Emily is 7

Emily is finally 7. She has been telling everyone since Christmas that it was almost her birthday. I was volunteering at her school saw the principal and he said to me, "one more day!"

She is very social, like her dad. She loves playing the piano this year as is learning very quickly. She loves dance too. She is doing great in first grade and wants to have everyone over to play.

she's growing up so fast.

She's all about puppies right now. We had grandmas new puppy for a month while we potty trained it and she was a great help with the process. She held Casper whenever she got a chance and would end up with a rash on her face. She's a little allergic but she didn't seem to mind.

She got her ears pierced TWICE. They were a little crooked so we finally convinced her to take one out and go back the next day. (thanks, Traci for being the deciding factor). Thanks to dad the numbing cream worked great and they look tons better.
She had friends over to help her celebrate. We didn't want to leave anyone out so we ended up inviting 11 girls. To my surprise, everyone showed up. Thanks to Britney we managed to get through all the fun and games in an orderly manner.

Can't invite Tommy to a party with a bunch of girls so we celebrated again later with cousins and Grandma Due. Emily had to have a Casper cake. Next time we're saving the coldstone cake for the family party.
Aunt Jill is always so much fun. Ice cream sundae lip gloss yummm!

Family party

The rest of the family came over for dinner. Sammy was willing to help everyone open their presents. The dice game has started to become our new gift giving tradition. Grandma surprised everyone with a hidden $200 in a not so favorite video. Wow!

When we were cleaning out Dad's shop, Troy suggested we put together tool boxes using his tools. So Jill put together a tool box for each of the grandkids from Papa. It made it feel like he was part of the party.
Even the little kids thought it was pretty cool. Jake kept picking up a tool and asking "What's this for mom?"

Christmas morning

I love my sister

Christmas morning started early this year. The kids woke up at 6:30 even after I told them the night before not to get up before the sun was out. We made them wait until seven before they went down to wake up Britney. To stall, Devon told them to go out and see how many presents were out under the tree and Jake came back with "There's 200 no a million" You can get away with a lot when they're little.

Britney had to work so she spent Christmas with us. It was fun spoiling her even if it was with necessities like diet coke, tp, fruit snacks, candy etc. The kids enjoyed having someone else to play games with and to paint fingernails.

We always have cinnamon rolls and fruit salad Christmas morning. Emily was number one at adding just the right amount of sugar to the cinnamon rolls. They were very tasty. We had fun making them. Now if I could just teach her how to cut the oranges and grapefruit!

All I want for Christmas is a hula hip. If I knew how to get the video to upload I'd show how good she is. We had no clue.

All I want for Christmas is an alligator matchbox set. We couldn't leave target until dad called Santa to put it on his list, he wanted it soooo bad. He was very happy that Santa remembered.

Thanks Gramma and Gpa Skinny for the church videos.

carmel

You know it's Christmas when Devo starts talking about the carmel business. He invested in all the equipment to make our own. This is our little set up in the garage. Spending some quality time with the family. Devo has narrowed down some ideas to get RG Classic Candies up and running. Maybe some day our kids will take it over and make millions.

Emily enjoyed giving dad a little break.

Sleepovers

Still playing catch up before the end of the year. We had some sleep overs this year. We got to have Sammy stay with us for a week while his mom and dad went to Alaska. We introduced him to some fun peterson favorites like slurpees. It was fun and tiring at the same time. Reminded us how much work little ones are.

He loved the being outside on swing, sitting the four wheeler, and playing in the rocks.

Jake had a great time showing him all about golf. Once he sat behind the wheel he didn't leave. We got him to say yeehaw. It was awsome.

Tommy loves to read the kids book at bedtime.

Thanksgiving

I'm a little behind! Devo's highlight for the Thanksgiving holiday was pheasant hunting. Paul took he and Troy to his gun club and Devo is hooked. So hooked he went to Cabellas the same day and bought a shotgun. He can't wait to go shoot something again.

Even the kids were in on the action listening to all the stories. A little after Thanksgiving Jake told Devo " We're going to South America on our next vacation to shoot some Gahrials."(alligators that live there) He talks about it everyday actually. Emily and I are not invited.
Paul made up a Bolderdash game with Thanksgiving facts and gave us all team names. The Fashion Feathers were by far the most fun and creative. ( Go Lauren)

We bought my mom a puppy(which she picked out with out knowing it) We gave it to her for Thanksgiving while everyone was together. We are potty training it and hopefully it will be ready for mom to take home after Christmas. Since Dad's gone we hope Casper will keep her company during the lonely evening and nights.

Jill made us all aprons (I think as a hint to get in the kitchen and help). It was a fun day but we sure did miss Pops.

zoo babies

We went to the Hogle Zoo for fall break in Oct. They had a lot of babies. Which the kids loved.

Emily and Mom loved the baby the baby elephant the best.

Baby giraffe, They also had baby tigers, and snow leopard but they were hiding behind their mothers and couldn't get good pictures

Jake loves the crocodiles. We even saw a baby one which totally made Jake's day.

This huge rattlesnake kept standing up following the kids. It was pretty cool, glad it was behind class!

We decided to ride the carasol instead of the train this year. If you look closely you will notice Emily's new look. She has lost her two front teeth and It still takes some getting use to. She looks so different to me.

Jake loved it too! The snake house is always his favorite place to go and the stinkiest. It has the crocodiles in it too.