Overheard

This little one singing "Holy, Holy, Holy". This is the hymn that we've been learning and singing together during our family worship times. His little voice singing this precious song just warms my heart!

Our Baking Nights

On Wednesday nights, Scott & Ryan head to AWANA and Abby, Caleb and I have fun baking up some yummy goodies. First, I clean up our dinner dishes and make room for our baking supplies. Then, we all wash our hands and put on our aprons.

Then we work together to mix up a batch of something yummy. Of course, my little helpers love to take turns adding ingredients and mixing it up with the big wooden spoon.

One of our favorite recipes is Breakfast Cookies from the Heavenly Homemakers blog. These cookies are delicious, and good for you too - well, maybe not so healthy when we add in chocolate chips ;)

And, of course, the kids always get to taste-test a cookie from the first batch out of the oven.

Oh, and when Scott and Ryan return home, some of our homemade goodies are always cooling on the cooling rack - so they do get to share in some of this yummy goodness too!

He's 7!

It's hard to believe that this little guy...

just celebrated his 7th birthday!

No words necessary

Remembering 2008

We began the year by celebrating Ryan's sixth birthday, Superhero style - Batman, Superman and Spiderman were all present!

And of course, cake was enjoyed by all...Here's Caleb modeling one of Ryan's gifts - a Superman costume

In March we celebrated Abby's fourth birthday with a ladies tea -

On Easter weekend, Scott's cousin and family visited from NC, and we enjoyed some time playing at a nearby tire park.Here's Caleb all dressed up in his Easter finest, complete with Daddy's slippers. In May we celebrated the completion of AWANA, Ryan completed his first year of Sparks and Abby completed her first year of Cubbies.

In May, my sister got married - Abby was a beautiful little flower girl and Ryan was a very distinguished ring bearer.

Springtime brought lots of playtime in our backyard -Caleb's favorite spot was most definitely the swing.

In June we indulged in a week at the beach with Scott's family.

In July we visited one of the local carnivals - Scott's parents purchased all-you-can-ride wristbands for each of the grandkids and the kids had a blast on all the rides.

The kids planted their own wildflower garden and we enjoyed lots of blooming flowers all summer.

We also got to take a much requested puddle-jumping walk after a summer rainstorm.

In August, Grandma and Papa treated the kids and I to a morning at a nearby zoo.

And of course, no summer is complete without ice cream!

In late August we returned to one of our favorite amusement parks, Idlewild. This time Caleb was old enough to join in the fun.

On Labor Day weekend we joined Scott on a work trip to NC - we were able to visit with his cousin and his family - and we also tried out a really cool kids' museum.

In the fall we spent lots of time at the soccer fields - watching Ryan's practices and soccer games.

One of our favorite family trips is the visit to the pumpkin patch every fall. This year we did our annual excursion to the patch on Caleb's birthday weekend.

Later that weekend we celebrated Caleb's second birthday.

At the end of October we attended our church's Fall Festival instead of trick-or-treating.

In November we enjoyed some mild fall weather...

And we also got a taste of some snowy fall weather.

After Thanksgiving we once again had our annual cookie baking day.

In December, we celebrated Christmas with our family.

We also made a trip to Boyd's Bear to check out the Christmas decorations - the kids always enjoy seeing the three story Christmas tree with all of the trimmings.

And finally, we welcomed 2009 with a "make-your-own-pizza" and game night at home.

Christmas Cookies

I believe this is the 8th year of our cookie decorating tradition. It's hard to believe that when we began eight years ago, we had no babies of our own.

This year Abby was prepared. She donned her apron and had her dough roller ready - and she would not take "no" as an answer. Both she and Ryan had a blast rolling out the dough and using the cookie cutters.

Once the cookies were baked and cooled, the decorating began...
Here is one of Ryan's favorite creations.

As always, Abby finds a way to get some of the decorations on her face - even before she actually eats a cookie!

Three generations of bakers - and their favorite aprons: My mom, Me, and Abby.

This little guy napped during the decorating, but he did get to taste the fruit of our labors.

This is one of Abby's creations...

And here's a pair of Daddy and Son cookies.

Snowy Day

Here's a picture of our first snow of the season. Granted, it's not measurable snow - but it is snow!

The kids couldn't wait to get bundled up and check it out for themselves. The first time he went out, Ryan took a magnifying glass along so he could study the snowflakes more closely :)

I let them play on the back deck for a little while - Abby was disappointed that this wasn't "snow angel" snow - but if her constant squeals of delight were any indication - I'd say she enjoyed herself.

And of course, Caleb had to join his big brother and sister. At first he wasn't sure about the cold, white stuff swirling in the air, but he soon decided it was was okay.

Oh, and this is what happens when I ask all three kids to pose for a picture - Ryan and Abby usually pose while Caleb turns his head just enough to prevent me from getting a good picture - and he does do this on purpose. I know this because as soon as I put the camera down he turns back to me and smiles!