HAPPY BIRTHDAY TREVOR MICAH!

I love this picture of Trevor Micah

A good picture of Micah with his tattoo like Uncle Bub's

Trevor, you are always in our hearts and in our thoughts! Not a day goes by that we don't miss you. I wish that we could be celebrating your birthday with you. We love you very much.

More Christmas Pictures

It's hard to believe another Christmas has already come and gone. Haley keeps saying that Christmas will be here again in another four or five days. We had a wonderful day together. The girls just enjoyed spending time with mom, dad, Grandma Lynne, Uncle Jerry, Eric, Aunt Pat, and Aunt Bert. They also got to visit with purple grandma and papa on Christmas Eve. They got lots of new toys for Christmas so they have been very busy playing with their toys. It's nice to have something to keep them preoccupied for a little bit.

The weekend before Christmas, we went to a shopping center in town and made an unplanned visit to see Santa since the line wasn't very long. Lauren was not a happy camper but Haley jumped right up on Santa's lap. It's amazing the difference a year makes since Haley was afraid of Santa last year. It's just so much fun to see how the girls respond to all the different Christmas customs. It's also a wonderful time of year to reflect on our many blessings. We are so thankful for so many things. God is great!

An AWESOME version of The 12 Days of Christmas!

My friend Tracy sent this to me in an e mail and I thought it was so AWESOME that I had to put it on the blog, enjoy! Thanks for sending this one my way Tracy : )

Christmas Joy

Putting ornaments on the tree

Christmas Rocks!

Dennis took a week's vacation the week after Thanksgiving and took advantage of that time to put the Christmas lights on the house, put out our yard decorations, put up our two trees, and decorate the inside of the house. Every day when I would come home from work, I couldn't wait to get home to see what Dennis had put up that day. The true joy was watching the girls' faces light up as the house looked more festive!
The most exciting moment for everyone was putting the ornaments onto the family tree. We have a million ornaments! I have a ton of ornaments from my parents because it was a tradition to get an ornament each year for each of us Hall kids so that we would have ornaments for our Christmas trees when we started families of our own. I love seeing the ornaments from my childhood every year. Dennis also has ornaments from his childhood but not as many. Mine have a tendency to dominate the tree because I also have received countless ornaments every year from students and friends. We're also carrying on the tradition of buying ornaments every year for the girls so we just keep adding to the number every year. The girls have also started receiving ornaments from grandparents and close family friends. Needless to say it's hard to find a spot for every ornament.
The second Christmas tree in our home is Dennis's Star Trek and Pepsico ornaments tree. Dennis started collecting the annual Star Trek ornaments about two years after they started the series. He's very proud of his tree but Haley insists that it is her tree and she has decided that daddy's tree will hold her handmade ornaments from daycare.
The final touch for Christmas decorations was the four nativity sets. Dennis always saves these for me to put out. This year was the first year for Haley to help me put up the nativity sets. I have a big nativity set, a Precious Moments nativity set, a miniature glass nativity set, and a miniature Mexican nativity set. Haley helped me put up all four sets while asking me many questions about who everyone was, what was baby Jesus doing, and why didn't baby Jesus have a birthday cake since it was his birthday? I loved spending that quality time with Haley carrying on a Christmas tradition that I know that she will always cherish. We'll include Lauren in the tradition in two more years.

No cavities in these mouths!

Lately it has been monkey see, monkey do in our home. Lauren adores her big sister and wants to do everything that she sees Haley doing. Whenever she sees Haley brushing her teeth, she insists on climbing up next to her sister on the stool which Haley does not appreciate one bit since there's not much room on the stool with two of them on it. Lauren's love for brushing her teeth has taken on a life of its own. She now carries her toothbrush around the house and loves, loves, loves toothpaste. I think that she could make a meal out of it. Lauren has also discovered how fun it is to climb up the stool and look at herself in the mirror. She also loves all the cool stuff on the counter that she can get into while she's making faces in the mirror. Dennis and I will often hear Lauren calling for us because she hasn't quite figured out how to get down from the stool. We rescue her several times a day. Ahhh, the joys of toddlerhood! I know, I know, they're nothing compared to the teenage years!

Princesses, Fairies, and Witches, Oh My!

Tinkerbell, Mommy witch, and the Little Mermaid

Haley and Lauren's pumpkins. Of course, Haley had to have a princess pumpkin!

Lauren, Haley, and our Goddaughter, Havana at Bishop's Pumpkin Patch

I found the perfect pumpkin and it's just my size!

Daddy and Lauren the pumpkin head

I had to post some pictures from the month of October since it is my favorite time of year. It seems that Haley is following in my footsteps with her love of Halloween. She had been talking about Halloween for a month before the actual day. The day of Halloween she was so excited when I woke her up. She couldn't wait to go to her daycare for the Halloween party. The girls brought their costumes to daycare so that they could dress up for the party. After I picked them up, they got to put on their costumes once again for the Halloween costume contest at the chiropractor's office, finally they wore the costumes for a third time for trick or treating. Haley was in absolute HEAVEN!!! Lauren on the other hand fussed and complained every time we put her costume on her. As for trick or treating, Haley loved ringing doorbells and saying, "Trick or Treat". Lauren just followed her sissy from door to door and got double the quantity of candy as her sister just because everyone thought she was so cute. Between the two girls we have enough candy to last us until next Halloween!



We also made our annual trek to one of my most favorite places in the whole wide world, Bishop's Pumpkin Farm which is near my old place of residence, Marysville. We brought our friends Rick and Rachel and their daughter, Havana (our Goddaughter). Rick and Rachel fell under the spell of Bishop's and I'm sure they'll be joining us again next year. Just to add one more element of excitement to the month of October, the day before Halloween, I experienced my first earthquake! It wasn't a major quake but just enough for me to feel the ground under me jump and see the clothes in the closet sway! Dennis was in Indiana for business at the time so I was on my own with the girls. I couldn't believe that he missed the earthquake! Well, until next time, I bid you farewell.

Our Father

Haley and I say the Our Father every night before bed. I hadn't realized that she had memorized the Our Father until this evening when she asked if she could say the Our Father at dinner time as grace before our meal. Her prayer was just too cute not to add to the Shuford family blog.

Haley's First Roller Coaster Ride

This was Haley's reaction after her first roller coaster ride. She kept saying before the ride that she was a big girl now. After the first big dip in the coaster, she looked at me with huge eyes and said, "I'm not big enough." Scroll down to see more pictures of our Great America trip.

Great America

Wanna take a ride with me?

Lauren's first amusement park ride

Haley LOVED meeting Dora and Diego

We all went to Great America yesterday for Dennis's company picnic. We had a wonderful time riding all of the kiddie rides. All four of us were able to ride most of the rides. Haley enjoyed the rides most of all. Lauren wasn't quite sure what was going on. Lauren enjoyed running around Great America the most. The highlights of the trip were meeting Dora and Diego and Haley's first roller coaster ride.

Also, for those of you new to blogging, if you want to see any past blog posts just keep scrolling down the page or click on one of the post titles on the left hand side of the blog screen in the blog archive.

A video clip of pictures from our family vacation

This is a really cool free service that makes a video of your pics for you. For those of you with blogs you'll have to try it out on Animoto. Also, scroll down to the post just below this one for a new post from yesterday.

Daddy's Big Girl Helper and the Mess Maker

Haley loves to be daddy's big girl helper.
Getting car supplies
Lauren's Devilish Smile!

Labor Day Weekend

I love slow weekends with no plans so that we can spend some quality family bonding time together. I especially love to see Dennis working and playing with his girls. I'm a bit partial but I think that he's the best daddy in the world which of course only makes me love him more. Okay, I can see all of your eyes rolling now.
We had no plans during Labor Day weekend so Dennis took that opportunity to wash the cars. As soon as Dennis pulled out his car and started washing it, Haley was right there asking him if she could be his helper. He got her a sponge and she helped him to wash both of our cars. Of course, I had to run and get the camera to capture the moment on film.
In the meantime, Lauren was busy in the garage getting into anything that she could lay her hands on. I had to stop taking pictures to clean up Lauren's messes. She just looked at me with a great big grin and a devilish look in her eyes. How could I be mad?

Haley and Lauren at the beach

Lauren had just started walking the week before our trip.