Paul and Whitney came to visit us a couple weeks ago with their sweet Zoey girl and man is she CUTE!!!  She is such a loving, sweet, easy going little girl who just loved my kids and they were in heaven. :)

They all gather around her like she's going to do tricks or something.  This night I had the two boys I babysit try and get some kisses too.

Haylee loves the babies. (clearly it's mutual) ;)

Grace was lovin it too she wanted to be the little Mom and have her on the hip, push the stroller, feed her cheerios.

Sweet little family.

It's so fun to see them as parents they are such a good team and just adore her. (how could you not???)

Gavin and Mom entertaining ouselves (and everybody within a block) while everyone looks at the pet store. I was tempted to lay out a hat while he did his balloon show he was singing and skipping along not a care in the world.

Gavin finally gave her the balloon and she was not about to let go just to SLEEP!

Smiles for Mommy.

"Dad......ahhhh.....come on"

"Mmmmm....that's better." ;)

Sweet baby girl we have all missed having you here and are welcome to come back to visit any time!  Or convince Mommy and Daddy to let us keep you for a weekend while they get away for a while??? ;)  Love you all and thank you SO much for making the trip up!

This is what we woke up to on Valentine's Day. :)  One for each of Justin's "girls".

Such a sweet Daddy.

We had a yummy dinner, angel food cake with strawberries for dessert and opened our box to get all our valentine surprises.  I have 4 pretty great ones and I don't have to find them in the box! :)

Next up:  Haylee is 8!!!!  Holy cow how did that happen?   Will I ever look at her like a big girl? (Even though she's probably more responsible than her big sister?) ;)  She is so loving and is so easy to please.  She loves to be loved on and snuggled with and still loves her Daddy to snuggle her to sleep.  She is very much a "Daddy's girl".  She told us this year to just surprise her with what we got her.   (See? Easy.) 

Fruity pebbles and pop tarts were her only request. Sadly it takes birthdays in this house for me to buy it.

Her reaction to the bike. :)

And even more excited for a brand new pair of twinkle toes that she has wanted for SO LONG!

They sparkle and shine just like her. ;)

Little man sneaking pop tarts.

Here is the birthday girl ready for school and showing off the new ride.

For her party this year she got to choose two friends for a day of fun.  We started with a new suit for the pool.

"Hand me downs" girl here never gets anything new. ;)

Her friends Makenna and Ashlyn waiting for pancakes.

Haylee's favorite meal ever!

Then swimming at the Y for the afternoon and they got the pool to themselves it was great.

Then we ended the day with doughnuts at Rockets! YUM!

Same breakfast, same doughnut.......these girls are pretty easy to please.

What a fun day we had and what a sweet birthday girl we got to spoil.

Haylee we love you so much!  Happy, happy 8th birthday!

This was just too cute not to share.  I was in the front seat so I couldn't get the angle to get Jake's face but he was sound asleep too.  This boy loves his new dog!

Seems like I am always playing catch up these days and I am not sure why???  Maybe it's because it takes me that long to actually have something to blog about???  Not sure how people do this EVERY day!! 
This is winter break when the community had some free events that I took the kids to so we could get out of the house. (They must know people are poor right after Christmas and won't pay a million dollars for their kids to ice skate....weird!)  So Grace (looking a lot like Shaun White) and Haylee got two full days of ice skating and swimming fun while Gavin and I just (froze out butts off) watched. ;)

We had to get some exercise in where we could so the kids perfected yoga "down at the farm".  Haylee was there to get towels, water, rugs??? 

Then the girls and I did some cooking for New Years eve which was totally laid back and nice this year.  Grace and I were the only two that lasted till 12 and woke Justin up with about 5 seconds to spare. ;)  We are party ANIMALS!  Probably a food coma?

I had my 31st birthday a week later and this was my birthday banner the kids made me and had hanging when I woke up.

Cards and breakfast with my coffee hot and ready.

Then Justin took me to dinner and we tried a delicious new place with fondue and famous caesar salads.......so good!  We have already been back for seconds. ;)  I had a lovely day.

We got some snow to report finally as well.  Lots of snow!  The kids had a whole week off and it was so nice to have them home and hearing them outside with neighbors playing and sledding.  I can only remember one or two times we had a snow day growing up and it was never this much.

Out on the deck taken from the door.

Next up on our winter schedule:

Just looking through these pictures makes me excited to take the kids back.  We had so much fun!

 Our room was big and spacious perfect for Grandpa and Grandma to fit in with us.
Bed room:

Living room area in the back and two queen beds:

 Nice big kitchen area:

Of course lots of swimming and playing means lots of big appetites so we had to have lots of munchies. ;)

Gavin likes to bond with his food before he sinks his teeth in.

They have a fun story time a few times a day and we took the kids right before bed to listen.  Gavin learning the "wolf shuffle". 

After story time they make it snow in the lobby and it was so fun to see their faces light up and get so excited!  It truly was an amazing time and the kids were so thankful and excited that they got to go, one Christmas gift we won't soon forget.

 The camera was put away the whole time due to mostly water activities going on but we managed a few group shots before heading back on the road.  It was so fun to have Mike and Bonnie with us to make those memories.  Hopefully we'll be back before too long with the whole family!

We even managed a trip to Cabelas and Ikea during the weekend. 

                                                             We wore them out!

So......happy 2012 to all of you.  This is how mine is looking so far! ;)