In Our Hearts...

Every year on December 10 Dan's Mom puts a memoriam in the news paper. Her simple gesture means so much to us. I just wanted to post the one for this year as the poem she chose is absolutely perfect at describing my feelings.
IN MEMORIAM

Jackson Daniel Hoover
Aug. 24, 2003 – Dec. 10, 2003

In Our Hearts
We thought of you with love today
But that is nothing new.
We thought about you yesterday
And days before that too.
We think of you in silence.
We often speak your name.
Now all we have is memories
And your picture in a frame.
Your memory is our keepsake
With which we'll never part.
God has you in his keeping.
We have you in our heart..
Love, Mom, Dad, Peyton, Bailey and Meemaw

Sledding & Santa's Sleigh...

Yesterday after I took my last final for the semester (YIPEE) we went sledding with some friends. It was a lot of fun minus the steep slippery hill that provided a great workout for my outta shape bootie! Peyton had a great time going up and down while Bailey sat at the top watching contently (she did go down twice much too her dismay).

This morning Peyton's daycare class took a field trip to sit in Santa's sleigh! Here are some of the pics...

Long time!!!

Sheesh, it's been a while since I last posted. I guess I'll just give an update.
To celebrate turning 5 Peyton had a birthday party with a million kids!! No really there were 16 kids there total (talk about chaos!) He had a blast playing with all his buddies and of course got a load of presents! Way too many if you ask me!
His cake turned out awesome, I bought this edible image from a company on ebay, he loved it.

After deciding we weren't going to put up lights on the house this year we put up our Christmas lights LOL! We just couldn't not do it, we knew the kids would love it and it brings so much Christmas cheer, we couldn't go without! We even got a new blow up of Mickey Mouse. The kids thought it was fun sitting on the roof with me (for 2 seconds each -Dan's idea!)

We got our tree from a tree farm called North Pole Pines in Farr West. It was a fun little place, you go and pick out your tree then cut it down. We went with Dan's older brother and his family, maybe it'll be a new tradition?? It only took us a little over a week to get the tree decorated!

Last week was MeeMaw's annual work client appreciation night where Santa comes. When Peyton saw Santa he ran and jumped in his arms. I overheard him telling Santa "remember that thing you brought me...that Robin toy? Well, I want a riddler and a penguin toy that goes with that toy set" Santa was awesome and played right along. Bailey on the other hand FREAKED OUT!! She didn't want anything to do with Santa. I finally convinced Dan (who is a softy for his baby girl) to take her and sit by Santa so I could get a picture. As you can see from the picture she wasn't too thrilled. After a minute she warmed up but still wouldn't agree to sit on Santa's lap. He was great with her and had her tell him about her list she had made.

My birthday was last Saturday. Check out the cute wrapping of the presents (Dan's idea). We went to breakfast at IHOP then shopping at Kohl's then Dan and I went on a date to his work Christmas party at the Timbermine (thanks Buffy for watching our crazy kids!) Dan hooked me up with a lot of cute clothes and a book (the Lost Symbol by Dan Brown). It's amazing how much more he knows me and knows what I like after 8 years of marriage!

My Baby is 5!!!

Wow, time flies! It seems like just yesterday we were checking into the hospital to have Peyton. We were so excited to have him in our family, nervous but excited. As a baby he was pretty hard. He had reflux and was very fussy because of it. As a toddler he was AMAZING compared to all toddlers I've seen! And as a kid, he's pretty dang good aside from the occasional bout of crying. He's sweet to his sister, who bullies him to no end, and he is always saying nice things too me out of the blue. He has such a tender heart (just like his Dad). He LOVES playing with his friends and asks all day when they will be home from school, when they do get home they play until the sun goes down.

We celebrated his birthday today by going to Chuck E Cheese. Dan took the day off work, it was great to have him there. The kids had a great time playing and it was actually pretty clean. I think we'll be going back soon.

We are so thankful to have P in our family, and hope he has had a great birthday!

Halloween 2009

We kicked off the Halloween celebration last Thursday by attending the Syracuse pumpkin walk with our good friends, the Merrills. The kids loved playing and looking at all the fun pumpkins. Thanks for inviting us, it was a good time, as always!

Sunday we carved our pumpkins. Dan and I love carving pumpkins and always look for a challenging pattern. This year Peyton wanted a Darth Vader and Bailey wanted a princess pumpkin. None of the one's we carved this year were too tough, they were fun to carve. Next year I think we'll wait until as close to Halloween as we can so they aren't all caved in and wrinkled by Halloween night!

On Friday the kids had their daycare Halloween parade, I went to watch and hand out candy to all the kids. They had a lot of fun showing their costumes to their friends.

This year we spent Halloween at Dan's brother Shawn's house. It's always fun for the kids to trick-or-treat with their cousins. It was especially nice this year to have some of the cousins help Bailey as she is so small yet independent and didn't want Dan or myself to help her up or down the MANY stairs on the MANY porches! The kids got way too much candy and Bailey and her sweet tooth are in heaven right now. Bailey's costume turned out really cute, everyone commented about how awesome it was!

And a random silly picture of Beetle Bug.