Decorating the Tree!

 Jackson loved picking out the tree...so much in fact that he never wanted to leave the lot! LOL

 It was extremely hard for me to let him help decorate the tree and this is the first year I let him help.  I wasn't too picky about which ones he put up, but I was picky about how low he put breakable ones.  Of course, a few have already bit the dust, but they both LOVE it.  John got a remote to turn it on (best idea ever!) and Jackson is obsessed with it...he turns it on and off for us everyday :)  Bailey knows that touching the tree is a "no, no!" in fact, she walks up to it and says..."no, no!" hahaha Unfortunately, it doesn't really stop her from doing it! Jackson is enjoying telling on her and saying,  "MAMA, she is touching it!!!" hahaha!  Then of course I have to put her in time out (we follow the Super Nanny technique) b/c he is watching to see what I will do!  She sits there completely still the whole time and then I tell her why she sat there and then she gives me a hug~seriously, I don't have to ask her for one...she just gives it to me.  I think she has watched her brother go through the drill a MILLION times and knows how it works! hahaha

TA-DA!!  Of course Toopa's had to jump in the picture...classic!!!

Thanksgiving 2011

 Our pose we make every year with all the kids (well all the kids that can make it).  A big congratulations to Chris and Amanda who got engaged recently :)  We are so excited for them!!  We are all so happy that Amanda will be an official member of the group :)

Jackson's favorite part of the day! In fact he prayed for "Diddy's lawnmower" during bedtime prayers tonight! LOL

 The girls with our girls :)  Still can't believe I get to call her my sister, I am so lucky!

 Aunt Amy letting Bailey feed herself mashed potatoes with a spoon, this was her first time doing it herself and she did great!

 We met Grandpa at Cracker Barrel Thanksgiving night (my Mom was in route to my cousin's wedding in Chicago!).  The kids did pretty well considering the very long day we had.  **Notice Bailey is only wearing one shoe and is having her first lollipop~which she devoured!!

Our Elf on the shelf made his first appearance last night!  We have read Jackson the book since he was a year old (the same age Bailey is right now).  It was the first book he would let us read the whole way through. In fact, it was the only book we were allowed to read him at bedtime for about 8 months~it was summer out and all he would let us read was Elf on the shelf! HA. Go figure~it is the first book Bailey will let us read all the way through too!!!  There is just something about it that they love! Anywho, this is the first year that we are actually doing the elf part, and he really gets it!  We were at Crackle Barrel tonight looking at the fire and Jackson said, "NO touch the fire or the Elf on the Shelf will be MAD!" LOL  He repeats over and over that we can't touch him and all sorts of stuff about the book!  If you don't have it~you should get it...it's such a great book!

 We have so very many things to be thankful for this year!  I will only name a few....our two healthy children that have two parents that love each other, faith in God, amazingly supportive families that we miss when we are not together, our parents who give us their wisdom and most importantly their love, a church we love and fellowship I never dreamed I would have, and friends that have made us who we are today. **And a very big congratulations to my cousins Megan and Stephen who had their first son Stephen Robert Snyder III last week! We are very thankful he was healthy and so is his Mama!** We have lots to look forward to and be thankful for in 2012...Allie & Blair's wedding, Chris and Amanda's wedding, Kristin and Neal's wedding, babies, and so much more!

Our Sneaky Boy

We recently took off Jackson's child proof lock that we had on the inside of his door and he sneaks out sometimes (Mimi once had a Capri Sun slung at her face at 2am only to find Jackson standing there! He said "I'm thirsty Mimi!!").  He needs access to the potty (which he still does not take full advantage of and goes in his pull up quite often during the night or in the morning) and that is the main reason we took it off.  I went to go to bed at about 10pm the other night, tried to open the gate and couldn't (it was pitch black and I couldn't see him). I turned the light on and this is how I found him ;)  Love our sneaky little boy!

Grandma and Grandpa

We got to see Grandma 2 days in a row last week!  She came over to our house Saturday and then we went to their house on Sunday.  You can tell we had so much fun :)  And yes, that is Jackson is a walker that is waaaaay to small for him, but he absolutely loves it and it's pretty hysterical!

Sweet babies :)

 Bailey does this all the time...she LOVES Cooper and Cooper LOVES her :)

 This a picture I took of Bailey while she was in time out. She had pulled Jackson's cereal bowl off the kitchen table and spilled milk everywhere.  She scares me doing that...she could hurt herself pulling stuff off like that!  Anyways...she sat there with this sweet angel look on her face the entire 5-10 min. it took me to clean it all up.  You have NO idea how hard it was not to pick her up and squeeze her and love on her! 

 This is me and the kids at our lake out back, John got a sweet shot of us :) Below are some pictures I took while the leaves were still pretty.  I don't like them all that much and she was being Mona Lisa all day, but here they are anyways :)  

Helen

We had a GREAT time in Helen, GA this past weekend.  A HUGE thank you to Nana and Opa who offered to watch the kids while we had a weekend away :)  It was my first time away from Bailey overnight and I did a lot better than I thought I would :)  For those that don't know, in the late 1960’s, Helen was revitalized from a remote mountain community into a replica of a quaint Alpine Village complete with cobblestone alleys and old-world towers.  It is located in the foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains (I got this off the visitors website!).  It was about a 2 hour drive for us.

 If you are interested in reading about this Indian Burial click on this link...http://helengeorgia.net/nachoochee-indian-mounds/.  The history is amazing!

 We went horseback riding and then zip lining in the dark! I had never road a horse before, so this was defiantly an eye opening & super fun experience for me! I already told John before we got there that if they offered me a helmet...I would be wearing one! LOL  The owner told us that if you were under 12 you had to wear a helmet and that it was up to the adults to choose if they wanted to wear one.  Can you believe I was the ONLY one in our group to wear one?!?  I guess you can already tell I don't care much about my "looking cool" because I do drive a minivan (by choice!) everyday ;)  No WAY was I going to fall off/or be thrown from a horse and have a head injury, when all I had to do was wear a helmet! :)

 If you look really closely you can see me coming in...I know that there is light from the flash, but you have to understand that it was PITCH black and you could hardly see a thing!!  We only saw by moonlight!  I was awesome!

Here is John coming in!

I am sure John will hate that I posted this, but I had to show how BAD we ate the whole time and both of us said we almost felt physically bad from all the terrible (but so delicious!) food we ate! LOL

 This is the view from our balcony.  The Hooch is in the background.

Here we are again in downtown Helen.  Again...thanks a million times over to my Dad and Mrs. Moe!

7 years and no itchin' here!!

Today was our 7th anniversary.  It seems like just yesterday, yet forever ago at the same time!  I remember how he called me to go to his brother Dan's and my best friend Amy's rehearsal dinner like it was yesterday :)  Yet, it's hard to remember what life was like before him?!?!  I guess it's like it is when you try to remember life before you have kids ;)  We spent the day going to church, taking Jackson to a birthday party at Chuck-E-Cheese, playing outside, cooking a yummy dinner by candle light, going to eat treats at Cold Stone, and then off to Walmart to grocery shop!  Yep, busy day for us!  Good thing too b/c it seemed to last FOREVER with the time change! 

This was our first official picture taken together on our brother and sister-in-laws rehearsal dinner night.  John proposed only 8 months after this pic and we were engaged a little under a year after that :) Ugh I hate my hair and what was I thinking?!!?  Can you believe he thought I was cute?!?! LOL   

Look how young we were!  My hair was soooo short and Johns was long or full I should say ;)   I am so lucky to be so in love with him and we have shared and been though so much together in this past decade.  I look forward to watching our children grow older and all that is to come with the wisdom of getting older.  I think each year of marriage is easier, but it is definitely something that you have to work at and I think we are always working to improve our relationship~I don't think that will ever stop.  John's grandmother Ballard sent us a card and said that her and grandfather have been married 68 years!! That is truly amazing.  I hope we make that...I will be 92...and John would be 95...I think we could do it!!  Shoot, 92 is the new 75 ;)