The Moon Endures

Admiring...

the tree!  I walked into the living room and caught Gwyneth doing this. 

Too cute!!

Oh, Christmas Trees!

We have all of our trees up, and thought we'd share them.  We've been enjoying putting only the Christmas tree lights (plus a few lamps) and listening to Handel's Messiah a lot. (Okay, maybe I enjoy it a little more than the kids!)   They prefer Jewel, Josh Groban, Bing Crosby, and Mariah Carey (OF course!) a little more.   

Anyway... I've gotten pretty much all of our gifts bought.  I'm loving online shopping this year.  You'll have some dude drop it off at my doorstep for 97cents? Yes, please!

I'm getting off track here.  Without further adeau (a deu? adieau?  adoo? adeaux?)

Our Trees..

The Living Room Tree 

All gold and silver

The Dining Room Tree

Our "Family Tree"

Red & Green and all our homemade/other ornaments

 I love this one.  Not that I don't love the others.  This one just has a special place in my heart because it a)reminds me of my tree growing up in the Lloyd household, and b) It is so fun to look back at the ornaments the kids have made so far and to see their little handprints making wreaths and what-have-you!

Gwyneth's Pink Tree

(really hard to take a picture of)

The boys' red tree

(even harder to take a good picture of!)



And there you have it!  I'm off to find something to use as a makeshift tree skirt...

Thanksgiving 2010

I Know that Thanksgiving is not about the food or the family, but giving Thanks to God. 

That being said, I pretty much only took pictures of food on Thanksgiving this year!!  We spent Thanksgiving Day lunch with the Lloyd bunch at Connie and Kevin's, and then supper with the Kemps at Butch & Bobbie's.  We ate a turkey that mom and dad raised.  Yummy!

Saturday we had John's family here at our house. Great times!

I brined my first turkey, with encouragement from my mom.  It was BY far the best turkey I've ever eaten.  Sorry everyone (:

I used Alton Brown's recipe from foodnetwork.com.   Here is the finished product.

I about died because this was the dessert table at the Lloyd gathering.  Oh.  My.  Goodness.  Good stuff.

This is about the only picture that I took of people.



I hope you all had a Happy Thanksgiving, and didn't forget what it really is about.  Next year I'll try to pictorally back up what I say and focus a little less on the food!

SFR!

Scout Family Ridenour

(that's what it stands for!)

Our family made up a club this year called SFR.  It's sort of like Boy Scouts, Girl Scouts, Big Brother/Big Sister, VBS, and a roomful of sugared up squirrels- all mixed together. (:  We meet once a week, wear our uniforms, have the pledge to the American Flag and the Bible, and pretty much think of a bunch of fun stuff we can do together and learn about together as a family.  It's basically pretty awesome!  Here is a huge cookie I made for one of our meetings... 

(note the bunny ears. Yes. He is in *that* phase!!)



Dog Fight!

Hutch wrote a post-it for the wall the other day….
(it says "dog boxers fight here")

Pumpkin Carving

I know I'm a holiday late (:  but... I thought I'd share these photos from our pumpkin carving "party"!

So much fun! 

Happy Thanksgiving!

Now go eat some Turkey!!!

Trouble!

 

Plans

~Hutch at Myrtle beach

Glowing Fun

Parade!

I know this is a little late, but better late than never, I guess! (: 

On the Fourth of July, our family took the horses through the Holiday at Home Parade in Van Wert.  It was so much fun!  The little ones really got into waving at everyone.

The other part of the "Lloyd" family! 

Haydn, Lainey & Elliott

Jim and Caleb were the cleanup crew.  After the parade, he entertained some of the kids while we unhooked the horses/ put everything away!

They were going really fast.  Look at all of their hair!

Second Grade?! Kindergarten?!

Before I talk about school, I'd like to say that I've got a lot of catching up to do (which I *plan* on doing)!  We've gone to Brazil on a missions trip, and we've done a lot of living, which I'd like to share!!  Also, our house is on the market!!  It feels like our lives have been a whirlwind lately!

Tuesday, the boys started school.   I can't believe that two-thirds of my children are in school!!

Haydn is in 2nd grade, and Hutch started Kindergarten. I let them pick out shirts to wear the first day, and they chose matching ones.  I was surprised, so I even clarified that they were sure they were going to match.  Yep.  They thought it would be cool!  I'm loving this while it lasts! (:

Here they are right before we all took them over to school

Rose

We got a new puppy, a Chi-Poo!  We named her Rosebud, but will call her Rose.

The kids adore her!!

She is sooo tiny.  And sooo cute!!  We love little Rose!

Someday..

..I hope my kids fully grasp the reality of how good they've got it when it comes to Dads.  Their Daddy is one of the best, and he loves them so dearly...

 and treats their Mommy with love and respect...

and he's a Christian example for them to follow.

Right now, they're too young to see that not everyone's Daddy is as great as theirs.  They just assume all dads are like theirs.  That all Daddys play with kids, pay attention to them, tuck them in every night, sing songs to them, tell them jokes, take them to church, kiss them when they're hurt, take them fun places, love to see them light up with excitement, want to be with them as much as they can, teach them things, listen to their stories, dream with them and for them. 

                                      Someday they'll realize it, I'm sure.  How can they not?! It's so obvious!

                               Happy Father's Day, John!  You're one of *the best*!!  We love you!

Haydn's Birthday Cake

I know you know probably know this, but my mom ROCKS! (Hi Mom!)

We are having Haydn's 8th Birthday Party tonight and Sunday afternoon, and my mom had Haydn over last night to make his dirt bike cake.  This is THE BEST so far, I'd say ( I think I say that on every cake she does!)  She took the picture from his invitations and put it on a stick, so Haydn is riding down the cake.  Clever!!  We love it!

Check back for Party pictures!  I hope it doesn't rain!!!!! (:

Field Day

One of the last days of school, Haydn had a field day at the Football Stadium.  Gwyneth and I stopped in to check things out! 

We saw Haydn throw the football...

win the Sack Race...

win the wheelbarrow race...

and enjoyed a snow cone!!

Meeting Gracie

John's brother is visiting from North Carolina, and we got to meet Gracie, our newest niece.  She was born April 26th, and she is soooo tiny!!  I couldn't resist snapping a few pictures of her!

Gwyneth was VERY interested in her.  She kept holding her arms up and saying, "Hold.  Me!!" over and over!  When she did hold her, she was so serious, and did a great job!

I thought this picture was just precious!