Family Reunion

My annual family reunion was Labor Day weekend. This was the weekend my Aunt Roxanne took so much time planning, sending out letters and she LOVED this weekend. It was a bit different this year, my mom was on the planning end with her aunt and cousin and I typed up the informational letter to mail out to everyone and my mom took care of the mailing. I remember as I was typing the letter telling Kevin that it felt so weird being the one doing her "job".   I went to the family reunion a bit of a heavy heart knowing it'd be our first family reunion without her there. My mom had Amelia and Paul for the entire week before the family reunion so her and Tim brought them up to Elks camp with them. Kevin and I came up Saturday afternoon with the little girls after I ran my 10k. The weather was gorgeous and we had a wonderful weekend. The kids had lots of time in the lake and on the beach, it was difficult to tear them away from the beach!

My silly girls playing on the beach!

My cousin Travis and his fiance Kirsten

(aren't they adorable?!)

She looks like she's on a mission!

Amelia hanging out with Papa Tim.

Memorial Balloon Release

We released balloons for all of our loved once we lost of the years. Each person had a different color. My Grandma released a yellow one in memory of my Grandpa. The rest of my immediate family released purple balloons in memory of Roxanne. It was really cool watching the balloons soar over the lake and get higher and higher.

Watching all the balloons float away

Amelia and Grandma Carrie

Addie going for a Kayak ride with daddy

We couldn't keep Paul away from the kayaks. He LOVES them!

Don't worry, the water is only about 18 inches deep here.

Trying out flippers!

Silly girl!

Thank goodness for the gorgeous beach to play on!

Having fun out in the paddle boats.

"Hey guys! Bury me in the sand!" -Paul

All in all we had a great weekend! Can't wait to go back next year! I know the kids sure look forward to it every year.

Santa Claus came to town...

...on a FIREtruck! Friday night we finally got a dusting of snow again, which was perfect because Santa Claus came to town on Saturday morning! The kids got a kick out of this, once again as Santa rode around town on a fire truck alerting all the children that he was in town.

This is the third time Paul saw Santa, he's telling him

once again that he wants Transformers and Decipticons

Amelia telling Santa she wants a white ipod touch.

Addie telling Santa she wants little piggies

Stella isn't so sure about Santa!

Making an ornament for our tree.

Addie putting stickers on her box for her ornament.

Christmas time is here...

Our house is fully decorated for Christmas. First time I've had it done by December 1st since we've had kids. Feels good to have it all done, I remember a time when it'd take me up to 2 weeks to get all the decorations up, but that was when I was working full time too and my time at home was very limited.

Our tree in our dining room

I just love our stockings that my mom made last year!

Tree on our front porch

Our house is lit once again! Kevin spent the afternoon putting the lights on the house. We never got to it last winter.