Miss Merry Christmas Pageant

Natalie and Nicole competed in the Miss Merry Christmas pageant again this year.  Lauren didn't want to this time. 

My beautiful girls:

Natalie won Queen in the 9-11 year old division.  Nicole won 1st Runner Up in the 12-13 year old division.  We are so proud of them!

Halloween 2010

Nicole and some of her friends decided to be fairies this year.  Nicole was a blue, cheetah fairy. 

Natalie was Snow White and she carried the Seven Dwarfs in a basket.

Lauren and Jack were Jessie and Woody from Toy Story.

Cousins and friends met at our house to go trick-or-treating on Main Street.  It was a lots of fun!  Everyone got plenty of candy, cotton candy, popcorn, hot dogs, etc...

Carving Out Memories

Ever year the kids carve out a pumpkin and Richard makes a pumpkin pie from scratch.  YUMMY!

Nicole had a pumpkin decorating contest at her school.  She made hers into a turkey.  The turkey is holding signs that read, "Just say NO to pumpkin pie!" and "Eat more apple pie."

Johnny Appleseed Day

 Today was Johnny Appleseed Day in kindergarten.  All the kids in Jack's class dressed up and they spent all day doing apple related activities and trying lots of yummy foods and drinks. 

Jack wanted to take an apple pie, so Richard and I made one last night from a recipe we found on the Internet.  It was yummy!  Can't wait to get more apples and make another one.

Grandparent's Day

My pre-k class and Jack's kindergarten class said the pledges and then the kindergartners sang a song. 

Back to School

I can't believe Nicole is in Jr. High!  WOW!  7th grade!  I took a couple of pictures of her one day before school started when no other students were there.  Didn't want to embarrass her on meet the teacher night.

Lauren is so excited to be in her Daddy's class this year.

Jack is in kindergarten.  Now he says he's "one of the big kids".

Natalie is starting 5th grade.  She's going to miss having Nicole on our campus.

BLING!

I took Nicole to get her top braces today.  They will put the bottom braces on in a month or two.  I told her that she should like them as much as she loves "bling" on everything else (note the sunglasses and hat!), but she insists, "These aren't bling!" 

Before:

During:

After:

Of course she chose blue bands when they let her chose her color for this month.  Each time she goes they will give her thicker wires until they get to the size they need.

After she got them, we were in Hobby Lobby and it started storming.  We were standing on the sidewalk waiting for the rain to slow down before we tried to get to the car.  It lightened and thundered at exactly the same time and Nicole hollered, "Oh God that was right in front of me and my mouth is full of metal!"    I asked her if her teeth were tingling.  She was NOT amused.  Of course her Daddy asked her if she could open her mouth and find a radio station playing Hannah Montana.