To make it easier to keep up with my lunatic New Year's Resolution, I am just combining all my blogs (how did I end up with 3?!!?) this year. If you are looking for updates on the monsters kids, you'll have to go to

http://theroadtocrap.blogspot.com

Miss Q

It's official. The baby moved into the double digits on Thursday. Happy #10 Suzie Q!

Pancakes with Nutella for breakfast. Finally! No donuts.

Had to put this up because I loved it. Thomas obviously gave Suz the right thing.

About to cry because she got the 3Ds she wanted from us and Grandpa Gary and Grandma Pat.

The Fam. And yes, Suzie put those bows there herself. And yes again, Turner is always this thrilled with EVERYTHING.

Happy Halloween

                                The kiddies in all their 2011 Halloween finery. 

School Ugh.

First Day

Thirteen

Big #13 for Tom D.

This is as good as it gets around here. Birthday or not.





Suzie is too obviously thrilled that it was his bithday.

He must have really liked his Nook from Auntie Leah and Uncle Mike. This is the least blurry picture I could get. He WOULD NOT sit still!

Number 11

Donut holes this time. A huge change from the usual donuts.

                                           All went well as you can see. Happy #11 Sammy!

And they just keep coming



Birthday Bagels this time



14!!!



That's all folks!

 Have you ever desperately wanted something to end while dreading the same thing with an equal amount of fervor? We have spent so much time in the car over the last six weeks that it began to feel like we lived in it. I have been driving either Turner or Thomas into school for 4 years now and I truly felt like this last stretch might be the straw that broke the camel's back, sanity wise. But, as we moved into this last week I began to dread the end as much as I had been anxiously awaiting it's arrival. It meant saying goodbye. For good. It meant finally coming to terms with the fact that we don't belong there anymore. And starting over with the process of figuring out how to belong somewhere completely different. Not my strong suit. Even on a good day.                 

   So- it was with very mixed feelings that we headed into town on Friday,    

                   took our traditional last day of school picture by the old bell,

and watched Cedar Fort recede from view.

Turner

Lookit our pretty baby. Turner showing off her new haircut. Unfortunately styled by Aunt Shelley. I say unfortunately because now we need Aunt Shelley to come out and do it everyday to get it this perfect.

Tom D. all decked out for church in his fancy new suit from Grandma Jean and his tie from Aunt Carey.

Happy B-Day Suz!

Suzie's birthday is on the 22nd- so in December, we always try to make sure her Birthday is top priority until Christmas actually arrives. Happy #9 Suzie-Q!

Halloween

A very cold Halloween this year. Chili and soup at Aunt Shelley's house. And, after 2 attempts, a handful or two of candy from trick-or-treating. From L-R: Edgar Allen Poe(as he is now. Dead of course), Supergirl, a cheerleader after a nasty accident and Al Capone/Inspector Clouseau/random gangster man.

The chitlins

We had pictures scheduled for this Sunday. After seeing the weather report for the weekend, I dragged the kids out for a panicked session of our own. From the looks of things, this may have been the last fine day for quite awhile. After alot of cursed coaxing, these were what I managed to get.

Happy #10

We got Thomas and Sam home from Cali just in time to celebrate Sammy's B-day today.


By 10 o'clock he had already been out to shoot this and named it Sammy Jr.

Coffee and chocolate donuts for breakfast. Again.

Suzie: "Birthdays are the best time of year. Birthdays and Christmas."

Daddy: "Suzie has the best birthday. She gets all her presents at once." (suzie's b-day is the 22nd of Dec.)

Sam: to Suzie: "Well, I have an American birthday."

Suzie to Sam: "Yeah, well I have a Jesus birthday."

I guess Jesus trumps America any day. Even on your birthday. Happy Birthday anyway Sam.

pics

So we finally got some pictures taken. Thanks to Shelley's camera and Carrie's groovy yard! These seemed to be the best of the bunch.

Eight

Happy Number Eight Suzie!

The baby turns eight today. This is the first time Suzie's b-day has fallen on a school day so we had to rush through things a bit this morning. Suz didn't seem to mind.

Yes, she is wearing different pajamas here. She was actually ready for school. Her Christmas party at school involves wearing pajamas all day so she still gets to spend her B-day in her jammies.

If you're keeping score...

We had our first casualty of the season a couple of days ago. Suzie landed on a piece of ice at her friends house and did a faceplant on the sidewalk. No permanent damage but you wouldn't believe it by looking. The poor baby has been home from school being spoiled and waiting for the swelling to go down. She didn't want pictures at first but then decided Grandma and Grandpa should see. Of course, the first thing Mom said after that was "and we should scrapbook it!" So, if you're keeping track, ICE-1 and SUZIE-0.

The first day

And of course, the requisite scraped knee.

Day number 2