Jaggears Christmas Party

Jeremy and Jill's Tacky Christmas Sweater's

Having Fun in the Photo Booth

Jeremy and Jake

Best Costume and White Elephant Gift Winners

Family Pics 2009

Here are some of my faves from our family photo session. We wanted to shoot the session in downtown so that we had a lot of different background options. We were there for about two hours and it's funny because when you're walking around taking the photos it's hard to imagine how they're going to turn out. Obviously they turned out great and I love them! We will definitely be taking family pictures on a yearly basis from now on.

Learner's Permit

How can I possibly have a child old enough to drive??? I'm so excited for Riley, but so sad for me. I can't believe how fast he's growing up and I am NOT looking forward to him leaving. Today while we were shopping he tells me that he hates school, can't wait to be done and that he just wants to own a house...I must have the only 15 year old boy who's dream is to drive a sedan and own a home :) So back to the driving! Well, there are some things along the way that I decided were dad's responsibility; not limited to but including tying shoes, swimming and driving. Of course as soon as he got his permit he wanted to drive! I was really nervous but I knew it was important to him so I didn't want to say no. Lucky for me he's a great driver. I should count to see how many times I tell him to slow down.

Pig Blanket???

So here we are on family night playing Cranium. This video makes me laugh so I wanted to share it.

Turkey Bowl

Northwood's 3rd Annual Turkey Bowl!

Riley's costume???

Riley and his friend, Nick, decided to dress up for their Halloween party about five minutes before they left and this is what they came up with. He was going for an old school b-ball player and pulled it off pretty well. Now the big question is why would we already own those short shorts? Riley and his friends regularly make Goodwill stops and this was just one of many fabulous finds!?!? Some of the others include a pair of super short, silky, shiny red boxers (I had to ban those from being worn in public), a really huge old school scooter, a tricycle, a black leather mini skirt, etc.... Oh how these boys make me smile!

Halloween Pics

I know I have been a terrible blogger lately but I wanted to make sure and post the Halloween pics before Thanksgiving :) So here they are....Bailey and her friends were The Three Blind Mice; Jesse and Colleen were a baker and an oven; Jeremy and I were Mr. Clean and a cleaning lady.

Bailey's 11th Birthday Luau

Michelle, Caitlyn, Chandler, Bailey and Chelby

Bubble bath in the hot tub??

Jeremy accidentally blowing out Bailey's candles.

Let the games begin.

Apple bobbing champ!

Unfortunately for Bailey her birthday falls in July making it very difficult to plan a party post school and right in the middle of vacation plans. I try to plan her parties for May but this year just never managed to get it together and as usual all of her friends were gone so we waited until late August to have her birthday bash. The Luau theme was a hit and the girls loved the lays, grass skirts and party music. Our sweet friends, the Sage's, opened up their house so the girls could swim, play in the hot tub, eat and have plenty of room for party games. Peg thinks it's hilarious to add bubble bath to the hot tub though I'm sure there are some sort of rules against that, but the girls thought it was great!! After swimming, eating, presents, etc... the girls were all set for apple bobbing. Bailey is amazing and beat everybody before her neck got super sore...though nothing a little Motrin didn't fix. The girls were so sleepy from swimming so long that they came back to the house, laid down for a movie and went right to bed thus making it our easiest, most enjoyable sleepover yet :)

Nadirah's Driving

Me making her pose at the DMV.

Jeremy instructing on how to reverse out of the driveway.

Getting the seat, mirrors, etc...ready.

Off we go.

This summer Nadirah finally started driver's ed. You take three classes, take a test and then get your permit so you can get some practice driving at home before you have to drive with the school. So here she is for her first time behind the wheel. Other than scaring me to death by driving way too close to the right hand side of the road and any vehicle that may or may not be parked there she does pretty good and every time she drives she gets better and better.

Family Vacation 2009

This year for our family vacation we took a trip to Galveston over the fourth of July weekend. We stayed at the Treemont Hotel; which by the way is super nice and has huge rooms. We spent the entire weekend doing what we love best....playing on the beach enjoying the sunshine. The first night we went to a seafood restaurant that was right on the water overlooking the bay, walked The Strand and then hung out on the Hotel's rooftop terrace. Day 2 was spent all day at the beach and pool...the last picture is Riley and Bailey walking back after allowing the current to take them from one pier to the next. We had to go find them and they had NO idea how far they had traveled. Other than the fun in the sun we also went to a movie, ate lots of yummy food, played games in our hotel, went to Moody Gardens and the aquarium before heading home again. Though a short trip we had a lot of fun. Can't wait till next year when Jeremy has all of his vacation time built up again.

Galveston Pics

Jeremy's statue pose.

Moody Gardens

The Aquarium

J&J on the beach.

Mom and Bailey by the Hotel Galvez pool.

Bailey's 11th B-day

Bailey with Robin Hood a.k.a the waiter.

Stealing Aunt Colleen's hat.

Cake and Presents

Trying out the new camera.

"Potion"

All of Bailey's friends were out of town so we took Bailey to The Magic Time Machine with the family. It was our five plus Papa, Bubby, Grandma Mamie, Aunt Colleen, Uncle Jesse and Amanda. The restaurant was a lot of fun, had good food and plenty of entertainment. At one point Jack Sparrow even stole Colleen's purse.

Family Reunion 2009

This year's Family Reunion was in Oklahoma at the Rebel Hill Guest Ranch. The Ranch is a 3rd generation working horse ranch with over 100 horses, tons and tons of roaming cows, elk, ranch dogs, ducks, geese and llamas. There was so much to do on the lake with fishing, canoeing and paddle boating. Our cabin, which we shared with Robert and family, was on the other side of the lake so the kids used the paddle boats as transportation back and forth. The cows were everywhere and at night they would come right up to our cabin. The first night we had about 75 cows right outside the door; I was sure they were going to scratch my car. The cabins were really nice and had fully stocked kitchens to prepare all our meals. Riley was the only one less than thrilled with his sleeping arrangement...apparently the bed was scratchy, uncomfortable and had a bug or two. We all shared a good laugh watching him adjust to the bed...to which of course he laughingly replies "just wait until mom lays down!" There were so many good pics they just wouldn't fit in one blog so keep looking there's more.