Wolfley Family Party

My cute neice and Veronica's newest little baby boy! He is an angel!

The Wolfley family party is always a party.
Yeah, we have to have our family parties at a church every year just so we can all be in one room together...and this is just for my immediate family!! It's always so much fun and goes by way too fast of course.

Jody's wife and little girl. So beautiful!

The kids at the craft table.

My brother and my mom

We did karaoke and got my dad to sing one of his Elvis Christmas songs. My sisters and I, joined by my neice and Brooklyn, were his backup singers.

When the Wolfley girls hear an Elvis song...it's like our bodies automatically start jamming out. It's funny how that happens.

No, he's not mine...although I would totally claim him. This is my sweet little nephew.

All the grandkids put on the Nativity scene. Brooklyn peeked as we were all waiting to see it.

Here she is playing peek-a-boo with Beckam who down in the audience. He was playing it back with her shouting "Boo!"

The girl's for the most part, took their roles very seriously, the boys on the other hand couldn't stop making faces and waving at people.

Christmas Banister

You have to decorate the banister right! My mother-in-law taught me how do some really cool bows last Christmas, so we whipped it out again this year for my banister. Actually, I lied, there was no whipping- it takes me a long time. This is the first year at our new house, so I wasn't sure what to do with it, but it was really fun.

Brooklyn and Beckam after swimming

Always enough kisses to go around...

Beckam returning the favor.

Thanksgiving Day!

We went to Jason's grandparents house for Thanksgiving. Jason made the turkey again this year...he's getting really good at that! The day came and went so fast. I am determined, however, to find a pie one of these years worth the calories. It seems like I eat it just because it's Thanksgiving and you're supposed to eat pie at Thanksgiving, but come to think of it...I didn't enjoy it so much. But, hey the food was amazing!

I was looking all over for my husband, and found him downstairs watching football. I turned his chair around and snapped a picture because this is the face he makes when he knows he's in trouble!

Bon appetite Pops!

They loved Great Grandma's piano!

It's a good thing you can't actually hear them playing, the picture is cute, but that's about all!

Thanksgiving Weekend With Visitors!

This was an early Christmas present from Jason's mom and dad. They are beautiful Polish dishes! It took Julie, and Aunt Sue her sidekick, months to collect all these pieces. They are hand-made and painted by the Polish people. Jason served his mission in Poland so this was especially amazing for him! The dishes are so beautiful, heavy, and durable. I have a piece for every occasion or need. I can't believe how much time they put into making sure they had everything. I wish I had a better picture of everything, but this was the best I got.
Thanks so much Mike, Julie, (and Aunt Sue for aiding the search!)

We had a night where we had a gingerbread building and decorating contest. This team thought they were #1 obviously.

...and so did this team. Ben actually surprised me at his amazing decorating talents!
He was very diligently icing the roof to perfection.

Brooklyn and Cambree had the same pajamas so they were very cool!

Everyone hard at work...

Notice how Jason just ate the candy more than participated in the decorating.

Ours was obviously the best though.
Especially since this is my blog :)

Ben, Emilee, and Cambree waiting their turn to bowl.
I think this little girl beat me...everyone did actually.
I just bowl for fun. In fact, I had better luck when I turned around backward and rolled the ball between my legs.

Tyler, Ciera (soon to be sister-in-law), Steele, Amanda, B-Kate, Me, Beckam, Jason

I put these pics in backward- dang it! But Steele showed up from D.C. with a hot new look...check it out.

All of us freaked out at the sight of him...except his fiance...she just oooh's and ahhhh's at him no matter what.

preparing the Pumpkin bars for Thanksgiving Day...

Dipping graham crackers in milk is one of my favorites...and now it's theirs too! It makes a huge mess but it's tasty!

High Fructose Corn Syrup!

I always like to share the latest on my "nutritional findings" and I have found yet another scary factor. I guess this is something I already knew, but did not necessarily know why. High fructose corn syrup is a monster. It's in almost everything...from a box that is. I was amazed to discover how many things it really is in. It's in fruit snacks (good luck weaning my kids from those things!), crackers, bread, pasta sauces, bacon, wheat thins and other crackers, it's even in some health products like protein bars and even sodas that claim to be "natural". What! The saddest one for me was that it's in frozen yogurt, one of my favorites.

High fructose corn syrup is extremely soluble and mixes well in many foods. It is cheap to produce, so of course that is what "they" feed us. It was derived from corn, hence corn syrup, as is much of our food here in America, which is actually not the best news. Over the course of a ten year period, it was found in double the amount of products it was used in previously. Cheap crappy products spread like wildfire in the money making world, unfortunately. You have to be so careful anymore when you are purchasing weight loss products, nutritional products, and snacks. Go ahead and read your boxes of food at home for high fructose corn syrup...you might be as surprised as I was. Although, it also hides under other names so it's probably in even more than I have found so far. Not that we can give up everything that contains this product in it, come on...frozen yogurt! no way, but just to limit ourselves where we can will be very beneficial to our health in the long run!

Fall Leaves

Back in the beautiful, warm part of November we drove around and found a school with tons of leaves all over the place...we stopped and played for a while. It was so much fun and the kids thought it was the best thing in the world. This is obviously a little out of order as it is now snowy and freezing season but since I am still playing "catch-up" a little bit, it gives me the right to post some late ones.

I was shaking leaves out of my pants all day.

Grandma Kizerian giving hugs and kisses. xoxo

Where did Grandma go?

There she is!
Is she holding up a peace sign?

Yes, this was our make-shift rake. It actually did the job quite nicely.

The kids and I would start from way back and run through a long pile of leaves that went on forever.

Brooklyn getting ready to blast us all with the leaves.

And here's Beckam's little contribution.

All you need is a dust pan and your hand...and voila!