Beauty Shop

I came home from conferences to find Brian's hair beautifully done by Morgan & Ashlyn:

He said they had fun, and so did he. He got to lay there with his sleeping baby and have a head massage, what could be better?

A Tree Story

Brian & I have been having a debate the past week or so...Live tree , or artificial tree? I preferred the artificial tree, because we can put it up early, and keep it up longer without it dying (had one die before Christmas as a kid and it's stuck with me). Brian loves the smell of the pine (in past years I have just burned a pine scented candle and it has scratched that itch for him). Anyway, this year I was willing to give it a try (seeing as our artificial tree has seen some days, and two sections of the 'pre-lite' tree aren't working). So, the day after Thanksgiving we all load up in the 12 passenger van and head off to get a tree. After we had been driving for about 15 minutes I asked Brian where this tree place was. He had found a 'cut your own' place outside of town. Darn! This would be a cute photo moment, and I didn't bring my camera-oh well! We got to the tree farm, walked all over trying to pick the 'right' one. I was deciding between 2 Blue Spruce trees and 2 Douglas Firs and couldn't make up my mind, so I told Brian to pick it and cut it (MEANING to pick between those 4 trees). Well, he started cutting a completely different tree, which was shorter than I was! I'm all for the taller the tree the better, so I wasn't happy about this! Too late, you cut it, you buy it! I don't think that Brian was prepared for the difficulty it was to get the tree on top of the Big Van with no roof rack! It was windy, and at one point the tree fell off the roof right back onto Brian! It would of been very comical if I wasn't in such a bad mood about getting the short tree! He spent about 15 minutes getting that thing tied up there, when he finally declared that if it fell off on the way home we were leaving it and going to buy a fake tree! When we were almost home Hayden finds a tick on his leg! BUGS! Oh, I hadn't even thought of that aspect of a real tree! Brian & I both looked at each other and he said "I'm taking it back!"
So, the next day we got out our artificial tree, strung some new lights on it, and tada-we're ready for Christmas! We even got the outside lights on the house! I think we have decided that we are officially fake tree people!

Our Christmas Tree

All lite up for Christmas!

Hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving weekend!

Lost Madelyn

Madelyn has really been moving around lately. She doesn't craw, but she rolls and scoots where she needs to go. The other day I layed her down in the middle on the Family Room on a blanket, and went to the kitchen for a minute. When I came back, she was gone! She had rolled/or scooted over to the end of the couch (which I couldn't see from where I entered the room), and was half under the couch! Crazy girl!
Here is how I found her:


Just a few photos of Ashlyn and Madelyn together.......

Sweet girls!

Turkey Trot

I'm SOO far behind in blogging! Since I'm a little OC, I will date these back to when they SHOULD of been posted!
The kids schools have a turkey trot every year for 3rd grade & up. Ronan is in 3rd grade, and so this was his first year. I was very proud of him, especially since he didn't want to run at all! "What's the point of running around the school?" he asked. "For fun...it's a race." I told him. He just rolled his eyes. BUT...he did run, and even came in the middle somewhere, so WAY TO GO RONAN!

Ronan on his first lap (they went around twice).

Ronan and his good friend finished together!

This was Hayden's first year at the middle school Turkey Trot, and he did great! They even had someone dressed up as the 'Turkey", Ashlyn loved this:

Hayden's on the right here on his first lap.

Hayden coming up to the finish line. The poor kids ran around the football field twice, then finished by going UPHILL.

It was fun to watch them run. This is a Thanksgiving tradition I look forward too. Next year Morgan will get to join them!

The Crayola Factory!

This past Saturday we went to the Crayola Factory in Pennsylvania. It was a really fun place to spend the day. We drove up there Friday afternoon, stayed in a hotel that night & swam in the pool, then went to the factory the next morning. Hayden, Ronan, Duncan, Morgan, & Brian by the 'World's Largest Crayon'

Ashlyn and her friend the red crayon

We saw a presentation on how they make the crayons, and the markers, then watched a video on how the silly putty is made-can you believe that all the silly putty eggs are HAND FILLED! After the presentation, the kids go to put their 'tokens' they were given into a slot for a box of crayons, and another one for a marker. Then off we went to color, create and have fun!

Morgan at the craft tableAshlyn & Duncan at the craft table.

Everyone loved the glass wall you could write on with markers!

Time to finger paint, and Brian just couldn't help but join in!

Morgan creating her masterpiece.

Crazy Duncan with his messy hands.Daddy and Ashlyn with their painting fingers!

Once we were done with the Crayola part, we went up to the 3rd & 4th floors, where the National Canal Museum located. This was a blast too! Everything was hands on in learning about the canal system!

Hayden at the water table.

Hayden at the pulley demonstration.

Ronan & Duncan digging.

Morgan, Ronan & Duncan building.

Morgan was in heaven at this exhibit! It was where you learned to hitch up the mule for the canal boats. She has learned how to saddle up a horse from her riding lessons, so she had this one down.

Here you got to take your own boat through the canal system and see how the locks work. Everyone loved this part!It was a great day out with the kids!

Tick-Or-Treat

Hayden, Morgan, Duncan, Ronan, Madelyn, Sara (Ashlyn refused to stand in the photo)

We had a great time trick-or-treating this year. Since we just moved into this house this past March, we hadn't trick-or-treating the neighborhood before, and the kids LOVED seeing all their friends from school. The last house, while just on the other side of the lake, had no kids around (a lot of older original owners in the neighborhood), so this was fun for them. At first Brian was going to to trick-or-treating with the kids, while I passed out the candy, but then I wanted to go too, so we put the bowl on the porch with a note to take a few pieces each. While we were out, I was noticing that there were a lot of 'drivers'. You know, people that drove their kids into the neighborhood, jumped out of the car, ran up to the houses, got candy, and then jumped back in and drove away. Anyway, when we came back home (after only 30 min. or so), our candy was gone, and so was the bowl! And it was a good bowl! I was a little mift about that, and felt bad having to turn the kids away who came, because we now had no candy! I figured it was someone jumping in and out of a car, because how suspicious would that look walking down the street with a bowl instead of a bag of candy! Other than that, it was a great night!Hayden was very proud of his costume. He was child worker from the early 1900's (although that's really a hard one to guess).