Courageous Claire!

This afternoon my sweet niece Claire got her ears pierced.  She's been psyching herself up for this for a loooong time, and today was finally the day.  She wanted Sarah to come along so we met her and Shannon over at Merle Norman for the "procedure."  She was so nervous!  But, like women across the world, she white knuckled her way through the process of our silly beauty rituals.  She was a trooper and everything turned out great.  She looks as lovely on the outside as she is on the inside!

Shannon gets the process rolling with the paperwork

BEFORE (Looking nervous)

AFTER (LOOKING THRILLED)

Learning how to care for her new piercings

Cute cousins...helping each other through the stresses of life!

Way to go Claire!

Merry Christmas to all and to all a good night!

Wow.  What a Christmas.  We've had an extremely fun filled weekend, and there's no way to capture it all in a blog post, so I'll just try to summarize it by saying we are completely, totally and undeservedly blessed.    Food, family, friends, gifts, and most of all, a Savior.  What more could we ask for?  Here are pictures from some of my favorite moments over the last four days.

Christmas Eve at our house...Nana opens a yummy smelling candle 

John receives a fun gift from Badoo

Tanner looking good in his Under Armor skull cap

Syd receives some super cute night wear

The big red bag gifts always bring lots of smiles

Taylor...Bucharest bound!

The XBox Kinect brings out good sportsmanship in everyone

Badoo gifts his girls with some handmade jewelry boxes

Cousins = fun

Sarah and Lori play with the Kinect

Leaving milk and cookies for the big guy (and I don't mean Lawrence)

Check it out!  Santa brought me Celtics tickets!

Oooo Santa, thanks for the Uggs and cell phone! (Now I'm not the ONLY 7th grader without one!)

New scrapbooks for me to fill!

A white Christmas for Duncan in his new turtleneck sweater

Dick shows off his new iPad from Mary Taylor

Pretty sweater for Sarah

New threads for John 

Merry Christmas! 

Snow Day!

The kids prayed and prayed for a snow day today...and their prayers were answered with a resounding "yes!"  This was the first snow day of the school year so of course plans were being made by 8:30 am to have friends over to play.  Our dear friends Andrew and Harrison Weis came over for the day (mom Laura is still recovering from hip surgery) and the boys decided to go around the neighborhood and see if anyone wanted their driveway shoveled for free.  I'm not sure how much work they did, but they must have been doing something right because they came home with $28!  Sounds like some kind hearted neighbors were impressed with how industrious they were.  Great day, great friends, great times.  Oh, but all the snow gear? A great big mess. :-)

Home from a hard day's work

Baby, it's cold outside!

The kids decide how to divide the money

...and Mom decides what to do with all this.

A Merry Mickey Christmas

Last weekend Lawrence and I surprised the kids with a trip to Disney World.  I've always wanted to go to Disney at Christmas time, and I was able to convince Lawrence a few weeks ago that this would be the perfect time.  I planned it for the weekend after Thanksgiving, when the parks wouldn't be crowded yet everything would be decorated for Christmas.  The kids thought when they got up for school on Thursday morning that it was just any typical day...I left them three poems with clues to tell them that instead of going to school they were headed to Disney World!  John was of course over the moon...Sarah was a bit more reserved but after the shock wore off she was ready to go.  We stayed at the WorldQuest Resort right outside of the park and had three perfect days of rides, characters, shopping and fun.  Lawrence and I both agree it was one of the best family trips we've ever been on.  The weather was perfect - three straight days of seventy degree weather without a cloud in the sky.  We had one last surprise for them when we arrived back in Cincinnati on Sunday - tickets to the Bengals vs. Saints game!  What a shock to our systems - the weather in Cincinnati was 25 degrees and snowing!  We still had fun (until the third quarter when we couldn't take it anymore).  This was such an awesome way to kick off the holiday season.  I loved every minute.  

I bought us all these Disney shirts to wear, which John thought was awesome and Sarah thought was totally cheesy. :-)

Sarah and I in front of Cinderella's castle - so cool at Christmas!

Sarah and Lawrence snuggle during the parade.  We stayed for the 10:30 parade so we had front row seats!

The kids have a visit with Donald Duck

We went to Universal Studios on Friday.  Here are Lawrence and the kids in front of the Harry Potter ride.  It was so neat!

Sarah and I shop for our ears.

After the Aerosmith roller coaster in Hollywood Studios

Lawrence and the kids have a laugh with Stitch at Epcot

Lawrence and I enjoy a glass of wine in France at Epcot

At the Bengals game on Sunday - freeeeeeezing!!!!