Up, Up, and Away!

This year for Halloween, Martin went all out (again) and dressed himself and Christian up as characters from Disney's movie "UP", Carl and Russell. What a great movie! I think I cried over half the movie making it one of my top Disney movies to date.

How cute are my boys?? I couldn't look at Martin without giggling, though.

Our very own Wilderness Explorer:

Character Meet-N-Greet at Disneyworld AND at your local Trunk-or-Treat!

Martin had plenty of balloons to hand out to the kiddos rather than candy.

The best part of the night was listening to Christian run around, clanging everywhere he went:

Delaney was a cute little penguin waddling the waddle:

Olivia used my Senior Prom dress and strutted her stuff as an "80s girl".
Note: my prom was 1991!

Officer Morgan as the Fashion Police:

...and because I have to, (I have orders from the Powers that Be) here I am as Gemma Doyle from A Great and Terrible Beauty.

(ok ok I confess. I've had the wig and dress for a couple years now. I just stuck the name on this year!)

Memorial Day 2009

What did we do for Memorial Day? Well, thanks for asking...

We headed over to the coast for the day and rolled in the sand:

We smiled for the camera:

We enjoyed the sun:

We discovered sand and sky:

We loved on our kiddos:

We braved the WIND:

We buried our heads in Daddy's chest to hide from the cold wind.

We ate Mo's clam chowder, fried shrimp, popcorn shrimp, shrimp skewers and garlic cheese bread. YUM.

Oh... and the kids ate burgers & grilled cheese sandwiches. Party poopers.

We topped it off with BJ's ice cream... YUM!

It was the perfect day together as a family.

Christmas...In a Nutshell

So this Christmas post is only a month late... ok, so maybe a month and a half... but who's counting?
Christmas Eve was spent with Grandma and Grandpa H, Uncle Greg and Aunt Margaret and cousins out at Gma/Gpa's house. We had a yummy dinner and fun activities for the kiddos.

We had the traditional cousins nativity... Morgan as an angel, Olivia as a wise(wo)man, Christian as Joseph, and Delaney as the Baby Jesus. Christian informed me, though, that "I don't wanna be Yoseph! I Christian!"

The kiddos made gingerbread houses out of graham crackers and candies.

Before bed that night, the kids opened one gift each - jammies! This year, the girls received Civil War t-shirts (hmm...wonder who picked those out??) and super soft jammie pants. Olivia is our Duck fan, but Morgan is our rebellious Beaver fan. What to do with this child??

Delaney received the cutest pink gingerbread jammies... but an hour or so after putting them on had a "blowout". Needless to say, she didn't have her Christmas pj's on for pictures Christmas morning.

The stockings were hung...

Delaney's 1st Christmas

Miss Olivia received a new set of scriptures

This was the girls' first year as "big girls" on Christmas morning and we were all quite focused on Christian's reaction to Santa's visit. As you can see from this video, all eyes were on him!

Giving Thanks

Carly and Dave so graciously opened their home up this Thanksgiving to us, Mom, Grandma, and Monty (Dave's dad) where we celebrated the holiday together. Carly, your house was absolutely perfect for entertaining and your meal was DELICIOUS!

Grandma Sally and Gigi with my babies

The best part of holidays are the moments of just hanging out - spending time with loved ones.

My pretty baby is now 7 months old and is a continued delight.

Carly's table set so pretty.

Carly is a rock star turkey baster!

For some humorous reason, the universe decided to play a wee little joke on us. After hours of baking and basting and checking and smelling the perfect turkey aroma throughout the house, Carly pulled out her turkey only to see red drippings from the raw turkey dripping out!!! WHAT?!?! The top of the turkey was perfect... but for some odd reason, the bottom was still raw. What's a bit humorous about the whole situation was the fact that this same thing happened to my mom several years ago on Thanksgiving. Twice in one family?? Weird. We ended up eating the turkey that was done (we were very careful) and sticking the remainder of the bird back in the oven for several more hours. It took forever to get it cooked through. Dinner was fabulous despite the minor setback we were thrown!

Martin really was there... just behind the camera.

{Carly, the video I promised isn't uploading... sorry. I'll try again LATER.}

All Hallows Eve

Our 4th of July Celebration

When I get the photos off *my* camera, I mean Margaret's camera, I will post them.

(I let her take most of the pics that day.)

We spent our 4th with family out at Kent and Ludene's home for a bbq over Kent's new firepit then letting off our own fireworks.

Kids had fun. Adults had fun.

It was a perfectly relaxing day.

Grandpa H. with his local grandkids.

Christian and Bennett playing tug-of-war.
(These two little men are about a year and a half apart.)

It's never an easy feat to get eight kids to smile, hold still, and not do bunny ears all at the same time. This collage is a group of photos that Grandma H. tried very hard at...

Our Father's Day

My handsome boys in their matching ties on Father's Day.

We love you, Daddy!

Happy Father's Day!

Happy Father's Day to my Papa!

I sure love you.