Christmas Time

Some of the Blake grandchildren and all of the Blake great-grandchildren participate in acting out the Nativity scene. Calvin is the wiseman in blue turned around. Amber was a shepard (the babies where her sheep) and Lexi was the Angel.

Here is Lexi and Emma singing carols, they both LOVE to sing.

Calvin made this Christmas wreath at school and when he brought it home I told him to hang it on the door handle. He said "No it is a Christmas costume, see you wear it as a hat!" And then he demonstrated it for me.

This is Christmas at my sister's house (the Vernons). Amber is wearing a Cheerleader outfit she got and loves it. She looks so cute showing Cooper his new gift.

This picture cracks me up. Geoff took it showing a really excited Cooper!

Hear is how the living room looked after santa came and before the kids got up. Notice the wacky chairs Amber and Calvin got for their upstairs table.

Everyone is opening the Santa gifts. Calvin was excited to get an already assembled Hot Wheels ice mountain.

Amber loved her first Cabbage Patch Kid. The school doll even looked just like Amber with blond hair and brown eyes!

Lexi's favorite gift was a webkinz Google that Santa brougt her. She named her Daisy.

Robert, Kathy, Abbie & Emily Brady Christmas Gifts

Here is Geoff opening the Khet game. This was a perfect game for Geoff and I, we were very excited about it. Little set-up involved and easy to start. We played it that night and Geoff was a little disappointed to have Carrie win the first round!








Can you tell Geoff is really excited about this gift! He spent 2 hours putting it together Christmas night (while it dried we played the Khet game). Tuesday morning we were off to the park to put it to it's test and it worked great. The kids loved seeing the rocks fly!









Mom looks lovely in this 8am Christmas morning picture. What a great idea to have a magnet toy for Cooper. It is already on our fridge and all the kids love playing with it. Cooper and Calvin also love the Cars plate, bowls and spoon and cute Thomas book.









Lexi cannot believe she fianally got this gift, she has been wanting this for months! She was so excited about this, thank you so much. She has already started working on it. She decided to do a book about herself right now including some poems she is working on.










Lexi also loved the mad libs and cat's cradle. We have just started doing more mad libs and she loves them.












Wow, Amber was sure excited about the Polly Pocket Cruise Ship! She couldn't wait to open it. After opening it yesterday her and Lexi have spent hours playing with it. Great gift!











Calvin loves his dinosaur, him and Geoff have been playing with it alot. Lexi and Amber however were not excited that the dinosaur invaded their cruise and started eating the passengers! Poor Calvin wasn't aloud to play with them anymore. The Thomas shirt also fits him perfect and is so cute. He wore it Christmas day and today also.


I do not have a picture of me with my gift but what a cool unique gift! It will be fun to put together and have our whole family play a personal game made just for us! And thanks for our microphone FX group present, we put it together and the kids love it. Thanks so much!

Family Photos

Here are the photos my friend took of us in November. I like this black and white one the best. She is just starting to learn to use her fancy camera so she was practicing on us. The sun was a bit harsh on us but they look nice.



These pictures were taken at a subdivision down the street, very convenient!

































We also got an entire family shot!

Christmas Gifts from Brady Grandparents

Everyone was so excited when the Christmas season gifts arrived from Gma and Gpa Brady. We loved how all the gifts had personalized wrapping paper. The kids had to wait all day until dad got home from work and are now ready to rip them open!







As you can tell Dad and Calvin loved the new train ordament. Dad read the description to all of us and told Calvin to be sooooo careful with his new train.










Cooper was all about the unwrapping, the rest of us liked the Santa ordament inside.

















Dad and Calvin saw this toy at the store and thought it was neat so they were excited about it. Calvin took it to his Thomas bed with him that night to sleep with.















Was Lexi ever excited to get another Webkinz and a new Webkinz backpack! I asked her how many she would need for her to be satisfied and she said "As many as I could get!" She is still as obsessed as ever with them.



















And of course Amber loved her new ballerina dress. She is even wearing it (along with a crown and fresh lipstick) as I am writing this dancing around. She will enjoy wearing it practicing her ballerina DVD.



















One last picture to post. I was making breakfast when I looked over to find Cooper sitting on top of the stool eating a graham cracker (Calvin was not by him at the time). I was wondering where he got it when I noticed the open bag on the higher shelf. Cooper climbed up the steps then stood on his tippy toes to get himself his own cracker. He thinks he is pretty clever but mom is just relieved that he didn't hurt himself and now has to watch him closer!

Thanksgiving and Birthday Celebration

Thanksgiving morning I ran a 10K at a nice and steady SLOW pace. I definitley did not prepare as much as I would have liked to but I was still glad I ran and finished. However, because I was running Geoff had to make 4 dozen yeast rolls and get all the kids ready for our Thanksgiving lunch so he wasn't to excited about it.
For Thanksgiving we went to my Aunt's house and their neighbor got this slide for their kids. They let us use it until their family came. Calvin loved it!
















My uncle took the kids for a little ride down the street, let's hope they don't get addicted to it!
















Amber looked so cute riding on the back!
I made the cake for the November birthday celebration which was my dad, Amber and Cooper. Amber wanted a princess cake so we made this from Halloween candy and toys we
had. Geoff helped me design it.









We put up our Christmas decorations right after Thanksgiving also. This is our first 2006 Christmas tree picture!

Amber's 5 year old Cooking Party

Amber's first birthday party with friends! Amber if finally growing up, when I asked her what she would like to do for her birthday she finally wanted to invite some kids from her school. She picked 6 friends and they all could come. It was actually one of the funnest birthday parties I have done. They were all so nice and cute and we had a great time. (It helped that Calvin and Lexi were at school and Cooper was taking his nap.)
Everyone got chef hats, aprons and rolling pins and then I put them to work. First they made their own pizza's, I only made the dough and they did the rest.
While the pizza's were cooking I then had them decorate their own little birthday cakes. I put frosting in little plastic bags and cut the tips for them and then they piled on the candy. The hard part for them was reframing from eating them right away. They had to eat the pizza's first!
After eating there yummy pizza's they finally got to enjoy the cakes. I took them outside for this. Can you tell they are so excited! 

Thanksgiving Time.

Happy Thanksgiving! Here is the turkey's Amber made at school.
Calvin finger painted his turkey leaves and made his corn from rolled up tissue paper. He thinks they are really cool.











We got our x-mas present early and got a little bit better digital camera. I have been experimenting with it and took a close up of Cooper. I love is two little teeth on the bottom.
I told Amber to talk to Calvin about what she did at school. She decided to whisper it to him. These two always seem to have stamps on their hands. I guess it is required as a preschooler. On another note, Calvin's blanket is falling apart and he loves to pull out the middle and play with it. 

Cooper's 1st Birthday

For Cooper's 1st Birthday we had our neighbors and my sister over for a BBQ. Everyone had a great time especially Cooper. We did the one year old Irish tradition of setting out a shot glass, coin and scripture and seeing what is picked. Cooper picked the glass first but only to throw it down and then took the coin. Not sure what the meaning is there but it is all in fun!













Lexi was so excited and made Cooper's own double layer cake in her easy bake oven. She also decorated it herself. After singing to Cooper we just set it down in fron of him and let him have at it.









Here is the "not fancy at all, only took 5 minutes to decorate" cake mom made for the rest of us to eat. It defintely wouldn't win any prizes but it was good to eat!










And here is Cooper after finishing ALL of his cute cake while not wasting much or making much of a mess. Cooper is one happy boy right now!