Christmas 2012

Our 2012 family Christmas Day was a big success:) We were able to stay home and have Christmas Day at home with just the four of us again and it was great! I"m not sure what time everyone was up and at 'em because I really didn't even look at the clock, but it was light out so it couldn't have been too early;) Alton was into opening presents this year so it was fun for him and Athena of coures was ready to start ripping into presents!


Alton is really liking books lately so we're taking advantage of that and making sure he has lots of great books that we can read to him and he can sit and page through.  He seemed to like these board books right away and paged through each of them before opening more presents.  His big gift was an awesome new play rug for his room and a bunch of trucks and cars to go with it. 

Athena has been wanting a bigger dolly carrier/carseat for her babies Colton and Paisley.   I found the perfect one, and her face lit up when she opened it and saw what it was:)  Here she is modeling it with baby Colton.   

Amber got several gifts this year too.  Here she is having one of her breakfast snausages that Athena helped her unwrap:)

Rock On girlfriend!  Though poor Amber in the background seems to be saying "Seriously?  WHY?  WHY?!?!"

Alton really loves the book Alphabet Rescue so Athena gave him the other 2 books Alphabet Adventure and Alphabet Mystery. 

When Athena started playing with her guitar this afternoon Alton ran and got his drum for a little impromptu jam session:) 

Check out this after lunch pig pile!  Daddy with all 3 of his little ones. 

Ena reading Alton one of his new books:)

After the boys fell asleep for a nap and before Athena fell asleep for a nap, her and I made some pretty Christmas chocolate covered strawberries.  We had them later in the evening along with our delicious babyback ribs that were braising in the oven for dinner. 

We have had such a great Christmas already and we still have a lot more celebrating to do:)  Because of work and travel schedules, we will be celebrating with with all of the extended families over the next 2 weekends so the fun has just begun!!

Halloween 2012

Once again we were lucky enough to have friends come and join us for trick or treating.  Each year as the kids get older they enjoy it more and more and it gets more and more fun to take them out and watch them enjoy themselves:) 

Ena was Princess Jasmine.  She wanted this Jasmine costume somethin' fierce when we were at Disney World this summer  so we shelled out the cash for it with the understanding that it was also going to be her trick or treat costume:) 

Alton was the cutest little pirate ever!  He rode in the wagon for about the first 10  minutes, but once he warmed up to the whole trick or treating thing he was off!  Running to keep up with the big kids:)

Coolest picture ever!  We got all six of the kids to pose for a picture under the big moon as it was starting to get dark.  Alton looks so big in this picture!

The 3 big girls.  All dressed as princesses of course:)

Afterwards everyone headed back to la casa de Zuge for yummy chili and dilly bars! 

A Summery Fall Day:)

I had a weekend home with the kids this weekend while John was out doing guy stuff up north.  We didn't do too much exciting.  Mostly just ran errands, hung out at home and got regular weekend stuff done:)  We did run and pick up some pumpkins to carve since this is one Athena's very favorite things to do!  We did one on Saturday and Alton wouldn't get anywhere near it.  He wouldn't even sit by it for a picture let alone touch it.  The following pictures are from when we did another one on Sunday.  He finally warmed up to it and ended up having a great time with sissy:)

He sat and watched Athena for the first few minutes, then finally reached out and touched it with one hand from as far away as possible. 

Finally he inched in for a peak inside. 

A little bit closer inspection and...

He was ready to join in the pumpkin gutting!  Squealing with laughter along with Athena...I should have taken a video instead of just pictures because these 2 were hilarious:)  After all the guts were out they sat and played with the guts like playdough for quite a while.  After a quick bath for both of them and a clean-up of the counter we carved it and set it out on the front steps with a candle to light it up at dark. 

We headed outside for some pictures by the front bushes since it was such a nice day out. 

I was very happy to get some pictures of both of them together with both of them actually cooperating!!!

So gosh darn handsome!

Little cutie pie!

Beautiful princess:)

Happy Fall!!

Our first voyage into organized sports!

Athena tried t-ball this summer!  We signed up through the rec department and she was on a t-ball team for 5-6 year old boys and girls.  The experience was great!  She had a very fun time and started learning some great skills.  Her coach was awesome-focusing on basic skills and having fun:) We LOVED going to her games and watching her play. She was even on the same team as 2 of our good friends kids, so we got to hang out together with the other families during the games and watch the kids together:)

Here's our little slugger.  Always with a smile on her face:) 

Water break on the bench.

Lookin' good in the outfield!

Grandpa even made it to a game!  Of course Alton was all over grandpa the whole time being the big grandpa's boy that he is:) 

Recital Weekend:)

We had a great, very busy weekend here at the zuge zoo.  Friday night we went to a little league baseball game for a few innings.  Ena is starting t-ball in a few weeks and she really isn't much into sports yet, so we wanted to expose her to a little bit of the game to give her a little background knowledge on the sport before she begins. 

Saturday was dance recital day!  There was an afternoon and an evening performance and she did great for both of them!  We were so proud of her:)  She seemed to really be comfortable and have a fun time being on stage and of course loved getting her princess bouquet afterwards:) 

Sunday morning we were up and at 'em early working in the garden getting a little bit of planting done.  Later in the morning we headed out to a local horse stable that was having an open house.  We got to watch a horse riding drill team performance and Ena got a pony ride!  Alton loved watching the horses and each one that would come and go he would say "Hi Neigh!  Bye bye Neigh!"

Athena after her second performance of the day.  Still smiling at 9:00pm at night after a long, long busy day!

Someone figured out how to open the spicket on the rain barrel...

Giddy up cow girl!

We ended the weekend with a trip to meet friends for some frozen custard.  A great ending to a super fun weekend:)

A Walk in The Woods

Athena got a cool nature scavenger hunt sent home from school for a family activity to do for Earth Day.  We had time this weekend and the weather was nice so we headed out for a hike this morning and had a great time doing the scavenger hunt with Athena.  The hunt included things like: draw something that you heard in the woods, draw something you smelled in the woods, draw an animal that you think might live in this area, find and draw one non-living thing, etc...  She loved it and I'm guessing we hiked about two miles when all was said and done. 

Here she is posing with her clipboard that we had the sheets clipped to for her for easy drawing. 

Only the finest hiking gear!  A pink plaid skirt, sparkling princess tennis shoes and a pink leopard print cap.  You can't really tell in any of the pictures, but those straps over her shoulders are her dollie carrier.  She has her baby doll strapped to her back just like the way daddy carries Alton. 

Check out this ham!  He was all smiles the whole time looking around at trees and hanging out content in the carrier.  He even dozed off for a while at the end. 

My two studs posing by one of the trail blazes.  Reminds me of the hiking trip John and I did in Maine the summer before we adopted Athena.  Couple more years yet and then we can get back into it again with the kids:) 

We were walking along and I looked over and noticed this funny tree.  I pointed it out to John and Ena.  She glanced at it and immediately said "It's a number 4"

The 3 girls taking a little rest on a bench that was along the trail. 

Happy Family Day Athena!

Happy Family Day to our sweet angel baby Athena!  Here is a little trip down memory lane back to April 11, 2007.  The day this precious, perfect, gorgeous 3 month old baby girl was placed in our arms for the first time and so began our new life together.   Athena wants to celebrate her special day with a fish fry, so family festivities are waiting until Friday.  We may just have to talk daddy into going for ice cream tonight to tide us over until then though;)

After we arrived back at the hotel from the orphanage we took some family pictures in the court yard.

While we were working on paperwork in the front office, our program coordinator took our camera into the back and took some pictures of Athena waiting for us. 

She already had a crazy amount of hair at 3 months old.  They said they had even trimmed it that day because it kept going in her eyes!

A piece of my own heart placed in my arms forever xoxoxo

Happy Family Day Athena.  We love, love, love you!!!

Pancake art and a snowman:)

Athena and John had a great time building a snowman this morning.    She's been wanting to make a snowman for weeks now, but we just haven't had any decent snow on a weekend when there was time to go outside and build one.  With the snowstorm yesterday there was plenty of wet, thick packable snow today.  The snowman turned out so cute!

When I came outside to take a picture of them I brought Alton along and stuck him in for a picture:) 

Isn't it the cutest?  The eyes are charred chunks of wood from the outdoor fireplace.   The  arms are cat tails and the nose is a great big carrot.  We've had so many deer in the yard again lately, we're curious to see if the carrot is going to still be there tomorrow morning!

The father daughter snowman building team. 

We also had some fun today doing pancake art for breakfast.  Ena LOVES doing this.  I make a batch of home made pancake batter and we dye some of it different colors.  I put the colored batters into these piping bottles and let Athena 'draw' pictures on the griddle with the batter.  I didn't get any action pictures of her doing it though because I'm always busy hovering over her making sure she doesn't touch her arms to the griddle as she's drawing. 

Check out her flower pancake creation!  She was very proud of it and ate the entire thing!  It was pretty huge!  She also made some Packer colored footballs for daddy and Alton. 

Sledding!

This is a very picture heavy post:)   We went sledding today and I took so many fun pictures it was so hard to decided which ones to put on the blog!  Both of the kids did great!  Athena jumped right in her sled and flew down the big hill all by herself as soon as we arrived.  She jumped off her sled at the bottom screaming "I want to go again!!" 


Here she is on the inaugural run:)






Alton started off a little more slowly with his excitement.  He had a prety serious look on his face for a while just taking it all in as we pulled him around on his toddler sled. 






Athena got daddy in on the action.  Check out her beautiful smile-precious!

 


We crammed them both into Athena's sled for a few trips down the hill  from just half way up. 

 


Always the mother hen:)

 


She was such a trooper and pulled her own sled back up the big hill almost every time. 

 


Everyone started to get tuckered out after a while though and started to rely on some daddy mule power to get back up the hill. 

 


As it turns out the thing that Alton liked the most was just sliding down the hill on his butt. 

 


Ena got in some snow angels before we left.

 Now most normal families would have headed home for some hot chocolate.  The after sledding treat of request in our household was straweberry shakes.  We used some of the awesome frozen berries from our strawberry picking extravaganza last summer.  A little taste of summer after an afternoon in the snow;)