Christmas decorating starts early at our house. Only I think we were a little late this year, because it was the first year we had all of our neighbors asking us why our lights weren't up yet. 1 1/2 weeks before Thanksgiving, one of our neighbors starting putting up their lights. Rob had already been strategically planning his display for weeks, but he didn't want to seem too eager. As soon as he saw the neighbors had started, he paced the garage and front yard for about 30 minutes, until he couldn't wait any longer. He quickly grabbed his first set of lights and went to work on his masterpiece:) Rob has two daughters that share all of his hobbies...Alyssa and Ashley. They love to hunt, fish, golf and even hang Christmas lights. Ashley was so helpful to check which strands worked, and which ones didn't.
Hunter is my only child that has OCD. He spent his time putting all of the boxes into a neat row.
Hunter was fascinated by the village pieces that I put on our mantle. I love his cute reflection in the mirror!
Brooklyn height really came in handy this year. The other 3 kids only decorated the bottom part of the tree, but Brooklyn stood on a bar stool and was able to decorate almost as high as I can:) She was much more diligent that the other kids. She decorated most of this tree for me. Alyssa helped with the other tree, but she only lasted about 15 minutes.
Don't mind the top part that doesn't have lights or all of the branches. I promise we completed it the next day:) We ran out of lights, so this was as good as we could do this night.
Every year the kids have a family BBQ at school. This was the first time that Rob was in town for it. About a week before the BBQ, the school sent home a letter asking us to RSVP and let them know if we were going to buy food at the school, or bring it ourselves. I asked Rob what he wanted to do, and I told him that every year I just grab something at Subway or somewhere else and I bring it to the kids. He insisted on eating at the school telling me we would be missing out on the experience of the school BBQ if we didn't eat the school food. I hesitantly said okay and checked the boxes for the amount of hot dogs/hamburgers that we needed. As soon as Rob saw the lunch, and saw that all the other parents brought their own food, he immediately denied ever telling me he wanted to eat school lunch...After his first bite, I don't think we will ever be eating school lunch again:) My kids sure like it though:)
Apparently Rob missed the memo on the financial problems our schools are having. He raided the ketchup and mustard packets, the plastic utensils, and even the napkins. I had to remind him we weren't eating at McDonalds...Luckily we were able to share some of it with our friends:)
Rob spent at least 30 hours putting up our lights this year (by my calculations). The kids helped with some of it. After days of this madness, Ashley asked me on the way home from school if Dad was going to be putting lights up that day. I told her yes and asked if she liked the lights. She said, "Yeah...but we don't get to see Dad that much":( Luckily at this point he was almost done.
Every year I think there is no way he can add more, but he did it again. Dad, do you have another poem you could write?
Since Ashley helped Rob with the lights across the grass, I guess she thought it was okay to dance and jump between strands. Luckily she didn't break any lights. I can't say the same for myself. A few days ago when I was pulling into the driveway in my car, I heard a crunch...crunch...crunch...crunch. After I realized I was driving over lights, I decided I was already far enough into it, I had better just step on the gas and finish the job. I took out two strands of net lights. I thought that it still looked pretty good, and nobody would really notice, but where do you think we had to go that night?...Michaels...to get new lights:)
Rob and Hunter putting up the train around the tree
Our Thanksgiving morning started with me running the 10k Turkey Trot. It was so much fun and I plan on making this my new tradition. Next year all of the kids want to run the Fun Run as well.
A few of our friends ran the race too. Brooke and Jeremy were a lot faster than me. Look at Jeremy jump that rope:) 
When I left for my race, Rob told me that he and the kids were just going to stay home and play Wii. I was really sad that they weren't going to come and meet me at the finish line, but I didn't say anything. When I came around the last corner before the finish line, I seriously got tears in my eyes because there on the sideline was Rob and all of the kids. I was so happy to see them! Brooklyn had wanted her own t-shirt so bad, she was luck enough to find one laying around that someone had dropped.
I didn't even come close to beating the turkey, but at least the kids got their picture with him:)
My friend, Kaye, ran this race with me, despite the fact that she is much faster. Sadly this is the best picture I got with her. Our other friends, the Bonds, ran as well.
Since I knew I would be tired after running, I made most of our Thanksgiving dinner sides and pies the night before. I put the turkey in the oven before I left, thinking we would eat about 2:00. The turkey was done so early that we ended up eating at noon. I think that is the earliest Thanksgiving meal I have ever had! Thanks to some help from the girls and Rob. My girls are at the perfect age where they love to help in the kitchen. They all wanted to set the table, and Brooklyn washed all of the potatoes.
The day before Thanksgiving, I made lemon cheese pie. My favorite pie that my grandma always made. When I was making the crust, Hunter asked me what I was making. I told him I was making lemon cheese pie. He said, "No, pumpkin pie!" I said, "No, lemon cheese pie!" We bantered back forth for a while until he went into the pantry and again told me pumpkin pie and proceeded to count all of the cans of pumpkin in my pantry. He then pulled out a can and put it on the counter. That night when we were eating pie, I gave him a small slice of all 3 different pies so that he could taste each one. The only piece he ate was the lemon cheese pie. After he was done, I asked him what his favorite pie was, and he told me pumpkin pie. I told him the one he ate was lemon cheese pie, but he could not admit it was his favorite:)
Pumpkin, however, was everybody else in the family's favorite. Alyssa could have eaten pie all night long. I had to cut her off once the sugar high kicked in:)
I was a nice wife this year, and I didn't set my dining room table with my Christmas dishes so that Rob could do his annual Christmas puzzle with the kids. This happens to be one more hobby that Ashley and Alyssa share with Rob. Brooklyn read a book while they did the puzzle, and Hunter just knocked the pieces off the table.
Once Rob thought he was finally done with his lights, we noticed that a section of our icicle lights wasn't turning on. It couldn't have been a section on the bottom level, it had to be on the top...and at the highest pitch in our roof. To avoid getting on the roof again, Rob climbed the ladder to the opening above our front porch, and stood on the edge to fix the broken bulb. Once again, height came in handy this Christmas:)
The finished product looks so much better in person, but these are the pictures I took.
Rob's amazing!
The Saturday after Thanksgiving, we went out to the desert with our friends. We took the rhino and guns to do some target practice. Grace and her friend "Choncho" have a lot of fun together.
Sarah and I looked much cuter as we were leaving on the rhino...
After nearly being shot to death, we arrived safely back to base camp wearing goggles:) Yes, that's right...goggles. Thank goodness Derek and Sam had theirs to let us borrow. I had to take a contact out because of all the sand in my eyes. I kept hearing the theme song for Indiana Jones the whole time we were driving. It seemed like every corner we turned, there was another group of people shooting randomly at targets. We would just have to step on the gas and duck:)
Hunter and Max
Who would grab a cactus??? Oh yeah, Brooklyn would:) She grabbed this cactus and it was really stuck in her hand. Once I was able to get a picture, we started first aid:) Sorry Brooklyn! I have a really good first aid kit that I thought had anything we could possibly need to help us. Unfortunately, I didn't have tweezers in there. Luckily, Sam had a set. This cactus was very stubborn, but eventually we got it all out...I think.
Alyssa won't even admit she is friends with Sam, but they sure seem to get along well together:)
Hunter didn't bother to tell me that he had to go potty. He never has accidents, so of course I was unprepared. He had to go without pants the rest of the afternoon.
These guys sure look like friends to me:)
Brooklyn adores Baby Max! A couple of weeks ago our friends got a new dog. As soon as Brooklyn heard, she said, "Now Richey's have everything on my list...A baby and a dog". I just can't keep up with Joneses.
Ashley and Hannah
Another hobby Ash shares with Rob.
The one safe place we find to shoot has a sign that says "No Shooting". Go figure!
Alyssa is now asking for a pink .22 for Christmas. I'm vetoing the request...I think she is too young.
Once we moved on to the higher powered guns, the kids had to find ways to entertain themselves.
Rob and Derek were great with the shotgun.
I hit my target with the muzzle loader and Derek's handgun, but I don't think I ever even got close with the shotgun...This thing is too HEAVY!
Sarah was about as lucky as I was:)
Kids can make a jungle gym out of anything.
Since Hunter's birthday is only 6 days before Christmas, we have vowed to always celebrate it early. We had planned on doing it a month before, but we kept putting it off. On Monday, Hunter saw Rob and I buy him a Lightning Mcqueen toy (I guess we weren't as sneaky as we thought) and he wouldn't stop asking me for it once we got home. When the girls got home from school Rob said, "Why don't we just celebrate it tonight?" So, he took Ash and Alyssa to Target to finish the shopping, while Brooklyn and I made cupcakes. It was a no stress party, I didn't even have to plan for it:) Can you guess what Hunter's favorite movie is?
I LOVE this picture. It totally captures how much my girls all adore their little brother. Look how happy they are for him:)
Each girl picked out a present to give him. This is what Alyssa gave him.
I love that he was even excited to get clothes:)
This is what Ashley gave him.
Hunter is my only child that has OCD. He spent his time putting all of the boxes into a neat row.
Hunter was fascinated by the village pieces that I put on our mantle. I love his cute reflection in the mirror!
Brooklyn height really came in handy this year. The other 3 kids only decorated the bottom part of the tree, but Brooklyn stood on a bar stool and was able to decorate almost as high as I can:) She was much more diligent that the other kids. She decorated most of this tree for me. Alyssa helped with the other tree, but she only lasted about 15 minutes.
Don't mind the top part that doesn't have lights or all of the branches. I promise we completed it the next day:) We ran out of lights, so this was as good as we could do this night.
Every year the kids have a family BBQ at school. This was the first time that Rob was in town for it. About a week before the BBQ, the school sent home a letter asking us to RSVP and let them know if we were going to buy food at the school, or bring it ourselves. I asked Rob what he wanted to do, and I told him that every year I just grab something at Subway or somewhere else and I bring it to the kids. He insisted on eating at the school telling me we would be missing out on the experience of the school BBQ if we didn't eat the school food. I hesitantly said okay and checked the boxes for the amount of hot dogs/hamburgers that we needed. As soon as Rob saw the lunch, and saw that all the other parents brought their own food, he immediately denied ever telling me he wanted to eat school lunch...After his first bite, I don't think we will ever be eating school lunch again:) My kids sure like it though:)
Apparently Rob missed the memo on the financial problems our schools are having. He raided the ketchup and mustard packets, the plastic utensils, and even the napkins. I had to remind him we weren't eating at McDonalds...Luckily we were able to share some of it with our friends:)
Rob spent at least 30 hours putting up our lights this year (by my calculations). The kids helped with some of it. After days of this madness, Ashley asked me on the way home from school if Dad was going to be putting lights up that day. I told her yes and asked if she liked the lights. She said, "Yeah...but we don't get to see Dad that much":( Luckily at this point he was almost done.
Every year I think there is no way he can add more, but he did it again. Dad, do you have another poem you could write?
Since Ashley helped Rob with the lights across the grass, I guess she thought it was okay to dance and jump between strands. Luckily she didn't break any lights. I can't say the same for myself. A few days ago when I was pulling into the driveway in my car, I heard a crunch...crunch...crunch...crunch. After I realized I was driving over lights, I decided I was already far enough into it, I had better just step on the gas and finish the job. I took out two strands of net lights. I thought that it still looked pretty good, and nobody would really notice, but where do you think we had to go that night?...Michaels...to get new lights:)
Rob and Hunter putting up the train around the tree
Our Thanksgiving morning started with me running the 10k Turkey Trot. It was so much fun and I plan on making this my new tradition. Next year all of the kids want to run the Fun Run as well.A few of our friends ran the race too. Brooke and Jeremy were a lot faster than me. Look at Jeremy jump that rope:) When I left for my race, Rob told me that he and the kids were just going to stay home and play Wii. I was really sad that they weren't going to come and meet me at the finish line, but I didn't say anything. When I came around the last corner before the finish line, I seriously got tears in my eyes because there on the sideline was Rob and all of the kids. I was so happy to see them! Brooklyn had wanted her own t-shirt so bad, she was luck enough to find one laying around that someone had dropped.
I didn't even come close to beating the turkey, but at least the kids got their picture with him:)
My friend, Kaye, ran this race with me, despite the fact that she is much faster. Sadly this is the best picture I got with her. Our other friends, the Bonds, ran as well.
Since I knew I would be tired after running, I made most of our Thanksgiving dinner sides and pies the night before. I put the turkey in the oven before I left, thinking we would eat about 2:00. The turkey was done so early that we ended up eating at noon. I think that is the earliest Thanksgiving meal I have ever had! Thanks to some help from the girls and Rob. My girls are at the perfect age where they love to help in the kitchen. They all wanted to set the table, and Brooklyn washed all of the potatoes.
The day before Thanksgiving, I made lemon cheese pie. My favorite pie that my grandma always made. When I was making the crust, Hunter asked me what I was making. I told him I was making lemon cheese pie. He said, "No, pumpkin pie!" I said, "No, lemon cheese pie!" We bantered back forth for a while until he went into the pantry and again told me pumpkin pie and proceeded to count all of the cans of pumpkin in my pantry. He then pulled out a can and put it on the counter. That night when we were eating pie, I gave him a small slice of all 3 different pies so that he could taste each one. The only piece he ate was the lemon cheese pie. After he was done, I asked him what his favorite pie was, and he told me pumpkin pie. I told him the one he ate was lemon cheese pie, but he could not admit it was his favorite:)Pumpkin, however, was everybody else in the family's favorite. Alyssa could have eaten pie all night long. I had to cut her off once the sugar high kicked in:)I was a nice wife this year, and I didn't set my dining room table with my Christmas dishes so that Rob could do his annual Christmas puzzle with the kids. This happens to be one more hobby that Ashley and Alyssa share with Rob. Brooklyn read a book while they did the puzzle, and Hunter just knocked the pieces off the table.Once Rob thought he was finally done with his lights, we noticed that a section of our icicle lights wasn't turning on. It couldn't have been a section on the bottom level, it had to be on the top...and at the highest pitch in our roof. To avoid getting on the roof again, Rob climbed the ladder to the opening above our front porch, and stood on the edge to fix the broken bulb. Once again, height came in handy this Christmas:) The finished product looks so much better in person, but these are the pictures I took.Rob's amazing!
The Saturday after Thanksgiving, we went out to the desert with our friends. We took the rhino and guns to do some target practice. Grace and her friend "Choncho" have a lot of fun together.
Sarah and I looked much cuter as we were leaving on the rhino...
After nearly being shot to death, we arrived safely back to base camp wearing goggles:) Yes, that's right...goggles. Thank goodness Derek and Sam had theirs to let us borrow. I had to take a contact out because of all the sand in my eyes. I kept hearing the theme song for Indiana Jones the whole time we were driving. It seemed like every corner we turned, there was another group of people shooting randomly at targets. We would just have to step on the gas and duck:)
Hunter and Max
Who would grab a cactus??? Oh yeah, Brooklyn would:) She grabbed this cactus and it was really stuck in her hand. Once I was able to get a picture, we started first aid:) Sorry Brooklyn! I have a really good first aid kit that I thought had anything we could possibly need to help us. Unfortunately, I didn't have tweezers in there. Luckily, Sam had a set. This cactus was very stubborn, but eventually we got it all out...I think.
Alyssa won't even admit she is friends with Sam, but they sure seem to get along well together:)
Hunter didn't bother to tell me that he had to go potty. He never has accidents, so of course I was unprepared. He had to go without pants the rest of the afternoon.
These guys sure look like friends to me:)
Brooklyn adores Baby Max! A couple of weeks ago our friends got a new dog. As soon as Brooklyn heard, she said, "Now Richey's have everything on my list...A baby and a dog". I just can't keep up with Joneses.
Ashley and Hannah
Another hobby Ash shares with Rob.
The one safe place we find to shoot has a sign that says "No Shooting". Go figure!
Alyssa is now asking for a pink .22 for Christmas. I'm vetoing the request...I think she is too young.
Once we moved on to the higher powered guns, the kids had to find ways to entertain themselves.
Rob and Derek were great with the shotgun.
I hit my target with the muzzle loader and Derek's handgun, but I don't think I ever even got close with the shotgun...This thing is too HEAVY!
Sarah was about as lucky as I was:)
Kids can make a jungle gym out of anything.
Since Hunter's birthday is only 6 days before Christmas, we have vowed to always celebrate it early. We had planned on doing it a month before, but we kept putting it off. On Monday, Hunter saw Rob and I buy him a Lightning Mcqueen toy (I guess we weren't as sneaky as we thought) and he wouldn't stop asking me for it once we got home. When the girls got home from school Rob said, "Why don't we just celebrate it tonight?" So, he took Ash and Alyssa to Target to finish the shopping, while Brooklyn and I made cupcakes. It was a no stress party, I didn't even have to plan for it:) Can you guess what Hunter's favorite movie is?
I LOVE this picture. It totally captures how much my girls all adore their little brother. Look how happy they are for him:)
Each girl picked out a present to give him. This is what Alyssa gave him.
I love that he was even excited to get clothes:)
This is what Ashley gave him.
This is what Brooklyn gave him.
He loves to play in his new Mac tent, but he doesn't have any interest in sleeping in it:)
The girls are so nice to play cars with Hunter. I guess they owe it to him for making him play Ken when they play Barbies:(
Brooklyn helped me frost the cupcakes. She was so offended when everyone ate one of the cupcakes that I had frosted and nobody chose one of her's. But after all of her complaining, I looked at which cupcake she chose...it was one that I had frosted. I guess next time I'm going to have to let her frost all of them.
I cannot believe my baby is 3! Hunter is a dream child! He never had one moment of terrible 2's! I love you Choncho!!!
And, so does everyone else!
He loves to play in his new Mac tent, but he doesn't have any interest in sleeping in it:)
The girls are so nice to play cars with Hunter. I guess they owe it to him for making him play Ken when they play Barbies:(
Brooklyn helped me frost the cupcakes. She was so offended when everyone ate one of the cupcakes that I had frosted and nobody chose one of her's. But after all of her complaining, I looked at which cupcake she chose...it was one that I had frosted. I guess next time I'm going to have to let her frost all of them.
I cannot believe my baby is 3! Hunter is a dream child! He never had one moment of terrible 2's! I love you Choncho!!!
And, so does everyone else!
