Nick bakes up a batch of yummy treats

I am so amazed at how much Nick has learned over the years. One of his favorite snacks is cupcakes with Chocolate frosting. The other night we decided to whip up a few cupcakes - I have to say he did the majority of it on his own (minus taking it out of the oven - he's still timid about the heat). I'm soooo proud of him!!!!

Oven preheated - check Liners in pan - check

Water, oil, eggs -check

Mixing and getting tired of Mrs. Cripe snapping pics - check!

Awwww - one more pic - so sweet - we forgot to take pictures of us chowing them down after dinner - oh well!!!

Happy Birthday Grandma!!!

We got home from Frankenmuth in time to celebrate my Grandma's birthday with her! We met them for dinner at the Village Grill and enjoyed hugs, kisses, yummy food and of course - presents!!!

Here is Grandma opening her birthday present from us. It was a jigsaw puzzle of me!!! Can you tell that she was soooo surprised and loved it?!?!?!?

I love my Grandma and I love lollipops!

Bye Grandma, I love you and I hope you had a wonderful birthday!!!!

Just Stuff

My Grandma and Papa like to come over to surprise me during the week ... this time I pretended that I was Papa's doctor and took very good care of him. I also made sure to feed my doggy friends - Mocha was included of course!

A quick little getaway

My dad and mom are members of the Bavariann Inn Lodge Perks Club. They signed up about a year ago for $10 and have scored some tremendous savings on quick getaways to Frankenmuth ever since. If you aren't familiar with the club or with the hotel you should check out their website http://www.bavarianninn.com/ . Every time you use the card you get points towards gift certificates to use at their hotel. Well, just after Christmas my daddy read their newsletter and seen that they were offering rooms for $24 a night - wow! We had also received a couple of gift certificates in the fall from our perks membership - soooo...we went on a mini vacation for FREE!!! I had a lot of fun! Check out the clips and pics!!!


Phew...it was a crazy drive to get to the hotel due to a mid day snowfall - but we made it safe and sound!!! We were so happy that the Christmas decorations were still up - they have the biggest decorated trees we've ever seen!!

Here is dad and I checking out one of the big trees on our way to the pool

Ahhhh...water....SO MUCH FUN!!!

I loved running around and aiming the water guns at different spots in the pool

After dinner we did some hysterical hula hooping - notice there are not pictures or video of my mom and dad - it was really crazy!!!

Snuggling up for a quick picture!
Yum! My favorite "pass the time" activity to do at hotels is to go get the ice bucket filled up - I love munching on ice!

When mommy told me we were going to Frankenmuth I immediately asked to go see the bears at the Christmas store (Bronner's). I remembered going there on my 2nd birthday. My eyes lit up when we spotted them!!!

I found lots of reindeer while we were there :-)

I love looking at Christmas trees - this one had a water tube in the middle of it that made all kinds of pretty bubbles

more pool fun!

Happy New Year

Well, mommy is finally getting caught up and moving towards new pictures and memories of a new year. But, we have to share pics from the final day of 2009. My mommy's best friend, Cindy, was in town visiting and this was the first time they have seen each other in a long time. My Grandma and Papa hosted a wonderful game night with family and friends and it was a lot of fun (so I hear, I stayed home with my daddy so that I could go to bed at a normal time and so that mommy could have a night out by herself).

Here is my mommy and Mrs. Cindy!!!! Here are Reina, Cindy, Jasmine and Mommy - it was a lot of fun for my mom to see Cindy's whole family. They are growing up very fast!

All eyes and ears were on my Papa as he shared a scripture with everyone.

Here are some of the teens that came out to celebrate the New Year. Mom remembers when each of them were born...wow!!!!

Let the games begin - Uno, Catch Phrase, Jenga, Guess Who, Whoonu, Speed, Sequence, card tricks, Trouble etc.

This isn't a great pic, but sitting in the chair to the right with a black t-shirt is Pete. He just completed basic training for the US Army and was able to come by to see everyone. It really blessed mom being able to chat with him. He was in her youth group several years ago and now he is a grown man -amazing!

Ahhh....Olivia (Cindy's youngest) was exhausted after a long week...she curled up on the couch and fell sound asleep!!! So sweet!

Happy New Year everyone! I hope that each of you experience God's blessing in profound ways during this new year. Open your heart up to His voice and prodding and He will guid and direct your paths!!!!

Christmas at Aunt Renee and Uncle Jim's House

Unfortunately, it doesn't seem like we often get to post blogs about my daddy's family. They live farther away and we don't get to see each other as often. But, at Christmas time everyone is "home" and we are able to get together to celebrate with each other. It took me awhile to warm up, but I eventually felt comfortable and had a wonderful time seeing all of my aunts, uncles, grandparents and cousins. Enjoy the pics!



Here is my Aunt Heather (daddy's sister) and her husband Uncle Todd

Next, is my Aunt Renee (daddy's oldest sister) and her husband Uncle JimHere is a pic of my Uncle Rob (daddy's brother) taking a picture of someone else =) You can also see my cousins Aubrie, Emma and Brennen in the background.Here is Aubrie (Todd and Heather's oldest daughter) opening a beautiful "fancy" dress!

Here I am building a great tower that I got from Aunt Heather's family!

A shot of Grandpa and Grandma Cripe and more of the gang.

I REALLY liked the tower blocks.

There is my oldest cousin, Ian (Jim and Renee's oldest).

Here is my Aunt Heather opening a matching pink fancy dress for her youngest daughter Lindsay...the two sisters will look soooo pretty all dressed up together - we can't wait to see pictures!

Here is daddy checking out his new "Jeep" signs!

I got a great "jungle" play set from my Grandpa and Grandma Cripe - I play with it everyday.

After we opened presents, Lindsay and I decided to take a break and watch Elmo on tv. Aren't we soooo cute????

Daddy was hanging out with the kids (Aubrie, Emma, Daddy, Me, Lindsay).

Here is a pic of Ian and Emma's dog, Jasper. He is huge and I LOVE him!

This is me hanging onto Jasper's leash - he is a very funny doggy.

I had such a great Christmas. It was a blessing to be able to celebrate with everyone and I can't wait to do it again next year!!!!