Birthday Party

This year we decided that the girls and their friends had out-grown our house.  It was time to finally have our first party at somewhere other than at home.  The girls wanted a party at a local gym so it was set!  While my girls still don't mind, we are continuing to do a joint party since their birthdays are so close.  We had 10 kids plus 2 babies total there and everyone had a blast!  There was a couple of blow up slides, a small trampoline, a foam pit plus LOTS of room to run!  My camera is messing up so a lot of the pictures are blurry but here are a few of the ones that I got...


The big 3 year old


and the 5 year old


the girls together


holding baby Griffin


and again


Rylee on the slide


Evan on the slide


the kids in the foam pit


Nana holding baby Collin


waiting on pizza


the Strawberry Shortcake cake


all the kids


singing Happy Birthday


Rylee opening presents


Makenzie opening presents


Thanks to everyone who helped make our birthday party super special!

Such good cousins

The girls just love baby Griffin!  They really love everything about him, but they really love just holding him.  Here are a few pictures of the girls holding him...

T Ball

This year Rylee really wanted to try playing t ball.  We've been practicing in the yard (when the weather cooperates) and we went a couple of times to practice on the field that she would be playing at.  The kids were all supposed to try out for the teams but Rylee ended up being sick with a stomach bug on the day of try outs and I volunteered to coach because they didn't have enough coaches otherwise so she didn't end up trying out.  Rylee still has some work to do but she does pretty well for it to be her first time playing.  The kids get a chance to hit from a coach pitching for 3 pitches then if they still don't hit it get to try off the tee.  I'll try to get someone to take some pictures at her next practice.  Here are a few from the other day....





And of course Makenzie wanted to try since her sister was...

Dancing

My girls took some "dancing" lessons from the neighbors.  Here are some videos...

The girls will sometimes sing in the car and the other day I tried to catch the without them knowing...

No longer only grandbabies

On 2/5 we welcomed another long awaited baby into our family!  Baby Griffin was born to my sister and her husband Daniel via C-section.  My girls have loved every moment of being around him.  And might I add are good as gold when around him (maybe that's the key to getting them to behave...j/k).  Here are some pictures from his arrival and of my girls hanging out with him.


Getting ready

 
Proud Daddy


Just born!  On the way to recovery


Griffin Thurston, 7 lbs. 10oz.


They wanted him to have skin on skin time and mommy was too tired...


Grandma Carol


Proud Momma


The new Crouse Family


such a cutie!


Carol and Blair


Auntie Chas


a little Mommy time



sleepy baby


Jess and her work friends Megan and Jessica


Time to go home!

Gymnastics

Our friend Olivia had a gymnastics party a couple weekends ago.  The girls had a blast!  You would have thought they were little gym monkeys with the way the were running around and hanging on the bars.  It was really cute that at the end of the party all the kids got medals for coming.  Here are a few pictures...






(sorry these are a little crazy but they are jumping across a trampoline)

Where has the time gone?!?!

Somehow in all the hustle and bustle of the holidays I some how managed to miss blogging for a whole entire month!  Part of it was intentional.  I wanted to have a few new pictures to be able to show my parents and my in-laws in the photo books I make them each year.  Then time just got away from me after that.  It also didn't help that we had a couple of emergency room visits during that time...one for Rylee falling off the neighbor's couch and hitting the coffee table causing her tooth to be pushed forward and crooked.  They ended up having to put her to sleep and pull the tooth.  The second visit was on Christmas Day when Rylee was helping me slice zucchini with my new slicer and we cut the tip of her finger off.  It turned out to be fine and is now almost healed thankfully!  But I do want to try to catch up on a few of the Christmas events even though they are already over.. But they may seem a little random so bear with me.  Here goes..


Rylee in her Christmas program at school.  She was a dove and did wonderfully saying her part this year!


Makenzie at dinner with our neighbor Nate.  Future boyfriend?


The girls at mom's house






visiting Santa at Rylee's school




around our tree one Sunday afternoon




we got to go to Charlotte to meet baby Collin, my roommate from college's new little boy and to see his big brother Tyler.


our ritual "baby" picture.  Poor Stacy doesn't have children yet though so every year she gets one of my girls babies...


playing with our cousins Reynolds and Chandler


and with their cousins Deacon and Emerson


milk and cookies for Santa


their new bikes from Santa!