More of Henry...

henry likes to go play at my mom's house (across the street) with her goldendoodle named molly. molly is a little too crazy for him, but he indulges her:o)

henry rarely gets the ball when mom throws it because molly tackles him trying to get it!

henry giving molly a kiss xxxxxx.

one of weston's chores is taking henry for a walk after school. up until today, he HATED walks! today, he did a really good job though! this picture was from yesterday.

after the kids go to bed at night, i let henry come lay with me on the sofa as long as he's being nice and calm. he likes to bring his nigh-night with him. yes, i know it's pink! it's one of ella's old ones:o)

A few more pics of Henry!

henry is doing much better with is potty training. he only had one accident in the house yesterday compared to 8 the day before and too many to count the day before that! we are all loving him so much and can't get enough of that sweet little face! he fits right in with our family and i look forward to watching him grow up with us.
that's kind of a creepy picture since i cut chad's head out! sorry, chad!

he loves to chew on this toy that granny bought him!

henry loves his new home (even though he does have to use ella's old pink blankets:o) he chews too much to have his bed that we bought him!

how could i not love this little face?

our family vacation days 3 and 4...

start from the bottom up:
meet the newest member of our family!! his name is henry and he is a german shorthaired pointer. he is so precious and lovable, but he is still having quite a bit of trouble peeing and pooping in the house! it's been a long past couple of days...the kids adore him and i couldn't be happier. he is already coming when i call his name and he was pointing a little today when i took him outside. i'll post some better pics of henry in the days to come:o)

on our last day in tennessee, we picked up this little guy:o)

the line to ride the tram back down the mountain took another hour and a half! we tried to occupy ourselves in line...

weston finally got the hang of it!

ella had so much fun ice skating. both of the kids were really good!

weston was so scared at first, he wouldn't let go of the wall!

all ready to skate!

we decided after lunch, to take the kids ice skating at ober which meant we would have to ride the air tram up to the top of the mountain. the line was shorter this time (or so we thought). we ended up waiting in line for 2 hours anyway! grrrr! i loved how cute ella looked in her skates though!

a picture from the air tram...our car is the tahoe with the ski rack in the 2nd row from the bottom. pretty cool, huh?

chad's very first reuben was a big success! he loved it!

ella was so exhausted, she fell asleep waiting in line for lunch and slept all the way through lunch! it was a long day of waiting in lines!!

this was so cool! we made wax hands to take home as our souvenirs! ella was too young to make one, but chad, weston, and i all made ones that looked like guns:o) we ended up waiting about an hour and a half to do this!

my 2 shorties with the tallest man that ever lived!

we started day 3 expecting to go skiing at ober in gatlinburg. unfortunately, we were unaware of just how crowded it would be! we got to the air tram (you have to ride a tram to up to the mountain to ski) around 11 and the wait to get tickets for the tram was 2 hours! we headed back to the car and took off our ski clothes and worked on a plan b. go to ripley's believe it or not in gatlinburg! it was a great choice! the bear in the picture is made entirely out of nails!

i couldn't resist! how precious is this anyway?

family vacation to Gatlinburg, Pigeon Forge, TN day 1 and 2

going down...yikes!!

ella and weston got to admire the view from the viewfinder.

the view from the top was gorgeous!

on our way up!

i videoed on the way up sky lift and chad took pictures. on the way down, we switched. i'm not gonna lie, i was a little terrified! it was so high up and the space between us and the bar was huge! i thought i was going to lose my purse several times and going down, i thought i would lose ella! she decided to lay down with her legs hanging off the side! i nearly had a heart attack!

this is quite possibly one of my favorite pics of the kids! it just might be next year's christmas card:o)

and chad went to the moon!

ella rode a motorcyle...

weston and i climbed the rock wall. i made it to the top and was a little freaked out coming down. my fear of falling was really tested this week!

a picture of the ceiling in wonderworks. everything was upside down and the fact that it was all cracked really bothered ella. i think she thought it was going to fall down.

on our first day in pigeon forge/gatlinburg, we decided to explore our surroundings a little. we took the kids to wonderworks (http://www.wonderworkstn.com/) . it was such an awesome museum for the kids; totally hands-on and did a great job of keeping them entertained! i would highly recommend it to anyone visiting the gatlinburg, tn area!

the outside of the indoor waterpark...

we made it!! we stayed at wilderness at the smokies in sevierville, tn (http://www.wildernessatthesmokies.com/). it has an amazing indoor waterpark complete with a wave pool, a surf rider, 6 waterslides, 2 hot tubs and 2 kids areas. the kids had a blast! it was perfect too, because our room was right down the hall from it!

when ella turned 3, we cut her nigh-night in half. now she swaps between the 2 halves always choosing the "yucky, stinky one" to suck on. i thought this was funny:o) we put the yucky one in the window to block the sun and even the clean one was on her lap, she fell asleep with the gross one in her mouth.

Christmas 2009

not sure why we can never seem to get a great family photo, but this one was the best of 5 taken at dad's the day after christmas.

cousins!

chad, finley and i battled it out in scrabble on the go with chad taking the ultimate victory!

my beautiful sisters:o)

ella, landon, ryan, and logan all climbed in the toybox.

an mp3 player! hooray!

a dog is just what i always wanted!!

christmas morning we set up all of the puppy stuff with a note left from santa on the computer ( because he couldn't get the printer to work;o) explaining that weston was still too young for a bb gun, but that he had picked out the perfect dog for him and ella to share. he left us a map so we could bring him home after our vacation. turns out he lived in TN only an hour from where we were going! thanks, santa!