gingerbread houses

sarah and savannah had a great achievement days christmas party. they always have it at shauna h's house and always have a ball! this year savannah got to participate since she is almost 8! our leaders, once again, are fabulous!!!! they made some cool christmas poppers as well as their gingerbread houses, and savannah's fave was the chocolate fountain!

an afternoon at the beach, in november (i know you people in the snow are all jealous!)

thanksgiving weekend (yes, i am still trying to catch up on my blogging! while i do everything else!) we took a drive in the jeep with the top off! it was great! the weather was nice and cool and we had clear skies to enjoy the scenery. we ended up driving on A1A by all the HUGE mansions right across from the ocean. they are HUGE! we ended up at the beach for a bit. it was a nice cool day for just hanging out and getting some good pictures.

don't be jealous all you utah people! this is florida in november! it's what we suffer through the brutal summers for!

what a manly man!

i love this one! they look so little next to the big ocean.

gracie was having fun jumping in this hole until the tide came in and it filled up with water. then she couldn't do it for fear of getting her dress wet! oh heavens! what a girlie girl.

pondering the great mysteries of the universe together.

gracie informed me they were looking for starfish in this one.

sarah and mauricio doing their "so you think you can dance" moves. (no she is not doing what you might think she is doing, it's a seashell she is showing the camera!)

the pack

as we were leaving for a drive the sheps were outside looking cute. maya wouldn't sit back down or get rid of the stick she was holding (what's new?) so she is a bit out of place, but still cute. can't believe we have so many dogs!

thanksgiving!

okay i have been waiting for a bit because i was waiting for pics from my sister-in-law to add, but alas, i can wait no more! she has the good one of the turkey! the 27 pounder! bummer! and it was like butter slicing through that thing! YUM-O! i didn't take any of all the awesome pies me and the girls made but i can tell you right now they were DELISH!! we had 8 pies!!!! 2 of each of the following flavors: pumpkin, pecan, turtle pumpkin (our newest addition!), and chocolate! i am drooling as i write this because of the wonderful memories of eating those pies! can you tell i like pie? anyways enjoy the pics of the people who were there! we had such a great time and great company! can't wait til next year!

sarah playing "dreamlife" while waiting patiently for food!

you gotta have a card game while waiting for the food right? isn't that everyone's tradition? uno attack is savannah's fave!mauricio's cousin and 3 of her boys came up from homestead. (please ignore the painting in the back! one day i will finally finish this project.)

neal, lisa and zach came up the night before and we made some of the stuff we could in advance so thanksgiving day was less stressful. we made pizza and the kids watched harry potter while lisa and i did the pecan pies. (another mention of pie!)
laura with her two boys
i love this one!

the kids had a blast outside since the weather was PERFECT!

the wild one showing her true colors!

zach and his awesome moves!

the whole gang!

caught in the act!

our girls are FOREVER playing outside doing who knows what. mauricio and i got some "action" shots of them doing their thing. they are always doing some sort of role-play out there. sticks and pine cones are always involved and lately a few lanterns and flashlights. don't ask me what they are doing here but it looks like some sort of foraging or farming. my girlfriend says maybe because of their indian blood they are calling upon their instincts to hunt and gather! whatever it is they do they have fun at it!sarah decided she wanted to go outside and read. (she is such a cute nerdy girl.) so i got some good pics of her. i seriously felt like the paparazzi hiding in the bushes to get these shots! thank goodness for zoom lenses! she didn't want to come in, but it got dark and it was a school night. gunnar ever the good companion!

then she caught ME!

gracie's birthday party (FINALLY!)

we FINALLY had gracie's birthday party!!! she had a great time with her family and friends and there were plenty of horse presents to go around! gracie with her buddies cyan and summer lots of presents

here's all the kids!

gracie and cyan

this is the cake!!! HUGE, i know, but gracie specifically asked for princesses with a horse and carriage on top of her cake. wouldn't you know that we happened to have that in the playroom! so, the cake had to be big enough to hold the dang thing!

gracie and nonagracie with her uncle neal, aunt lisa and cousin zachary
gracie was so tired from all the activity throughout the day that she totally fell asleep on the patio! it was a good day for her. notice the lantern. my girls and my girlfriend's kids, katie and matthew played outside in the dark for a few hours! she and i snuck outside and totally scared the crap out of them too! that was classic!!!!!