I have a new cousin!!!

Only he's not a baby.

Yonas Gabriel Brewer became a member of our family, legally, yesterday. He is currently in Ethiopia. My Aunt Lisa has had an African adoption on her heart for over 10 years. She is a single mom, with 4 kids already, but finally decided to take the leap last September. In less than a year she has been blessed with a new son!

I only get to see my North Carolina cousins once every few years so who knows when I will have the privilege of meeting Yonas Gabriel. But I can't wait!

Here is my favorite picture of my handsome new cousin but you can click on over to my Aunt's blog to see more.

Cousins!!!

I am the oldest of many cousins, on both my mom and dad's side. Unfortunately, most of them live out of town/state so I'm not able to be as close to them all like I would like, or even like we used to be. I'm starting to feel like now that they are all getting older it might be easier for us to stay in contact. Some of them have email accounts of their own, and well, we all know that that is pretty much the easiest way to stay in contact! That is one of my resolutions for this year. To forge better/stronger relationships with my family members. To get to know them more as individuals. The relationships in my family have all changed drastically throughout my growing up years. Things are no where near like what I remember when I was a child.Anyway, all of this to say that I plan to really work hard on my familial relationships this year, for my kids sake and for my own sake!

My goal got off to a great start when I heard from my aunt Lisa that her kids would be in town this month visiting their dad. I hadn't seen them in 2 years, and before that it had been 4 or 5! I was really excited! I made plans for them to come over for a couple of hours this past Sunday and the rest of the local family was coming over too. Well then it turned out that 2 more of my cousins that live in Sacramento were in town visiting their dad! So it ended up being almost our whole family in one place! Seriously hasn't happened in I don't know how long! The only people that were missing were my 2 aunts (the mothers of the cousins visiting) and my sister (who really upset me by not coming but what can you do with an almost 21 year old who is in lala land with her boyfriend? ;) ).

It was seriously the best 2 1/2 hours that I've had in a long time! It's so fun to have all of these people in one place who look and sound so similiar and have history together, all laughing, hugging, playing. It was just the best! My kids love and miss their cousins so much, they haven't stopped asking for them! I have plans to put little packages together for all the cousins with envelopes, paper, and stamps so that the ones that are too little to have email can still be penpals! This is Alina, Beth, Tessa, & Lacie looking at pictures from our Disneyland trip together 2 years ago.

This is Steven (little brother to the girls pictured above) & Colby.

This is Alina showing baby Natalie the Disneyland pictures

These are my Aunt Amy's boys - Devin & Clayton with Colby. He loves his boy cousins!

Cousins rocking out!

Cousins jumping!!!

Beth and Natalie

These are all of my Nana's grandkids & great grandkids minus my sister.

Thank goodness for cameras with self-timers! This is everyone who was at my house that day. We were missing my sister and my 2 other aunts.

Thanksgiving Recap via Pictures

We had our first round of Thanksgiving at my parents house on 11/22. We always celebrate with them early because they go out of town every year on the actual turkey day :(. So we had dinner, played games, celebrated my mom's bday (it's really 11/27), and drew names for Christmas. Here are just a few pics from that night.

The on Thursday we cooked dinner for 2 of my siblings, 1 of my aunts, and my Nana. I set up coloring pages at a kiddie table, the food was SOOOOO yummy, we watched one of my cousin march in the Macy's parade, and it was just a really nice relaxing day! My baby cousin was such a hoot and we could totally claim her as ours don't ya think? :)

I picked up these cookies for my non-pie eatin' weirdos ;)

My baby makes the YUMMIEST turkey!!!

Cousins Coloring!!! :) Love it!

Hope you all had a great turkey day too!!!

Super Fun Game on the brain

A couple months ago we went to dinner at my dear friend Sarah's house and after dinner she convinced us to try and play a new game with them. We are BIG game people, and quite competitive I might add, so we were totally down! The game was called Pop 5. It was created by the fabu people at Cranium and it was ALOT of fun. Here's the gyst of the game from the publisher:
Hilarious pop culture fun gets a Cranium spin! From Madonna and mullets to moonwalks and Monday Night Football, this party game isn't about what you know, but how you show it.
Here's how it works: Each turn, the opposing team draws a clue card and assigns points to each of the five activity choices, according to how hard they think each one will be. If they pull the "Red Bull" card, they may think drawing it is easy, so they'd give it one point. But acting? Hard. Five points! Now it's up to you to decide: Will you go for the easy points and draw, or go for the big points (and glory) by acting it out?
Each turn you get to choose to act, draw, hum, sculpt, or use letter cubes to get your team to guess the clue. With songs, celebrities, fads, fashions, TV shows, movies, and more, Pop 5 cards include all kinds of fun pop culture clues that span the decades -- and every turn, you get to choose how to get your team to guess!
* Would you act out Iron Chef or draw it?

* Would you rather hum a Spice Girls song or roll the letter cubes to give clues that start with the letters that come up?

* Would you choose to sculpt a Chia Pet out of clay or hum the jingle?

After leaving Sarah's I knew we HAD to get that game! So I went on a hunt but couldn't find it at Target OR Walmart. I needed to go to Toys R Us to pick up a few Christmas gifts that were on sale and decided I'd look around. At first I couldn't find it but then I saw it. It was on an endcap with a bunch of other clearanced games. I started getting excited. You know that feeling when you find a bargain? But I couldn't find a price tag anywhere so I go and do one of those scanny thingys. Guess how much it was?

Only $3!!!!!

haha I was SO stoked and snatched that puppy right up! Only we haven't played it yet :( I REALLY want to! I think about it all the time cause it is just SO fun and after cleaning out the game closet this weekend it's on my mind again. I think this would be the perfect after Thanksgiving dinner game :) Hopefully I can convince the rest of my family of that!

If anyone is interested I was able to find it online from Target for $14.99 - not as good a deal as mine of course but still a great price for a great game!

Halloween Costumes Past & Present

I know I already showed you what the kids & I are going to be this year but I love photos (especially those of my kiddos) so I got the idea to post Halloween costumes of them growing up. Eventually these will be put into an mini album that is brought out every year when we decorate for fall and we will add to it every year. :) I apologize in advance for the quality of most of these pictures - they were either taken with a crappy camera, scanned, or taken from my scrapbook.

2002 What else would my Lacie Bug be but a LADYBUG for her first Halloween :) I LOVED this costume! It was so soft & snuggly and I think my mom is the one that found those cutie patootie Lady Bug slippers for her.

2003

This Halloween was cold and rainy so I wanted the kids to be dressed in something comfy. Target had these ADORABLE costumes that were more like clothes but they were so soft and snuggly! I found a lil puppy dog for Colby & a pink kitty cat for Lacie. They were ADORABLE and these costumes got the most use I tell ya!

2004

This year Lacie wanted to be a bride (that's her with her lil friend Tayler at Preschool who by the way goes to her school now too :) ) but that night it was REALLY chilly so we put her in a lil outfit that her Uncle Greg brought her from Japan. Colby was our lil Dodger boy in a jersey that was actually given to us at the baby shower for Lacie (member she was supposed to be a boy?).

2005

Doesn't Lacie look JUST like Snow white!? I love it :) And Colby was Buzz Lightyear, complete with inflatable wings! Haha! Isabelle was Cinderella this year :) Love the wig sista!

2006

Lacie was Ariel this year and Belle put together her own costume w/mom's help! Colby/Buzz Lightyear made a repeat appearance this year because it was too hot to wear his other costume - Emperor Zurg!

Lil Raymond in his pumpkin costume was barely 1 month old!

2007 My lil Angel & Jedi - Luke Skywalker
My baby sister as Sharpay from High School Musical
My mom as a rodeo clown and Lacie

My nephew Raymond as Tigger

2008

And this year, we have the PINK Genie - "I want to be a Genie so I can wear a shirt that shows my belly" (oh lordie we are in trouble!) and Colby as BUMBLEBEE transformer!

September Birthdays

WAY back on the very first day of September, we celebrated my nephew's 2nd birthday (which is actually on Sept. 19th!) at Pump It Up - can you tell we love that place?

There was Boxing!!! 1st up was my lil brother Josh and my husband - the old guy lost due to an "injury" and then next up with my two kids. I'll let the pictures tell who the victor in that match was!

We also celebrated my sister-in-law Abby's birthday at our place the following weekend with a yummy burrito buffet bar and chocolate cake MMMM and LOTS of Mario Kart on the Wii!!!

Independence Day

I've mentioned before, that we go to my inlaws for the 4th every year to BBQ with family & friends and to watch the big college show. What I didn't mention, was that we were pretty anxious about this year's event because we would be seeing (and possibly speaking to) David's brother and his new wife for the first time since their wedding back in February. There has been quite the load of family drama between us and then for about a year now and we were just not sure how things were gonna go down. Unfortunately there was drama but fortunately (I guess?) it happened and ended fairly quickly (with their leaving) and we were all, somewhat, able to enjoy the rest of the evening. Everyone ate & chatted, the kids ran around and played, we got ice creams from the ice cream man - good thing cause it was definitely a warm night! We also celebrated Lacie's bday with everyone there. Poppie & Mammie bring her cake every year and this year they had enscribed it with their nickname for her - BUTTON (get it? cause she's "cute as a button"? :) )And then it was time for the big show! It was gorgeous as usual and this was the first year that we ALL got to sit outside and enjoy it - in previous years we had the kids inside watching through the windows because it is SO loud. Colby did get a bit nervous but overall did WAY better than expected. Here's to next year! My baby sister - poor thing, she fell at school earlier that week and got an owie :(
Doesn't the ice cream look JUST like my mom? we got a chuckle outta that :)
The kiddos waiting for the show to start- Ethan, Baby H, Isabelle, Lacie, & ColbySinging Happy Birthday to Button - I love Colby's face in the background
YAY Sparklers!!!
The following 2 photos were taken by my friend Doris (Ethan's mommy)