Gobble Gobble

Today was one of the best Thanksgiving's ever!  This was the first year that we have hosted it at our house.  Everything turned out wonderfully!


Mike was in charge of the turkey and it was delish! 

Lots of fun time with Uncle Ryan....we will miss him when he goes back to NC!

So much fun being home for the holidays!

 Crazy cousins!!

We also celebrated Papa's bday!  Here he is showing off his gifts!

Fun Times!!

Forgiveness

Last weekend, Ava made her First Reconciliation. She was a bit nervous but came out with a big smile on her face. It was way different from when I made my first confession. The priest met with us first and then had a little talk with Ava before they went into the confessional. He was telling jokes and made her feel really comfortable. It was not at all how I remember it!

 It was a very special day for Ava and we could not be more proud!

Ava happenings

Time is going way to fast and we are trying to keep up.  Not succeeding I might add.  It goes in phases as to which child is the busiest and Ava is the winner this month.  So much going on!  Here are some highlights from her big book party where she did a report on Judy Moody.  I was very impressed with her ability to talk in front of a big group of people.  Not only her classmates but her classmates parents as well.  She was not nervous one bit!

And here are some pics from her second swim meet!  She totally rocked it!  Way to go Ava!  So glad you found your sport!

Go Romney

How can you not get into this election?  If you know our family at all, you know who we are routing to win!  About a week ago, Mike and I had the wonderful experience of seeing Romney and Ryan speak.  It was at the most beautiful venue ever in my opinion.  It's an event no matter who is appearing there.  The rocks are wonderful and you can see the entire city lit up at night.  AMAZING!!

 The line was so long.  We heard they had to turn away thousands of people.

And the line continues!

Need some practice taking pictures of myself.  Not so good at it anymore!

Love the lights on the Rocks.

The stage

Sold out crowd.

Our partners for the evening.  We all had a great time!

Happy Halloween

Well I have to say that Halloween is going much better than I ever could have imagined. I was stressed with everything I had to do for the girls' party. Not to mention worrying about how I was going to attend two parties going on at the same time. I worked with a great group of women who totally rock! It went so smooth. I was worried about the parade and the parties being first thing in the morning but I think it was better this way. The kids were not fully awake to be rowdy.

Great morning had by all. Can't wait for Trick or Treating tonight.

Rachel and her friend waiting for the parad

 Molly and her friends lining up for the parade

 Ava the lady bug in the parade

 Playing candy corn bingo

 Doing a ghost craft

 Ava and her BFF's

 Digging through the goo to find prizes

 Molly at her first school party

More Pumpkins

Sunday night we carved our pumpkins. The girls can almost do them by themselves. So much fun watching Halloween in their eyes. 

Pumpkin Patch

We choose a beautiful day to search for our pumpkins.  And we found a new place really close to home.  What we did not realize was how big our kids are getting.  The place was geared for younger kids with lots of climbing set for little ones.  It was even to small for Rachel.  But we made the best of it.  We picked out our pumpkins, spent some time with the animals on the farm and then headed home.  Simple and perfect.