Field Day

Zach did awesome at his field day. My camera battery died before I could catch him in action. This is just him looking all serious, getting ready to compete! He tied his friend for 1st place for the long jump and high jump and came in second in the 50 meter and 100 meter sprints. Good job Zach.

Spring...

I recently looked at my blog and realized that I'm posting alot of pictures, but not writing much about what's going on with us. So this time, I have no pictures, but just some updates.
Chris is working very hard at his new job with Northwestern Mutual Insurance Co. - he's still in training and trying to learn a whole new industry. It's been an adjustment, but he's excited for the future.
I'm still working 4 days a week, and running the kids around to their activities in the evenings and weekends. Both Ryan and Zach have most of their soccer games in the Philly area, which is an hour and a half away. It was fun the first couple weekends, now it's getting old!
Ashley just tried out for cheerleading. Her and her good friend are on the same squad, so they're excited. Her friends' brother will be playing football with Zach for the same team the girls will be cheering for. The boys are not so excited about this. They think it's embarressing that their sisters will be cheering for them...... I told them, please.... they're not cheering for YOU, they're cheering for the whole team. It will be cute to see the four of them next fall during football season.
I almost forgot about Ryan's track and field - he does the high jump.

Easter

Easter with Chris's cousins' family

Bloopers

I stole this idea from you, Laura. I love Laura's blooper pictures. I don't have that many, because I usually delete them. Most times I go to use my camera, I find random pictures and videos the kids have taken. The first two are examples.

Chris doing his 'fake sentimental/crying routine' when Zach was reading his birthday card about growing up.

I always buy birthday cakes, but Zach really wanted a footall cake, so I thought "how hard can it be?" This was my first attempt at a home-made birthday cake. It's not fabulous or anything, but hey, I made it. It came from the heart!

Valentine's Day

The kids and I had fun making Valentine's sugar cookies. Can you tell which plate I decorated and which one the kids decorated? They each gave some of the cookies they decorated to their friends. I told them to make sure they tell their friends "they" decorated these. Zach asked "why, cause you don't want them to think you decorated them?" I said, "no, of course not. I just want your friends to know YOU made these yourself".

Zach made this cookie. He said it's like a meat-lovers pizza. He named this cookie a "Junk in the trunk sugar-lovers cookie". As far as the rest of Valentine's Day, Chris and I got to go out to dinner together, something we haven't done in way too long. Chris did good and got me my favorites, ... chocolates.

Winter pictures

Zach during the blizzard in his snow fort.
Our new front door. It lets alot of light in our house. You just have to make sure you're fully dressed before you come down the stairs, especially at night with the lights on.

Our cute snow covered home.

Me, Ashley, and a neighbor sitting on top of their snow fort. We got over 2-3 ft of snow between 2 different snow storms.

One of our feathered friends at our birdfeeder. We love looking out our garden window and seeing cardinals, blue jays, and red-headed woodpeckers, like this one.

Christmas 2009

Christmas 2009 came and out went very quickly. We opened presents in the morning, and headed down to Washington D.C. to have Christmas dinner with the Conley family. We had a blast. The kids had snowball fights, played Wii (of course), and even played some board games. We caroled, ate, and laughed until our bellies hurt (love that). That always happens when Chris's cousin, LeAnne is around. It was definitely worth the drive down there. I just wish we were closer to more family so we could spend time with more family during the Holidays!

Christmas chaos before clean up

Serious snow ball fight at the Conley's. It was boys vs girls. There was no mercy, I went outside for some reason and got pelted (not by one of my own boys, thank you very much). These boys mean business.

I love this picture. It shows how rushed we were getting out the door to head down to DC for Christmas Dinner. Ryan wasn't paying attention when he put his shoes on.

Stockings. If I could just get someone to fill my stocking....

Ryan's new phone with unlimited texting. The first of many texts to come.