Happy Birthday Jodie!

Pictures of Jodie enjoying her cake!

Today our baby turns 2! I say it all the time, but I can't believe how quickly the time passes. I was thinking about how much Jodie has changed over the year, and how much she will change this year and it blows my mind! Some days I wish I could just slow down so life wouldn't pass by so quickly. Jodie is so amazing. She keeps us on our toes, makes us laugh, and is starting to be very strong willed. She was so excited about her birthday today and keeps singing "Happy Birthday". Here she is opening her presents. She opened this up and goes "it's a car." The she hopped in and said "push me!"

She loves her new car, Ryan did a great job getting it together.

Jodie didn't want to get out of the car to open her other present so we just let her open it while in the car. Here she is taking Max for a ride in her new stroller.

Jodie asked for an M&M cake. My first thought was to make a cake that looks like an M&M however, after Christmas we had tons of candy so this was a way to use up some of it! She loves her cake, and has already been sampling it.

I will post more pictures later after we cut the cake. Also if you didn't notice there are several more posts after this one. Sorry it took me so long to get posts up!

Merry Christmas

Oh Christmas morning....there is just something magical about it! Mason was the first one awake, and was super excited when he saw the presents under the tree. Ryley was the next one to wake up and Jodie was the last. However, Jodie was the first one to start opening presents! Her favorite thing is to rip the paper. Here she is with her Max doll. Right now Max and Ruby is Jodie's favorite show. Ryley loved this new puppy Wii game.

Mason and Jodie gave Ryley some new coloring books. She loves princess stuff, and she loves to color. This was the perfect gift.

Jodie with her Ruby doll.

Mason with all of his gifts. We are having a great time playing with all the new toys!

Jodie trying to get her lawn mower open.

We had a wonderful relaxing Christmas at home. The kids opened their presents, we had a nice breakfast, took down the tree, played with toys, and ate a huge dinner! I love Christmas time!

Cookies for Santa

This is what happens when you give a child an Oreo cookie that has red filling! Yum yum. Every year we make cookies for Santa and the kids have a great time decorating them. Here they are making their yummy creations!

Ryley didn't want to get her new shirt dirty so she is wearing an apron.

Even Jodie decorated her cookies. She mostly just ate the icing and sprinkles, but she is so cute who cares!?!

Ryley loved!!!!!! the sprinkles.

Here are all the cookies (minus one that Ryan made, it has become his tradition to make a "silly" cookie and this year he made a boob).

Here are the cookies for Santa. He must have really liked them because there was nothing left on the plate the next morning!

Christmas at the Lake and More!

The weekend before Christmas we celebrated Christmas at the lake with our families. This allows us to stay home for Christmas and Jodie's birthday.
Here are the girls playing at my Mom's house before everyone came. Jodie loves opening up her presents!

My adorable nieces! They are so fun.

Waiting for the green light to start opening!

Here we are at Ryan's Mom and Dad's. Here is Jodie opening up one of her gifts while everyone watches. Mason was the trash man and he took his job very serious!

Here is Ryley opening up one of hers, and Mason waiting to get the trash!

The big kids were sliding on the kitchen floor the other day and Jodie was having a hard time, so Ryan was helping her slide too!

Church Christmas Program

Every year our Church has a Christmas program (like most churches), and every year I ask the kids if they want to sing, and every year they say "NO". So this year I didn't ask. The kids loved learning the songs and listened to them every time we were in the car. Even Jodie loved the songs and learned most of the words. The program was great, Mason and Ryley sang with their friends and Jodie sang in the pew with us!
Here is Ryley getting her hair curled.

Aren't they adorable!?!?!
This is the only picture I have of them, Ryley took her sweater off before they went out to sing. Silly girl, she said she was hot!

After the program there is a Christmas party with food and a visit from Santa.

Mason generally doesn't like Santa, but he decided to be brave to show his sisters that Santa is OK. He asked him for a football and a train!

Ryley on the other hand didn't like Santa, but did ask him for a baby doll. He gave her a puzzle. Jodie actually talked to Santa too, this picture makes her look like she is trying to get away from him, but she wasn't. Jodie liked him better than Ryley, but didn't want to sit on his lap!

Christmas Time

This year we decided to go and cut our own tree down, instead of going to a lot and buying one. We did this one year when Mason was really little and it was fun. The kids had a great time walking through the trees to find the perfect one. However, we quickly learned that we each had a different "perfect tree" in mind. Luckily we know how to compromise and we found a tree that everyone loved.
Here is Jodie with the tree she liked. Here is the winner! The man that owns the tree farm said they won't be able to be open much longer because the trees are pretty picked over. We thought they had several left, guess that's why we don't own a tree farm!

Watching Daddy cut down the tree.

Mason wanted to cut down the tree until he had a turn. He quickly decided it wasn't as fun as it looked.

Mason did help carry the tree.

Jodie likes the tree a lot. She really likes to lay under it.

Mason hanging his ornaments up high so Cowboy can't get them.

Ryley hanging her ornaments.

Jodie taking her ornaments off the tree. She doesn't like to hang them up, just take them off.

Here it is, our families "perfect" Christmas tree. I realized today that when Ryan and I were first married, I wished for someone to help me decorate the tree. Now I have three helpers and I wish I could just do it myself (ha ha ha)! We had a fun time hanging all the ornaments and rehanging them, and rehanging them (Jodie really likes to take them off!). Luckily the dog seems unaffected by the tree. He sniffs it, he has tried to take a couple ornaments, but overall he has done a better job than the kids. However, Cowboy does love the tree skirt, so I have had to replace it several times.

St Louis Fun

I titled this St Louis Fun, but I had two pictures that were not taken in St. Louis.

Here is a picture of Mason at a St. Louis Rams game. Papa Mick, Ryan, and Mason had a nice time going to St. Louis. According to Ryan the game wasn't that great, but they did get to see the cheerleaders!

Just a cute picture of Jodie "helping" with the stockings!

Aunt Erin painting the girls nails on Thanksgiving. Before Thanksgiving we took a day and went to the zoo. We love the zoo, but don't go as much as we would like. This time the animals were very active, the weather was perfect, and we had a wonderful day as a family!
Looking at the bears.

Not sure what we were looking at here...big cats maybe?