What a wonderful Christmas!

I hope we've gotten some 'new readers' on our blog, since I put the URL into our Christmas letter this year! If you're new, welcome ... and please leave us some comments to let us know you're reading :)

Christmas was absolutely wonderful. We had my family over on Saturday the 23rd, and we did a "Yankee Swap" exchange. That was lots of fun. Of course the kids still got presents from everyone, but that is as it should be. I think the big hit of the day was the TMX Elmo doll that Auntie Vivian and Uncle Bruce gave to the girls ... Kenzie acts out all his moves, and it's hysterical! I took a short video clip and will be posting it as soon as I can get it uploaded. The girls also love the TJ Bearytales that Paul, Kristy, Eva, Holly, & Dave gave them ... they've listened to his stories several times.

We had a relaxing Christmas Eve ... gave the boys their birthday gifts and just enjoyed being together as a family. We went to Christmas Eve service at First Baptist in Wollaston, where Katie decided that she needed to have a full-blown case of bronchitis :( Seems every year one child has to be sick for Christmas. On Christmas morning we all opened our gifts ... Shawn surprised me with a gorgeous diamond bracelet, I had no clue! He also got me a Sony e-book reader, which I LOVE LOVE LOVE. I've already downloaded a bunch of books and have been reading it at every spare moment. The boys seemed to like all their gifts, and the girls were overwhelmed as usual. Later on Christmas Day we had Shawn's family with us. Our poor little living room has had more company over the past week than I think it's seen in the 3 1/2 years we've been there, LOL! It was great to have everyone together, though :)

Next up will be Mackenzie's birthday party on January 6th ... she'll be turning TWO on the 4th, can you imagine?? I have no idea what to get her for a gift ... she got more presents than any 2-year old could use for Christmas! Ah, well, I'm sure we'll manage to find something for her.

Merry Christmas!!

A Tribute to My Family

It was a bit strange to be "in" the parade instead of watching it this year! The Kiwanis Club of East Bridgewater made my entire family Grand Marshals of the parade and dedicated it to my dad. They hired a closed trolley for us to ride in, and in the trolley were: my Mom; my brother Bruce, his wife Vivian, their son Paul, his wife Kristy & 6-week old baby girl Eva Marie, their daughter Holly & her new hubby Dave Corbett (fresh and fully tanned from their honeymoon in Aruba); my brother Wayne, his wife Diane, Diane's dad Buzz, their daughter Heather, her hubby Garrett & 7 month old baby Jackson, & their son Jason; myself, my hubby Shawn, and our children James, Jacob, Katie, and Mackenzie. Yup, it was a full trolley :)

Holly and Dave's Wedding (11/18/06)

Holly was a radiant and beautiful bride (as we all knew she would be), Dave was very dashing in his tux (and even sent his bride flowers that morning, awwwww), and Katie made a very cute flower girl. There are tons of pictures in my photobucket account (http://smg.photobucket.com/albums/0803/JoColes/Holly%20Wedding/)!

Katie's latest artwork

Katie's Halloween obsession ...

Katie has been asking me to print off Halloween pages for her to color for the past two weeks. She simply can't get enough. Briefly this week she was into Tiger pages instead, but we've returned to Halloween. She loves to color them in and loves even more to hang them up around my office :)

Canada 2006

We took another family vacation, this time to Canada! We met up with our friends Jana & Scott in Niagara Falls and toured the area. Then we all traveled to Thamesford, Ontario to stay with our friends Jenn & Jeff at their house. We had a great time and even got to visit the Toronto Zoo. Another friend came to visit for lunch one day, so at one point there were 8 kids under the age of 4 in the house ... EEEK!

Here's a film loop of some of our pictures ...

Trip to North Carolina was awesome!

We had a great time in Atlantic Beach, North Carolina over the July 4th week! We rented a beach house & shared it with friends (Jenn & Jeff and Nicole & Mike) ... and it was right next door to our friends Jana & Scott :) The girls enjoyed the beach and the fireworks were awesome.

Rather than post a bunch of pictures, here is a film loop of our vacation ...

The Living Room (Pictures)

I just realized that I never posted before & after pictures of the living room!  The first pic is from Katie's birthday party, showing the paisley/floral wallpaper the previous owners had on the walls.  The second picture is DH decorating the Christmas tree this year with the new paint job :)

Mackenzie's First Catch

We were at a cookout over the Memorial Day weekend & a friend of ours was throwing a toy football to Mackenzie. It would hit her chest, bounce onto the ground, and she'd laugh like it was the funniest thing she'd ever seen! I attempted to capture this on video using my digital camera (sorry, no sound) and ended up getting her first catch on video!

Just click on the picture & it will take you to my photobucket site where you can click and view the video :)

Here are some more pictures from that cookout ...

Welcome to the world, Jackson Wayne!

My grand-nephew made his entrance into the world on Sunday afternoon, weighing in at 8lb 1oz and measuring 19" long. Congratulations to new mama and dad, Heather & Garrett.

Isn't he the cutest little thing???

Here is my niece Heather with her new Red Sox fan (see the hat? LOL) ...

And here is my brother, the proud new Grampa Wayne holding his namesake ...

Jackson is my third grand-nephew/niece (Cameron & Delaney are #1 and #2) ... and #4 is due in August, and #5 is due in October!! We just love babies in this family :)

Red Sox fans ...

Need I say more???

Off to the prom ...

Jake went to the Junior Prom with his girlfriend, and they had a great time! I can't believe my baby is old enough to go to a prom, but I have to get over it, right??? ACK! Here are some pictures, aren't they a great looking couple??

Easter Photos

We enjoyed celebrating Christ's resurrection at church service, then our church's Easter Egg hunt, then to Nana's house to visit for a little bit, then on to dinner with my family at my brother's house. That night DH and I went up to the cemetery to visit my Dad and plant some flowers at his grave site. All in all, a wonderful day!

Here are some Easter pictures ... first is of Mackenzie at the Easter Egg hunt after church service ...
Next is Katie hunting for eggs again at my brother's house ...
Here are both girls checking out their booty ...

Here is a picture of Katelyn pretending to be the Easter Bunny ...

Here are Mackenzie and my niece Holly (Kenzie has on a cute tiara that Holly bought for her) ...

Next is a pic of my Mom ...

Finally, my Mom's dog, Biscuit, dressed up like the Easter Bunny ...

Baby Explosion!!!

Two of my best friends just had babies ... *literally* ... Trish welcomed Zachary into the world on Monday ... Jana welcomed Brenna into the world on Tuesday!


McDaris Family Blog
Griffin Family Blog: Introducing Brenna Anne Griffin!!!

Then, to add to the excitment ... my niece Heather is due with her first baby in June, my nephew Michael is having his third child in August, and my nephew Paul is having his first baby in October!!!

Makes me feel much better about not having any more babies ... I can borrow so many now!!!!!

The living room is *finally* finished!

Since the day we moved into our house, I've been saying I'm going to rip down the wallpaper in the living room and paint ... well, it's finally finished!! Our living room had a striped wallpaper on the bottom half of the wall, a chair rail, then a floral/paisley wallpaper on the top half, and a coordinating floral/paisley border along the top of the chair rail. Needless to say, it was a bit on the busy side! One day about a month ago, I decided to just start ripping the paper down, figuring that way it *had* to get done! DH helped alot, and last night we put the final coat of "red gumball" paint on the walls! Tonight when I go home, I'll take some pictures and post them ... I'll also dig through my old photos and find some "before" pictures to post along with them. Can't wait for everyone to come over on Christmas Eve to see the transformation :)

Cinderella and the Great Pumpkin ...

Katelyn had a wonderful time on Halloween ... she actually got really good at the whole "trick or treat" thing this year! At one point when Daddy said, "Okay Cinderella, time to go to the next house ..." she replied, "Okay Daddy, but it's only make-believe, I'm really Katie!"



And here's a picture of the girls in front of our blow-up pumpkin in the front yard, and a few of the house all "dolled up" for Halloween ...

Random pictures ...

Wanted to share some pictures of the girls over the last few months ...
Gramma with her girls


The girls with Santa at First Baptist Church of Wollaston


The girls with Santa at Local 103's Christmas Party


Mackenzie and Daddy at the Commercial Club Christmas Party


Katelyn enjoying her "Dora Food Set" and Mackenzie looking over her new "Pop-Onz" toy at the Commercial Club

Neighborhood excitement ...

Last Friday the house across the street from us burned down. We were in the midst of a severe snow storm, complete with high winds, lightning, thunder, snow, etc. The power was out, and to boot Shawn had stripped all the remaining wallpaper off the living room walls earlier in the day ... so all our furniture was in the center of the room, the coffee table, couch table, and baby swing were in the kitchen waiting to go into the attic, and there were wallpaper strips all over the living room floor! We had the neighbors whose house was on fire in our living room, the family next door to them, the fire chief coming in and out, and the girls didn't even blink an eye. Katie was a wonderful host to the two little girls, and wasn't frightened at all with all the commotion. And in the midst of it all, she decides she needs to work on her potty training, announcing three times that she needs to potty and one time that she needs to poop! Ah, the impeccable timing of little girls LOL!

Meet my family ...

We were out Christmas shopping with the girls a few weeks ago. Katie wanders over to another family (a mother, father, and little girl a little younger than Katie) and introduces herself.

"Hi! My name is Katelyn Hope. What's your name?" The little girl is very shy and buries her head in her dad's shoulder. Katie tries again ...

"Hi! What's your name? I'm Katie. This is my Mommy (pointing to me), this is "trouble" (pointing to Mackenzie), and this is my daddy (pointint to Shawn)!"

Picture Katie trying to figure out why the other mother is laughing so hard tears are rolling down her cheeks, and why her own mother is blushing and saying to the other family, "I guess I say 'here comes trouble' a bit too much!"