It's Beginning to Feel alot Like Christmas

Savannah Grace

Eleanor, Olivia, Savannah Grace

Olivia and Savannah Grace

My Crazy Girl

I can't believe the holidays are almost here! It has really crept up on us this year. Friday night was the annual "Santa is Coming to Town" at the mall. Savannah Grace's dance studio performed a ballet to "Suzy Snowflake." This year's dance has been so fun for Savannah Grace. A few of her friends from school and church have decided to take dance and they are in her class....Emily, Olivia, and Eleanor. After the dance, the Oefingers and Broselow's went out to eat with us. It was a great evening!

Lilly Claire Loves Shoes!

Lilly Claire's new favorite pasttime is putting shoes on and taking them off, over and over. And it doesn't matter whose shoes...Mommy, Daddy, Jackson, Savannah Grace's old soccer shoes or tap shoes...any shoes! She loves it...and I love her!

Fall Baseball 2009

Jackson eating peanuts between games.

Fall baseball was definately an undertaking this year. Almost every single game was rained out and had to be rescheduled, only to be rained out again! It was crazy! It felt like our life revolved around "when we might have a baseball game." Not that I'm complaining. It is absolutely one of my favorite things in the whole world to watch Jackson do something he enjoys. We played on a new team this year and so many of the kids were one's we hadn't played with before. That meant the parents didn't know me. Some of them would ask me during the game..."why are you biting your nails?" Cause I am so dad gum nervous...Jackson's up on deck! Haha! They learned quick I am a crazy yelling (always positive, though) mom! I yell for all the kids! Even the ones on the other team, if I know them. :) I seriously never thought I would be like this. Just typing about the games makes me a little nervous. Sometimes I ask Jackson if he gets nervous before he hits, and he always looks at me kind of funny and says, "Noooo." Like why are you asking? Thank goodness. Being nervous is not that fun.



Jackson's team was called the MudCats and they were coached by Cliff Dyer. The team consisted of Jackson, Cooper C., Jet, Hunter, Jacob Jeffers, Silas, Cooper Lyons, Blake Dyer, Garrett Townsend, Brayden Plyler, Cameron Curry, and Jasek Hooker. It was a great season!



On to Basketball...

Jager and June

Lilly Claire, Jager, Savannah Grace, June, Jackson

Sweet Cousins

The Rowdy Ones. :)

Jager and June came to visit! The kids had so much fun just playing, playing, playing! Savannah Grace and Jager adore each other and Lilly Claire and June like to call each other "baby." Sweet cousins, fun times!

Witches Brew

Wine. Cheese. Fire Pit. Dressing like a witch. Great Conversation. Fabulous Fun! Every Halloween, while the Daddy's take the kids trick-or-treating, the mommy's sit in my front yard and participate in our annual Witches' Brew. We hand out candy and even pose for pictures with some of the regulars. Our next door neighbors put on a haunted house through their garage, so we get lots of traffic. This year's Witch's Brew consisted of Elise, Roxann, Christine Broselow, and myself. We had a great time!

Annual Pumpkin Carving

Lilly Claire making her "scary face"!

Nicklas checking out his pumpkin.

Jackson being kind of crazy.

The finished products.

Great Job, guys!

Katie and Jody hard at work.

Savannah Grace drawing out her design.

Nicklas making his scary face.

It has become a tradition in our house to carve 5 pumpkins...one for each member of our family. This year we had a special treat...Nicklas, Katie and Nee Nee was here to carve pumpkins with us!

Taco, Naco, Guaco...my favorite!

Grandfather and his yummy guacamole!

Nee Nee and Savannah Grace

Grandfather and Nee Nee came to visit a few weekends ago. They fixed us my favorite meal...tacos, nachos, and guacamole...otherwise known in the Nicklas family as "taco, naco, guaco." Grandfather makes the best guacamole!

Our Third Annual Costume Party

Make a Smilebox scrapbook

What a fabulous evening we had on Friday, October 30th! This year, we co-hosted the party with our friends, the Rehmets. We held the party, for the 2nd time, at the Elves Christmas Tree Farm and Pumpkin Patch. Our friends, the Cathey's, own this beautiful pumpkin patch and each year they graciously allow us to throw a monstrous party on the grounds. The final count resulted in 153 people...which include more princesses and transformers than could even be counted!

We began discussing our family costumes in September of this year, and when it was clear we were not coming to any agreements on a "family theme", I set the deadline of October 1st. Finally, my boys caved...and we got...I mean I got to dress as Cinderella. Jody was Prince Charming. Jackson was Jaq the mouse. Savannah Grace was Driscella the wicked step-sister. And Lilly Claire was the cutest Fairy godmother I have ever laid eyes on. Dressing up in a family theme was sooo fun! As people started driving into the pumpkin patch the night of the party, Jody and I stood at the entrance of the party area, waving to the cars...with our Cinderella and Prince Charming waves of course!

The food was scrumptous...all the gummy bugs, chewy eyeballs, caramel apples, halloween cookies, chik-fil-a nuggets, monster cupcakes, and frito pies. The families took hay rides to the actual patch t pick a pumpkin and play around. I just love all these families and it always brings such a big smile to my face when the hayride turns the corner and all you can see are kids in every direction....jumping hay bales, decorating scarecrows, and looking for that perfect pumpkin. After returning from the patch, the kids decorated pumpkins, played in the never-ending maze, and basically chased each other around like 4-6 year-olds do!

This year, many parents dressed up and the costume contest was difficult! In the end, the Coach Purses (April and Elise) won the mommy contest and the Rapper (Olivia's dad) won the daddy contest. We had 10 kid prizes for costumes that went to the most deserving.

Once it got dark, we handed out glow necklaces and pixie sticks and headed for the open pavilion. The night ended with a fabulous Magic Show from BAM Magic. Jackson is still talking about some of the illusions he did...and I absoulutely don't have the answers! We handed out packed goody bags, everyone grabbed their pumpkins and kids and headed home.

And by the way, we already have our family costume ideas for next year!

Trying to Recover...

I want to post about our fabulous weekend, including the annual costume party....but...I'm too tired to post! I'm still trying to recover...a.k.a. dishes, laundry, sleep, etc......so keep checking back! I will post soon. :)