Princess Riley turns FIVE!

Our princess turned 5 yesterday! It is hard to believe that 5 years have flown right by! I was talking w/ my Aunts at our Herr Christmas and my Aunt Joanne stated that she has loved all the different stages that she has shared with her girls but now they are to the age that they are beginning to leave home and she said that this is the one stage that she doesn't love as much but she is learning~I know I have a few years before that happens but I am sure they will fly by quickly and I must remember to love every minute of being her mom!
She is going to have some friends over on Saturday for a Royal Luncheon (which is only fitting for a princess) so I will post some photos of that.

For her actual b.day we celebrated with dinner at Willow Valley (she wanted mashed potatoes, corn and cake) and much to our surprise Willow Valley was hosting an indoor carnival with tons of inflatable bounce things and carnival games~we of course had to go! It was fun and at the end of the evening we walked around the duck pond to look at all the lights. As I was tucking her in bed she told me that "she felt 5 now".

For Christmas Riley got a Mommy & Me cookbook and she eagerly picked out these cupcakes for us to make and take to our New Year's Celebration with the Hostetters and Swarrs and Dixon's.

They were fun to make and the kids were able to help!

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

Herr Christmas

My dad's family gets together every year for Christmas. Here are some photos of that great evening!

This is my Uncle Bob, Aunt Judy, Daniel (red shirt) and Mark. My aunt and uncle are getting ready to head to Narobi, Africa with MCC! Please keep them in your prayers as they adjust to Africa and have to set up a new office and home!


This of course is Uncle Ryan! He taught the kids such fun things when he was home like how to sneak cookies...


This is Riley with my cousin Rob's little girl Mary Kate. The two girls love to play together and it is nice they have one another at these large gatherings. This year when it was time for us to leave Riley stated to Mary Kate, "I don't know why my mom is making me leave, because we are having such fun."

This is one of the highlights of the holidays! I have such fond memories of playing w/ cousins and cookie days and our annual Philly shopping trip to John Wannamakers (which I wish was still around), so this is always a fun way to catch up with everyone!

CHRISTMAS DAY!

Christmas day starts at our house with us enjoying the kids opening their "santa" gift (our kids only get one gift from Santa, which is placed in their rooms under their little trees and they are allowed to open them without us being present if they want~this also buys us a little more shut eye...). After all the present opening is complete we clean up and head to my parents for lunch and more presents...

2008 Hess Trucks from MawMaw and PawPaw...


Santa brought the Baby Born I can Swim Doll this year (and yes, much to my surprise, she can swim...)


Riley and JD exchanged gifts this year...this is them checking out what they got for each other.

Merry Christmas!

Christmas Eve

In our tradition of Christmas Eve we celebrate with Jimmy's family~his parents come over and we just enjoy the day of exchanging gifts, eating a big meal at lunchtime and then just lounging around.

Sibling Love...

Christmas with Nana & Pop

Isn't she cute?

Hope your Christmas was great!

Preschool Christmas!

This year Pequea Preschool held a small Christmas Program that the 4/5 year olds and the pre-K class participated in! They sang some songs and dressed in costume! Here are some pics of Riley portraying an Angel...

Handprints!

I miss you when we're not together
I'm growing up so fast
See how big I've gotten
Since you saw me last?
As I grow, I'll change a lot,
The years will fly right by.
You'll wonder how I grew so quick
When and where and why?
So look upon these handprints
That's hanging on your wall.
And memories will come back of me,
When I was very small.
Riley's hands - age 5

JD's hands~age 6

Santa Saturday!

This past Saturday we trekked to our annual Santa destination~The Strasburg Railroad! This is an annual event that we started with my best friend Nicole and her family back when the boys were all infants and we are now in our 6th year! The kids have so much energy and excitement over seeing their friends they can hardly stand it! This year we added a day of activities for the kids that included lunch, decorating cookies and making Christmas ornaments!

These are the cute ornaments that Nicole made with the kids...she is so crafty! JD and Riley had to hang their ornaments front and center on our tree, rather than on their own little trees!

JD decorating his cookies...

Such skill and concentration...Tyler was putting his cookies out for Santa (who Tyler insists is 45 years old...)

Here are JD and Riley posing w/ Santa...

Riley and her cousin Emily eating apples that Santa passes out...

Here are JD and the boys (Isaac (L) and Jackson in the middle), we had taken a picture like this when the boys were about 1 year old~I can't find it in my back pictures, but my how the boys have grown! On a side note, JD was sharing with me the other day that Jackson is now 7 and Isaac and him are 6 and Riley is turning 5~I said I know you are all growing up so quick....he turned and looked at me and said, "Mom, don't worry, I will still come visit you and take you to the beach." Riley informed me that she is NEVER leaving home.

What would you do with out best friends??

I hope that you have enjoyed the brief photos of our great day and hope that you all have cherished times with friends and family this holiday!

ANTICIPATION!

Okay, so Thanksgiving has come and gone and we still marvel over all that we have to be thankful for! Jimmy came home from work the other day and just looked at us and said how grateful he is for the blessing of his family!
I titled this post ANTICIPATION because we have so many things that we are anticipating right now~Uncle Ryan's safe arrival....(the kids can't stop talking about when Uncle Ryan gets home and we get to celebrate with him....). Jimmy and I are anticipating what our gifts will be from JD, he shopped at a Secret Santa workshop so.......we will be sure to post photos. I also added a few pictures of things.

These are Uncle Ryan's favorite cookies and I posted them to insure that he will be coming home because I will not be shipping cookies this year....(they are a Peanut Butter Cup cookie...the kids seem to have taken a liking to them, maybe Uncle should hurry home...)

This is the Nativity set that I grew up with. My mom made this years ago and I cherish it and love to tell the kids about each person as we get it out...

This is just some photos of me trying my hand at the whole fruit and greens arranging...I'm not sure how long the fruit on the wreath will last but it is hanging in there for now

This is my favorite...

And last but not least, our larger than life Christmas tree. I was helping friends at a Christmas Open House and gave Jimmy and the kids the task of finding a Christmas tree....Riley giggles and says she picked it out, once I got past the size (and purchased more decorations-400 lights are on the tree) it seems to fit in our family room, just fine! And yes Virginia, it touches the ceiling.

Hope everyone is enjoying their blessings! Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

Christmas is Coming

Okay, I know that Christmas is still a few weeks away and it isn't Thanksgiving yet, but I am filled with eager anticipation! This is one of my favorite times of year!

We are getting ready for the annual Herr Thanksgiving tomorrow~it will be an evening filled with great food, fun times reminiscing about past years and did I mention good food?

The pics above were some that were snapped for our holiday cards! I wish the kids would have cooperated that well when we went to have pics taken as a family last night.....boy that was fun (note...I am saying that with a tinge of sarcasm). The photo lady didn't help matters by making faces behind the guy that was actually the photographer....which sent the kids into pales of uncontrollable laughter. Oh well, we will go back and try again.

Please keep the family around the corner from us in your prayers....their tobacco barn burnt this afternoon. JD was fascinated with the responding fire crews and spent some time talking with our old neighbor Adam with the Lampeter Fire Co.

Well, I hope that everyone is starting to enjoy the season and is taking the time to remember why we celebrate...Our Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ.

Jingles,

Chrissy

Monday Madness!!

Well, coming off of a busy weekend makes Monday kind of hum-drum, but very welcome!! We spent Friday at Hersheypark and the kids had a blast~they are roller coaster champs! Riley made us nervous because she enjoyed the superdooperlooper with her hands up and she preferred the front seat......I had to hold her in (I think more for my peace of mind...). Saturday we spent doing home renovations, actually Jimmy and our friend Rob hung drywall on our new bathroom and then we had a 30th b.day party for our friend Andrea that evening. Sunday was spent relaxing and taking Riley to a b.day party. Then Mom and Dad came for dinner in the evening. Great weekend!

Ahoy, Mateys!

JD turns six next week and we hosted a gang of little boys (with Riley and her friend Maggie) tonight for a Pirate Adventure! It was great swashbuckling fun!

Jimmy spent some time building Pirate Ships that we let the kids help to decorate as they arrived, then we did a treasure hunt (thanks to Jackson for helping to read the clues!!), and had a cannonball battle between ships! We roasted hot dogs, had chicken-on-the-bone (aka chicken drumsticks) and a pirate cake! We ended the festivities with a pinata!

Hope everyone has a great weekend!

Fishing in the Pequea Creek

Need I say more?

Friday Update!

YEAH, it is Friday....although our weekends tend to be just as busy as our weekdays! We tend to not schedule anything on Friday evenings so that we can be at home and just relax together. Last weekend we built a fire in the firepit and roasted marshmallows~which the kids LOVE to do, and Jimmy and I find it relaxing just to kick back and recap our week and the funny things that the kids (or ourselves) did.
JD has soccer Saturday and then I work until 6:30 and Sunday will be spent at church and then I am hosting our Grow Group Ladies here for a luncheon!
We will look at posting a weekend update!
Happy weekend to everyone!

Sunday!

This was a great day spent celebrating my dearest and best friends family as they dedicated baby Parker at their church this morning. The morning was followed by a great luncheon and just time being with them and all their family. (That is Tyler, JD, Jackson, Riley and Isaac in Sept 07 at OBX~Baby Parker was on the way.....).

After the busy morning and afternoon we came home and rested for about an hour while I studied our small group bible lesson and then we were off to small group. Currently we are studying about Time Stewardship and God's plan is for us. The world tends to be "hurried". A great thought for tonight is, "Do we control time, or does it control us?"

Here we go!

Well, we have begun blogging! I started this after Nicole initiated her blogspot and thought, like her, that it would be a good way to keep people posted, hopefully I will be able to keep up with the blogs!

First Day of School

What more can I say~JD started Kindergarten.....I did well, no crying (although I think my mom shed a tear). He was soooo proud to ride the bus~I on the other hand was a bit nervous.

I picked him up at school and he had a great first day, and of course LOVED recess.

Happy Birthday

Happy Birthday Maw Maw!!

Bethany Beach

Well, we spent some time at the beach with my parents in August. This is us on the boardwalk in Rehobeth~we went for dinner for my mom' s b.day. Riley looks happy doesn't she? I'm glad that we get to spend time with my parents and Jimmy's family, I think it is important~I have such fond family memories with my dad's family and mom's family. It is just great to spend time together! And we LOVE the beach.

Annual Father/Son Camp-Out

This is a picture of the annual campout~JD has had this campout since he was 3 and his Paw-Paw thought it would be a fun thing to do. His Paw-Paw was right~it is one of the most anticipated things of the summer for JD. Fathers and Sons campout in Dad's meadow and run crazy, eat things that mom's would probably not allow (Ecspecially ice cream for breakfast). Dad makes homemade ice cream and gives tractor rides. This is what summer is about!

OBX 2008

I wanted to add some vacation photos to our blog, so sorry it may be out of order~but....
In June we traveled to the Outer Banks, NC with our friends the Groff's and Bitt's. It is an annual trek we make and we really just enjoy the beauty of OBX and the time spent relaxing with friends. We spent time on the 4x4 drive beach (I'm not sure who thinks it is more fun~the kids or the guys because they get to drive on the beach....) and saw the wild horses, and this year we visited Jockey's Ridge for the first time~the kids loved it~if only I had a fraction of their energy I might not thought it was hard work walking up huge sand dunes. As the kids get older it gets easier to do things~although we really enjoy doing nothing on vacation.

Bethany Beach Martini Style

Boy did we have fun at Bethany with Aunt Janet, Uncle Ray and Nana & Pop. What a good weekend. The kids loved being with Nana and Pop and the LOVED the drinks Aunt Janet made them with cherries in them!! (Shirley Temples). How great is family~

Easter 2008

We celebrated Easter with Jimmy's family at our house for the 2nd year~JD loves have his cousins to come and play and eagerly anticipates this day each year! Maybe we need to get together more often?