January, the final month to catch up on!

Meet Moe.  He's our new addition to the family.

 
 After getting home from Christmas weekend, Brian discovered that a neighborhood dog had gotten in our bunny cage (chewed his way in actually) and killed all four of our beloved bunnies.  In the six months that we had them we never had a problem dogs in our yard and haven't seen one since.  It was just a random thing.  Obviously, the kids were VERY upset when we told them.  About a week later, we got Moe.  He was in need of a home and the kids were in need of a new bunny.  He's inside for now.  Come spring time we'll mend the bunny cage outside and get Moe some friends.  Until then, the kids are thoroughly enjoying having him inside.

Straightened Riley's hair for church.  She liked flitting it around.  She's not the same kid without her curls!

Ella had Immigrant Day at school.  We had fun with it.  She was given the name Aisling Daly.  She was and Irish seamstress from the 1800's.  The 2nd graders were to immigrate to Ellis Island.

December

To start of with, Ella got a haircut!  It was a bold move.  She wanted short hair with bangs.  I was reluctant, but took on the 'it'll grow back' approach.  Not everybody can pull off that look without looking like a five year old.  Not her though!

I want to add in the kids projects they had to do for school.  Here's Aiden's.  They had a paper tree and had to decorate it, creatively.  Safe to say, his was the only one made of legos.  I love the flaming Batman atop the tree.

Ella had a heritage project where she was supposed to collect information about her ancestors.  We made a video.

♫Christmas time is here...♫

Cookies with the kids.

Christmas pictures with the kids.  A daunting task.  We survived.  Barely.

I only took one picture of each of the kids on Christmas morning.  Don't know how that happened.  Anyway, Build-a-Bears for everybody!  I had gotten them months before at a yard sale for $5.  I told the kids we could destuff them and I'd take them to the mall to go through the Build-a-Bear experience, but they passed.  Guess it is kind of morbid in a way.  Poor deprived children don't know what they're missing.  I tried to get everything for Christmas beforehand anticipating we'd be pretty broke considering we were just opening the business.  It was a second hand Christmas, and nobody seemed to question or care!  Good little children.  So far I've managed to shield them from thinking that 'new' things actually have to be 'new'.

 
For Brian, I signed him up for SendMeASurprise.  So, for the next six months, he'll receive a package a month and we don't know what's inside.  It's a surprise!

November, The Terrible is Two!

There really is no excuse for me not blogging about Maddex's birthday!  Birthdays are what keeps me going!  It had been a very busy few months.  We started prepping for the business back in August.  We've been talking about the business for what seems like forever!  The concept was simple, go mobile.  But we had a lot of things to work out before we could open.  I immersed myself into helping Brian get things going and all that starting a business entails.  We took a leap of faith with not much of a leg to stand on and we officially opened Filter Chiropractic on November 3!

But onto Maddex, this one's for her...

  

 Brian came up with the idea to have a Terrible Two party.  It was small and just enough to push a little girl over the edge:)  I had fun with the invite.

We decided on an ice cream bar complete with all the toppings.  I kind of just used stuff I've had on hand and ended up getting Olivia stuff because it was .13 at Party city.  So I combined the two.

I had 'rule of life #__' all over the house.  Things like 'Rule of life #472 If you leave crayons out, a two year old will color on the wall' 'Rule of life # 85 Two year olds like to destroy things, give them something to destroy' (this was hung on the pinata).  'Rule of life #17, Two year olds are messy.  They will leave hand prints on everything.  You get the idea.  One of my personal favorites-

Speaking of crying...it was her party and she cried 'cause she wanted to.

We've never done pinatas before but it was another clearance ($2) steal from Party City.

We did let the big kids bust it.  I had Frozen gummies inside.  Woohoo!

Ahh, Maddex...so cute and yet so 2...

October

Well this month pretty much speaks for itself.  Pumpkins and Halloween.  I think that pretty much sums it up.

Pumpkins

Ella had a school project-turn a pumpkin into a storybook character.  Naturally, we made something awesome!

 We picked our giant pumpkin from the garden and got 'regular' ones to carve.

Isn't she just the cutest?

Halloween

At school (on Halloween day) they had 'Dress up like a Storybook Character' day.  They're really hung up on this whole storybook thing.  Umm, sure we'll play along.  Our Halloween costumes are characters...  

Pippi Longstocking and Frankenstein

Riley's on a roll.  Princess every year!  How much longer will this phase last??  Maddex was a fairy.  Little dress I picked up at a yard sale for .25.  

We had our Halloween party for the kids and their friends too, but I didn't take a single picture!

September

So Krispy Kreme had a 'Dress up like a Pirate day'.  Each person that dresses like a pirate gets a box of doughnuts.  A BOX.  Needless to say, we were totally doing this.  Six dozen doughnuts?  Sure, why not?  In my defense, we did give three boxes away.  And one box was cleaned out before we ever made it home.  Gotta love Krispy Kreme.  Bet they won't do that again.

Maddex moved out of her crib!  She had been climbing out for a week so I figured it was time.  She was so excited!
 

She's really starting to become her own person.  She reminds me a lot of Ella though.  

August

Back to school, but not without squeezing in tubing with the cousins!

After our boating weekend we went home and had lake life envy so we bought a canoe.  This was our big farewell to summer before school started back.  We canoed on the lake but found a river just around the corner the we enjoy a lot more.

Back to the grind.  Ella started 2nd grade and Aiden 1st.  One more year left with my Riley girl!

July

Started off the month with an awesome 4th of July weekend at Great Wolf Lodge, courtesy of Brian's parents.

I didn't get many pictures of Ella in the water because she spent most of her time on the water slides.  Aiden and Riley are best buds and stuck together the whole time.  Thick as thieves those two.

We hit up Cow Appreciation day at Chic-fil-a...twice.

Brian and the kids pulled up the garden and planted pumpkins for the fall.  Oh, and we got bunnies!  Brian built a fence out back big enough for the kids to be able to sit and hang out in. The timing was a little sooner than we planned (maybe just a few weeks).  The clover we planted in there wasn't fully sprouted yet, but there was someone local selling three sisters (Mini Rex rabbits) and we didn't want to pass them up.  So here are Patches (Ella's), Nibbles (Aiden's) and Abby (Riley's).

Later that day someone posted they wanted to give their bunny away (and Brian was wanting another one for Maddex anyway) so we picked up Cooper the next day.  Long tickling whiskers!

He (a fixed he) was SO fluffy, hair flying everywhere.  He had only been inside for the past 4 years, and with the July heat the fur had to go.  So Brian gave him a shall we say, rather jacked up haircut.  The kids love those buns!

I found this video on my phone a few months ago.  Funny!

Here's a couple of random ones.

And now to the heat of the summer!