CHRISTMAS 2011

 Daddy opening gifts, Zack with our snowman that sings great funny Christmas songs, Nick doing his puzzle ( a must in the winter time in Minnesota) and the tree, which looks like we had a lot of gifts, but some were from Grandparents...

Nick turned 9... My baby is getting older..

Nick's birthday seemed to last days.. First we had the day of his birthday with just his family, then he had some friends over for a small party to play Wii and then he asked to spend the night, and go swimming at the AmericInn..

Josh Leslie at Nick's party... they played Skylander on the Wiil
Nick opening one of his gifts...

When Nick woke up, I had plastered notes all over the rooms, tons of notes saying happy birthday, happy 9th, we love you.. etc...He smiled when he saw them all..It took me forever to make that many notes, but worth it..

Nick at the AmericInn.. He always makes things so fun and interesting.

Nana and Papa came over to help celebrate his birthday at the hotel..

Dude ..You hear what I hear.!!!

I convinced the boys to be in the play for Christmas this year.. Actually it was a whole family affair. Josh played a bumbling deputy Andrews with Jeremy Misener who is his Youth pastor. Nick and Zack sang along with mommy in the choir and Chris ran the lights for the stage. Guess our family was needed this year...

Josh and Jeremy about to bust open the door to Mondo Mart in the play.
Rehearsal night...

The cast of the play.

Nick and Zack are in the back rown.

Zack turned 11....!!!! WOW...

Zack had a X-Box 360 party for his 11th Birthday....Mom made or tried and attempted to make a fondant X-Box cake....

Zack and Joshua Leslie at his party.

Having Cake....black frosting made for some very green teeth...

Vitaly Brown at Zack's Birthday...

The boys found Chris' old army gear and boy do they look like their daddy even more..

The Cake I attempted to make. Black is probably the hardest color, I think to used and the whole cake was black...

Good Morning Mr. 11 year old...

When the Dustin's were here, Nana had a cake made for all the birthdays kids around the November/December time. That included Hannah, Nick and Zack...Very clever cake, half flower and half penguin...

Our Fall trip to the Inlaws.....

Here Josh was desperate to watch his "Own" movie and so he was having a hard time hearing over his "brothers'" movie, so we suggested he wrap a shirt around his ears to muffle out the boys, he did it and I snapped a picture before he felt dumb and said. "I'm not wearing this, I look stupid, someone may see me. Yeah Josh here in Iowa farmland, who knows who you will run into!"

Mama looking her beautiful self....ninety five years old here. I hope I look that good at 70..

Zack and Nick climbing a tree their daddy used to climb. Zack looks so handsome with his military crew cut that was Mommy's mistake...

Here we are on the patio enjoying the sun .

Zack, Josh, Boone, Brody and Nick playing at a park nearby where Chris grew up playing. Within walking distance of his house by the shores of the "Mighty Lake Vermillion"

Sharon (grammie's) fat cab Abbey...

Chris' sister Libbie Cline and Josh on the lake.

Along time ago, Mama and her husband owned a flower shop. Later they named the building after them. Here is the sign still hanging in Danville, Ill.

The clan again. Libbie's boys kind of out grew ours, even though they are all around the same age.

Pumpkins and More....

Here We Go.. A little late posting, but today is Nick's Birthday. He wanted to play his new Wii Game and so that gave me some spare time to sneak in here and catch up on some posts. Be prepared...

Nick is painting his Angry Bird here. He worked so hard on that pumpkin. All the boys won first place this year. They were thrilled. I think we all did an awesome job, including daddy...

Chris did the Walmart Rollback Guy again this year.. He was determined to enter him every year until he won.. This year he added the cowboy hat and he won first place...He even beat my "pumpkin patch" pumpkin next to him, which I will continue to enter until I win first =)

Look at his adorable Angry Bird....

This is Domo and if you don't know who he is, then you will not appreciate how good and exact of a job Zack did on his pumpkin.

Josh's Viking Dude. this was really cool and won first place, although with how bad the Vikings are playing, he should have lost just for that reason, but being the loyal fans and not fair weathered fans like us, they cheered big time for this pumpkin...

An alien with a purple cast.. huh....

Harvest Party at Oakridge community Church.. Josh and Nick were Roman soldiers and Zack an alien.. He has to always be different, which is what we love about him..

Zack and some of his friends from our Faith Coop we attend.

Nick and Sophia Leslie playing a game.

I made a huge banner that said, Jesus is Lord of the Harvest.

We just got back from Trick or Treating after the harvest party.. Great time to go, everyone is ditching the last of their candy. the boys made out....Thanks for reading this post...