her futures so bright

she has to wear shades.
she is dang cute.

G-L Family Chirstmas.

this year we treated Christmas eve as our little family's actual Christmas. we got up Christmas eve morning and opened presents and i even cooked a Christmas dinner. i made my first ever turkey. it came out so well i had to take a picture of it.after we ate. we decorated cookies for friends, that we later delivered. the batch did not make as much as i was hoping so if you are reading this and did not get any, i'm sorry. ;0(however i must say that these cookies were wonderful. i got this recipe from a friend. well i know her through her husband and her blog, we have never met, but it seems like we have. ;0)
we spent Christmas morning with garrans parents and his sister who was here with her family from Alabama. here is grandpa, christmas morning, pulling double duty with alex and briea.briea got her first stroller. it was so cute. she even got a baby from us to put in it.
here is kael with a train. no big surprise. it was actually alex (his cousin) train, but he was nice and let kael play.here is alex, chewing on a nerf gun dart.here are haley and cullan. haley really loved cullan. she kept referring to him as her boyfriend. it was very funny. we all laughed about it. then michaela had to explain to her why we don't date our cousins.here is julia playing with some dolls she got.i am not sure what kael is doing here. i just thought it was cute enough to put on here.i found this last picture as i was going through and trying to decide which ones to post. i just could not help it. look at those pretty blue eyes and big chunky cheeks. i love it.

an email.

this made me laugh. my mom sent it to me in an email. under she put..
"does this remind you of anyone?"
my answer..yes it does! ME.

more christmas fun.

yesterday, we spent the day with family celebrating another Christmas. we had a great time seeing everyone and just hanging out. the kids had so much fun running around and playing. we were really grateful to be able to spend that time with this side of the family too during the holiday season. here are a few of my favorite pictures from the day. i usually don't do slide shows, but i had so many cute pictures that i put one down at the bottom.

Katie (my cousin)

showing off some sweet boots.

my mom and briea

kisses

jeremy, garran,kael, katie

watch out. he is a wild man

sweet b

watching everyone open gifts.

thanking Katie

the family. sara&jeremy, mom&george, cullan, meg, briea, garran, kael. (the last picture got cut off, you can click it to see kael ;0(

catching up.

each year as a family Christmas tradition we make ginger bread (or graham cracker houses). we usually have people over to do this with us, but this year we just made them with garrans parents and siblings.
since i am behind on posting i will just do a quick run through on each persons house. this is cullans. very colorful!this is aunt silara's. i love her front door.this is the front and back of mine. i guess half way through i started going for two different looks. i was trying to create a log cabin look, but then added bricks. oh well.this is garrans house. i think it looks kind of like the house from charlie and the chocolate factory.this is Kael's house. can you guess what one of his favorite treats is??grandpa g went for a more abstract look.grandma g was not finished when i snapped this picture, but it looks pretty good so far.i think uncle sam just went for the candy shack approach. I'm pretty sure the inside is full of candy. ;0)
we had fun making these. it is one of my favorite things to do with the kids.

when nothing seems to go right.

tonight we had got home from having a Christmas with my mom and step dad along with other family. the kids were so excited with their gifts and seeing everyone that we let them stay up a little bit later than normal. (recently i have felt the need to enjoy quiet moments as a family.) anyways we finally decided it was time for bed. we started to get the kids ready. garran was helping the kids brush their teeth. cullan had gone first and then got in bed. while he was helping kael he heard cullan say, "dad, i broke my light and it is in my eyes" garran ran in their to find that cullan had managed to break a glow stick that had come with one of his Christmas presents and it was all over his face and in his eyes. garran scoops him up and runs him to the bathroom. he immediately starts washing his eyes. cullan is screaming, i am on the phone with poison control, and kael is balling his eyes out in the bedroom. i get off the phone with poison control, check on garran and cullan and then tend to kael. I ask him why he is sobbing and Kael tells me that he is sad because Cullan broke his eyes and will not be able to see anymore. Cullan hears this and starts crying even harder. i assure cullan he will be able to see again and that his eyes are not broken. after getting him out of the tub, wrapped in a towel, I lay him on our bed. he is still crying due to the fact that his eyes were burning. i finally ask him if he is still crying because his eyes hurt of if something else is the matter. he says "no my eyes don't hurt, i just don't want band-aids on my eyes, cause that will really hurt". i assure him that we will not put band-aids on his eyes and he starts to calm down. Kael joins us shortly and some bickering begins. finally kael yells at cullan...out of no where i might add..."GEEZ CULLAN, HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!"
what am i going to do with these kids???

friends.

tonight we hung out with friends. friends that we love and have known for almost 10 years now. we had a nice time chatting and letting our kids play together. while we were there I snapped a few pictures. this is Oliver and Kael. Ollie is showing Kael how to play a water slide game. it was so cute. Oliver kept taking turns between Cullan and kael. he was very patient sharing his new toy with our boys.

these next two pictures just crack me up.the boys were watching a movie on the floor and I guess briea wanted in on the action. i love how excited she was, clapping her hands. it was to cute. i am glad the kids were able to get together and play!

blessings.

this year, I am counting my blessings, each and every one.

boots

these boots have become a permanent part of every outfit...even PJ's !!

last week

last week we got to have a sweet little house guest. i could not resist snapping some pictures of him, while he was sound asleep. i took a few more..you can click here to see.

sickness

sickness has taken over our house!
i hate it.
two days til Christmas--i hope we feel better.
it is not fun opening presents when you are so sick.

graduation...everything after

right after garran graduated we tried to get a few family shots together.here he is "the graduate"!!of course one with our family....the kids look so excited don't they? they did so great though. they sat through waiting, the entire ceremony with no complaints.. i was so thankful for that.here is garran and his mom. she was pretty excited.another shot of garran and his parents.this is our niece katie sporting uncle garran's graduation cap.
after graduation we all went out to lunch. i had a ton of pictures from that also, so I just had to pick and choose.this pictures cracks me up. cullan was really enjoying the chips and salsa. i was amazed that he was eating the salsa because it was pretty hot. however i would see him eat some chips and then chug some water... it was cute.i just thought this was a sweet picture of kael. he is such a cutie.i tried to get a picture of my mom and george with the kids, so i took this. however i like this one much better. i just love that it is them, being silly. (and that briea is sitting there just being a cute mess)this is my sister and a picture of her fiance.
after lunch some of the family had not seen the show yet, so we took them back to the gallery.
here is my aunt bridget, garran, my grandma pat, my dad, and uncle brad outside the gallery. they stopped by to check out garrans work.the kids with garran, my grandmother and my dad.one last group shot before we headed out the door. however the kids were being cute, so i snapped these of the kids playing!!it was such a fun day, but i am glad we are done...now on to grad school apps and waiting to see what the future holds!!