Enjoying Christmas Vacation!

Christmas Morning

A garage and some cars for Jack.

A DSi for Tessa.

Another DSi for Grace.

A camera for Rachel.

Clothes for Julia (boring).

Santa Came ...

I guess the kids made it on to the nice list. It could have gone either way!

Winter Formal

Grandma Jeane and her Bronco Fans

Back Seat Arguements

Grace and Tessa share the back seat of our car and when one or both of them is in a mood then things can get ugly. We were out running errands for a long time today and on the way home I caught the tail end of one of their arguements. Tessa was crying and tattling to me - "MOM! Grace said that when we are big she is going to buy a house as far away from me as she can!". I told her that I would buy a house right next door to her if she wanted me to. The fight continued for a few minutes and then this is what I heard:
Grace - "Well if YOUR kids are knocking on MY door to play with my kids I will NEVER let them in!"
Tessa - "Well if YOUR kids are knocking on MY door I will KICK THEM IN THE FACE!"

all dressed up and ready to go

a stubborn little golfer ...

some darling super heros ...

batgirl and star angel ...

a butterfly and a witch ...

and a pink lady and a storm trouper ...

Halloween at the Baker's House

We went to Arizona for Halloween this year to hang with the Bakers. It's been a while since we have gone trick or treating without covering costumes with hats and coats. Grace just told me, "now that is a Halloween we'll remember!" Kim had the house totally fabulously decorated! I'm terrible at making our place festive so the kids thought they had gone to heaven.

our soccer girl ...

We have never had a kid interested in soccer until now. Grace is a speedy, feisty little kid and really wanted something to show off her talents. She did a great job for her first ever soccer game. Her highlight was when a group of girls from the other team were heading down the field towards our goal and Grace took off from behind and bolted past everyone and turned around to kick the ball away from them. Uncle Jer - how does she look?







a few tips from Coach Dad

(John pooping soccer balls on the sidelines)

a little bronco fan

First Day of School

Julia is now cool stuff because she is in 7th grade. Rachel is in 5th grade. Grace is in 2nd grade and Tessa started kindergarten. They are thrilled to be back in school with their friends. Poor Jack lost his captive audience though and doesn't know what to do with himself all day.

just like grandma

Grace seems to be an animal lover just like her Grandma Robison. Here is Grace with her friend Jose the Boa at the fair and here is Grandma as a teenager with Noah the Boa when she worked at the zoo...

Monkey Boy

The Birthday Brat

Jack woke up way too early this morning. I guess he knew it was his birthday and was excited. Now he is just a grouch. He is ticked off that we are out of formula and not a huge fan of whole milk yet. He does not like his high chair and the only food that even has a chance with him is cheese. This is his "pleeeease pick me up" face...

Boy Presents!

It was fun planning a little boy party for a change! We've never had a birthday free from barbies and princesses. Jack loved his boy presents! He would race over to play with one thing and then get distracted by another thing and race over to it. He loves balls, dogs and cars. The girls and I went to the toy store on a mission to find anything with a steering wheel. He can sit in a golf cart playing with the steering wheel forever! I think he likes what we picked ...

My Baby is 1 !!!

We celebrated Jack's 1st birthday tonight with Grandma Jeane, Grandpa Steve & Judi, and Kevin & Elaine. Jack did not really know what to think about all the excitement. He was unsure about the whole cake thing. First he just stared at it and wouldn't touch it. Then we fed him a bite with a fork and he decided that he liked the taste of it but would not use his fingers. He kept digging the fork into the icing but he was not coordinated enough to bring the fork all the way up to his mouth. What a funny little guy!

Grace's New Haircut

Poor little nervous Grace chewed on her hair and broke off a nice size chunk right at chin length. I LOVED her long golden hair but unless I curled it and styled it every day, it looked very messy. It took some convincing but we finally decided to chop it off at the shortest length and start all over. I think she is very happy with it now. She has gone from mirror to mirror all afternoon and has brushed it and styled it over and over again. She has also told me not to worry because it is already starting to grow back.

playing under the rainbow

cupcakes and grandma

A Faith Promoting Experience

Grace: "I prayed yesterday that grasshoppers would like me and right after I finished my prayer a grasshopper hopped right over to me and let me pick it up."
Me: "Ewww. Was this inside or outside?"
Grace: "Outside. I didn't do that in the house."

keeping busy this summer

little shopper

"This money in my purse is just begging to be spent today!"
-Grace

Success

I have been working for 5 years now trying to get tomatoes to grow in this backyard. This year I have succeeded! I brought in some big pots and filled them with the perfect soil mixture, installed drip lines and fed them plant food. It's not pretty back there since it's been too hot to weed - actually it's kind of a jungle- but I have 7 big tomato producing plants. I have been eating cherry tomatoes out of there for about a week now but these are my first 3 full size tomatoes. Now I'm off to buy some good bread for tomato sandwiches!

GRACE

"Next year on my birthday instead of singing Happy Birthday can everybody sing Amazing Grace?"

I guess it was inevitable...

These were found on Julia's camera. Poor little Jackie.