Uncle Stopher

As some of you may or may not have known, my brother passed away on New Years Eve. The kids and I went up today to take up some flowers. Kobe was only 12 days old when it happened and we have always tried to share our memories of him with Kobe and Kobe goes up and visits him too. We miss him dearly and can't believe it has been 8 years since he's been gone.
On a lighter note - we hope that you all have a wonderful and safe New Years Eve and hope that your 2008 is wonderful!

Hay Carmelita...

I'm ready to hit the tanning bed whenever you are!

Passing the time

To pass the time the last few days...
Madison has been perfecting her Blue Steel in hopes of a very serious modeling career someday...



The kids have all got to spend some time with their Aunt Stephie who is living in Michigan, and Aunt Katie who is living in DC. They even took Kobe out last night to Thunder Alley and then he got to have a sleepover at their house with them - complete with pillow fights, soda, popcorn, movies, and staying up until the wee hours of the morning. Kobe is soooooo lucky to have such cool Aunties!!



We did some pictures outside in the snow - Madison was less than thrilled about that.

Christmas Day

This year it was just my parents who came over on Christmas Day - but it was so great - Madison got a kitchen set from Santa, Kobe got a Playstation, and well... Jax got a blanket. Our house is slowly starting to go back to normal, but it looked like Toyland for a while there. The kids have been LOVING all their new toys and have been keeping busy with them and entertaining us. They even got a karaoke thing from Grandma that projects them onto the tv with Madison was just amazed by.

Christmas Eve Traditions

Every year on Christmas Eve the kids get to open one present which happens to be their Christmas pj's - and then we do the usual reading of Christmas stories and setting out cookies for Santa before going to bed. Sadly due to mom's lack of preparation this year - the cookies were store bought from a gas station on our way home from Shen, and the apples for the reindeer were replaced by a large bowl of water... Better luck to us next year.

The 4 Days of Christmas???

Our Christmas was so wonderful - aside from this being the first year that my grandparents and aunt weren't able to be with us over the holidays, this was one of the best Christmas' I have ever had. We spent the Saturday before at Aunt Karen's and even got a special visit from the very Jolly Old Elf himself who came and talked to all the great grandkids and told stories to them, and we spent the remainder of the day eating, talking, the boys playing cards and the girls torturing the 4 new "Bosley Greats" with matching outfits and photo shoots. Kobe and Dean even managed to split the $80 jackpot after winning big at Deal or No Deal.





Saturday night was the very famous Kirby Christmas Kegger - Nana and Boppa watched the kids and Matt and I headed out for a night of very very bad Christmas outfits and tippy cup fun. I hope to have some pictures sent to me soon to post. As this is the event we look forward to with great joy every year!! We even got to ALL have a sleepover at Nana and Boppa's house!

On Sunday we packed up the kiddies and headed to Shen to stay with Gama Neva and we stayed through Christmas Eve. Of couse Baby Maren was there with Nick and Jess and Little Cousin Kellen (and crew) came to visit on Christmas Day and Gama and Grandma no doubt spoiled us all and gave us some R&R!

Ho Ho Ho!!!

We went to visit Santa today - not the best pictures I have ever taken - but hey - you take what you can get with 3 kids... Kobe did have a nice long chat with him though and even told Santa what his brother and sister wanted.

Blue Steel

Madison is perfecting her "Blue Steel" pose from Zoolander - although it is hard to capture on camera - I must say - she's a natural...

The babes

Madison is just helping out so much lately without us even asking her too - she really understands what is going on now. Jackson ate his first veggies last night and really liked them and I am convinced a full belly is helping him to sleep better.

My Little Man...

Kobe turned 8 on Wednesday - I can't even believe how fast time flies! And as he chose to remind me - another 8 years and he will be driving!!
His special day consisted on pancakes for breakfast, lunch at school with both mom and dad and Maddie and Jax. Then after school he was surprised with Grandma Barbie, Grandpa GB and Gama coming up! My parents and Nick, Jess, and Maren all came too for pizza and cake. The cousins bonded and the Grandparents made sure they all had anything their little hearts desired all night!

My new 'do

Madison decided to style her own hair today at lunch... with peanut butter.

Jingle Bells!!!

My dad made Kobe this beautiful sleigh out of wood when he was just tiny - Madison got her first sleigh ride the other day and much to our surprise - LOVED it!! She giggled and danced while Boppa sang Jingle Bells and pushed her around on it - she didn't even seem to mind the cold. Kobe even took her out for a spin.

Simple Machines

Kobe had to build an example of a simple machine for school so Sunday we headed out to Nana and Boppa's to work in Boppa's workshop. Kobe truly did it all himself - he even came up with the idea himself - he and I had so much fun working on it and he did such a great job!!

Slumba' Partay...

Kobe's best bud spent the night on Saturday and they partied until 1:30 in the morning!!

Jack's new girlfriend...

My (sister in law's best friend who went with us to Jamaica for Nick and Jessie's wedding and then we stayed in touch and were pregnant at the same time together and became friends...) friend who lives up in Canada is in town for the holidays and brought her baby Carmen over to play the other day. She is only 5 days older than Jax and made our big boy look like a peanut!!! She is sooo adorable and a big girl - she is the most mellow baby ever and such a little sweetie! Her and Jackson had a great time together... hahaha. I also left Jess and Courtney alone with Jax for a minute and come to later find on my camera - they put him through some odd form of Christmas torture... Jessie is on the verge on losing her Godmother rights. haha And of course our little Mare Bear came over too and slept the whole time - I have got to be the most boring Aunt ever - I have rarely seen this girl awake - although Jess assures me if I come over around midnight she is wide awake!