The First Snow of December 2011

 The girls were just chomping at the bit to get out into the snow! The whole 20 minutes we were out there, the girls had a blast!

 Evie thought it was pretty cool, but did not like getting it on her face. She was also the reason we had to come in so early - she kept taking her gloves off and getting red, cold, little hands.

 Gracie's first thing she did in the snow was make snow angels!

 That darn hat never stays where it should!

 I thought this picture was funny - Evie was rolling around in the snow and Gracie's in the background eating it!

 Little snow angel!

 Dad came up with the idea to put snow down at the bottom of the slide and slide right into a huge pile! Both girls thought this was fun!

A chilly Evie and Dad! Can't wait until the next big snow! Gracie's been wanting to make a snowman!

Our First Real Tree!

 And Hoff says it's our last because of having to water it. But the smell the first couple days was so heartwarming...big sniffs of fresh evergreen! Ahhhhh! The whole experience was sort of a National Lampoons Christmas vacation - packed the tree in the car.

 Got it all situated and then began to cut the strings......

 And it whipped open into a big beautiful tree - this also reminded me of National Lampoons where the tree whips open and breaks their windows. Love that show.

 This is the earliest I've ever put up a tree (2 weeks before Thanksgiving), but we seen them in Menards and they smelled so good, I thought they might lose their smell if we waited.

Once the lights were on, we called it quits for a while. The next night Gracie gathered everyone around the tree to sing, "O Christmas Tree" - it was great fun I tell ya. I'm sure we'll be caroling all season long!

Halloween 2011

 Mom and Dad even got into the Halloween spirit this year as they attended a Halloween party and Mom got 2nd place with her chili! Way to go Mom!

 Hoff was Superman and I was a fortune teller.

 The girls at the Knotty Pine - Maria, Me, Jana, Laura, and Cherri - we had a lot of fun!

 My little trick o treaters!

 My little witch Evie - this was the perfect outfit for her. They are really into witches.

Gracie as a beautiful mermaid. The girls had a ton of fun going door to door. They definitely figured out what trick or treating was all about and they were eager to keep moving. After an hr and half of trick or treating the girls were ready to go home. There they had almost more fun handing out candy to the kids than getting the candy. It was a great Halloween with beautiful weather - we were walking much of the night without jackets!

Carving Pumpkins 2011

 I thought Evie would really enjoy carving pumpkins this year, but......

 This is her saying, "Ewwwww" and that's as far or interested as she got into carving pumpkins!

 Gracie on the other hand, was all about it. She even wanted to draw her pattern she came up with, but she did an awesome job cleaning her pumpkin out!

 Dad and Gracie inspecting the pumpkins!

 Hey! Look here you guys!

 Good thing Mom got put on call from work or we wouldn't of been able to have all this fun!

Our finished products! They go in order of mine(buck-toothed girl), Evie's (one-eye'd monster), Gracie's (sick one), and Hoff's mustache man!

Congrats Jeff and Jessica!

 The kids out on the dance floor - Gracie was a dancing fool and was even break-dancing!

 Gracie and her good friend Andrew.

 Piper and Gracie!

 Evie's mission for the night, after finding the courage to get off my lap, was to collect all the balls, maracas, or leis.

 Dancing with Grandma!

 Gracie getting some swinging in with Uncle Jeff!

 Evie hit the bottle hard all night long - hahaha!

 Gracie and Grandpa!

 Grandpa with Gracie and Evie enjoying some togetherness!

 Grandpa and Grandma dancing with the girls!

 Grandpa and Evie dancing it up!

 Gracie and Grandma doing some fancy dance moves.

Mommy and Evie dancing to "The way you look tonight".We all had lots of fun and wish the best to Jeff and Jessica!

Happy 4th Birthday Gracie!

 This pretty girl turned 4 the other day! Can you believe it!

 She had such a beautiful day for her birthday - upper 70's. We decided to open presents outside and then Gracie wanted to have quesodilla's so we packed up and headed to Chipotle in Omaha.

 What a sweetie pie she is. She got a pretend birthday cake cause she likes to have birthday parties for her animals or you.

We had wonderful celebrations with family and Gracie got so many nice gifts! Happy Birthday Gracie Jane! We LOVE you SO much!

Vala's 2011

 Every year with a new subscription to the Ashland Gazette, we get two free tickets to Vala's Pumpkin Patch.  We really like to go cause they usually add something new every year and there's so much fun stuff to do!

 There was hay jumping - notice Buttercup had to join us this year. He's usually along on every adventure of Gracie's - even school.

 Go Evie! You can do it! You are your sisters little shadow - everything she does you do and everything she says, you echo.

 Ya, my annual big pumpkin pictures didn't turn out to well - I had one crabby pants and one uncooperative pants.

 That's a little better- kinda.

 We had to check out the birthday barns cause no one was there and they were pretty cool!

 Ya. This sums up our family :)

 Colleen came with us. It never fails that we wear the same thing - at least the color was a tiny different. :)

 We stole someone's campfire too for a little warmth and fun! After a while, we decided that it was lit for ambiance. We had fun with that and burned a bone we found.

 This was so funny- Gracie playing in the corn and got a corn mustache! Hehehehe.

 Who knew corn could be so fun - they rolled and tromped and crawled and played all over in that pile of corn.

 Children of the corn!:)

 Then, we just had to go the the jumping pillow. These things are so crowded, and suppose for the same reason we stayed jumping on them so long - they are really fun!

 Evie was all smiles on this thing. She loved it!

 Gracie was the only one cooperating for cute pumpkin pictures - maybe I need to get photoshop and plug Evie in here from the above picture. You can do that kinda stuff you know.

 Look at this brave girl! I couldn't believe she did it by herself! Pirates and a witch!

 Evie wouldn't go with Gracie or herself so I got stuck getting in the pot with her!

 Look at this cute little billy goat - it's pen was really stinky! Hahahahaha - jk.

 And we seen this cowgirl there.

 We thought we could beat the church crowd by going early on a Sunday morning - boy were we wrong! And by the time we left, the parking lot was crowded and so was that place! And we had two little girls who were more than ready to leave.

All in all, another great year at Vala's! We had a lot of fun!