More Portraits

As promised, here are the other pictures from our family photo shoot. (does anyone know how I can get my family picture larger over on the right?) Anyway, The 2nd pic is me with my 3 brothers in order of age. The last one is of my half-siblings. They are 19, 16, and 13. oops... she's 12 not 13.

Sweet Baby Gwen

 

This is my new niece, Gwen. Jason's sister Emily is the proud new mama. Allison LOVES hugging and kissing her new girl cousin. She can't wait til Gwen's big enough to run around Nana & Papa's house with her. I love new little babies! What an amazing gift from Heavenly Father! Isn't she beautiful?

18 months of bliss!

Our family is complete with the addition of this little angel! She is such a great blessing and joy to us all! My only regret is how quickly the time is going by. (She was 18 months old for these pics in January). She truly lights up our lives! We count our blessings daily!
p.s. -I'm new at using my scanner so the colors are a bit off, but you get the idea.

Extended Family

For my Dad's 60th birthday, we surprised him with these family photos! My 6 siblings and I, and our spouses and kids, took these photos last Friday, then presented them to him at a surprise dinner that night. My side of the family has never done that before, and I was pleased with the results of getting 17 people together for a picture. We took a picture of just my family too, but I haven't received a copy yet. That will have to be posted at a later date. The coloring here looks awful, but in person it really looks great.

Just Silly

The kids were having a fun time wrestling with Daddy and Mommy had to snap some photos. I love when they just play and have a good time together!

Thornhill Broom

 

President's Weekend we decided to have an overnight campout at a nearby beach. What fun! We took Holly for her first campout. She was soooo good. There were millions of smooth rocks all over the beach and the kids made a fun fort (ditch in the sand with rock walls) with them. We had campfire and s'mores, or course. It was just a fun overnight getaway for the family. I love this tradition we have started with our kids, and I'm grateful Jason is so willing to put in so much hard work to make it happen for us!

A Girl's Best Friend

 

The new puppy has grown quite a bit since we got her for Christmas! She's a good girl and a lot of fun. While the boys are at school, Alli has a playmate in the backyard. Holly follows Allison around and wants to do everything Alli does. They are the best of friends! It's so cute to watch. When Holly jumps, Allison says "NO Howie!" She's not afraid of Holly and Holly is really gentle with Alli. She's wiggled her way into all our hearts. We love our puppy!

Bubbles!

 

Last week we pulled out some bubbles in the backyard and Alli (and the dog) had a BLAST chasing them around. For some reason, I hadn't thought to do that with Alli before that day. What fun we had!

Fireman's Ball

 

This weekend we attended the Fireman's Charity Ball, benefitting Make-a-Wish Foundation. We went with Jason's current crew from the fire station. It was a nice evening of dinner and dancing. We have never seen Monica Zierenberg so lively and energetic as we did on the dance floor that night, (notice the pic of her doing the splits - that was just the beginning!) That girl can get down!!! Jason is doing the MoonWalk to a Michael Jackson song, and I'm playing Musical Chairs (for a prize) in one pic also. Thanks to Jules & Lori for a terrific evening!

BEST BUDS!

We ALWAYS enjoy our visits with our best friends, the Schimelpfenings! Their last visit here was when Darren went skiing. This belated post is early on that Sat. morning while watching cartoons and awaiting their breakfast. They have such a great time together!

WHO NEEDS A SWIFFER....

WHEN YOU HAVE AN ALLI?!
So I walk into the kitchen the other day to find Alli licking up Doritos crumbs from the floor. I guess she had pulled the near-empty bag off the counter which spilled out all the crumbs. She was scrounging to get the crumbs (probably before I could catch her). I laughed so hard and quickly grabbed the camera. It was so hysterical!

 

Hair-do!

 

I had fun experimenting one day with Allison's hair! It's getting a bit long, and I've never had it trimmed. She usually wears pigtails, (or she looks like an orphan) but we tried something new and I was having a blast! Oh.. the possibilities! (eventually):-)

Ski Video

Here is video of Darren & Andrew skiing. (Darren is in the camo jacket, Andrew in red) This was such a fun day for the boys! I'm so glad we got pictures and videos to remember this day!

Ski Mountain High!

 

Our good friends ,the Schimelpfenings, came to visit for the weekend. The two Dads and the older boys went skiing on Saturday and had a blast! This was only Darren's 2nd time skiing. He started out slow, but was speeding down the intermediate slope by the afternoon again and again, and having the greatest time! The best part of his day was spending it with his best friend Andrew!