BFF's

Here are the best buddies!  They were getting married this day-- not to each other!  Catrece was marrying her little bub Tristan, and after giving it a little thought, Aubree decided she was gong to marry Rick (Catrece's daddy!)  lol.  I think he's taken, Aubree!

I'm so thankful for this special little friendship, and just as thankful for the friendship I have with Christy (Catrece's mommy!)  This family is such a blessing in our lives!

Cousins and Buddies

Five of the cutest kids you'll ever see!  Getting these five to stand in a line is quite a feat!  So take it in, it might be awhile before this happens again!  We had to pull Jada out of the sandbox and off of the ground to get her to stand in line.  Once she realized it was time to "cheese," things got a little easier!  

(L-R: Our Jada-bug, Nicolas., Julia, Aubree Rose, and Vivian-- So CUTE!)

We love our cousins!!  It's so fun to get them together (even when it get's a little crazy!)

Haps

Grandpa sharing his ice cream with Aubree at Mr. Happy Burger! Love this picture!

The Happy Trolley... I totally loved eating in the trolley when I was a kid!

This brings back fun memories for me!

Happy Halloween

Jada's costume makes her look huge!

Best Buddies!

Their almost matching red shoes had these two completely over-the-top excited!

The Cowardly Lion and Dorothy! Very cute, but a little disappointed that the Scarecrow and Tin Man did not make an appearance. C'mon Rick and Christy! I was looking forward to seeing that!

Tristan (thinking "What in the world?")

This Halloween was a blast! It's the greatest day to live in a neighborhood! This was the first year that Aubree was REALLY excited about her costume and trick-or-treating, and to add to her enthusiasm, she got a surprise visit from Grandma and Grandpa Cain and got to go door to door with her favorite buddies, Catrece, Zoe-Grace, and Aliza.

Jada had a great time too! She figured things out after the first house when someone put candy in her basket. Her eyes lit up and she got a lot more "pep in her step." You could just see the light bulb moment. She was her typical happy self most of the night and actually walked/ran for about 45 minutes of the hour we spent trick-or-treating! She was happy to have Grandma and Grandpa along to keep pace with her while Mommy was making sure Aubree stayed out of the street.

We were quite a parade with Catrece, Aubree, and Zoe-Grace in the lead racing to the doors with moms trying to keep up; Aliza about 3 steps behind them; Jada next, trucking along with my mom and dad, and the guys straggling behind with Rick pushing Tristan in the stroller. Very fun!

** More pictures to follow! These are Christy's. Chris took his to work. My camera is broken.

October birthdays

Guess we didn't take any great pictures, but we had a house full of fifteen fabulous people over the weekend for my family's October (and November) birthdays. Thanks for coming down here everyone! Hope you all had a good time!

As usual, it seems we mostly just took pictures of the kids.

The Kids

A little fall photo shoot of four of my favorite people!

Ponies, Raccoons, and Snakes, Oh My!

We took a little mini-vacation down to Brown County this past weekend. Here are a couple of shots from my phone. Hopefully there are some more good ones on our camera!

Vacation was loads of fun! Here is Aubree riding a pony, named Oreo. She was super excited at first, but about halfway around the track she said she was done. Luckily, we were able to distract her and keep her on for the full lap!

There's a nature center at the park, and this was the scene out at the bird viewing area. Apparently raccoons dine there for some easy access bird seed!

And here's a snake down by one of the lakes. Hard to tell what kind it is... Let's hope it wasn't poisonous!

Aubree was also excited about this fuzzy caterpillar.
I don't think we got any pictures, but Aubree was also excited about the lookout "tower" up on one of the hills in the park. We told her it was a princess tower! Is that wrong? Those of you familiar with Brown County know which tower I'm talking about.
The hotel we stayed at had a pretty awesome pool. Aubree wasn't too thrilled about the parts of the pool where she couldn't touch, but she did get braver by the last day and would float down the lazy river on some noodles with minimal hand-holding.
Jada, on the other hand always wanted to put her face in the water! She was even bending her knees to jump to us off of the under water benches. It's funny to find the things that Jada wants to do more than Aubree.

Daddy likes to grow out his hair for vacation! Sure grows fast. Seems like I had just shaved it on Friday...

We "Heart" Our Library

Here we are a the Teddy Bear Picnic sponsored by our super library. We had a Teddy Bear parade, snack, story and craft. We also got to see our buds. Here's Jada's little buddy Tristan. He looks pretty intrigued by what's going on.

Here's Jada, providing rhythm for the parade and having lots of fun!

Catrece loves her little pal Jada. She even loaned her a Teddy Bear for the picnic.

Aubree, Fifi, Doc, Catrece, and Pooh Bear-- camped out and ready to have a good time.

Not sure what Catrece is up to in this picture, but I love their little personalities!!

We had a great time as we always do at our library!!

Christmas at Mom's

"I once saw a goat do this."

The nice thing about eating wrapping paper-- I stayed nice and tidy for my first Christmas at Grandma's."
Checking out the new table... her new permanent hangout.

Caleb pouring some "milkshake" for Aubree.

Somebody has her big cousin wrapped around her little finger.

Jada likes the new table, too. Although she needs some practice sitting in the chairs. She fell out about two seconds after I took this picture. I blame Grandma Patty. ;-) I'm sure I wasn't being negligent while trying to get a cute picture.

Caleb, did you get something from Bath & Body Works?

Mom, love the necklace! New facebook profile pic?

Awww... very cute, you two-- three!

Chris, looking very excited that he got a present!

Self-portrait... just being a dork.

Shay, you look mahhh-velous dahhhh-ling!

Yogurt Raisins-- they barely made it home.

Jada keeping Great-Grandma Margie company.

THANKS everyone for all of the nice gifts for us and the girls. Our house is feeling a little like Toys-R-Us now, and we've done nothing but have tea parties for the last week.

Hopefully, we'll have more pictures from our OHIO Christmas soon! We forgot to use our camera. Agh! Please forgive us, and please send us pictures. Tons of love and thanks to you guys, too!!!