PLEEEEEEEEAAASE Can I Have a New Puppy?

On a rainy Wednesday - we called up Nana to see if she wanted to meet us at the mall. I finally got them to my FAVORITE STORE... the puppy store. Nana fell in love with a Beagle who had the BIGGEST ears I had ever seen. We could have named him Dumbo!

Sorry these pics are blurry - well, if you notice I am the only thing that is blurry - I could not stand still - I was jumping and screaming - I was so excited. This puppy kept chasing me back and forth.

See? Here we go again! But just so you know - don't use your flash in one of these stores - they got all upset with my mom. How come when you take them home - it is OK to use the flash?!?

Man, they are fast - can you imagine if we got these puppies and ran with Daisy?

I really didn't want to leave - they had to lure me away with the promises of cookies! It worked!

Nana held Matt while mom was loading up the stroller. Addie and I were already in our seats. Matty LOVES Nana... He loves to play with her grandmothers locket.

Hugs goodbye.....

Oh, he loves his Nana!

Breaking in the New Playground...

While our cousins were here from Texas - we decided to have a pizza picnic to break in the new playground! My great grandpa and great grandma also came for all the fun!

Here's Libby enjoying a little dessert!

Mom made cupcakes with a letter on each one of them. I tried and tried to figure out what it spelled but I can't read yet. When Belle came, I finally figured it all out. Mom had put a letter on each one that started with the first name of who was at our house. Belle had to figure out which cupcake belonged to each person! Belle is REALLY smart and figured it out FAST. Here is Belle with her "A" cupcake. (Her whole name is Annabelle).

Moo Moo LOVED his cupcake! I think he got more on himself than in his mouth!

Matt kept a firm eye on his cupcake - I think he was worried that Papa was going to sneak a bite!

After eating - we got Gram to pull us around the yard in our wagon. Looks like there is NO room for me on this ride!

Move OVER - I am coming in! I love my cousins. They are really fun to play with.

Here's Papa with his two "BIG" girls on the swings.

This is a classic Libby look - just chillin with her shades and her tongue out!

There were LOTS of airplanes flying over today - it was so cool to see them. I would point them out to Gram and then clap and clap! I want to fly a plane someday!

Here's Addie in her swing. Man, this girl could swing for hours!

Does it get any better than this?

Here's mom and Belle just playing with the camera. Belle likes to take pictures too. She is pretty good!

After lots of food and lots of fun - everyone had to go home to nap. I was really sad to see them all leave. I wish they lived closer!

Our Texas Cousins!

Well, FINALLY, we got to see our Texas family again! Here is Belle - she loved the babies. She is the oldest of all of us and really helps to keep things moving smooth. I think next year Lib and I (we are only 2 days apart) and Matt & Addie are going to have to gang up on her - she may be the oldest but she is WAY outnumbered!

Here's Belle and Addie. Addie LOVES Belle. Here Addie is pretending to be a ballerina with a NOT so nice look on her face. Belle is teaching Addie all about dancing.

Belle was trying to scare Addie - but Addie just laughs. Maybe she isn't girly enough to dance!

This is Libby! She is GREAT! She is really funny and talks A LOT. Dad says something about girls having more words than us boys. He is RIGHT! Libby has a lot more to say than I do!

After dinner we played the piano with Gram - man, next year it is going to be a fight for a seat when Addie, Matt & Kaleigh are big enough to play with us.

Sissy thinks she is tough stuff pulling her wagon everywhere. She is a crazy driver though - so watch your toes around her!

Gram and Papa thought it was cute that that two families has matching PJ's and wanted a picture of all of us... well, if you have seen some of my previous updates - you know this is close to impossible. Well, all five of us are in the picture but looks like there is only ONE star of this photo shoot!

Enough already - GET ME OUTTA HERE!

It was a ton of fun to hang with them - but all GREAT things must too come to an end... Here we are all loaded to trek back home. Addie wasn't so happy about leaving!

Our Tree of Thanksgiving...

So, we started a new tradition this year. Every year Christmas keeps creeping out earlier and earlier - so mom wanted to make sure that we focused on Thanksgiving because as Christians it is very important to talk about and be thankful for all of the blessing God gives us. So, mom cut out a ton of maple leaves and we mailed them to family and friends. (If you didn't get any - it was because mom ran out of steam cutting them out.)
The instructions said to write what you are thankful for on the leaves and then mail them back.

Each day I would go with mom to check the mail. We would open them and then talk about them. At lunch or dinner we would pray for the people who sent them back in, thanking God for them.

It was pretty fun to hang them on the tree!

There are lots of great things to be thankful for. Auntie Ally said she was thankful for the vacuum. I think dad is thankful for that too!

Each day more and more leaves would come.

And our tree got really full!

Pretty cool to see our tree with all those leaves huh? Mom said we have to take them down on the 1st of December for the Christmas stuff... but we are going to keep the leaves forever in a special scrapbook!

Christmas Came Early!

Mom and Dad decided to make us a playground for Christmas! It was really cool to watch it happen right outside of my window! I wanted to show you step by step how my playground was built! This was the before picture. We used to have our swing set in the grass but it was killing it - which doesn't make for a happy dad.

Another before pic... man this is going to be good!

So, one of the agreements with our landscapers was that we would help with the work. SO mom offered to help move some of the rock while we were napping. Dad told her not to worry about it - it was probably too hard. Well, dad either doesn't know mom well - OR - he knows her TOO well... she got her shovel out and cleared a 12 foot by 4 foot section all by herself. The hard part was we don't have a wheelbarrow - so she had to scoop it and walk it far away... that night mom and dad went out together after we went to bed and scooped the rest of the 50 foot by 30 foot section until late at night. How romantic...

After the rock was removed our favorite guys came over and dug 5" of dirt out of the whole area... that way we could have 6" of pea gravel in our new play area - that makes it safe in case we fall... the thought about sand but mom said something about attracting cats. I never knew they liked to play in sand too!

Once the dug out the area - they built a little wall for us to sit and walk on...it's just the right height.
Next came 18 tons of pea gravel. This was the pile outside our house. A huge truck delivered it. I thought it was pretty cool until it started lifting in the air - I wanted to get inside FAST - I thought it was going to fall over on me.

Ta - Dah! Here is is! The finished project! It is SO cool and so much fun! This is the greatest Christmas gift ever!

Daisy even got a new mountain out of the deal! The put all the dirt they removed into a mountain in our backyard - now Daisy has a bird's eye view of the golf course - good thing she isn't a jumper. Mom and Dad are going soon to pick out about 5 or 6 trees and some new plants to dress up the rest of the rocks!

Sissy approves!There's nothing like playing with your dad in the backyard!