Traded in

So you two - here's a picture of the new dress I got after exchanging the other that you got me for Christmas. Just thought you'd like a peek. Wish I could fix my lovely expression - but they were all out of anything good!

Happy 3rd Birthday Nathan!

Nathan decided on hamburgers for his birthday dinner!
Something weird happened to the buns - I think I jumped the gun, started too early and let them rise a bit to long. They tasted yummy though!
Here's his cake - pretty much a repeat of last year (more Spidey) but I was less prepared. I could have sworn I had baking cocoa - guess not. So because we were under a lot of snow and didn't want to risk the store we made do with cannery cake mix and super funky homemade chocolate frosting. It wasn't terrible, but it wasn't too fabulous. Lucky for me my family didn't care one bit!

Nathan had a super birthday and loved all of his presents! We had a definite boy party - lots of cars and super heroes!

Merry Christmas!

Here is a cute picture of the family (I never seem to make it into these pictures do I?) on Christmas Eve. We decided to have our gifts (except Santa's) opened on Christmas Eve to let Nathan have a bit more of a special day for his birthday.



I did take a quick picture just to let you know that I was there, though. :)


And here's Christmas in a nutshell...

Each of them were SUPER excited about their gifts (here's a representative face) - especially the one YOU gave them (that goes for all of you!)

And this is so funny to me...technically it's Nathan's birthday for this picture, but since it's the same day I'm including it here. Last year for Ashlyn's birthday both of her grandmas gave her the same card - a Disney princess card that sings a song when you open it. We still have it - it still sings. This year Rick's mom went the same route and gave Nathan a singing Toy Story card - "You've got a friend in me..." This was heard ALL day on Christmas and, again, it is still well loved and listened to. They both just sat and listened to the card on and off all day.

Daddies are the most fun!

Ashlyn did have a coat on during this process - I promise! I wanted a picture with them standing by their creations so I had them run back out and pose and she had already ditched her gear.
We had a cute "Snowman in a Box" kit that came with the pipe, hat, carrot, scarf, etc. so Rick and the kids went out (this was the week before Christmas) and decided to try it out. Heaven knows we have enough snow! (It's now February and we have had snow on the ground continuously since before Christmas!)
If you have sharp eyes you can see that they even included the baby!

Here's why the dustbuster smells like cinnamon...