More pictures

**Mom, here are a few more pictures to show. Scroll through the whole blog if you want to show more! Hope you're having a good time!

the dentist

I'm happy to report that once again, the boys have no cavities. I guess their 30 second brushings must be adequate. How, I'm not sure, but they are. So I will officially stop my harping. Maybe. We also took Aleah for her first visit. It was a bit early, but I decided I wanted to get all 3 of them on the same dental schedule, so now was as good as time as any to start. She was excited to go and get "pretty teeth". In fact when we got there she marched right up to the receptionist and said, "Hi. I Aleah Rose. I here to get pretty teeth." Unfortunately, she was not too excited once it was her turn. The dentist was able to peek at her teeth only because she was crying!! She's not due to go back until next year....hopefully it will be a bit easier.

Some more pictures...

Evan was part of the jump rope contest at school. They take only the top 20 boys/girls in 1st and 2nd grade to actually be part of the contest. He was so excited when he made the top 20 and was able to have a chance to go to the state jump rope contest. We practiced and practiced at home. When the day came, he jumped almost 10 jumps more than he ever had in that 10 seconds. He ended up placing 5th out of 20 boys!

Carter's colonial hunting and fishing project for Social Studies.

Aleah and Great-Grandma at the hospital waiting for Great-grandpa's surgery to be done. She has developed such a special bond with her great-grandparents!

Our little dare-devil....this is one of those rides that rises to the top and then drops down, bouncing the whole time. It made me sick just watching it, but she did it 4 times!

One of the highlights for Aleah, was meeting Pablo and Uniqua (again!)

the other highlight.....Dora and Diego!

Dressed up like a princess....nice boots, huh?? She lost the boots, for our trip to Target!

And her fascination with babies continues.....

hopefully this works....video of Aleah on that nauseating ride!!

Pictures

The kids love to sled, and thankfully the boys don't mind helping Aleah. Every Christmas Eve, we sled at my parents house....it's one of those traditions that I hope doesn't ever change.

This is Carter's first year in band. He wanted to play the ALTO saxophone, not the tenor. That thing has to be just as heavy as he is. I can almost guarantee this will be the only year in band.

Our family picture - 2009

Don't they look like they LOVE each other??

Ok, yes, I am one of those crazy people that goes out shopping on Black Friday! But I love it! My sister and I have been going for a number of years.....this year it seemed particularly busy though!

Whew!!

I figured it out. Yep, all I had to do was remove the old background. Ok so it's been awhile. Life has been, well.....it's been. That's all I'm going to say about it. Carter and Trent were busy with basketball, which ended a couple weeks ago. Now baseball has started. Carter has practice every Sunday evening for his All-Star team and just had try-outs for regular season b-ball. I anticipate practices for both Carter and Evan starting sometime in the next few weeks. Until then, we take full advantage of our nights at home. I looked at the calendar for the summer and between June 1st and the Sept. 1st, we have NO Saturday's free....it's either a baseball tournament, vacation or me working! Wow. Should be quite the summer.

So what else is new...

* Aleah has started potty training. On days she cares, she does great, otherwise....I'm going to hit up the store soon to buy little incentives for her. The skittles just aren't working anymore.

* Evan has become a fabulous reader. Right now he is reading at a 3rd grade level! It's been a blast to watch his reading abilities flourish this year.

* Carter made the honor roll at school both 1st and 2nd quarters this year. We're in the middle of 3rd quarter, so we'll see if he can make it 3/3!

* Aleah is our little princess. (in every sense of the word!) She is ALL girl....loves to have her nails painted, wear dresses - especially princess dresses, loves singing and dancing, plays with her babies, etc...We're considering putting her in a dance class this summer. It's fitting that the name of the class is "the Dazzling Princess Class" ! Talk about a new world for us....all we've ever known is baseball, basketball, cars, etc...

* Like I said above, Carter and Evan will be starting baseball soon. They are both excited and hoping that our neighbor is their coach. That would be wonderful! Our neighbor Chris, was the one who agreed to be Trent's assistant coach for basketball, so we're anticipating that Trent will once again find himself in the world of coaching!

Help!

I know it's been forever, but now I really want to post pictures and I'm stuck in some sort of time freeze....Thanksgiving. Grrrrr. I have tried countless times to change my background following the directions on "Cutest Blog on the Block", but it doesn't seem to take it! Suggestions??? Help please!

We're still here!

The past 3 1/2 weeks have been filled with one common theme around our house....sickness! It first started with Evan's questionable H1N1, then the following week Aleah got the stomach flu, followed by Trent, Evan, and Carter. Then for some reason, Aleah decided since she started the stomach flu, she should end the cycle too!! I am proud to announce that at this current moment....we are ALL healthy!! Today I'll finish cleaning the house. Yesterday was cleaning all the bathrooms AGAIN (it's been done so many times in the past 3 weeks, it's quite ridiculous!) and disinfecting all the door handles, light switches, etc...

I'm so glad that I'm pretty much done Christmas shopping. Really only Trent is left...and I can't make up my mind. We continue to work on the "hole" for the boys (that's their Christmas present along w/ a few goodies that come along with it). We got a lot done the weekend after Thanksgiving, but then Trent ended up w/ the flu so it's been put on hold for awhile. Unfortunately, we've got a lot to do still. I'll try to post pictures when it's done. Our goal, 2 years ago when we talked about our "forever" home, was that we would have a place for our kids to bring their friends. A safe place for them to hang out. When we moved into our house, that was the one thing that it lacked. A kid's hangout. So we decided to turn the actual basement, which isn't huge, into a hangout area for them. It will also be a fun family hangout area....we were able to find a really nice fooseball table on craigslist, for really cheap. And Target was clearancing Guitar Hero out, so we picked that up. The boys will wonder what's going on, when they have 2 presents under the tree....and one of them is a set of sheets! :) We're so excited to see the response!!

Sounds like we're going to get our first snowstorm tonight. Is it bad to hope for a snowday tomorrow? :)