Labor of Love

My dad and Jace. This is such a special picture for me. 😉

The boy loves to hunt. My dad made him his very own custom deer stand.

Jace LOVES to hunt.  He is 100% all boy!  My dad takes him deer hunting a lot and Jace enjoys it so much.  He also gets to go with Justin when he goes duck hunting.  He is ALL BUSINESS when he gets out there to hunt.  So cute!  😉

I can’t believe another year has come and gone!  We had a great 2 weeks off during Christmas.  Justin was able to take off a few days to be home with us and it was so nice having him here!  Every year on Christmas Eve we go to Justin’s mom and dad’s house.  We eat dinner and open presents with his side of the family.  It’s nice because we really get to spend some quality time with just our family.  My mom and dad usually spend the night with us on Christmas Eve night so that they can be here on Christmas morning and watch the kids open their gifts.  Christmas dinner is usually at my house and of course, we always eat way too much! 

The kiddos had a great Christmas!  They racked up as usual.

We are so blessed to have such a wonderful family!  This time of year is hard for so many people and it really makes me thankful for all the many blessings I have.  I have healthy, wonderful children, a husband that I love, and a job that allows me to live a comfortable life.  Thank you God for all my many blessings!

Here are a few pictures of Christmas:

These are just a few random pictures that I really have no title for and that wouldn’t fit into a post all by themselves.

This was in the middle of summer! It was 102 degrees outside and Ava wanted to dress up! LOL!

This is Ava's baby sister. That's what Ava thinks anyway! She carries this picture frame around and calls this generic Wal-Mart picture her baby sister!

Justin was out weed eating when the weed eater hit the ground and bounced up and hit his leg. He was wearing flip flops!!

They had a firefighter come visit our school. Ava got to put on the jacket and loved it!

My mom and Ava at Loca Luna eating for my birthday.

Jace learned how to ski this summer!

We had a great Halloween this year.  We had my parents over and Aaron, Hope, and Parker over.  We ate dinner and then went trick-or-treating.  This was Parker’s first Halloween and as you can see, he looked PRECIOUS as a dinosaur!  Ava was a pretty little ladybug and Jace was the scary Darth Vader. 

Carving the pumpkin w/ daddy

Aunt Hope and Cousin Parker ~ Halloween 2010

Cousin Parker ~ Halloween 2010

Ava and Parker ~ Halloween 2010

Ava, Parker, and Hope ~ Getting some playtime in before going trick-or-treating

Jace....I mean Darth Vader...;) ~ Halloween 2010

Ladybug is tired ~ Halloween 2010

During Homecoming week at school, we had several spirit days that were really fun.  One day was dress as your favorite book character and Jace and Ava were PUMPED!  Jace dressed up as the character from the book How I Became A Pirate and Ava dressed up as Fancy Nancy.  They looked so cute!  One of the other days was just spirit day and we got to wear our school t-shirts and jeans.  That day is ALWAYS my personal favorite for obvious reasons…..JEANS! 

Fancy Nancy ~ Ava dressed up as her favorite book character for school

How I Became A Pirate - Jace dressed up as his favorite book character for school

School t-shirt and jeans day

We took a trip to Nashville, TN towards the end of summer this year.  My friend Chasity and I had bought our husbands skydiving tickets almost 2 years ago and decided that we finally needed to use them before we lost our money!  We made a weekend trip out of it and had a great time!  I personally think skydiving is CRAZY, but I know it’s been on Justin’s bucket list for years.  When Chasity told me she got her husband a ticket, I decided to buy one for Justin.  As you can see, he had a BLAST.  Chasity and I had a BLAST on the GROUND watching them!

JP and his instructor - LOVE the cheeks!

Free Falling

Wow!

Praying possibly? This is the point where I would back out!!

My dad and I took a father/daughter trip on his motorcycle to Colorado in July. We had a BLAST! We drove almost 800 miles the first day! My rear end HURT the next day!! Dad and I spent 6 days traveling to many different parts of CO. We stayed in several different little towns along the way. It was a great experience and one that I won’t ever forget! My dad stayed another week and went on into Wyoming and I flew home. We saw some of the most beautiful scenery! Here are a few pics of the things we saw…….

One of the many beautiful views of Colorado ~ July 2010

My dad and I ~ Colorado July 2010

Colorado ~ July 2010

Beautiful view from the motorcycle ~ Colorado July 2010

One of our favorite towns in CO ~ Ouray

Dad and I ate crab legs 24/7 in CO

Amazing waterfall

Madrid, NM ~ Home of the movie Wild Hogs

Isn't this just beautiful?

I’m about to publish lots of pictures so that I can FINALLY catch up.  Here we go…..;)

We just got back from Boston on Saturday.  We had a great time.  I went for professional development and decided to make it a family vacation with Justin and the kids.  Justin and the kids did lots of fun things during the day while I was in class and then at night we all went out and had fun together.  The hotel we stayed in, where the conference was held, was about 25 miles from the city of Boston.  We didn’t know that until we got to the airport and took a cab to the hotel.  The cab meter kept going up and up, until finally it stopped at a whopping $85!  We decided at that moment that renting a car would be a much cheaper alternative.  🙂

Eating at Cheers ~ Faneuil Hall

Playing on the playground

Eating at Cheers - Faneuil Hall

Cape Cod

My little cuties ~ Cape Cod

WWII Battleship

My Sweet Boy

Cape Cod

Merry-Go-Round

    We had a wonderful time, but we’re glad to be home.  I always say, “There’s no place like home!”  🙂