Best Thanksgiving Ever and Holiday Fun!!

 Things have been busy around these parts getting ready for Christmas and all!! However, we had a chance to go to a Med Group Children's Christmas Party the other night!!  It turned out to be a lot of fun and I was able to meet many of Ryan's co-workers!!  But most of all, it was a blast for the kids!! Here they are playing a huge connect four game...

 They also got to decorate Christmas ornaments!!

 Jane was THRILLED to see Santa and she just gave him a big hug and chatted his ear off about who knows what.  The girl really know how to work it, I guess...but it was pretty darling.  Santa gave her some small Mermaids and they have been quite the hit ever since.

 A few weeks ago we were able to go to New York and spend Thanksgiving with Bryan and Wendy, Matthew and Courtney, all the kids and my dad, who made the quick trip out here just for Thanksgiving!!  It was the greatest Thanksgiving ever!  It has been soooo nice and comforting to have family relatively close. And it seriously hurts my heart to know that it won't be that way for much longer.  But that fact made this Thanksgiving extra special for me!! Know one noticed, but I secretly teared up several times thinking about all the wonderful times we have been able to spend together on the east coast and all the amazing memories we have made!!  I will definately miss this and remember this as being a very special time in my life!  Here are all the sweet cousins!!

 This picture was just too cute not include!!  Jack is really sporting a great Bryan crusty right there :)

 Here we all are enjoying the amazing dinner and Bryan and Wendy worked tirelessly to prepare!!  It was truly delicious!!

 In keeping with tradition, Ryan took a nice long Thanksgiving nap-haha!

 All the kids LOVED having grandpa there.  It was such a special treat having him there.

 This is my favorite picture of the day!!  What a beautiful family this is.  And we cannot ignore that AMAZING turkey that Bryan made.  I was very impressed!!

So, as usual, life is good and I feel so amazingly blessed!!!  Thanks to Bryan and Wendy for making this the BEST Thanksgiving ever!

Beckham's Big Debut!!!

 Beckham recently had his 3rd birthday!!! I CANNOT believe my baby boy is 3...I think that officially means I need to stop calling him my "baby boy" :(   I am so proud of this little guy.  He is a very curious and determined boy with one of the biggest hearts I have ever seen!! I whipped up a cars birthday for him with what little time I had and it actually turned out to be a lot of fun!!

 He was so excited to open up his presents.

 But first, we played some games like pin the cars in Radiator Springs :)

 He decorated and played with our punch balloons!! Beckham was so excited to have is best buddies, Jonas and Lindon, there!

 Then finally, Beckham got to open presents.  He LOVED his Spiderman sweatshirt and watch!!
 And he read his super hero book over and over again...

Then, we had pizza and lightning McQueen cupcakes!!

Yum!!  Even though he is a bog boy now...at least he still eats like a one year old :)

Beckham, also had his very first school program!!!   It was so cute and all the boys did so good singing Thanksgiving and Halloween songs. 

Beckham was a little upset at not getting to play the instrument that he wanted...but he still did great and I was super proud of him!!  What a lucky mama I am!! I just wish I could slow down the clock a bit and have my kids this fun age for a long long time :)

Jane's Halloween Parade and Dance Recital!!!

 Jane is certainly growing up and has been keeping very busy!!! At school on Halloween, she was in a Halloween parade with the all her school friends!! 

 Here is Jane with her wonderful teacher, Mrs. Lolly!!

 Jane started dance in the summer time and LOVES it!!  We were so excited when we finally got to see all her hard work come to life in her dance recital!!  Jane looked so beautiful and it made me so sad to see how big she is getting :(

 Here she is, sitting with her class waiting to perform!!

 Jane doing a little ballet:)

 And now she is tap dancing....so to speak :)

 Here are all the wonderful performers and their sweet teacher!

Our little princess is growing up way too fast- but we are super proud of her:)  I have video of her dancing which is a MUST SEE.  I will post it as soon as I can figure out how :-/

Hurricane Sandy!!!

 We have lived in Dover not quite a year and a half now...and we have now experienced "superstorm" Sandy, Hurricane Irene and an earthquake that shook my house.  Life on the East coast is nothing but exciting.... When I heard that yet another Hurricane was heading straight for us, I was less then thrilled.  Because, I know exactly how physically and emotionally tiring preparing for a hurricane can be.  And this time Ryan was going to be gone!!

Unenthusiastically, Ryan and I got to work packing up all the things we love from our house and packing them into the car for the inevitable evacuation order.  Scrapbooks, pictures, keepsakes, irreplaceable items and necessities were gathered while everything else we tried to put up as high as possible.  Ryan worked all day to help me prepare, then left early the next morning- one day before the hurricane was scheduled to hit.

 To everyone's surprise, we never received an evacuation order...even though the homes across the street from us did?!!!  So, we were stuck with no choice but to stick it out.  Luckily, I have a sweet friend, Kelsey, who lives across the street. And her husband was gone as well.  Since she was required to evacuate, she and her three kids decided to come stay with us through the storm.  There was plenty of flooding in the field behind us. This picture was taken before the storm even hit us...

 We did glow in the dark art, decorated Halloween cupcakes, watched movies, Kelsey did Jane's hair and nails (She was in heaven) and did lots and lots of playing.  We spent over two whole days without leaving the house. 

 And quite a mess was left in the wake of all this fun...However, we were very blessed to have power the whole time and no indoor flooding at all!! 

This hurricane was so different than the last one, but we were equally as blessed this time around.  I am so grateful for the power of prayer and the protection I know we received!! 

Havin' Some October Fun!!!

       Near our house there is a darling little Amish run farm called Fifer Farms!!  And every year they do a Fall Festival.  It is so cute and fun!! No one in Dover misses this- in fact, most people get a season pass and go many many times!!  All the AMAZING pictures are courtesy of Ryan, who is quite an amazing photographer!! Here is darling little Beckham pretending to ride the tractor made out of very large hay bales...

 I think this picture is so fabulous :) Jane had such a blast in the huge corn pit!!

 New to the Fall Festival this year, the zip line was an absolute favorite for our kids :) They were both so brave and held on all by themselves the whole time.  They did it over and over again...

 Here is Beckham with his tractor in the corn pit...

 This was the second favorite festivity for out kids- the duck races!!

 Jane and Beckham each got to pic a pumpkin and paint it :)

 We have two pretty darn cute kids...if I do say so myself!!

 Here is Beckham being his fearless self and going on the zip line!!  He is such a little adventurer :)

 The horse tire swings were really cool...

 Thanks to Hurricane Sandy, we won't be celebrating Halloween this year :( So I was especially grateful this year for our Dover Ward Trunk-or-Treat just this past Friday!! Jane wanted to be a mermaid!!  I worked for an hour on her hair and make-up...it is too bad we didn't get a closer picture of it...because it looked good!!!!! And Beckham's newest favorite movie is Pete's Dragon.  He loves Pete's Dragon, Elliot, so much that he cried when the movie ended-haha.  So, he decided he wanted to be Elliot for Halloween and this was the closest thing I could find :)

 He looks even cuter then Elliot does :)!!!

 Things have been so busy for me that I didn't have time to really plan and execute a super awesome truck-or-treat theme this year like I usually like to.  So, I whipped this up really quick :) Ryan was a prisoner in his cell.  You can't see it but I had a cell bed in there, a prison toilet and a tray with half eaten food on it.  Ryan was a good sport and stayed back there handing out candy :)

I love Halloween!!  It is a shame Sandy is "raining on our parade" this year for Halloween :( so we will be having a Halloween hurricane party inside this year.

Super Saturday!!

      Why do all the fun things have to happen on the same day?  That always happens to me...nothing will be happening for weekend after weekend- then every fun activity converges all on the same day.  Oh well, we decided to take advantage of this very occurrence last Saturday and hit every fun activity advertised for the day!!  And it was the BEST super Saturday EVER!!

        I really love going to the John Dickinson house which is five minutes from our house.  John Dickinson was a founding father and a signer of the constitution- and his house is absolutely beautiful.  Every four years there is a John Dickinson festival, where they celebrate and showcase colonial times and John Dickinson's life!!  We couldn't miss it!! Here are the kids playing a colonial game with sticks and a ring...it was actually a lot of fun!!

 Here is the fam in front of the beautiful old house!!

 We learned about how they smoked and preserved their meat to last the whole year!!! It was so interesting to see how they lived back in the day!! Here is Jane seasoning the meat...

 We got to see a magic show.  The magician and was so funny and so authentic- I was really impressed :) Jane got picked to be their special assistant.  She was super cute:)

 Next we saw a "Punch and Judy" show.  The kids thought it was so funny :)

 Then, we were off to the  Dover AFB Firehouse!!  We got lunch and we learned about fire safety :)

 The coolest part of the firehouse was being able to see a helicopter take off right in front of us!! The kids thought it was amazing!! 

 Next, we were off to the Air Plane museum for the military appreciation day!!  Free food, bouncy houses and best of all, face paint!!  We had a blast...

 It may have been exhausting...but it was a GREAT day full of many wonderful memories!!!