We elfed ourselves!!

Adam thought this was a lame idea but I did it anyway, I think it turned out pretty cute. Check it out at http://www.elfyourself.com/?id=1171146978.

Elf Yourself!

http://www.elfyourself.com/?id=1166525590
After Emily did this on her blog, I couldn't help but do it again! It is way too funny! I think we should all Elf ourselves. Post them on the family blog and we will all get a good laugh! Merry Christmas!!

Cast your vote!!!

I was not going to let us get up to 50 comments. I think we needed a fresh new picture to get us excited about Christmas! Okay, we need to make a decision... duh. Read the last few comments on the previous post and then let's have everyone respond and have it all finalized by 9 p.m. Friday (tomorrow).

CHRISTMAS continued...

So... some Christmas traditions are worth keeping around and others are meant to be changed from time to time. There has been a lot of discussion about how we are going to do things this year and it is time we finalize our plan. It would be nice to do a big conference call and have everyone share their opinions but I figured that is what the BLOG is for... right? Okay, the cruise thing is out of the question at this point (maybe we can do it later in the year or something) and Jen and Ryan have a connection with a condo through Launa... but that is looking like it might not happen. So I think we need to answer these few questions...

Do we want to do a gift exchange? Do we want to go somewhere? What do we want to do Christmas morning? Do we want to start any new traditions?

David and I were talking the other day and we came up with some different ideas. We could do a stocking exchange and stuff each others stockings, we could include mom and the little ones in on a stocking/gift exchange. We can bag the whole gift thing. We could still go to Disneyland.

Really, we need to decide if we want a gift exchange or not now that we are not going on a cruise and even if we spend our money on something smaller, let's have a plan for Christmas morning!

My ideas... I think we should do a bunch of little things throughout the week. We could go to Newport and take a gondola ride and see all the Christmas lights on Newport harbor. We could all go to Toys-R-Us and buy a toy to take to an orphanage. We could have a bake-off and see who can make a tastiest treat. We could go caroling at a nursing home. We could ding-dong-ditch a gift to someone we know. Anyway... we can still do an exchange Christmas morning and we can just be creative about what we give.

Please post your thoughts and opinions...

The real story...

...so, we all know that Jen is quite the wheeler and dealer. She loves a bargin almost as much as I do. Let's just say, Jen was made to be a "yard saler," she was in her glory!!! I tried to capture it on video (sorry for the poor camera angle). Notice the notebook to log all the money, she would not let that thing out of sight... she was trying to keep track of who sold what since it was the Menlove's stuff, Mom's stuff, and a few of our things. It was sweet, Jen saw this one lady admiring a shirt and and then whispered "Go ahead and just take it," the lady smiled from ear to ear and was SO thrilled to be getting a free shirt! Here is Gina in action...

Finally a New Post!

David's birthday post was up just a little too long. After my camera took a little trip to Texas, it is finally back and I am happy to be putting up a new post. The yard sale this weekend went great and we got rid of lots of stuff. These pictures were taken at 6:30 in the morning and our first customer came at 6:45. Half of the stuff was gone by 8:00! We made a total of $450 with almost $50 of that in selling avocados. We sold them for .25 cents each, so that makes almost 200 avocados sold. I'm good at math! It was a fun day.

Baby stuff and clothes. I didn't take any pictures of dads tools that we sold, because I didn't want the boys to freak out! J/K
Mom finally got rid of the sink and stove we played with as little kids.
The "avocado girl" is what she called herself. She had fun taking the money and putting it in the cash register. Notice Zachy in the background with the Shrek slippers on. They were out to be sold but he had them on all day even though they were way too big for him.

Happy Birthday Dodo!!

We hope you have a great Birthday!

I guess a birthday is a good time to post random pictures on a blog, right? We love you!

TEXAS

We had a great time in Texas. Here is a recap of our week:

Day 1: Emily and Nora watched a movie and took a nap while Grace and Charlie watched Baby Einstein and took a nap.
Day 2: We celebrated Ben's birthday by taking cupcakes to all the med students, making Cafe Rio's pork burritos, and having chocolate mousse for dessert.

Day 3: We drove to some outlet stores and went shopping. Emily got her very first speeding ticket on the way there. The kids were super good in the car and very patient while we were shopping. We got some great DEALS!!!!!

Check out all those bags...

Day 4: Uncle Stevie came down Friday night after school and spent the weekend with us. We took the kids to a pool at one of Emily's friend's apartment complex. We had planned to go to this pool at the park but it was closed for a "dog festival." Emily went to see if it was open and there were dogs in the water having relay races and the city pound guy in a dunk tank. The park ranger looked at Emily like she was crazy for asking if the pool was open. He said: "Yes ma'am it's open... for the DOGS!! Good thing we had a back-up pool to go to.

Day 5: We went to church (sadly, we did not get a cute church picture of the kiddos). We had fun just hanging out with Uncle Stevie.

Day 6: We drove about an hour and a half and met up with Aunt Tami and Uncle Steve in Corsicana. We met at Walmart and sat outside on some lawn chairs and visited for a while. Then we went to lunch and walked around town. They were so sweet and super happy to meet Charlie and Grace.

Day 7: Photo shoot! Emily and I had a photo shoot before she took us to the airport. Charlie and Grace were being hilarious. Charlie would not stop sucking his hands and Grace was being super wiggly and she wanted to attack Charlie. We got some cute pictures out of it though.

Happy Birthday Alli

Happy 4th Birthday Alli. We hope you have a great day! Love...
Gracie,

Uncle Benny Boo,

and Auntie Emmy

These are our 4 favorite pictures of you!

Nursing the babies!!

Ryan has this thing with Alli where he asks her why she is getting so big. Usually the response goes something like this: "I want to get bigger so I can get baptized and have a slumber party!" Since I have had Charlie things have changed a bit. Now the conversation goes like this, Ryan: "Alli, stop getting so big! Why do you want to grow up so fast?" Alli: "So I can get boobies and feed my baby milk like Auntie Nora!"

Good luck on the MCAT

Good luck Dave-Bo on the MCAT. Let us know how it feels to have it over. I bet you'll feel so Happy...maybe as happy as you were to get your new blue loafers a couple of Christmas's ago.

Gracie and Stevie

We had a fun weekend seeing Uncle Stevie. He watched Grace for 4 hours (her longest babysitter yet) and it seems like they had a fun time. She wore her Espana shirt just for him. It was very sweet because he even took pictures of her while he watched her so I could see how cute she was being. Hopefully we'll see lots more of him while he's in Texas!

First Day of School

Steve-bo had his first day of school in Texas. He emailed me a photo and I told him I would post it for him....SWEET SHIRT.

Christmas is Just Around the Corner

Nora and I were talking and had wanted to know everyones opinion on gifts for Christmas...
Should we draw individual names? Couples?
Is there going to be a dollar amount?
Should it be a surprise who has who? What about the kids?

Everyone post their thoughts and we can decide what is best. Maybe David will come up with another great idea like he did last year for Christmas with Mom's ticket to Spain. It will be so fun this year with everyone together!

At Dave-Bo's request

Front and back of house

Mohawk hair-do. This really is always how her hair goes...I guess it kind of matches yours Dave.

Happy Anniversary!

Two years has gone by fast! I was also reminiscing about our Italy trip one year ago this past week. The only pictures I have of just the two of you are from that trip, otherwise my kids are in them! Happy Anniversary!!

Adam is a great husband to carry such a heavy load!

Adam: "Do you want to go make a baby?"

Nora: "Uh, let me think about it...ok!"

The happy couple sailing off into the sunset

So sweet!

Just for Grandma

We found this onesie and thought Grandma would like it since it's what she calls Grace.

New Trick

Grace learned a new trick when we visited California... it fascinates her all day long.

Zachy-boy has two bad examples...

... he sure looks happy though!