Year End in Pictures

October 31 - birthday lunch with Raechel and Lisa

October 31 - birthday dinner with the family

Thanksgiving lunch at Mom and Dad's house in Keller.

Playing in the leaves with Papa after Thanksgiving lunch.

December 1st - braces off day!

And they're off - love that smile!





Camden decorated as a tree for a game at his class party.



Cullen and two of his friends at his class party.

Kenna and her friends at their third annual Christmas party at our house.

Girls night out - we went to see "Truthical" at Gateway Church and then went to Central Market for dinner and a little shopping.

Mom and Dad joined us for the musical.

We celebrated Christmas in Keller on the 19th, a few days before Nana left for North Carolina to join Papa who was helping his parents out after my grandmother fell and broke her hip. We missed having Papa at our celebration, but we had fun with Nana, Aunt Jennifer and Uncle Kevin.

The boys testing out the skateboards that Uncle Kevin and Papa built for them. What a special gift!

 



All the cousins in East Texas at MeMe and CeCe's house.



The cousins had so much fun with one of Cullen's gifts - Connect Four Launchers.

Christmas Eve!





Happy Birthday, Jesus!





Halloween

Now that we're approaching Thanksgiving, I suppose it's time for me to post some Halloween pictures!

I had really thought that last year would be the final year for Kenna to dress up, but she wanted one more year. She did forgo trick-or-treating with the family to go with her friends in one of their neighborhoods.



Cullen had fun dressing as a Ninja.



Camden decided to be "Link" from the video game "Zelda". (I'm including a picture of Link for those, like me, who may not be familiar with the game.) I warned him that most people would just think he was an elf, but that was okay with him. He was super excited that three different people actually new that he was Link!

The boys ready to trick-or-treat with their friends.

Pumpkins!!

Fall is one of my favorite seasons (right up there with winter, spring and summer!). Okay, so I love all the seasons, because each one holds its own special blessings. So many good things happen in the fall...the kids go back to school, the weather finally cools off in Texas so we can really enjoy being outside, we celebrate my and several of my friends' birthdays...and then there are all the PUMPKINS! I just love pumpkins! 

We made our annual trip to the pumpkin patch a couple of weeks ago on a Saturday. The weather was beautiful and we got there early, so it wasn't too crowded. The kids even cooperated for a few pictures.

Last weekend we had a few friends over to join us in carving our pumpkins. As always, the creativity of the group amazed me!

Happy Fall!!

School Days

We've had a lot of school activities in the past couple of months. Here are a few highlights:

Camden at "MavFest", the elementary school's fall festival. He won at this inflatable Twister game.

The third grade performed a program about the American flag .

Cullen and his best friend ready to run in "Mavs on the Move" - the school fun run.

Cullen on the move!

Kenna and her five best friends at "Stampede" - the middle school fall carnival. I just love this group of girls!

Celebrating Camden

September 5, 2002 - Camden joined our family and things have never been the same!

Fast forward almost nine years - I took lunch to Camden last Friday at school. Here he is goofing off with his kids' meal prize:

Sunday evening we went out for dinner - our family plus Camden's best buddy. "Robin Hood" was our waiter.

After dinner, we came home for cake. Camden had seen these cupcakes that are made to look like ice cream sundaes in a magazine. He wanted it to look like mint chocolate chip ice cream (but it's made from frosting) and I decided to do a single layer cake as well so I'd have a place to write his name.

His friend spent the night and then on Monday (his actual birthday) we opened presents from family, went to a movie, and then went shopping to spend his birthday money.

Lots of Legos for our birthday boy!

Camden has been very excited about turning nine because that meant he was old enough to get a pet. He's been looking forward to getting a hamster. When we went to the pet store for Cullen's hamster a few months ago, we must have held 10 different hamsters to find just the right one. With Camden, when the first one was placed in his hands, he knew immediately that was the one he wanted. We did encourage him to hold a couple of others, but he still came back to the first one. So, here's our newest family member, "Rico":

Happy Ninth Birthday, Camden!!

Back to School

The kids started back to school this week. So far everything seems to be going well and the week has flown by!

Ready for third grade:

Fifth grade - last year in elementary school:



Eigth grade - how did that happen?!