Happy Birthday Lainey!

 Lainey and Esperanza had a fun skating birthday party!  Brian got there a little late and couldn't understand why parents weren't skating...so he grabbed some skates!  

I LOVE that about my husband!!

 Ella might be 3, but she LOVES playing with the big girls.  Millie is one of her best friends and "Samora" is another of her favorites! (Port can't stand it when she calls Samara...Samora)

Happy Birthday sweet girls!  

One of my favorite moments...maybe of the month...

Bryan Ray made a fun music mix for the party, they had the fun lights on, and Ella just couldn't understand why people weren't dancing.  She kicked off her skates and strutted out to the middle of the skating rink and danced the rest of the night.  

I LOVE HER:-)

Josh and Jenny...the best!

 Uncle Josh...

this isn't his favorite thing to do but anything for Halle!

 With no furniture in my parents living room, it made for a perfect basketball court!

 Hang with my kids for very long and you will have to play games!

 Ella LOVES Jenny! 

 Jenny is always so kind to play with Ella.

 Next up a stop in the hot tub!

Let the bubble fight begin!

Thanksgiving Desserts

My family always has a dessert contest at Thanksgiving.  Saturday afternoon we made 4 different desserts, because EVERYONE had to participate!  It was actually SO fun, but I did spend a LOT of time in the kitchen that day.  These are Haynes Turkey Cookies...we found them on Pinterest and he couldn't wait to make them.  I love this shot of his handwriting next to it!

 Port chose to make a cherry pie...pretty awesome crust huh?!?

Ella made Strawberry Pie Cookies that I didn't manage to get a picture of...oops!  

They were super cute too!

 My kids love a competition and had no problem begging for a few votes.  They loved getting medals and a trophy!

This guy was so excited this picture doesn't even do it justice.  He ate the other turkey, so no one actually even tried his dessert.  He gave mine to Lolli and told her he made it:-)  

I LOVE this kid!

Camp 24/7...

 This summer our church had Camp 24/7 for the older kids.  This fall they did a one day camp for the younger ones.  They did worship, danced, art, and talked about their identity as a prince and princess.  Annamarie did an amazing job!  My kids were SO excited to go until we got there:-)  I eventually snuck out the back and they did great!

This was when I picked them up!  We love these mighty world changers that God is raising up in our city!

Christmas Lights

The boys were SO excited to help Brian with the Christmas lights this year.  We decided to do a red...white...white pattern.  Brian told the boys the pattern and then let them get to work.  They were so EXCITED that they got all the bulbs into the right order.  Later that afternoon we had some other boys, Kevin and Brian, help actually get them on the house.  Our lights look pretty amazing boys!

Just a few hours before...

We've been having "Fun Friday" with the Ray kiddos and it has been SO fun!  I got to watch all the cute kiddos and just decided to embrace the craziness of 6 kids!  We made cookies, ate lunch and played hard. My mom showed up with the flowers for katelin and kevin's party and this is what the house looked like...  Amazingly enough...

I got ALL six kids to take a nap and everything got done!  

Katelin & Kevin....are ENGAGED!!

 We got to throw a fun surprise engagement party for two of our favorites....

Katelin & Kevin!

 Kevin did a great job keeping all sorts of secrets from Katelin...even though she would ask him point blank..."are you proposing!?!"

 the happy couple

I'm not sure who enjoyed the party more...Katelin or Ella.  All of Katelin's Theta friends came to celebrate and Ella fell in love!  I was constantly saying, "Girls...you can tell her no!"  At one point Ella ran into the living room with the veil from her Halloween costume and insisted that Katelin wear it!  Thanks for loving Ella so well Katelin!