Ryan's 8th Birthday

 Brendan

 Tyler

 Grandma Vicki and Aunt Jen

Miss Riley

 Brayden

 Austin and Papa T

(note:  Trevor was too cool to come:)

 Noah

 Kristen et. al

 Maddie

Opening Cards

 ...and gifts.

 Ryan, Tyler, Avery, Nate, and Brody

Papa Ralph, Papa T., and Grandma Ellen

 

It's hard to believe my baby boy is 8 years old.  He sure is growing into such a good kid and I couldn't be more proud of him.  All that barking at him is paying off!  We sure did enjoy the fun day at the Bounce Zone in Hillsdale.  It was the first time Ryan was able to invite his own friends to his party.  Two hours of exercise and fun times.  I was amazed at how well the children played and never had to correct any behavior.  Phew wee;)  I get so nervous at the start of parties wondering if I have enough or did enough...but once the party settled in, we really had a good time.  I'm sure it was due to good company and I couldn't think of a better way to end the year. 

Ladd Family Christmas

Smiles abound.  Love that Brendan is wearing the jersey we gave him the night before.

The Ladd brothers chipped in on an ipad for the folks.  Exciting.

One, Two, Three, everyone look and smile:)

Gotta get a shot with Papa T.

Ryan concentrates on his scratch off lottery ticket.  We bought keno tickets for the adults and watched the draw on the ipad.  Uncle Don won $5.  Stressful for some, fun for others.  I thought it was a cute idea though as we usally give scratch off tickets.  It was a good day.

thegoodlist@blarneycircle

 Santa's Super Gift to us was amazing!  We got season passes to Michigan Adventure and we can't wait to let it ride!

 Tyler was hot for some Skylander Giants.

 Ryan was so happy to get Madden 13.

 Oooh....more Skylanders makes us happy!

And a little Batman action for the ipad could be fun.

 

It was alot of fun to wake up to a ton of presents even though our heat wasn't working.  It was 60 degrees in the house so we set up an electric heater and made cinnamon rolls to get the blood flowing.  Jim was able to fix the boiler and get our heat a rollin'.  We were feeling pretty blessed for all the right reasons. 

 

On your mark, get set, go....we were off to Papa Ralph's for a Christmas dinner.

Christmas Eve with Jen

The kids acting Cool!

Jen, we need to stop taking pics at the same time.  The kids don't know where to look:)

Oooh...I want to reach through the picture to get those hugs!

Who can resist that smile?

Such a dear!

 

Smiling and laughing...it's good to get together.

Who popped the pig?

 

The only way to make the night more memorable is to have had Dave with us. 

Such a bummer that he had to work.  That's the life of working in retail 

I guess we should have Christmas in July in his honor.

Christmas with Mom

Relaxing before dinner.

Amanda cuddles baby Mason while Momma Chelsea adores.

Miss Hailey is getting so big and pretty.

Chelsea and Kylie relaxing for a bit.  Once the rough-housing began...

they stated they were glad they weren't the little ones anymore.

Mom enjoying one of her gifts.

Ryan unwrapped the Aaron Rodgers jersey from Aunt Wendy and Uncle Len.  I'd say it's a hit.

Jakob singing with Santa.  Too cute.

 

It was a fun night with family. I'm bummed b/c I put down the camera after getting some shots of the kids and would have liked some pics of my brothers and their wives.  I also missed seeing my neice Jessica and her sweet Xander.  Maybe next time. 

My mom's meals are the best.  She takes very special care to add the special touches and no one leaves hungry.  This year, I requested her famous coconut cream and she went ahead and made a banana cream and a lemon merangue.  Why not, you're never too full for her pie.

Celebrating Ryan and Polar Express Pajama Party

 What could be more fun...

 than wearing Daddy's slippers to school?

 or partying with friends?

or eating super yummy treats?

or passing out Michigan football players to friends and teachers to celebrate your 8th birthday? 

 

Super fun day.

Kindergarten Christmas with Mrs. Day

 I took a half day off this Thursday to share the afternoon setting up and enjoying the Kindergarten Christmas celebration.  The kids were a smash with their cute little songs and hip little moves.  We were especially thankful that the grandparents and Daddy could enjoy the show.  Thank you Mrs. Day and the other staff members who go above and beyond.  We truly enjoyed the day.

 

Super cute smiles!  That's life.

Out Like a Light

I guess the holiday rush just caught up with us.  The boys crashed on Jim around 8:00.

Teacher's Gifts and Christmas Cookies

I really had a good time making up blank notecards to give to my teacher friends.  I packaged them in a lunch bag and attached our Christmas postcard with a word of thanks.

We spent a Tuesday after school putting together around 60 Christmas cookies to take to the Kindergarten Christmas celebration.  My mom was gracious enough to get the dough ready while we were at school.  The boys were ready to cut to them out and to grab a few snitches of cookie dough.

They turned out so cute!  And most of all, I love the memory of working together as a family and spending some quieter time with my mom for the fine details while Daddy took the boys to another basketball game.  (Sidenote:  I told the boys how proud I was of them for going to support the Addison Teams.  It's important to have school spirit!)