St Louis Arch

Chris really wanted to take the girls to the top of the arch! We really enjoyed it! You ride up in these small little pods! The girls were really nervous. I will attach video of it later. My favorite was Tiana's eye all huge saying, "I feel like I am going to fall and shatter into a million pieces!" Once they arrived on top they loved looking out the windows. It was a fun day for us!

This is the pod! You can see how small it is and really cramped! Then you go over 600 ft - maybe I can see why the girls were a little nervous!

Thanksgiving

We had a wonderful Thanksgiving with Chris' family! The drive went smoothly and the visit was so much fun! The girls started out the morning baking pies with grandma. Larisa made a German Chocolate and Tiana a pumpkin! What a fun memory with grandma! They loved making the ridge on the pie crust!

We had a yummy dinner - too bad it takes hours to make and minutes to eat! I took some pictures at the table - but only a couple turned out - here they are! We all look tired!!

SNOW - Melts my heart!!

I could hear my cute little Tiana coming home from school and playing in the 1/2" of snow. I heard happy sounds and went out to see what she was doing. This is what I saw:

Melt my heart!! She is such a sweetie! I feel so blessed to be a mom! I am thankful for these happy moments that sneak in between all of the chaos and daily routines! Thanks Tia!

Great Visit

We had so much fun with Jeff while he was here visiting. We wish he could have stayed forever! It was fun to laugh and hear his fun stories. Thanks for the fun and entertainment. Here are a few pictures of some of our adventures!

We all had fun playing rock band! Jeff even passed off some songs to unlock more! It was fun watching him rock out he - rocked all around the room!

Jeff tried his best to continue his work outs! This is him using Tiana as his weights while doing squats! Tiana loved it!!

Jeff Loves hockey!! He was so excited to go to a Blackhawk game with Chris. Jeff loved watching the hockey game, and Chris loved watching Jeff enjoy every moment! They had a great adventure that I think they will both always remember it!

Special Visitor!

Jeff is a special Young man that has our touched our lives in many ways! We called on Friday and he said that he was planning on coming out to visit soon. I mentioned that it's too bad he couldn't come this week when Chris has several days off - well a few hours later with an accidental click of the mouse - Jeff was on the plane the next day. We were so happy to see him! Our families are very close - his mom is one of my best friends and I guess most important is the fact that Chris was his Scout leader for several years! He is an amazing man now and we feel so blessed to have him as a friend and as a guest in our home!

Posing on the lake!

Buds!

Two goofy kids!We went to show Jeff around the lake. This is a beautiful home ran by a local university the grounds are beautiful!!!

About the pictures - My computer program is having a lot of problems and I can't edit any of the pictures - I am hoping that I haven't lost the last year of pictures.

Big day for Larisa!!

Today was a busy, happy, fun day for Larisa. First - Larisa had try-outs for the middle school cheerleading team. They were going to let the girls know if they made it after the try-outs! I went to pick her up and found her grinning ear to ear and jumping around! I could tell she had made it before I talked to her! She was sooo happy! Then the youth were coming to our house for an activity - but she had a choir concert! She was excited to perform though, and she kept that grin throughout the performance! The choir sounded beautiful!! She was really excited to come home and find that the youth were still at our home and that she didn't completely miss the entire activity! We are so proud of her and the effort that she puts into things. We love you Larisa!!

About the picture - Larisa was on the back row and the girl in front of her must have worn high heels - I couldn't see Larisa well enough to get a great picture - just her head peeking out every now and then with a big smile! I took this picture at the Bible church where she performed.

Trick or Treat!!

Cute friends!
I love the mask!!

This was the 1st year that Larisa went trick or treating with friends, it made me a little sad. She went home on the bus with her friend and I picked her up after she was done. I missed her being with us, but I guess I have to let her grow up. Chris stayed home to hand out candy - we ended up not having anyone come - next time we'll all have to go out! Tiana and I went out with our good friends and we had a great time. We loved that it was warm enough to not wear a jacket! It was a beautiful Halloween evening.

Halloween Parade

At school they had a Halloween parade. I came to school and found a tearful daughter - she had left the tail to her costume at home and I didn't have time to run back home and make it back for the parade. She also wasn't aloud to have her face painted. The poor girl was so excited to have her class see the cowboy monkey! I finally calmed her down and said that she could just be a cowboy and then bring in a picture of her in the cowboy monkey costume to show her class - life was once again good!

Trunk or Treat!

Tiana wanted to be a "Cowboy Monkey" for Halloween. If you ask her what that is she'll give a look like Duh, and say, "You know, a monkey dressed up like a cowboy!" I tried to tell her that everyone was probably going to be a cowboy monkey this year, but she still wanted to be one! She drew a picture and designed how she wanted to look. My favorite part was when she wanted to put bananas in the gun holder. The vine is her rope. She makes me laugh - Tons!

Larisa was a skeleton again this year! I think she really liked the make-up job Chris did last year and wanted it again! She really enjoyed that her sister was freaked out by it!

Larisa with one of her best friends!

On Saturday we went to our church for a trunk or treat. It was a lot of fun. They had games inside and my kids liked the spook alley! Then, we all went outside for some trunk or treating.


The missionaries cracked me up because they can't do a lot to dress up, but they participated by wearing lovely 1970's leisure suits. The picture doesn't do it justice!

Sleepover!

I don't really like sleepovers - and it is usually a big NO, but I told Tiana she could have one if the parents were out of town and they needed to stay with us! Tiana finally had that opportunity with one of her favorite friends. We went to go and see High School Musical 3. ( I liked it!) They had a lot of time in the morning to play. They were working on a surprise in Tia's room and then called us in to unveil their secret room.

What's under the blankets?

Two Rooms! Jess had the Hawaiian room. Tiana had the cabin room. Tia hung animals all over the ceiling, because - "That's what they do - hunt things and stuff them." Cabin Room
Hawaiian Room

I am always amazed at how creative children are and the fun things that they can come up with!

Fun with Fall!

I've had a lot of fun decorating for fall this year! I am just loving all of the beautiful colors and I want to bring them inside! I've had fun doing it as cheap as I possibly can, and thought I'd show you a few.

Everything was bought used, dollar store or huge clearance - a couple of things were gifts!

Rake, jump, crunch leaves!!

The girls had a fun time raking leaves and jumping into them! They like to be buried and then say, "Monster, Monster come alive - come alive be the count of 5! 1.2.3.4.5"

One day someone asked me if my girls were best friends or worst enemies - I answered yes, because it can be either depending on the day! This weekend was one of those that you want to hold on to, because they were best friends all weekend - happy happy!

Pick up the leaves

Throw them in the air!

Watch them fall!

Then they changed the game to . . .

Pick up the leaves -

throw them in the air -

then hug my sister!!

It was so much fun to watch them do this several times! Freeze the moment in my mind forever!