Happy Birthday to Doug!

Happy Birthday to DOUG!  We all love Doug so so much!  He really is the best husband and daddy, and we are so thankful each and every day that he is all ours :).

We celebrated his special day by having The Pie, eating cake, and just having fun.  It was a relaxing day, but we had a great time!  

A week later, we got together with Doug's family to celebrate his and Sydney's birthday.  Alli made a fabulous chocolate cake for the occasion, which was so so good!  Good times!

Cuties

I hardly pull out my nice camera lately...I really need to more often!  I snapped these pics of the littles the other day...they are so dang cute!  I can't get enough!  Love them to pieces :).

Lately...

The kids take over my bed *every* morning!

Kate is sneaky-sneaky...

Kate LOVES ice cream, just like the rest of us ;).

Leah had her first dance performance in December...she looked SO adorable in her costume, and even more adorable in her performance.   She is quite the little performer :).

Kate LOVES to look out the window at  all the snow.  

The little gal LOVES bags...she almost always has a bag on her arm.  Cracks me up.

The days are *finally* getting longer, which I am so happy about!  We even went for a little walk this week...it was so nice to get out!

10 Years!

I honestly never thought that ten years could go by so fast!  I feel like just yesterday we were getting married!  I remember every detail of that day...to think that 10 years has passed is unbelievable to me!  But, then I think of all the great things that we have accomplished during our marriage thus far...new jobs for me, new jobs for Doug, Doug graduated with 2 bachelor degrees, we built our townhouse, Doug graduated with his MBA, we moved to our current house, and how can I forget the most wonderful thing of all...OUR FOUR FABULOUS CHILDREN!  My life has been SO enriched because of my marriage to Doug, and our children are definitely the best thing that has ever happened to us!  And I wouldn't want to experience all of these great things without Doug...he is definitely the best thing that has ever happened to me!  He does so much for our family and I am grateful for him each and every day!  He is simply the BEST!  I definitely married up when I married that man!

Now, Doug and I hardly ever spend weekends away, but we decided that we had to go and do something special for our 10 year anniversary!  My mom was kind enough to come and spend the night with the kids while we went away for Friday and Saturday.  We really had so much fun just being together and having a conversation without kids interrupting us!  Plus we went shopping and to a movie!  It was a great time away...I kind of wished that it was longer.  

Happy New Year!

We had a fun night celebrating the New Year by having some of our family over to celebrate.  We ate, a lot, played games, and just hung out :).  Around 10:00, we had some sparkling cider, then we all went outside and lit sparklers to celebrate.  The kids had a great time, and that's what counts!  After everyone went home, the kids grabbed their sleeping bags and we had a sleepover upstairs and watched a movie. To Doug and my surprise, all the kids, except for Kate, stayed up until midnight, which they were so proud of!  They were pretty exhausted, and crashed as soon as they had accomplished their goal of staying up.  It was definitely a fun night celebrating the New Year :).