Hey, I just realized that if you click on the scrapbook page (in post below), it will enlarge! You just gotta see them! I love, love, love those pictures!

If you give me cute pictures...

I will scrapbook them! Ray's dad just recently gave me a treasure trove of pictures. While looking through some of them, I came across some really cute pictures of Ray, his older brother Mike, and his younger sister Tanya (for those of you who don't know who's who). So, of course, I had to turn them into a scrapbook page...





I tried to make it bigger so you could see it better, but it got really blurry when I did that, but aren't they cute!! After I print it out, I'm going to swipe purple paint around the edges.


I just love having pictures like these to celebrate Ray's younger years. Sometimes I feel like I've known him forever, but he did have a life before he met me and before Hannah and Emily were born, so I feel like these pictures help me get to know the Ray I never got to meet.

And I just have to say, "Thanks, Mike, for the pictures!" There will certainly be more scrapbook pages to come! ;-)

Always full of surprises

That would be Ray. So many times he can be a real pain in my you-know-what, but every so often, he surprises me. Like today. When I got out of the shower this afternoon (I purposely made this a day where we go nowhere), I heard him giving lunch to Hannah and Emily and their two friends. But, when I came into the kitchen, I found this:

Yep, those are cookies baking in the oven. The boy baked cookies for the girls and their friends. Now, how sweet is that?! And right now, he is making us dinner.

There are many things I can say about Ray to show how rotten he can be, but lately, and little by little, he has been letting sweet, tender things leak out proving that maybe, deep inside he is one tasty morsel!

Christmas Eve pictures

Here are some cute pictures from last night:

First, Hannah and Emily in front of Grandma Heckle's tiny tree...



Me and Hannah and Emily in front of said tiny tree...



The four grandkids (Hannah, Lauren, Emily, and Aaron) on the couch...



Aunt Jo with her nieces and nephew...



Grandma with her grandchildren (same order as above)...



And me with my godson Aaron...

Merry, merry Christmas!

It was most certainly a merry, merry Christmas at our house this morning. It all started last night when the girls were super excited to don their new pajamas and go to bed (a first) so that Santa could come.

At about 4:00 this morning, Emily woke up wanting to open her presents. This is the first year she has gotten out of bed before 7:00 or 8:00. I coaxed her back to bed, telling her it was much too early to get up. "Can't I just go down there to see if he has come yet?" she asked as I guided her back to her room.

"But Emily, if he hasn't come, and he's trying to come, he won't be able to come because you are awake." That sealed the deal until 6:00.

"Can we open them now?" an anxious child begged.

"Not until 7:00. How about you sleep in my bed?" She agreed, and I was glad. I was tired of getting out of my bed to usher that one back to hers. She woke at 7:21 and I managed to keep her in bed (checking the clock every minute) until 7:30. That's when she jumped out of our bed, ran to Hannah's room (who was still sleeping), and together bolted down the stairs. We could hear their excited squeals all the way upstairs.

One of the first presents they opened was the American Girl Doll they each asked for. I think this picture here adequately sums up how they felt about this gift and all the others to come:

Hannah danced when she opened her bookbag on wheels:

And they both enjoyed their webkins:

Knowing Emily has a penchant for building herself tents out of blankets and chairs, he brought her a pretty cool tent. The funny thing is, she wasn't very happy about it when she opened it. The look on her face gave it away. "Dora????" she asked. She thought it was going to be something babyish (and so did I, to tell you the truth, since I wasn't aware of this gift brought by Santa), that is until Daddy put it up in the basement:

IT'S HUGE!!!!!

They can stand in there without touching the top.

After all was said and done, I sat on the couch, looking at the girls and their toys, the fire blazing in the fireplace, and Ray putting stuff together, and felt so blessed. I mean, I look at these 2 and see all their joy and excitement and innocence, and the worries and the stress and the irritations melt away.

And I watch Ray so involved with their interests and their girl toys and my heart melts (believe that or not--Ray melts my heart!) ;-)

Ahh, what a wonderful life it is indeed!

Their First Dance

I was so excited about their first dance experience (posting for that is below this one) that I already made a scrapbook page:



Now that I see it "on-line" I think the flower needs to be smaller. But, needless to say, this is what I did with my "free time" while these guys were at the dance!

Off to the ball

Ray escorted one very excited Emily and Hannah to the Father/Daughter dance at their school. The dance had a princess theme so we bought dresses that were as "princessy" as I was going to get. They both looked so cute...

Emily with her toothless grin...



and Hannah with her princess crown.





And their daddy looked so handsome.



I'm glad Ray took this opportunity to spend some special, quality time with his daughters. I only wish I was there to take more pictures!

She did it!

Hannah has been growing her hair out for what seems like forever so she can donate it to Locks of Love, and today it was finally long enough to come off! We took Jo Ann with us so the stylist could see how she wanted it cut (she wanted her hair to be like Aunt Jo's). As Hannah sat in the chair waiting for the stylist to start, I kinda got a little sad. I mean, Hannah has had this long hair for so long, but then in the same breath, I got excited because I thought she used to look so cute with her short hair

Hannah didn't smile at all as the stylist cut her ponytail off...

or when the tail was laid on the counter (I was beginning to fear she was going to dislike the final product)...

or as the stylist continued cutting.

But boy was I glad to see her smile when it was all said and done!

Man, does she look cute with this new look! I am just so proud that this little girl did such a wonderful thing for someone not as fortunate as she.

Christmas in November

My gift from Ray last Christmas was to have our fireplace converted to gas. That was 11 months ago. Finally, after much nagging on my part, he came through.

Every night, since Sunday, I've been curled up in front of this:




Inch by inch and day by day I love my house even more!

A trip to...

This afternoon Ed called and asked if he could take Hannah and Emily to Chuck E Cheese. Luckily, we had no plans and they were able to go. The girls were super excited to go to Chuck E Cheese and to spend time with Uncle Ed. They were gone for hours (I even called once just to check on them)!

When they came back, they all sat down and played a game of Sorry.






I have said it before, but I will say it again: I love that my siblings are involved in the lives of my children! They make my life that much sweeter.

Let's Go Doodlin'

Sue and Patrick have established a tradition of taking the girls somewhere special for their birthdays. This year, Hannah decided she wanted to go to a ceramics place. She went there last winter with her Brownies group and thouroughly enjoyed it.

Their first stop was to McDonald's where they had lunch...

Then it was off to paint!

She was originally going to paint a mug to give to Aunt Jo, but she changed her mind and decided to make herself a bowl.

Sue and Patrick decided to paint things for little Mya's room.

I am so thankful that Hannah has aunts and uncles like Aunt Sue and Uncle Patrick to make her feel special. She has talked nonstop about making this bowl and how she can't wait until she gets her bowl back so she can eat her cereal out of it in the morning. And, every time she eats from this bowl, she will remember going to Let's Go Doodlin' with Aunt Sue and Uncle Patrick to celebrate her 8th birthday!

Hannah's soccer season

Ray and Jo Ann just finished their first season coachng youth soccer. I must say they did a nice job. Last year, Hannah's team didn't win one game until they got to the tournament. This year, they won 3 games (not counting the tournament) and tied one. Not great, but certainly an improvement.

Jo Ann did a happy dance whenever the girls scored...And speaking of scoring, Hannah actually scored this season...3 times to be precise!

(That's her scoring. I actually cropped the picture so it would be clearer, but it wouldn't upload)

She also seemed to be a bit more aggressive this year as well.

And she seemed to like to play goalie...



Overall I enjoyed watching Hannah play this year especially since she was coached by her aunt and her dad.

The soccer angel

I have been trying to exert less control over Hannah and Emily, allowing them to make their own choices, giving them a say in their own lives. It hasn't been easy especially when Emily wants to wear shorts, T-shirt, flip-flops, and wings to Hannah's soccer game in November. But, I had to let her. I mean, besides being unfashionable, she wasn't really hurting anyone, and if she feels secure enough with herself to run around in public looking like that, then, why not? So, I got a few picures of her warming up with the team, wearing her shorts, her T-shirt, her flip-flops, and her wings...




Once I print this out, I am going to add the journling by hand to the bottom of the page.

It hasn't been easy to let go and to watch some of the clothing choices this child makes, but I couldn't help but smile as I watched her stand in the middle of a soccer field wearing wings oblivious to how different she looked! ;-)

The Pumpkin Patch

On October 19th we all got together to go to Shaw Farms for pumpkin picking and hayriding.

It was funny to watch Jo Ann and Brian decide on their pumpkins...


Emily couldn't find what she was looking for...


Hannah finds one....

Sue and Pat...

Ed and Emily...

Jo and her girls...

Sue (who has finally made an appearance on this blog) and her girls (including little Mya)...

Four cute convicts...

One cute bebe...

My cute bebes...

Three little boys...

Jo Ann and Aaron...

Ed hugging the girls...

After the pumpkin farm we went to Cracker Barrel to sing Happy Birthday to Ray and to remember Dad.

I love times like these spent with my family!