an overview...the last six months!!!

In January, we had a party to celebrate Grandpa's 80th Birthday!!! We are SO THANKFUL that God has given us so many years with him, and that the boys have been able to enjoy their time with him! He adores them and that is so sweet to watch especially since my dad is far away and doesn't see the kids much. :( This picture is of Al with all the local grandkids...

Our dinner to celebrate Mike's dad's birthday!

Mike's sister, Rose, surprised Al by coming in town for his special birthday!


In early March, we headed up to Flag for the day after pulling Michael out of school early...My husband is very fun and spontaneous...I am learning to be that, too...:) not sure if it's obvious here, but Michael's nose is BRIGHT red. It was SO COLD!!! I think 26*!

We stopped for caramel hot chocolate...yummy!



Something fun & new in our backyard...a fire pit to roast marshmallows & play in the fire!

Here are some pics from our snow trips to Pine in January....

Having fun on the sled being pulled behind the quad...SO FUN!

My handsome big boy

and the other cutie

Merry Christmas 2012! Can you tell whose idea it was to take this picture??

Nena had us all over to make gingerbread houses one day before Christmas...

Christmas morning, Nena came over bright & early for cinnamon rolls & presents.


Mike super excited about new pajama pants!!!

This picture is so sweet to me! Michael surprising Ryan with his new bike!

Does he look excited?? :)

Another favorite...Packer's t-shirts. SO EXCITING!!! I wrote on the tag for Ryan's shirt that it was from Aaron Rodgers. Ryan said he wanted to write him a thank you note. That's when I had to break the news that it was not actually from AR. Bad joke for a 5 year-old I guess...:(

Christmas night we all got together at the Cooleys. Nena got to give all the kids their gifts. Mayhem :)

They always have so much fun over there. This swing set is always a hit!

We were very blessed to have our niece, Amy, offer to take these Christmas pictures for our family in November. Here are just a few of my favorites! She took so many good ones it was hard to choose. :)

My sweet family-I love this old truck in the background :)

Does it get any cuter than this???

I love this picture of me and my sweet LOVE

Here's one of my faves of my two favorite boys!!

How cute are they??

And here is a random shot all on its own :)

My sweet boys who LOVE to sleep together. I love this. (November 2011)

And then there was Halloween. Here are our awesome pumpkins, all ready to sit outside a few days before rotting! Michael wanted a scary pumpkin and Ryan a happy one. Neither one a surprise. :)

Here we are dressed up and ready to make the rounds in daylight. I saw nothing wrong with this plan...First we got to trick or treat in the neighborhood with cousins Annabelle, Brielle, and Grant.

and here's our neighbor who thought he'd walk through the neighborhood with his MASSIVE pet snake!
And here we are with three families of cousins: the Williams, Shores & Shores. So fun to all be together!

Then we headed to the Crutchfields to visit them and see our little buddy, Alvin!

Here are some pics from a quick trip up north to Pine to see Uncle Mark & Aunt Suzanne. When there's no snow, riding on the quad is the next best thing that the boys look forward to!

So handsome...all three of them :)

In September, we went with my brother & his family to Big Bear, CA! What a great time we had! It was so beautiful there. Here are the kids before a little hike we did. My boys had so much fun with their big cousins! Don't they look excited?

We got to ride a ski lift up a mountain. fun.

We spent one day going on a zip line excursion. I had to talk to myself a lot that day, and tell myself that I wouldn't die! Here we are learning how to strap this harness to our bodies and how we can't go pee for the next 5 hours (!!!) because a)there's nowhere to pee and b)it takes too long to take everything off. I made it to the end w/o peeing my pants. Amazing.

Here we are getting our life & death training.

My cute husband all harnessed-up!

And me looking super confident! :)

We had a great time with them!