We're All Good!

The days seem to go by much faster lately!  I can't believe that next week is Thanksgiving!  We are doing something quite different this year for Thanksgiving.  Normally we stay home and have Thanksgiving dinner with the whole Tinker clan, but this year we are driving to Cartersville to spend the holiday with Chris' parents, his brother Bobby, and Bobby's family.  Chris and Hannah both have Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday off from work and school, and that means that the Christmas tree is going up, up, up!!!  Yay! 

Other than the holidays, things are happening around here just like normal.  Hannah began indoor soccer practice this past week, and this is her first year playing indoor.  It's a little different from outdoor as there are no out-of-bounds, and you can play the balls off of the walls and such.  Halle is not happy that she isn't getting to play, but she won't meet the age requirements for a few more years.  Our yet-to-be-born baby girl is growing amazingly well...our last OB appointment and ultrasound stated that she weighed about a pound!  She didn't like the ultrasound, though, and kept kicking where ever the doctor was scanning.  Haha, with an attitude like that, she'll fit in just fine with this family!

I'll leave you with a couple of pictures that I took in October at my sister Gabby's birthday.  I hope you all have a very happy Thanksgiving!

Happy Halloween

My little sister's (Cheyenne) birthday falls on Halloween, and this year she wanted to have a skating party.  So, Halloween morning we took the girls to Fort Payne and celebrated her birthday skating.  This was Halle's very first time in roller skates, and she absolutely loved it!  I was so impressed at how she skated all around, right in the middle of all those bigger kids! 

Hannah has been skating a few times before, and immediately went out and started skating like a pro!  Kids amaze me...I would have killed myself if I had been out there!

Later on, since my dad works at M&M Mars, we were able to take the girls to their Boo-Bash in Cleveland.  The employees there dressed up as different characters from movies like Transformers, Toy Story 3, and Alice in Wonderland.  Halle wasn't into people dressed up in costumes, so she wouldn't get close enough for a picture.  However, Hannah had no problem!  Here she is with the caterpillar and Mad Hatter from Alice in Wonderland:

They were giving out tons of candy to each kid...the girls ended up with a huge cardboard box full of great candy!  They were very excited!

Of course, we took them trick-or-treating that night, and they racked up even more candy.  I think my little witch and pretty butterfly had a fun Halloween!

Happy 8th Birthday Hannah!

A couple of weeks ago my sweet girl turned 8 years old!  I can't believe how fast she is growing up...it is a very bittersweet feeling as I am not ready for her to get any older, but I am so very proud of her in many different ways. 

She had a party here at home (something we haven't done in a while) with family and a few friends.  All the kids had a blast playing together.  None of them wanted to come inside at dark, nor did they want to leave!  I love having all the kiddos together...it reminds me so much of my own childhood.  Anyway, the kids were so busy playing that we had to make them all stop long enough to cut the birthday cake and to let Hannah open her gifts.

Haha, the cake looks a little lop-sided in that picture, so here is a better picture:

Hannah was very happy with all of her gifts!  Here she is with her Justice boots from Mimi:

And her new journal from Gabby:

The rest of the gifts were opened a little too fast for me to get decent pictures of....but I do know that she was one VERY happy birthday girl!!  I'm glad you had a happy birthday, Hannah.  We love you more than you know!

Soccer Season 2010

Hannah and Halle both played soccer this year.  This was Hannah's second year playing and Halle's first.

 I was very impressed with Hannah at the beginning of soccer season because she had improved so much from the year before.  She continued to play well all during the season and really started to understand the different roles that come from playing all of the different positions on the field.  My aunt Ginger was Hannah's coach....she said that Ginger was a little bossy!  : )

Here is Hannah with Coach Ginger and some of her teammates:

Here is Hannah and cousin Eli passing the ball:

Hannah taking off and kicking the ball down the field:



Halle's coach was Beth, and bless her heart, she had two three year olds to deal with on her team!  Beth's little girl, Macie and our Halle did more playing ring-around-the-rosie than they did playing soccer....but I think that they had fun!

Beth with some of her team:

 

Halle running to come get a drink of water:

We had a very enjoyable and funny soccer season!  I can't wait to do it again next year!!

We got holes in our ears!

Halle has been begging for a while now to go get her ears pierced.  She wants to wear and show-off pretty earrings.  Halle would ask everyday for a while, and pretty soon, Hannah began asking as well.  So, one Saturday a couple of weeks ago, we head off to town to get our girls their piercings.

Hannah knew that there would be some pain involved, so she was a little apprehensive to sit down in the chair.  I thought she was going to back out at the last minute, but she stepped up (with some tears in her eyes) and let the ladies do their work (they pierce both ears at the same time).  She cried more before the piercing than she did after they got the earrings in.  She was very proud....as so was I!

Here is Hannah with her new earrings.  You can barely tell, but they are gold hearts with little crystals in the middle.

Now Halle...she jumped up in the chair, let the ladies put the "gun" on her ears, and was still smiling!  She had no idea that piercing her ears would actually involve putting a hole through her ears.  Not until the earrings went in did she fully grasp that this process wouldn't all be fun.  The look on her face almost made me cry, but as soon as the ladies showed her the earrings attached to her ears (in the mirror) she was all smiles!  I think they both look so cute!

And...here is Halle with her new earrings.  These are red hearts with a gold outline and backing.

I think that they are both happy, and I know that they can't wait to get these out and start trying on new pairs!

3 Girls and No Boys

Recently Chris and I had another ultrasound (our OBGYN does an ultrasound every visit) just to check on the baby.  Just for fun, we checked to see if we could tell if our baby was a boy/girl.  To the disappointment of my poor husband, it seems as if we are having another GIRL!  I know Chris was a little sad, or a lot sad, but we have already decided that we want 4 kids, so we'll just have to try again!  : ) 

Below is the ultrasound picture of our little girl.  I know it is fuzzy, but it was fairly obvious during the visit that we were having a girl.


 

We are having trouble picking out a name...we had a great boy name picked out, but we'll just save it for later! Both Hannah and Halle are happy that we are having a girl, and have given us many names that they approve of, but nothing has sounded right. I'm sure we'll come up with something!



Pickin' Apples and Grapes

Lately, Mom, Jack and I have been getting together at one of our houses and spending the day together.  The kids all play really well together, and it gives us some time to talk, cook, and whatever else!  Yesterday, we all gathered at Mom's house and the kids really got into gathering grapes off of one of Mom's vines.
They gathered several buckets full of grapes that Mom and Jack are making grape jelly out of!  After all the grapes were picked, the kids went to the apples trees.

Hunter was an awesome tree-climber and shook a lot of apples down from the very top of the tree!  Some of our smallest dudes still needed some help, though, to pick their very own apples....
Halle and Mimi:

Here is Mimi and Jack's little girl Mary:

We all had more than enough apples to go around!
Hannah with her bucket full of apples:

We had a very enjoyable day and the kids had a lot of fun!  One more picture to share with you....Jack and I were goofing off and I thought this picture was priceless....

Haha, I just love my family!  : )

Lots of News!

Ok, a lot has happened since my last post.  Chris and I decided to put our house up for sale.  Granny is in Florida for the summer.  And...  Chris and I found out that we are expecting baby #3!!  We had our first OB/GYN appointment and our first ultrasound last week. 

This is a magnetic picture frame that I keep on the refrigerator with our most recent ultrasound photo.

 















The baby looks good and as of right now our due date is around March 9th.  We're all very excited...even Hannah and Halle!

Speaking of Halle....a few nights ago I was sitting in the living room waiting on Halle to tire herself out so that I could get to bed.  I was watching some tv show as she was playing and realized a few minutes later that she was really quiet.  I look over and this is what I see:

She had crawled into Sophie's (our Schnauzer) cage and fell fast asleep!  She was sleeping so soundly that I hated to move her, and Sophie couldn't figure out what Halle was doing....her bed had been taken over!  Funny children!

Happy Birthday to ME!

Man, I had a great birthday this year!  My family is the best, and they know me so darn well!

My mom bought these pair of shoes for me (I absolutely adore shoes):

They are incredibly comfortable, too.  My mommy knows me so well! : )

My hubby bought me an incredible cake from Coldstone Creamery:

As you can see, it was so good that we had it almost ate before I thought to get a picture!  He also bought me the Georgia Bulldogs tag that I have been wanting for my new car.  I just love that man : )

My sister bought me some costume jewelry...love it!  And Granny bought me a new bathing suit.  It sucks you in at all the right places.  I think it is the first bathing suit that I have ever had that I really like after it has been put on.

Last but not least, my dad bought me this:

Yeah, I know, he is awesome! 

Awesome 27th birthday!  *smile*

Father's Day

Other than that nasty UT snuggie (that Hannah made me buy) and the fact that Dad has literally brain-washed my child into thinking that UT is a team that anyone would actually pull for.....deep breath......The point is that this Father's Day was good.  Very good!

Snails, snails, and more snails...Yuck.

During the summer I try to keep my nephew, Hunter, as much as I possibly can.  He and Hannah play so well together and he keeps Hannah from nagging me all day about something to do.  This week he stayed for 3 days and one afternoon they got really quiet while playing outside.  I went out to check on them and this is what they had to show for all of their "hushed and concentrated" work:

Ew.  I don't particularly love snails, but they were so proud of how many they had found that I just had to take a picture.  Right after the picture they trotted off to find more.

Ok, I just noticed Levi relieving himself in the corner of the picture....please ignore that.  Sheesh. 

At this point, I left the kids outside and went back in.  Some time later Hannah yelled at me to come back outside and look at their snails.  This is what I saw:

Again, I say, "EW!"  There had to be like 50 snails on that frisbee thingy.  Yuck.  I wouldn't let Hannah bring them inside so they spent the night on the front porch.  By morning, every one of those snails had crawled/slithered (whatever they do) off of the frisbee.  Hannah wasn't happy.  I, however, was.

Family

Sunday, for Memorial Day, Dad had a bunch of people over to his house for a cookout.  I was especially excited because I was able to meet some of Dad's (and mine now too!) family. 

Here is Dad with Ray and Tanya, 3 of their kids, and their granddaughter London:

It was so great to meet them!  I can't wait to meet the rest of the family!

We blew up a little pool/slide for the kids to play in while the adults were talking....it turned out to be a little chilly, but the kids didn't care!

Mary (cold, but not wanting to come inside...)

Hannah playing in the water:

On Monday, Ginger had a cookout at her house.  Dad and Christy came over and we were able to play cards for a little while.  Lots of FUN!  Anyway, I consider myself very blessed! : ) 

It's Finally SUMMER!

Friday, Hannah and all of the other 1st graders went on their first field trip of the year to the Warner Park Zoo.  Hannah's little friend, Jasmine, tagged along with us becuase her Dad couldn't make it.  It was a fun trip and I was thrilled to be able to spend the day with my big girl!

Here is Hannah as we were going into the zoo:

Hannah checking out the Gorillas:

Hannah and Jasmine:

They've recently built a carousel next door to the zoo, so after we three finished peeping in at all the animals I walked them over to let them ride once before we had to head back to the school.

Hannah on her turtle:

It was a good day!

Tomorrow is the first of 3 days that are left of Hannah's 1st grade school year....I can't believe how she has grown up on me.  I can't wait to spend the summer with my two favorite girls.  I can't get enough of them!

Carly the Moth

As I was feeding the fish this morning, I glanced down to notice that Carly had come out of her cacoon!!  I called for the girls and they "oooohhhhed" and "aaaaahhhhhhed" over her until I ushered them outside so that we could set her free.  She had a little bit of a slow start figuring out her wings, but before we knew it, she had taken flight!  Of course, I took a few pictures : ) 

Here is the empty cacoon with the hole where Carly came out!

Carly!

As you can see, Carly is more of a moth than a butterfly, but it was awesome to see a new creature being born from a fat little caterpillar whether it was a beautiful butterfly or not!

Spring Time!

The girls and I were a little bored this afternoon, so we decided to go outside for a bit and take some pictures!  Halle is just old enough that she will sit still for, oh, about 3 seconds or so...  You have to snap fast!!  Even with Halle wiggling, I happened to get a few good pictures of them.  Enjoy!