Our Weekend at the Gaylord-12/12-12/13

This weekend we went to the Gaylord at National Harbor with the Grays and Chad's parents and sister's family. First we at brunch with Santa Claus and he indulged in us by letting us take a million different pictures with him! This was one of all the kids. After brunch we checked into our room and got into our snow gear to go to the ICE show. It was so incredible!! Everything was made out of ice! The kids especially loved the ice slide! We didn't end up ice skating because the session times didn't work for us, but we did get to watch "How the Grinch Stole Christmas" while swimming in the pool. The kids thought that was great! We ate pizza and doughnuts in the The Grays room to celebrate Christianna's 6th birthday and we got to watch it "snow" in the atrium from their balcony. It was such a fun weekend and a great new family tradition:o)

The nativity scene...An ice angel with my two angels:o)

Chad coming down the ice slide...

Weston, Kamryn, Ella, and Ethan in the igloo with the penguins...

I loved this poinsetta!

Entrance to the ICE show...

All bundled up in the parkas they give you to wear at the ICE show. it was 9 degrees in there!!

My Failed Attempt At Christmas Pictures...

i am afraid that i might not get christmas cards out ever this year!! my children will not cooperate when i want to take pictures of them. these are a few of my failed attempts...
this one is actually my favorite, but ella totally covered weston's face with her hand!

weston looks like a total goofball in this one, but this is the only smile he kept giving me!

Playdate at the Battlefields...

A couple Saturdays ago i took Weston, Ella, and Weston's friend, Aiden for a playdate. It was a cold day, but nice and sunny, so we headed over to the battlefields and climbed Lee's Hill. They had so much fun racing to the top and looking out over the city. After that we went down to the cannons on Lee Drive and ran like crazy and played in the leaves. Then we headed over to Kenmore Park and played for awhile. We left there and met Aiden's mom and little brother at Chick-fil-A for lunch. The kids had such a great time and thanked me by taking a nice long nap:o)zzzzzzzzz
My favorite tree on Lee Drive.

At the top of Lee's Hill with Fredericksburg in the background.

"Wait for me!"

Best buds!

" I'll race you!"

Turkey Trot '09

This year, Ella ran the Turkey Trot 1 miler with Weston. Actually, i ran with Ella and Weston totally beat us! She did run the whole thing though! I was so proud of both of them! Chad and i ran the 5k and both improved our times from last year.

Not sure what's up with my arms, but Ella looks really cute:o)

Weston racing to the finish!

Before the big race...

The Pumpkin Patch Pictures-October 25th, 2009

From the pumpkin patch last year...

and this year!

last year...

and this year! girl's a total goofball!:o)

last year...

and this year!

i mean, seriously! what am i going to do with her?! she insisted that this hideous pumpkin was the best one she could find!

ta-da!

Weston's choice for pumpkin...much prettier than ella's!

The boys...

and the girls:o)

Well, we did it! another successful family memory made at the pumpkin patch! this year, however, we had to wait an hour and 15 min. just to ride the hayride and get our pumpkins!! we've never had to wait before! craziness! anyway, we still had a great time and can't wait to go back next year:o)

Halloween 2009 style!

This year ella was a bumble bee and weston was a lacrosse player for halloween. weston was supposed to be a skateboarder, but yesterday was his first day of lacrosse, so...he really loves it:o) it rained most of the night while we were out, but it wasn't too cold (70 degrees). weston was seriously regretting his lacrosse costume decision halfway through the night when his helmet gave him a huge headache! overall, the kids had a great time and got more candy than i've ever seen! in a couple days i'll ship it all to chad's office and they'll never even remember they got it:o)

his toughest lacrosse face!

ella's bumble bee dance.

and this is how she takes most pictures now. she is so silly all the time!!

What we've been doing this fall...

On October 22nd, i went with weston's class on a field trip to the native american museum in washington d.c. the following pictures are from that trip...


We at lunch on the Mall and i took this picture of Weston and his 2 best buds with the Washington Monument in the background. We are so blessed to live this close to D.C.!
This was a whale skeleton made from white plastic chairs!

This piece of "native american art" was my favorite! it was a native american man made from baseball gloves!

We went to a weaving demonstration and weston was chosen to learn how to weave.

Rico showing us how to weave...

Weston and Aiden show me their favorite items of beadwork.

This picture was for Ella. She loves snakes!!

On October 20th, i went with ella's class to snead's farm for some pumpkin picking! it was so freezing cold that day that we skipped the picnic lunch on the grass and headed to daddy's office to eat our packed lunch in the warmth!

Fearless!

Perfect pumpkin! ella wanted one with "no handle." this is the one she chose:o)

She had fun feeding the crazy chickens...

and being silly!

This horse was facinated with her hat and kept trying to eat it! it was soaking wet by the time we got on the hayride!

Ella singing her preschool "goodbye" song