day trip

i hate posting pics late...these are from sunday. i know some of you don't post pics for weeks, but it drives me insane! emily and i took a day trip up to abilene to see aunt carrie.

a little train action on k-15..

i always love to see the old barns.

pretty good shot for a point and shoot without looking. :)

this is in abilene..old abilene.

more train action. this time in abilene. there's always a blasted train there. drives me crazy.

the whole reason we went to abilene. we wanted to get some christmas photos in for my mom's christmas present. we can never seem to get photos of all of the kids together, so we are doing 3 shots for her.

little aj is almost 5 months now. he looks so much like lyle, but in this pic he has the exact same smile carrie had at 6 mos. so cute.

gonna take a nap with santa.

he was falling asleep in the chair with emily. his little eyes would shut and then fly back open.

crashed.

it had been sleeting in abilene an hour before we left, so we called it a short visit. on our way home, we decided to go to see gra and pop. they live about 7 miles off of k-15, so it wasn't really out of the way.

i made a comment about saving me old books and sheet music that was falling apart for projects. i left the house with 2 rubbermaid tubs full of music for myself and my brothers to have. it all belonged to my dad. jack gave emily a little piano lesson while we were there, too.

Candles, Candles. Cupcakes, Cupcakes.

Emily's birthday parties #2 and #3 were yesterday. My mom jokes with me and says Emily's birthday is like '12 days of Christmas'. That sounds about right. Her actual birthday is this Thursday.

My mom had big plans to make Emily a princess cake. She did not plan for the cake to fall apart, however. I don't think I've ever seen one of her cakes do that. Justin picked up cupcakes, instead. My birthday loot from my mom--minus the Queen Anne's chocolate covered cherries. They were in the kitchen. She gets those for me every yr. Thanks mom...already started on the projects. My sister gave me some allowance and my little sister, Carrie, gave me some more chocolate. Thanks for the early diabetes everyone! Emily--pure joy. Belle is her fave character.

Aiden confiscating her back pack.

Dress up from Aunt Mary Anne. Alyssa colored her some Tink pictures. So cute.

My parents, brother-in-law Perry, Alyssa and my kids.

My b-day gift from Jen...it has a pic of the kids on it. Thanks Jen(and Dina!!).

Party #3...Emma, Isabella and Em

Bella's dad is a fireman, so when we lit the candles she yelled out, "Don't start a fire!" :) Ha ha.

Cole, Morgan, Famie and Phoenix, Emma, Bella, Emily and Aiden

Cole and Morgan

Famie had my camera.

Bella's house.

Jen and Morg.

Famie and Phoenix.

Emma and Bella.

Justin's face is classic.

The girls...and Cole. :)

Change of Scenery

Hope you are one that likes change. I'm doing a little facelift to my blog page. I have to change it up every now and then. I knew I wanted that header picture on here ASAP, so it made me make the change a little sooner than planned. I'm not sure if I can handle the plain white, but the last page was a bit too ADHD for me. Lots of thoughts going on all at once. That's me, I guess. Lots of thoughts and plans running through my head at all times. I often have a great idea come to me late at night, making it impossible to go to sleep until I either run it by someone else or write it out. Like right now. I have my Facebook page open, my blog page open, I'm uploading photos and editing them on irfanview and photoshop all at the same time. Oh, and I'm checking out two new blogs, as well. :) As I do that, the kids are doing this:

Christmas movie time this afternoon. They skip naps on Thursday's(mom and dad TV night), so they can go to bed early. :)

These shots are from yesterday. The sun glares down through our basement window every morning and blinds me. Emily climbed up in my lap, not wanting a photo taken...this is the result.

Barbie was modeling. Somebody tied a used dryer sheet in her hair. I don't know if it was Em or Justin, but I just noticed it yesterday and thought it was funny.

29

Well, 29 is here and I'm still alive. Justin is still in class, but when he gets home I told him I am taking the day "off". Maybe hit up the bookstore, sit and read a book that is never available at the library. A trip to Wal-mart for sure--we need milk. :) Justin got a gift card from Jen for HIS birthday and has been holding on to it for my b-day dinner. I think it'll be a run in, order and take it home. Then we don't have to deal w the kids not wanting to eat(well, just Emily) or have to tip anyone. Always thinking. :)

Okay, got the milk. Went to the library instead, and checked out some videos for the kids, as well as a book for me. As always, they didn't have what I was actually looking for. Oh, well. We did eat On the Border...demolished it. Famie and the kids came by with a birthday pumpkin bread to make my day even better. Thanks, Fame!! I didn't make a cake, so we used the pumpkin bread and put the candles in it. Ha ha.

To make my day feel more complete, I did something else that I love. Took photos. Even better..Christmas photos of the kids. Love it. We had some extra sheets of bead board from our kitchen remodel, so I put them to good use. This one was already painted the off white, so I just brought it in from the garage. Poor Aiden wasn't a fan...it had saw dust on it and apparently he is allergic. His eyes were itching quite a bit.

Such clowns. They entertain themselves.

...and we did some photos for Emily's 4th birthday(it's the 10th!), as well.

This board I painted pink a couple of week ago in preparation for her photos. These are just some of her silly photos. There will be more pics from both "sessions" posted at a later date.

So, all in all my intro to year 29 was a good one. Thanks to all of my family and friends for the calls and texts, the songs, and messages on Facebook!