we are family...

all my sisters (but one) and me!

This is the first time all of my parents' grandchildren were all together.

It was hard to get the children to all stay still and look at the camera at once, but we captured the event regardless!

Although we went to Utah for a sad reason(Great's funeral), there were also many happy moments spent with sisters and cousins.

hot fudge sundaes anyone?

ice cream. hot fudge sauce. one dollar. yum.
Every year a local chocolate shop, Malley's, celebrates the founder's birthday by offering hot fudge sundaes for a dollar. We were so there!


When the spoon just doesn't cut it- shove fistfuls of ice cream in your mouth.


The "sundaes" are served with the hot fudge sauce on the side. When Madelynne saw the little cup of hot fudge sauce she leaned over to me and asked me if she could drink it! Why not!

A little messy, but oh so good!

Saving some for later?

Good to the last drop!

snow fun

Now I would never put these two words together: snow and fun. However, Madelynne, absolutely adores snow and this would accurately describe her experiences. My experiences with snow are another story for another day.

Lucky for me, Matt, is also a snow lover and he has no problem going out and playing in the snow with Madelynne. It's a good thing or my kids might never experience playing in the snow.

Madelynne is quite the expert on how to make snow angels. She practices indoors when ever she gets the chance.

Jackson watched the snow fun from inside as he was still newly recovered from his asthma and ear infection adventure. He also made sure I put window washing on my to-do list!

Thanksgiving 2009

The table.

The centerpiece.

The turkey.

The food.

Grammie and Grampa came to spend Thanksgiving with us. There is nothing like spending time with family to make a holiday complete.

Madelynne with her mouth full of Thanksgiving dinner goodness.

Mommy and Daddy.

Jackson learned a new word on Thanksgiving. Pie. Now to his "Num a num a num" (aka yummy)it ends with pie. This little boy loves pumpkin pie just like his daddy.

Pumpkin Carving

Daddy is the master pumpkin carver in our family and this year he had two of the cutest pumpkin carvers to help him.



Notice how Madelynne is wearing a tutu while carving pumpkins? She is always wearing some kind of dress up.

Jackson was really good at getting fistfuls of pumpkin seeds out.

Unfortunately, he thought the seeds were for immediate consumption.

Madelynne wanted a "Bat Cat" pumpkin (from Charlie and Lola). Jackson was too young to express an opinion, so Mommy made the executive decision that her little Jack needed a traditional jack-o-lantern.

They say there are always two sides to every story and in this case there are two sides to every pumpkin. On one side of Madelynne's pumpkin she had a full cat face cut out and then she drew on a face to the cutout. The other side is the the face carved into the pumpkin.

Carving complete!

Madelynne proud of her Bat Cat face drawing abilities.

My little Jackson with his little jack-o-lantern.

A glowing "Bat Cat".

Jackson's Jack-O-Lantern all lit up!

Happy Fall!

The Pumpkin Patch

Yesterday we headed to our favorite farm to pick out pumpkins from the pumpkin patch.

The fall fairies have been busy here in Ohio painting all the trees the perfect shades of orange, yellow, and red. (Anyone who has seen the Tinkerbell movie knows what I am talking about).

Madelynne and Jackson both had a blast running around looking for the perfect pumpkin. Correction: Madelynne was looking for the perfect pumpkin and Jackson loved patting each pumpkin as he went past.


Madelynne thought she might like this pumpkin until she couldn't lift it and then decided it was not the one for her.

Daddy and his little "pumpkins".

Originally Madelynne wanted to carry her pumpkin until she figured out it was too heavy and Daddy needed to carry it because he has big muscles.

Mommy picked this sweet little "pumpkin" to take home.

Madelynne and Jackson proudly displaying the pumpkins they picked. Well, Madelynne picked Jackson's for him.

Our pumpkins weighing in for purchase.

The pumpkin prices.

Something about Kettle Korn just tastes like fall. We had some of this on our way out.

Even though the weather was chilly and it rained off and on we had a fun family outing to the pumpkin patch.

Hair Bow Making Extravaganza

There is nothing like quality time spent with my mom and sisters crafting up a storm. On this visit we had a hair bow making extravaganza! Andrea wanted to make some hair bows for Emma which led to me making more for Madelynne (like she needs any more hair bows!). And while we were at we might as well make some for my oldest sister, Alysia's girls and Natasha's sweet little Anna. The result: we made 4 sets of every hair bow! (A set being two of a kind for when you do pigtails.) We bought a box of 100 alligator clips thinking we would have plenty with room to spare and ended up using every single clip! Yes, it was a hair bow making extravaganza.

Here is a small sampling of the many hair bows created.

Andrea in the crafting process.

I don't know that we should let my Mom use that hot glue gun. Way too many burns in the name of hair bow making. A small price to pay for cute hair bows for the little cuties?

Kierstin proudly displaying the hair bows she made and holding one of her ever present shadows.

The proof that Madelynne really didn't need any new hair bows. I don't know how we are going to make all the new ones fit on this board! There may or may not be a second hair bow board in the making...I plead the fifth.