Our little pianist!

 I always knew I wanted Jorie to take piano lessons. I took lessons for many years growing up and hoped that my one and only daughter would want to follow in my footsteps one day. Jorie had her very first lesson 2 weeks ago! She is doing excellent already!

 Even her piano teacher is impressed!

 At least now, the piano will be used for most than just a cute photo op.

And I'm enjoying sharing this with Jorie. I have even been playing again myself. Its fun to have piano music in the house again.

Beginning to look a lot like Christmas in our home!

Enjoying some hot chocolate after decorating the tree!!

Josh with his Rudolph nose!

Tree all finished!

One of our traditions is putting up our Christmas tree the day after Thanksgiving. We've been using an artificial tree ever since we got married. So, 10 years now. And just last year changed the tree to one with lights already on it! Makes it so much easier for Steve!! I love the all white lights for a change too! The tree is a little taller and not as full. But, it's nice to have a different tree to enjoy after 10 years of the same one. It's mostly Jorie and Josh that really get into the decorating of the tree. The days of Ryan participating are long gone now. I can remember when he was really young...maybe 2 years old and I would push his manual wheelchair up to the tree and help him hang ornaments. It wasn't easy for him to do even then when he had more strength than he does now. But, he's content to watch us do it these days.

Thanksgiving fun!

The kids enjoying some mac n cheese lunch before the big Thanksgiving dinner. 

Elliott, William and Luke playing the piano.

Jorie with cousin, Elliott

The weather was nice enough for some outside play.

Elliott, Luke, Jorie and Josh

Jorie and Josh with cousins William, Luke and Elliott.

Just for fun, I thought it would be cool to add in an older picture of all the cousins! 

Jorie sneaking in a hug with daddy.

It is so hard to capture Ryan in a  photo these days! But, I managed this one!

We enjoyed a very nice Thanksgiving with both of my sisters and their families. They arrived a day before Thanksgiving and stayed until 2 days afterwards. It is a wild house with all these little boys running around! Their ages now:  William (7) Elliott (5) Luke (5) and then of course, my kids Ryan (15),  Jorie (9) and Joshua (4)!!  Time sure flies! 

Little update

Here are some of the most recent pictures of the kids. They are all growing up too fast!! Wish they'd slow down a little bit. We've been keeping pretty busy with all the normal stuff. And adding to our list now will be piano lessons for Jorie! We are super excited for her to start this new adventure. And the next thing on my list is to get our piano tuned! It has been in our home for at least 8 years now and it needs it badly. I don't even know when it was tuned last! Since I took many years of lessons growing up, I still have several of my old piano books. I've been having alot of fun playing out of them again and playing for the kids. I don't sit down and play nearly as often as I used to. It has been fun. Especially since Christmas is coming up and it gives me an excuse to play some Christmas music!

Some fun Christmas pictures!

Jorie with Santa at what used to be the Bend River Mall

                                       I thought it would be fun to post some pictures from many different Christmas' past. And these are definitely not in any particular order!

Joshua's first Christmas!

Josh (age 3)

Josh (3 years old)

Ryan and Joshua (Christmas 2007)

Jorie and Ryan (ages 2 and 8)

Jorie and her cousin, Alaina (3 years old)

Pretty sure this is Christmas 2009

Jorie and Ryan (Christmas 2003)

Joshua opening up his first stocking (2007)

Sweet Jorie at Grandma and Grandpa's house

Ryan and Jorie's first professional Christmas picture together (2002)!!