A'hoy there

For some reason the girls have taken up playing "Pirates" on a regular basis. Each time they play the game is completely different, here are just a few examples...

One day (not the first time) they raided their underwear drawer so they could wear its contents on their bodies as their Pirate Gear

Pirate Emory

Pirate Addison

Pirate Trinity

Last night, after dinner they were all on the little trampoline and used the giant porch broom as their oar to row the boat, it was pretty funny! When they were too worn out from rowing Trinity, who had declared herself the Captain Pirate allowed her First Mate Addison and Second Mate Emory to take some time off from rowing to retire to their quarters for an evenings' rest.

It is wonderful when they have fun playing and being creative together!

I love my pirates!!!!!

Emory is 4!

My sweet little Angel turned 4 years old on January 4th! I can't believe how old she is...but then at times I can't believe she's only 4. She is such a sweet girl (almost all the time), very helpful and understanding! She is still a giant and REALLY skinny, but the doc says she's just fine! She had her check-up a few weeks ago, and here are her stats:

height: 3' 6 1/2" (95th+ percentile)

weight: 36 lbs (50th- percentile)

To put her height in perspective, she is taller than probably half of the kids in kindergarten and several of the 1st graders at Trinity's school...and she still has 1 1/2 years left before she starts school!

We had a friend birthday party for Emory at one of her favorite places, Pump-it-up! It was a blast! Great group, not too big so everyone was able to relax a little bit and really enjoy themselves! Emory has been blessed with a great group of kids in her class at school, we really enjoyed them all interact with each other.

Waiting for the party guests to arrive

Birthday girl hitting the slide!

Jumping...her favorite thing to do!!!!!

Nini trapped the girls!

Emory is sharing with her friends:)

and helping them have fun at her party!

Greg and Emory pushing Addison and one of our neighbors/friends!

LOVE this picture of Trinity offering Addison a hand up the obstacle course!

Greg with Trinity and neighbor/friend...he had fun too!

Emory's party was Fancy Nancy themed. Since we coulnd't find any such a cake she HAD to have flowers!

Pappy with his two baby nerds! Check out Addison's face:)

So...I'm a little behind...

Yes, I know I've been neglecting this whole blogging thing and I really do miss it! I have all these random thoughts and experiences that I think...oooohhh gotta blog that! You can tell, that hasn't been enough to get me on here though. I have many excuses...but they're just that, excuses! I've had a really hard time uploading pictures now that I have my super mega awesome camera that is 14.2 megapixels...I'm sure it's the way I'm saving them, but they shut down the website when I try, so that's my biggest excuse.

So, since last I blogged we've had a lot going on! I'll try to follow my list and get blogs written, even if I don't get around to posting pictures. Lets see...

~Emory turned 4!
~Addison turned 2!
~Trinity lost her two front teeth!
~We have had another nephew!
~Greg and I actually got all dressed up for a night on the town (well, sort of)
~Valentine's Day!
~lots of dress up fun...and just living the life we have been blessed with!

I appreciate your patience with me...and I promise to try harder to make fewer excuses to myself:)

My little gymnasts

Today was a wonderful day! Trinity and Emory have been taking gymnastics classes at The Little Gym this year and have really enjoyed it! Today was the last class of the "fall" semester, so they had a "show" for the families to watch. Of course my girls were the best in their classes (and I fully expect each of the other parents to say the same about thing...about their own child/children of course). I got a milllion pictures of the girls that I will eventually get around to uploading (in case you haven't noticed, I'm WAYYYYYY behind in this blogging thing), but wanted to get the videos posted ASAP for the people who were only there in spirit:)

Emory
(she's wearing a pink leotard and black skirt...it's kinda hard to see her at first)

Make an on-line slideshow at www.OneTrueMedia.com

Trinity

Photo and video editing at www.OneTrueMedia.com

I am so proud of my girls! I can't wait to see their performances from the next semester! Trinity is going to take a cheerleading class starting next week, instead of gymnastics and she's REALLY excited! Addison is even going to start a gymnastics class too!

Christmas with the Hinckleys

Christmas was spectacular in our house! The whole family was full of the spirit and was extremely proud of the gifts they had purchased (or picked out) for others! We really tried to explain the spirit of "giving" as opposed to "receiving" and showed them many ways they can follow through with this. We also tried to keep the focus on the reason for the holiday...however with kids the Santa thing kinda overpowers:) The girls were so grateful for each and every little (or big) thing they received from us, each other, Santa and everyone else! Everyone was so generous and the girls got everything at the top of their lists!

The day started out extremely early for me. I got up a few minutes before 5 so I would make sure I was ready for the day when the girls woke up and could spend the rest of our time before heading out to grandparents' houses playing with the girls. The girls chose this day, of all the days of the year to sleep in! We ended up waking them at 7 when we just couldn't stand the wait any longer!

Emory, not quite awake yet and trying to figure out which stocking was hers.

Check out the goodies from Santa!

Trinity was SOOOOO excited!

Addison, still a bit sleepy, playing with her new tricycle.

Emory couldn't believe Santa knew she needed a new Giraffe Blankie since she lost hers! She didn't even tell him she wanted one...Santa is so amazing! (We won't get into the fact that she lost this one before the day was done...ugh!)

Trinity opening one of her many gifts

Addison and her new baby

Trinity admiring the new Breakable Tinkerbell she received.

This is how Emory spent the rest of that day and most of the time since...feeding and snuggling on one of her many new babies (cause the 30 she already had weren't enough to keep her busy:))

After a wonderful Christmas morning at home we moved on to Greg's Dad's house, then to his Mom's...then a few days later to my parents house. The girls got more than they even have the slightest clue what to do with! Thank you everyone for making our Christmas magical once again! I can't get enough of the joy I see in the girls' eyes this time of year, it's contagious!

Christmas at Nana and Pops'!

After a perfect Christmas morning at home we headed to Sachse to celebrate the wonderful occasion with Greg's family. We always have a great time with all the kids playing together. This year we decided to have a White Elephant gift exchange for our generation, the gifts were great and memories were made...that's the best part! I'm sure a few of the gifts will rear their ugly heads next year too:)

Here's Trinity Chillaxin on the couch and listening to her NEW MP3 player. She's so grown up!

Nana and two of my nephews...they're pretty cute, huh?

Emory was sure to get in her Nana nuggle time before gift exchanges commenced.

Addison loved this little ball thingy she got in the stocking (aka giant gift bag full of goodies)

Emory's favorite part of the stocking was the tiara and earrings...go figure

Trinity was so proud she could read Addison's new book all by herself!

Pops' gift from Sheridan and Matt...look really close at the picture of James Bond, does that face look a little familiar?

Trinity got Kit Kittridge! She couldn't have been more thrilled!!!!!

Thanks Nana, you always know what I really want!

Addison couldn't stand Trinity getting her picture taken without getting a turn for herself:)

Kit's hat didn't quite fit Trinity, but she still looked cute:)

Aiden got a lot of Star Wars stuff this year!

Jedi Master Aiden

Addison took his second light saber and gave him a run for his money! She was seriously good at this whole jedi thing! She knew exactly how to "swing" the light saber and always hit her target (and sometimes a few other things/people in the process

Each of the kids received a can of silly string in their "stocking". Nana was a great sport and allowed them to play with it in her yard...

and use her as the target.

Emory received a American Girl Baby double jogging stroller from Nana and Pops and she LOVES it! She still takes it EVERYWHERE with her!

Christmas at Mimi's

Our final stop of Christmas Day was Greg's Mom's House...aka Mimi. We enjoyed yet another round of gift giving, white elephant and a yummy dinner of chili and tacos. The kids were pretty worn out by this point, but still so well behaved!

The girls were BEGGING Mimi to get started with the gifts while we waited on the rest of the family to arrive

Addison was just a bit sleepy...can you tell?

My absolutely adorable nephew. I think he was asking his daddy for something, thank goodness he wasn't asking me...I don't know how anyone can say no to that precious face!

Emory got a FANCY picture frame...she was soooo excited!

We were all playing with the camera while the kids were playing with toys, thanks Matt for taking a picture of the two of us.

Thanks Honey for showing your tonsils to Matt...lovely...

Matt and Sheridan...and you can't see, but Baby #2 is almost finished cooking! We can't wait to meet him/her!

We had such a wonderful Christmas! Thank you to all of our family who celebrated along with us. We are truly blessed!