian Restaurant.  It was so yummy!  They even brought out canoli's for desert with a candle...they were heavenly!







We had fun walking around Times Square and soaking up the sites and people.  It was my best Birthday so far!  Having my birthday so close to Thanksgiving, it sometimes gets over looked, so I was so happy to have such a fun weekend with friends and family!

The Big Apple~Day 1

The day after Thanksgiving we rented a 10 passenger van and headed into the city with our 6 kids in tow. Paul was the perfect taxi driver, he knows how to drive in NYC, he got us right to times square in no time!




Paul, Kerri, Rachel, Spencer, Caitlin & Courtney!

After a few quick pics we went to get a bite to eat at Cosi's...

You can make your own s'mores table side. the kids loved it! (sorry about the out of focus pictures, it's the best I've got!)

After lunch we went on our trek of the city...first stop...Rockefeller Center!

It was so crowded you could hardly walk. We attempted to go into the Lego store for the kids, but had to get out of there before we were trampled!

The boys were so disappointed that Paul volunteered to take them back in to pick something out...what a nice guy! So the rest of us walked over to St. Patrick's Cathedral.

We then just wandered down 5th Ave. looking for FAO Schwarz. The kids loved the biggest toy store! I didn't take any pictures in there...too crazy, it was Black Friday after all!

Kerri and I across from Central park. I'm so glad we have been able to keep in contact for so many years!

Another attempt for a "good" family pic at one of the entrances to Central park. We didn't get to go into the park. By this point the kids were done walking around!

One of my favorite shots with my main squeeze! What a fun day!!!

Thanksgiving 2010

This year for Thanksgiving we got to head up to Pennsylvania to my good friend Kerri's house. We have been close friends since junior high, and without giving my age away...that would be ummm...about 27 years! The last time we got to spend Thanksgiving with them was back when we lived in North Carolina and I was pregnant with Taylor. So, it's been 9 years! (we have seen each other since then)

We were looking forward to getting our kids together, she has a 12 year daughter, an 8 year old son, and twin girls Maddie's age, so it was so fun to get the kids together again.

Don't these 3 look like they could all be sister's?

Kerri is an amazing cook, and had everything ready to go...including her homemade rolls!

Check out Maddie...I think she had at least 3!

Here are the kids at their table...of course the boys would not look at the camera, go figure.

The adults table.

We got a little surprise snow storm that came through and left us some fun stuff to play in for awhile. Dale and Taylor had fun throwing snowballs.

Maddie loved eating it!

We had such a fun day being thankful for being back together as a family and spending it with such great friends!

An afternoon in Colonial Williamsburg.

One of the many benefits of where we live now, is there is SO much to do in a very close proximity to us. We are going to take advantage of as much of it as we can while we live here!

The first weekend after Dale got home we headed over to Colonial Williamsburg, which is only about 30 minutes away. We went ahead and got an annual pass, so we can go back as often as we want.

The weather couldn't of been more perfect, another benefit of living here is the weather...the fall season tends to last all the way into December. The colors of the trees are amazing!


The kids and Dale pose with Thomas Jefferson.

Taylor begged to take the pictures...so I let him, only if he would let me take some of him :p

They have a children's area with little activities and games for the kids.

See what I mean about the colors of the trees?

Off with their heads!!!

If there is a tree...Taylor will climb it!

It was fun to see all the people walking around in their period clothing and acting as if it were 1776.

Loved listening to these young men! They had to be in high school, but they were very good!

I will let him take pictures with my camera whenever he wants if I can get smiles like this all the time!

Stay tuned for our next adventure...NYC!!!