the birthday boy

on his big day....

We went to the Rainforest Cafe for supper, as per tradition ~ we have gone there for every single one of Nick's birthdays except for his first! :

The kids were very excited to get a table right next to one of the fish tanks!: Afterwards, we came home for cake and ice cream. Notice Ben, "helping" Nick blow out his candles in the background:

Then Nick opened his gifts... some plastic animals and a hedgehog Webkinz. His big gift will come later this week:

Overall, I think Nick had a pretty good day! :)

happy birthday, nick!

Double digits. I can't believe it. How did my baby boy get to be 10?? I'm not really sure how it happened so fast, but I do have plenty of pictures to show the progression. Here are just a few....

Me, Em, George, and Nicholas on his birth day back in 1999:
One year old... I love this picture and those sweet curls!:

Larry... I mean Nick... on his 2nd birthday:
At 3, with his favorite book, "Goodnight, Gorilla":
With one of his gifts on his 4th birthday:
Five years old and starting Kindergarten:
Two monkeys on Nick's 6th birthday:
Nick and Benjamin on St. Patrick's Day, when Nick was 7:
Starting 3rd grade at age 8: With Em and their Webkins on Valentine's Day last year... 9 years old:
The birthday boy this morning, with the snowman cookies he took to school: Wishing you happiness x 10, buddy ~ today and always! Love you!!

hello, 2009!

I decided not to take a photo a day this year, but I do still plan to take lots of photos! (I just don't want to be sitting around at 11:30pm, anymore, realizing I haven't taken my photo yet, LOL.) Here are a few from the past week....

George's parents came to visit us the 2nd-6th. We really enjoyed having them here! :o) We celebrated a late Christmas with them on the 3rd...

Ben opened this truck filled with cars and said, "Oh, yeah!!" LOL: Nick (who badly needs a haircut!) opens one of his many gifts:

What'd ya get, Em?: Fran and Harold:
Ben loves this Luigi car! If you hit it, it says, "Ouch, thata hurts!" and Ben collapses into giggles:
I wanted to get a group shot on the 6th before Fran and Harold had to leave. Ben wasn't being too cooperative, so this is the best I could do:
Today Ben was very excited about our new fallen snow, and wanted to go play outside. He brought along his toy snow plow, and told me he was going to clear our patio, LOL:
Yeah, that didn't happen. He did clear a few of our steps up to the pool, though (with some help from his hand):

And then, when I was taking him up for a nap, I noticed this scene in the boys' room. Guess the shepherds and the 3 kings weren't the only ones who came to the manger:
That boy cracks me up!

goodbye, 2008

And let's hope 2009 is much better, shall we? :)

It looks like I need to finish up sharing my pictures from the last days of 2008, so here are a few of them....

Dec. 15th, a daily ritual... Nick and Em giving Ben hugs and kisses before they leave for school ~ he gets QUITE upset if they forget!:
Em got her kiss in beneath the mistletoe!:
Dec. 16th, I spent the evening wrapping gifts:
Dec. 17th, more snow... this is looking out our dining room window at the big drift on our patio: Dec. 18th, George brought home a Christmas orchid for me:
Dec. 19th, it was supposed to be the kids' last day before Winter Break, but they ended up having a snow day! Here are some of the drifts in front of our house: Nick and Em, sliding on the piles the snow plow made near our house:
Ben by a snowdrift:
Dec. 20th, Nick and I went caroling with other people from church. We sang several songs for people at a retirement community:
and then headed back to church for cookies and hot cocoa:
Dec. 21st, enjoying the Clementines that Grandma Great gave us for Christmas:
Dec. 22nd, the kids helped me bake cookies. (It was Ben's first time baking!) First we made snowball cookies:
and then we made Painted Eggnog Cookies. (That "paint" is really egg yolk with food coloring stirred in.) Yum!:
Dec. 23rd, this was our "Santa Eve"... Santa usually comes early to our house, and this year was no exception. The kids put oats outside for the reindeer:
and a plate of cookies and some eggnog by the tree for Santa. (Also 9 carrots for the reindeer... Nick always makes sure they are well taken care of!):
Dec. 24th, our early Christmas. The kids had a blast opening gifts and playing with all their new toys, etc.:


These are the boxes that Emmalie made to hold her gifts for me. I thought the origami boxes were so cute!:
Here are the kids, sitting with all of their gifts... I think Santa treated them pretty well!:

That night we went to The Cheesecake Factory for a special Christmas Eve dinner:

Dec. 25th, we spent Christmas Day at my grandma's, with my parents, Christine, my aunts and uncles, and many of my cousins:
As always, there was the Men's Grab Bag game:
and the Women's, too:
The kids enjoyed playing in the basement with their second cousins!:
Dec. 26th, these are the gifts that Emmalie made for me:
Dec. 27th, a silly Nick with 3 Santa hats on his head! (I know, he doesn't look too happy, but he was going for "funny".): Dec. 28th, our back door, filled with Christmas cards received from family and friends:
Dec. 29th, one of my favorite snowmen... my mom used to put him by our Christmas tree when I was little!:
Dec. 30th, I cleaned off my desk so I would be all ready for the January online crop at Scrapbook Friends:
Dec. 31st, we celebrated New Year's Eve with friends and had a wonderful time! Here is Ben with his buddy David:
The kids, getting into the spirit just a few minutes before midnight:
Toasting the new year (with sparkling grape juice, of course): Pulling apart a New Year's cracker: The girls... Tracy, Em, Karen, and me: The guys... Steve, David, George, Nick, Ben (still toasting the new year), and Jason:

Happy New Year to you all! May 2009 bring you peace, hope, and much love!