Cherry Pie

If you haven't had Grandma Valerie's cherry pie, then you haven't lived. It is my all time favorite. I don't know if it's the crust, the filling, or both. I do know that her pie crust is simply amazing and when you put it with her scratch pie filling, this cherry pie is to die for. In fact, I don't like any other cherry pie. And when it comes to pie crust - I call Grandma Valerie to whip me up one or two. It would do me no good to follow her recipe, it just isn't the same.

Happy Birthday

Happy Birthday Grandpa Noal. How does it feel to be 60?

Carving Pumpkins

It's that time of year again. We spent yesterday evening carving pumpkins. Madi refused to reach in and clean out the pumpkins - it apparently was too repulsive. Gabe didn't like the pumpkin guts either, but he really enjoyed holding a knife.

The pumpkins all turned out pretty cool. Olivia's Cinderella was probably the best (thanks to Jeremy's artistic abilities), and Madi's Minnie Mouse was a close second (Mike did a great job).

First Snow

Madi and Gabe were so excited to see snow. First thing in the morning we had to go out and have a snow ball fight and make footprints in the snow. Later the kids picked out their own sweaters to wear to Grandma Valeries. They wanted to go make a snowman and snow angels. Madi was anticipating building a great big huge snow man and she wanted to be the one to put the hat, nose, and eyes on. The kids didn't make a snowman, nor did they make snow angels, but they did play on the trampoline. I love these pictures, my kids look so angelic - wait they are angels, no wonder they have that look.

Happy Birthday Grandpa Byron

Happy Birthday # 60. You're getting older every day. We spent the day at home cleaning house, making birthday cards for grandpa and then making dinner and this birthday cake. The kids helped decorate the cake and Madi even helped count out 60 candles. Madi was so excited to help decorate the cake. While it was cooking she kept calling from downstairs "IS IT DONE YET".

60 candles is a lot and on a small cake, it makes it difficult to light all of them. You can see that we weren't able to light all of the candles in the middle of the cake, it was too hot to reach them. If we were smarter we would have started with the middle candles first.

It's official - his name is Gabe.

I wasn't sure the day would come when he could tell you what his name was, but it's here, and if you ask him, he will be sure to tell you his name is Gabe.... It didn't matter who asked, but he "used" to tell you his name was Madi. I was beginning to wonder if it would always be that way. Gabe will be two at the end of the month and he can now tell you who he is.

Favorite Pictures

Here are some of my favorite pictures from the game.