Party like a Rock Star...

This year for Mariah's 11Th Birthday she celebrated in Jonas Brothers Style. Being that her party happened to fall on the opening night of the Jonas Brothers 3D Concert Experience I had my friend Cindy whip up some C-U-T-E party invites that looked like concert tickets. (She has lots of cute designs here) 
Mariah delivered them to her friends with explicit instructions to come dressed in their rock star attire. Once the guests rendezvoused over to our house I loaded them up and drove them to the theatre in style...No, we didn't rent a limo (although, I am sure that would've been a hit!) I am talking about our family mini-van! As we entered the theatre where the show would be seen we were greeted by a whole row of screaming teenage girls carrying signs and all. For a moment it really did feel like we were at a concert. My crowd was a little bit more tame and preferred to sit back and take it all in. (which surprised me) Once the music was pumping and the teenage girls were dancing in the isles all while singing in perfect harmony. My Aldy-girl couldn't resist and had to get up and start grooving too. That was until the mean-ole usher came and told them all to sit down!! :( I didn't see what was the big deal? We were in the back row...for goodness sake! Anyways after the show the girls did a few photo-ops and it was back home for pizza, presents, and cake.





Speaking of CAKE!!! A few days before the party I received my Family Fun Magazine (March Issue) Mariah was skimming through it and spotted a cake that she wanted and asked me if I would try to make it.
My attempt seemed to be successful one little girl asked if I would be available in July to make her cake! Too cute! That's the beauty of a "Topsy turvy" cake you can't really mess it up! :) Over-all I think all the girls enjoyed themselves.



Happy Birthday, My sweet girl! I love you!

First Snowman of the Season...

I was uploading pictures from our memory card and found these pictures that I had intended to blog a couple of months ago. *SIGH* I am not very good at this blogging stuff... So here are the girls and their first snowman of winter--they had a little help from their friends... (Helena & Ginny)

There's no place like HOME for the HOLIDAYS!!

My poor blog is so neglected...I just can't seem to stay on top of it. Here's a little recap of our Arizona vacation. We left Ohio in the freezing rain (literally) on the 16th of December. We braved the conditions and traveled to Columbus where our friends the Callahan's graciously let us stay the night at their casa so that we could catch our early morning flight. It was the scariest 80 mile drive I've ever taken, the roads were so icy and their were many an unlucky motorist whose cars were either in the ditch, or worse. I couldn't WAIT to get to sunny Arizona. Traveling on the plane was a new experience with Beckett. He had been on many flights before this one but with him just recently turning 2 he was no longer a lap baby and we had to buy him a ticket. We put his car seat by the window and strapped him in. He didn't know quite what to think as we were taking off. He would get scared, hold on to his car seat for dear-life and scream for one of us to shut the window blind. On the way home as soon as we put him in his seat he covered his head with his blanket--he knew what was coming and wanted no part of it(of course, I have no pictures). Once we landed in Phoenix and were picked up by Papa Larry and his lovely new bride MaryLouise. We were off and running--alot of people to see in a short time. We spent time with our families in Mesa, Camp Verde, and Duncan. It was a great trip. It was so nice catching up with everyone. My only regret is that it was way to busy, I felt like we were rushing every where we went trying to fit it all in. I guess that's to be expected at this time of year.

Christmas Lights in Sedona: Every year one of the local resorts in Sedona hosts this festival of lights where people from all over the state create these displays that bring cartoon characters to life. I am not sure how long this tradition has been on-going, but I can remember going with my family as a teenager. Our girls love going and it has become our tradition to go anytime we are in Arizona for Christmas. This year we went with our dear friends, The Bullard family, and Shelby--our niece--who didn't want any pictures taken of her.







Papa Larry and MaryLouse Christmas Eve:


It's our family tradition that the kids get to open one present from us on Christmas eve and it's always new Pajama's to wear to bed that night. Here's Shelby (niece) Mariah, Alden, and Beckett ready for bed in hopes that St. Nick would soon be there.




The stockings all hung by the chiminy with care...



The Santa Booty...

Turkey, Trimmings, and Pie... Oh My!!

This post is out of order,I've gotten so far behind in my posting. This is about the Thanksgiving that almost didn't happen. We had been planning on spending Thanksgiving with the Husted family at their new home in Virginia ever since we heard that they would be PCSing this fall from Ellsworth to Virgina where Allen was taking a job at the Pentagon. A lot of obstacles came into play regarding this road trip--mostly with Trace's school. He's in the AFIT IDE program and it's been pretty rigorous and the homework has been daunting. The kids and I hadn't spent a weekend with him in I don't know how long--if that's any indication of how little we've seen him in the last couple of months. So, in order for us to go he was going to have to get ahead in homework for him to even afford the time away. What a roller coaster ride. One day we were going, the next day we weren't! Finally his instructors show a little mercy and homework that he thought would be due this week is now due at a later date. We're all excited because we think it's all a GO! Trace checks the weather and a portion of West Virginia that we will have to travel through is forecasted for snow! 6-12 inches of SNOW! UGH! So, we prayed that the weather would subside and decide to wait until Tuesday to go final on our decision. Long story short on travel day the clouds parted and the sun came out and we decided to make a run for it. All the praise and glory to God for answering our prayers. The entire drive was rain/snow free and for the most part the roads were not busy at all. We arrived late Wednesday night. Had a wonderful Thanksgiving with the Husteds in their beautiful new home. Friday was spent touring the Washington DC area. There was way too much to do and not a lot of time to do it in. We walked the Smithsonian Air and Space Museum, took the Capital tour and by the time we were done with that, it was starting to get dark out, we decided to call it a day and head for home for Turkey leftovers and a photo shoot in Cindy's in-home studio. I wanted to get some pictures of the kids for our Christmas card and also get Beckett's 2 yr shots. What was supposed to be an hour drive from DC's to the Husted's ended up taking 2 hours due to some incorrect directions from On star. (it certainly wasn't driver error!!) It ended up being quite entertaining. Alec, (Cindy and Allen's 10 year old) was begging for his dad to pull over and let his mom drive! But alas...we made it home even with Allen driving. Saturday we packed out early morning and had a pretty uneventful ride home. We had such a good time and I am SO glad we were able to go!!






This is Beckett taking in the sites of Washington D.C.

B-Man turns TWO!!!

Happy Birthday my sweet,sweet, BOY!

Got Blogger?

Okay, so my friend, Cindy is amazingly talented...she is the one that designed my blog and has since made creating custom blogs into a business. For a limited time she is running a holiday special where she will custom design a site for you for only $25.00!! (What a steal!!) So, if you don't have a blog---now is a good time to start one. If you do, how about an blog lift? I promise you won't be disappointed in her handiwork. I also guarantee that it will impress your family and friends... That's not all...She's also hosting a give-a-way from now until Thanksgiving day for a free year long subscription!! (How cool is that???) check her site for details...

Mariah hit's the campaign trail...

Mariah was nominated as a candidate for the coveted 5Th grade class vice president. Here she is hard at work on her campaign. Her slogan... Don't be a dum-dum vote Mariah for VP.. hmmmm?



Her hard work paid off... Students voted on Monday and today she found out that she is the newly elected 5Th grade vice president!! Way to go, Mariah!