More Christmas Pic's from Gary & Diana's

Here are a few more pic's from Christmas Day at Gary & Diana's.

Enjoy!

"Our Family"
Momo (Jon's Grandmother) & Jon

Jon & Jared

This turned out to be such a good picture. :)
Gary, Angela, Anthony, Jon & Diana

Me & Jon

August 08 pic's of the boys

Here are a couple picture's of the kids from this past August. Enjoy!!!

Jared & Jake getting ready to leave for Indiana with their Grandma & Popo Gary. This was their very 1st time to ride in an airplane and they were both extremely excited. This picture is proof of their excitement. This was taken around 5:00AM the morning of their trip. They would both sleep until 10:00 in the morning if you would let them, so for us to get a picture this cute at 5:00 AM was just a miracle. They had an amazing time and were able to visit with alot of family and some family they had never even met before. My plan is to do a separate post with pictures of their trip... Key word's~ "My Plan" :)

Jared~ WOW!!! That is some Crazy Hair!
hahaha!! I lost track for a minute on what he is holding in his hand.
Another baby tooth is gone! He is getting so big, so quickly.
How sweet!! It wasn't until their trip to Indiana that I realized Jake can now wear big boy size's. They never seem to have matching clothes in the toddler and big boy section, so I always just tried coordinating color's. Now I am finally able to buy matching clothes for them again. I am sure this just thrill's them!
I remember coming home this day from getting my hair done and Jon had them dressed in these guitar shirts. These shirts were screaming "Take my Picture!" So off we went in the back yard for a photo session. Fun times!!

Family Christmas Pictures~ Dec 08

Here are a couple of our family Christmas picture's from this year. This was actually the 1st time we used Sara with SDS Photography and she did a Great Job!!! She has so many good spots and idea's for picture's that it almost effortless on my part!! All we have to do is smile.... And when you have a little ham like Jake we get pictures like this one below. Those are the pictures we will look back on and just laugh at.

Cousin's 08 Christmas Pic's

It's apparent I am WAY behind on blogging, however, better late then never. :) Tricia and I started this tradition in December 2000 when it was just Jared and Brennan. Every year since then we have had their Christmas picture's made together. It is really neat to see how much they change each year. I can't believe this is the 8th year we have been doing it.

This year we used Sara with SDS Photography and she did a wonderful job!!! The day we went to get the picture's made it was Freezing... We really wanted some outside shot's and as you can see the kids were real troopers. Check out the waterfall in the 2nd pic. It was so cold that the water was frozen. Poor kids!! :) The things we do for picture's.

Dylan, Jared, Brennan, Jake & Trinity in the front

Trinity, Dylan, Jake, Jared, Brennan

I guess Jared thought this was a good time to measure how much taller Brennan is. No better time then during a picture!!!

How sweet!!!
My precious little nephew's..
Dylan & Brennan
Too cute!!!
Jared & Jake

Jared's Christmas Party- 12/19/08

Our afternoon party was at Grace Hartman~ Jared's school. They had some yummy snacks and also did a craft and a book exchange. The craft was so cute and the kids had a fun time putting it together. They made a little candy cane candle with ribbon around it. It was just precious! The book exchange was fun because this year one of the mom's read a story and each time she said, "to the right or to the left" they had to follow along and send their book to the right or left. It was funny seeing the kids because after a while some had 2 books and some just had puzzled looks on their face's. :) Everyone ended up with a book though and a special treat from Mrs. Baldwin. She was so sweet to give each student a little goody bag filled with special treat's.

Jared & Mrs. Baldwin~ this is the little candle w/candy canes and ribbon attached

Jared & Mommy- not quite sure what he was thinking here- (except for possibly "enough pictures, my friends are looking???")

Jake... He must have still been in deep thought.... He had just got through asking me when he was going to be a student at Grace Hartman with his bubba. HOW SWEET!!!!

Jared making his craft project

Jared's 2nd grade class listening closely during the story so they know which way to pass the book.

Jake's Christmas Party~ 12/19/08

We started our day of holiday parties with Jake's party at The Ark... They had so much fun! They ate pizza and fruit and then and had little ice cream cup's for dessert. The kids were so excited because they got to add all kinds of sprinkles to their ice cream cup's. They did a cute little craft project and then a coloring book/crayon gift exchange. It was so neat to see them on the gift exchange because they passed the gift's around one by one and when the music stopped then the gift stopped too. That child got to open the gift and it was just precious. Here are some picture's below of the party.

Jake & his teacher~she was opening the gift from Jake and he was so excited giving it to her :)

Gregory & Jake getting a little goofy!!

(Jake's best friend)

Jake REALLY enjoying the ice cream & sprinkle's

The music stopped~ so he is tearing into his gift!!! He was so cute when he opened it too. He said, "Oh I love it, I always wanted this Rudolph coloring book!"

Picture of the class eating their lunch~ WOW!! What good kids!

Trinity's 4th Birthday Party 12/13/08

My niece turned 4 years old on Dec 14 and we celebrated her birthday the day before at Gatti Town in Frisco. The kids had a blast eating pizza and playing all kinds of games. Jared even won a watch on one of the games, so he was thrilled. Trinity got so many nice gifts and seemed to have a wonderful time playing with her friends and cousin's.

Me & Trinity

Jared & Daddy

Trinity & Jake

(Jake must have been winning since he didn't even look up!!!!)

Mame & Papa Jim~ 'All Smiles'

Jake & Jared~ cutie pie's!!!

I'm back!! And a couple pic's from Tobie and Derek's wedding reception 12/6/08

I'M BACK.... Wow!!! Where has the time gone?!?! My goal was to get caught up on blogging, however, I seem to be getting further behind. So with the new year finally here and in full swing, I am going to put one of my new year's resolutions into action... So here goes!!! The blog resolution will have to come first- to get totally caught up. Then my next resolution which is to go try out this new yoga place here in Rockwall will have to come second.

We have been so busy lately I am not sure where to begin. :)

One of my dear friends Tobie got married on December 6th and it turned out beautiful. They are such a sweet couple and we wish them all the happiness in the world. Here are a couple pic's of the reception.

Julie & Tobie

Derek & Tobie

"They are so cute together!!!"

Baby Cakes by Angie

Ok- I really should have taken a picture of the delicious cake that we ordered from Angie but it is way to late since it is about half gone. :) This was solely to endulge on with my sister and our families since they are in from Colorado. I had heard how wonderful Angie's cakes are and we wanted to give her a try especially since I have known her for many years. We are very very happy we did. I actually referred my neighbor to her for her little boy's cake for his 1st b-day party last night. It was not only delicious, but it was so darn cute! It matched the invitation just perfectly. So if you are wanting a cake with alot of personal, then Angie is your lady.

So Thank you for the yummy dessert!! :)

Jared's Music Performance @ Grace Hartman- "Rich Man"

Yes- I am back trying to incorporate old stuff with new stuff. This took place on Nov 13. This is Jared and his music teacher on the night of his music performance. They all did so good except for I have to say that Jared did AWESOME!!!! They were chosen for the different part's and Jared was a "Rich Man". So he had to wear a suit coat, nice shirt and a tie. You know he was excited about that. NOT!!! But I do have to admit, once he got ready he said "Mom, I look pretty good." LOL!!! And of course I agreed with him because he does look so handsome.

Jared & Mrs. Boyd (his music teacher)

WOW!! I was impressed!! He is standing so still and just smiling away!

I know it is only because he wanted me to hurry and take it so we could leave. haha

My handsome little man!!!

The family- with Jake's funny face thinking we will not see it. haha :)

Continuation of Thanksgiving- evening at Momo's

I have been meaning to add these few pictures from Thanksgiving evening at momo's. Jake loves the camera and he will try and direct everyone where to sit, how close to sit to each other etc. It is SO funny that a 3 yr old is that into a digital camera. (I wonder what he asked Santa for this year?!?! ) The only 2 I took is the 2 that he is in. He took the rest. I have to say, he is pretty good for a little kid. :)

"Aunt Angela"

"Grandma"

"Momo"

"Jake & Uncle Steve"

"Jake & Uncle Rudy"

"Mommy & Puppy"
(this was a must according to Jake- he LOVES his puppy!!!)

Thanksgiving- Grandma & Popo Gary's House

Thanksgiving turned out to be such a wonderful day! We went to Jon's parent's for lunch and the food was so yummy! It is so good to be able to sit and visit and just relax. It seems like we are always so busy that it is hard to just stop and enjoy the moment, however, on Thanksgiving we did just that. We stopped and really enjoyed the day with family. We didn't get to see my family but we will see all of them for Christmas in a couple weeks. So we are really looking forward to that visit.

Jon, Julie, Jared & Jake @ Grandma & Popo Gary's house

I had mentioned to Jon earlier in the morning that I really wanted to take the kids to see Momo (Jon's grandma) during the Cowboy game. He knew Jared would want to stay with him to watch the game, so it was going to be just Jake and myself. During lunch I mentioned my idea to Angela and she had already thought the same thing. I guess great minds think alike!! :) So after lunch we headed out to see Momo. It was Diana, Angela (Jon's mom & sister), Jake and myself . We wanted it to be a surprise and it turned out to be a very nice surprise. Diana's brother's Rudy and Steve were there as well, so we had a real nice visit with everyone. Jake was a little Ham!!! He wouldn't stop talking! He is always full of stories so there is never a dull moment with him. We would just laugh when he would tell us how many girlfriends he has and then he invited Uncle Rudy to come over to our house one day to meet all of his girlfriends. LOL!!!

The cowboy game was on in the background and during one of the commercials they showed some of the Army troops sending holiday greetings to their loved ones. Jake turned around and said something like, "I don't know anyone in the army". And Momo said, "Well Jake, then who is that person in the army uniform in that picture on the wall?" Jake immediately said, "Jon". LOL! Rather then Daddy... Then he said, "but he is not in the army, he is just an army helper." hahaha He was so serious too! He associates the Army with the "camo uniform" rather then the dress uniform. We all started laughing as he was just as serious as he could be. For those of you who didn't know, Jon was in the army right out of school for about 4 yrs or so. So once again, we all got a good laugh out of Jake.

The below couple pic's are at Jon's parent's house. Jake loves to blow out candles especially when he thinks that no one is watching.
I will post more Thanksgiving pic's tomorrow as I am Falling asleep!!!! I need to get to bed.

Jake "Thinking" about blowing this candle out because he doesn't know he is being watched.

And its out!! He didn't realize he was being watched!!

Couple's Shower- Tobie & Derek 11/28/08

Wow!! I can't believe it has been 2 weeks since I have updated my blog. And the sad thing is that I was on vacation ALL last week and still had no time. :) Imagine that! We had so much going on last week but in the end it was all worth it.

Stacy and I hosted a couples shower at my house for Tobie and Derek on Friday evening and I had a list a mile long of little projects that I wanted complete before the shower. Most of the projects did get finished, however, I do still have some I would like to complete before our special Christmas visitor's from Colorado arrive in a couple weeks. It was all worth it because we had a wonderful time at the shower and they received some really nice things.

After the shower, Jon and I got a chance to really sit back and visit with Tobie, Derek and his mom for a while. We couldn't be happier for them both!! :)

Below are a couple pic's from the shower.

Tobie & Derek opening gifts

Opening more gifts!

Julie, Tobie, Stacy & Angie