Happy New Year!

Wishing you all the best in 2008! We had no big plans for the day but decided to head to the bowling alley for a few games....you can't go wrong with bowling on New Years! A great way to start the year!

Why is it that Boys usually play better together outside.... (we got just a dusting of snow, now it's just wet and slushy but they still wanted to playoutside for a while)
and Girls do better getting meeting somewhere to "chat"? One of the favorite gifts this year for us was Webkinz. Here, Holly, Mia and Mia's friend are all finding each other in Webkinz World.

Ahhhh, Christmas

Christmas Eve we enjoyed a fun night at home with the kids opening presents after church. Mia (with a little help from Dad) made me a jewelry box. Very cute!Christmas Day we headed to Grandpa and Grandma's house. Lots of noise, food and fun!

That old saying is so true...you can pick your friends but not your relitives! :) Merry Christmas, Dave.

Hofwegen Brothers Part Deux

I'm a little behind here but finally taking the time to share a little birthday excitement. I can hardly believe these guys are 4 but they really, truly are.

We had a great day celebrating on Sunday. We opened a few presents before church and then in the evening we had a Pirate/Batman/Superman party. Grandpa and Grandma VH gave them quite the appropriate gifts, don't you think!

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Be careful what you wish for!

Do you remember this post? Grandma, being the good Grandma that she is, thought she better follow through. Although her costume making machine didn't produce these she found quite a bargain at The Disney Store. Her package arrived yesterday so the boys got an early birthday present. Gotta love that!
I wouldn't let them sleep in them, they have to be a huge fire hazard, but I did let them take the gloves and boots to bed. And first thing this morning, Lucas is back in it shooting lasers and saving the world. They did ask me last night if they could go downstairs and try to fly, this could be interesting, or entertaining to say the least. Thanks, Grandma!

And keep voting....you have until tomorrow night! :)

The Results Are In....

You guys are the BEST!!!! I am a finalist. She altered the photos and now you have to vote, again, for your favorite....#4 this time. So go to http://www.noemiphotography.com/blog/ and leave a comment again....please! :) You have until Saturday night to do so. Thank You!!

Christmas Fun

Eric and I got away for about 28 hours this weekend. We had great fun with friends and also got our Christmas shopping pretty much rapped up. We stayed in Bellevue and they do this little Christmas show everynight complete with Christmas music, drummer boys and snow blowing off the top of the stores. It helped pass the time before dinner. We decided the kids would have loved it but we were happy to watch the show by ourselves and talk about how much they would like it. Maybe another time! :)

Thank you & you can still vote

Thanks for all your votes & comments! Voting ends tonight at midnight so if anyone wants to still leave a comment you still can. She's taking the top 5 and she'll "doctor" them up and then do another round of voting. :) Stay tuned....

Vote for me!

Shameless plug but the end result is free stuff so how can I not ask....it is Christmas! :) I'm always looking for photography websites for ideas and tips, and a contest now and then is always fun so I entered. If you click on this link you'll see the winter photo contest. All you gotta do is leave a comment voting for #3. Thank you!

A Christmas Classic

Do you think the real wisemen fought at the foot of the manger?

I'll post some video later for anyone interested, not quite as entertaining at last years performance, but cute. For now I'll leave you with this photo.

Wintery Weekend

It's been cold and snowy here this weekend. We went to the Annual Lighted Christmas parade last night and it was COLD!!! 29 degrees, about 19 with the wind chill! Eric and I decided to pack it up about half way through, Mia and Holly didn't disagree but L,T & J objected LOUDLY. They weren't ready to go. Oh well, guess who won! :)

Yesterday we had a little snow.

Today we had a lot more!

We made "Gingerbread" Houses yesterday using graham cracker. The kids thought it was great. It worked much better this year since I now have these handy dandy little decorators. Love them...well worth it! They are from Pampered Chef and the girls could use them quite easily.

No Buzzlightyear but a good Michael Jackson

Tonight Lucas asked if he could call Grandma R. so I dialed the number and handed him the phone unsure of where the conversation would go. He quickly got to the point that he would like Grandma to make him a Buzz Lightyear costume, and if she could make them for his brothers too, that would be great. He continued to make it sound so easy. "Just use your costume machine and make one." This is the same kid who I found in bed with Joey last night fully clothed in clean clothes (not in the pj's they went to bed in) When Eric asked Joey why he was dressed he said they wanted to surprise mommy and be dressed in the morning. Gotta love it!

Grandma, we'll be waited for the Brown truck to make you delivery any time! :)And yes, he's had that glove on all day. Holly wanted to wear it to school today but he wouldn't hear of it!

So much to be thankful for

We enjoyed a great Thanksgiving at our house today. Most the the VH gang joined us as well as Uncle Dave. We had way to much to eat, lots of craft making and even celebrated Holly's birthday. Holly so badly wanted a turkey cake today....isn't this perfect! :) I had attempted to make one yesterday and the batter did not turn out...turns out I forgot to add water while adding the flour so it tasted more like brownies than a cake. Thanks to Safeway Eric and Holly found this cake this morning as well as a Peppermint White Chocolate Mocha from Starbucks to start off my morning. There was even someone in the bakery to write "Happy Birthday, Holly" on it. To cute!

Give me an H...O....L...L...Y

It is Holly's birthday next week and we had a few of her friends over yesterday to help her celebrate. She wanted a Cheerleading party so that's what we did. Not an area I was ever gifted in (cheerleading that is!) but one we had fun turning into a party. We made Pom Poms, played games and the girls just had fun playing together. Mia helped out and served lunch in the "concession stand."

What did you do last night?

Dear....Sweet...Alyssa...this is for you! Our wonderful, adorable, favorite babysitter made me take my camera along last night because she was sick of looking at pictures of my kids (WHAT!) and wanted to see pictures of Eric and I...so, here you are my dear!

I'm glad she made me take my camera. We get together with the same group of friends every 6 weeks or so and one couple plans the evening. Last night it was BJ and Cheryl's turn. After a great turkey dinner we headed to a dance instructors house (which the guys had no idea about!) for a little dance lesson. We laughed and laughed and laughed. As far as the dancing goes, some of us may have learned a thing or two. I'm feeling pretty secure in my friendships in order to post this video! :)

Just Because

Batman (Tyler) having breakfast this morning.

Joey trying to see what the grapling hook can really do.

Even Superman (Lucas) can play with Polly Pockets.

Also, some of you may have noticed the Jib Jab video is gone. Mia was watching it this week and asked who "those other people" were in the video. Somehow the video was compromised (either a computer glitch or someone messing with our account) Either way, I removed it!

All I want for Chrithmath...

...ith my two front teeth.

Holly's two front teeth have been loose since August and they finally fell out on Friday. Then on Saturday Mia lost another one. The Tooth Fairy was very busy this weekend.

The winner is....

Answer #3...Tyler did go as Batman and everyone else was a pirate.

He was quite adamant about it as well.

For whatever reason, no matter what, whenever we're at Aunt Joan's they still need their "regular" stuff. So, they got a bag loaded with candy and still needed Aunt Joan to make chocolate milk for them.
Grandpa and Grandma with their whole crew
ARG! The ultimate booty was found by Uncle Dave's house....full size Carmellos. Eric told everyone in the car if they fought, he got theirs!

We had a great night and everyone got plenty of Booty! Thanks to everyone who played my little contest! The Washingtonians did have an inside scoop but I didn't want them to feel left out. :) Lisa, are you still willing to give your winnings to the next correct guess even if it's Kathy? :) And yes, Lauri, you are always a winner to me!