february randoms

The weather was great this month and all of the kids took advantage of it by playing outside!

We love making homemade pizza!  And I love that the girls do most of the work!

February is cookie booth time here so our weekends are full of booths at different places around town.

After her teacher said that she was squinting at the board, Miss Lexie got glasses-- they make her look so grown up!

Ben's request for a Super Bowl snack was cheesy piccolis-- Easy Cheese on top of pickle chips.  Bleh!!  The kids (and Jacob) all thought they were fabulous!

Chick-fil-A is one of our favorite lunch stops-- especially now that I know you can get just strawberries in the fruit cup!!  Though Ellie has been to the dentist at least six times, this was the first visit with no tears, and she's even excited to go back again in six months for pictures of her teeth!!

One of our favorite things to do is try out new restaurants in the area so we were super excited to attend the soft opening of the new Famous Toastery in Downtown Mooresville.  Such a great location and delicious food!!

Ben loves playing basketball and we love cheering him on!

Miss Ellie was so excited to get dressed up for her daddy-daughter dance at preschool!

- The Dad and the Daughter -

We love Chick-fil-A!

Ellie loves going to pick up Christopher from tennis practice because it means she can play at the playground until he's ready to go!

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january randomness

Making our traditional homemade pizza on New Year's Day.  The kids (and especially the girls) love to help!

More photos by Ellie.

She's so big... and silly!

Helping make trail mix for the big kids to take to school for snack.

Pastimes: Ellie LOVES playing Memory!!  Jacob started working on his Disney Castle, Nick's haul from the public library, and Lexie with her take-home laptop.

These two love to snuggle with each other!

Lexie really wanted curly hair so we bought some rollers and tried them out- she sat patiently while I rolled up her hair and in the morning it was CURLY!!

Nick went to the 6th Grade Formal (why do 6th graders need a formal?!?!).  He's getting to be so grown up!

Random January pictures: Mom and Ellie at Target. Jacob got a new computer-- he was excited since he usually gets my old one!  Ellie discovered Nutella and is in love.  Those snuggly girls posing for more pictures!!  Ellie loves watching movies on my bed-- especially if she can do it instead of taking a nap!

Such a silly girl!!!  She sure keeps us entertained!

More basketball fun!

basketball fun

October was another basketball weekend and we spent nearly every Sunday cheering on Ben's team-- and taking pictures of Miss Ellie.

Go, Ben, go!!

Free throw-- he shoots, he scores!!

On the court and on the bench.

It has been so much fun watching Ben grow as a player this season!

Basketball fun and the drink thief.

Benjamin.

hornets hoops basketball camp

Ben participated in a Hornets Hoops camp this summer and loved it-- even the drills!

On the last day of camp they played a few games for the title of "Camp Champs" and Ben's team won the championship!

Ben was selected as the "Best Defender" in his age group!  Way to go, Ben!!

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april happenings

We love going to watch Ben's basketball games!

Randomness: Dinner at McAlister's after a basketball game, sisters watching "Sound of Music," and Nick making s'mores.

Since we have season passes to Carowinds, we go often and the ride pictures are always entertaining!

More Carowinds fun :)

The second grade had their annual Dances around the World performance and they wrapped it up with a big dance party!

Silly Ellie: She loves helping make cookies (or really anything where she can lick the beaters), she thinks matching jammies with either her dolls or Hannah and Lexie are the best thing ever, she loves stealing other people's shoes so she can go outside, and she likes to have her picture taken before she goes to bed so she can show Hannah what jammies she's wearing.

More fun at Carowinds: Christopher took his friend, Will, one evening and they had a blast on the big rides before their fun got rained out.

We went back as a family a couple of days later.  When we all go, we have to combine the thrill rides that only Chris and Nick are tall enough for with the more family friendly rides that Ellie can go on.  The four big kids all got soaked on White Water Falls!

After getting on as many rides as possible, we stopped for a quick dinner on our way out of the park.  Ellie crashed while we were in line for food so she got to enjoy the leftovers on the way to the car.

february fun

Ellie enjoys spending her time relaxing (watching movies and pretending to play xbox) and shopping at Hobby Lobby!

We had a few snow flurries one afternoon and taught Ellie to catch snowflakes on her tongue.

Benjamin and Christopher continued playing basketball this month-- we went to LOTS of games!

Ellie loves playing with her Legos (just like the big kids!).  Her absolute favorite one is the cow.

Ellie's first knock-knock joke!

january fun

We started the year out at home and spent the rest of Christmas break playing with new toys before getting back into the chaos of the school year.

Silly Ellie, she likes to put cheese on EVERYTHING!!  Ellie loves putting diapers on her babies.

January means it's time for basketball again!  We love going to cheer Christopher on!!

Going to Space Camp has always been a dream of Nick's but since it's so expensive, we told him he would need to apply for a scholarship if he wanted to go.  As part of the scholarship application, he had to do an experiment and he set out to see which item cleaned pennies better.

In addition to his experiment (salt and vinegar worked the best!), he had to write an essay, design a mission patch and get three teacher recommendations.

Ellie loves standing on the stool by the counter and coloring while I do things in the kitchen.

I'm amazed at how long Ellie's hair is getting-- and I LOVE her curls!!  We attended Nick's DARE graduation and I am always impressed with how well behaved the students at his school are.

Christopher and Ben both played basketball this winter through Parks and Rec.  Even though we didn't all make it to every practice and game (sometimes Jacob would take just the player-- especially for late evening games), I loved it when we could all go!

Ben grew so much as a player this season and really fell in love with the game.

Ellie makes the rounds between siblings during games.  Sometimes she likes sitting on the floor with Lexie, other times she sits on someone's lap, and sometimes one of them will convince her to give them a back rub!  Christopher enjoyed playing basketball again this year and I love how he gives his all during every game.

By the end of the month we finally had nice enough weather that Lexie and Ellie could ride their new bikes.  Ellie was SO EXCITED to finally ride hers-- now she just needs to figure out how to use the pedals.

Ben rocking his new bike helmet!

Lexie loves her new bike- especially since she had hugely outgrown her old one- and can now keep up with the big boys!