Picking Out The Perfect Christmas Tree

On Saturday, November 30th, we took the kiddos out to our beloved Stokoe Farms to cut down our very first, REAL Douglas Fir Christmas Tree.  We braved the 14 degree weather and drove the 25 minutes out.  We got to take a tractor ride out to the Christmas tree field and then search for that perfect Christmas tree.  Although it was bitterly cold, it was so fun letting the kids get involved in picking out the Christmas tree this year.  Once again, Stokoe Farms did not dissapoint.

The Mamma and Rhett on the tractor ride

Daddy and the trio

Addison

Addison and Zoey insisted on pushing/pulling the cart

Our lil bundles of joy

Zoey

So glad I have an outdoorsy husband who knows what he is doing...

Zoey & Rhett waiting for daddy to get the tree cut

Cut Cut Cut

Good job, babe....hes awesome

The perfect tree ready to be loaded up and brought home

Off we go...

Loaded up and ready to go!

Pre-Thanksgiving Festivities

November has been a crazy month for us.  On November 11th, I flew out to Minnieapolis, MN for the week to do some training for Delta Airlines.  My mom was able to fly out for the week to help watch the 3 kiddos while I was away.  After returning from my trip, that weekend, my mom, Zoey, and Uncle Nic took off in his car and headed for Charlotte.  Sadly, Uncle Nic has decided to move back to Charlotte with my parents so that he can start school---we are pretty sad about it.  Anyways, Zoey decided to go with my mom so she could spend some 1-on-1 time with the grandparents for the week.  This is the first time I have ever been away from Zoey, and I am happy to report that she was one happy girl since being totally spoiled and receiving all the attention in the world from her grandparents.
Then on Saturday, November 23rd, myself, Addison, and Rhett took advantage of our Free Flight Benefits with Delta and flew out to Charlotte to spend the week at my parents house and to pick up Zoey.  Mike, unfortunately had to work the week of Thanksgiving and was unable to get it off, so I went alone with the kids.  All of my siblings, minus Cameron (who is serving a 2 year mission for our church) were all coming into town for the Thanksgiving holiday.  So we got to spend the whole week with cousins and all the uncles and aunts.  We had a fun week with all of us hanging out.  We ate out, went to a parade, shopped, saw Catching Fire, and also got to spend a night out at the Lake House in South Carolina.  On Thanksgiving morning, the kids and I flew out bright and early back to New York so we could get home in time to spend the holiday with Mike.  After flying in, we hosted Thanksgiving dinner with a bunch of friends 4 hours later (yes, we are crazy, we know this).  Everything worked out beautifully.  We loved spending time with the family and thoroughly enjoyed hosting Thanksgiving dinner once again with friends.  We have so much to be grateful for and look very forward in to celebrating the Christmas season this year.

Rhett and I on the airplane excited to go

After landing in Charlotte, Aunt Heather picked us up and we headed out to Concord, NC to watch their holiday parade that they put on every year.  It was actually a very good parade, we were quite impressed.  The kids definitely seemed to enjoy it, especially Rhett--I think his favorite part was the popcorn.  

 All 9 grandbabies in their Christmas Sunday outfits from Nana & Grandpa....I took pictures with my phone, so the quality is not the best

Pictured from Left to Right:  Macey, Will, Zoey, Peter, Lucy, Tate Sunny, Addison, Rhett

The kids put on a play for us (again, phone camera sucks)

Rhett giving his cousin Peter hugs

For Christmas this year, Nana and Grandpa Ladd took all the kids to Build-A-Bear...here is Rhett stuffing up his tiger he picked out.

All the kids with their new friends to take home

Another photo-op wiht Nana

Macey & Addison on our last night in the Carolinas....these 2 were best buddies all week.  They are only 9 months apart...wish we lived closer.  

Thanks Nana and Grandpa for hosting us again.  As always, we loved being home and hanging out with everyone.  Until next time!!

Halloween 2013

Once again, Halloween has come and gone.  The kids had a blast Trick-O-Treating and really scored big in the candy department.  Rhett caught on real quick this year with the whole "getting the candy" thing.  He was one happy boy.  We had a bazillion kids trick-o-treat at our door, in fact we ran out of candy pretty quick...I feel kind of bad for the last of the kids who visited our house, they got all the gross candy that we picked out of our kids' candy buckets.  But HEY, at least they got something, right??  Anyways, hope everyone had a wonderful Halloween.  We sure did.  

Our carved pumpkins this year

I love this!  Every year the Pittsford Fire Department comes to our neighborhood and passes out candy to all the Trick-O-Treaters.  The kids look forward to this every year.  We love and sure do appreciate our firefighters.

Our little trick-o-treaters this year.....

Addison--Bat Girl

Zoey--Robin

Rhett--Spiderman

Addison Broke Her Arm

On 10.23.2013, Addison had just finished doing her homework with her daddy when she got a little too excited and decided to jump off of a chair to celebrate her little accomplishment.  Well apparently she landed wrong and ended up fracturing her left arm.  

When she first did it, she started crying and sadly Mike and I just shook off her pain b/c Addison tends to be a little dramatic at times.  But when an hour had past after her "accident", she was still in tears and when re-evaluating her arm, it appeared to be swollen, bruised, and a little mis-shapened (oops on mommy and daddy's part).  After seeing her arm's conditioned, we decided that we had better take her to the Urgent Care.  We spent just over an hour at the Urgent Care and $150 bucks later, it was confirmed that her arm was indeed broken.  

The very next day we headed to the Pediatric Orthopedic to get her actual cast on...she picked the color purple.

After finishing up getting her cast on, she insisted on going to Dance Class...hence the ballerina outfit.

Her feelings on having a cast

Zoey's Preschool Field Trip

On 10.17.2013, Zoey had her first Preschool Field Trip and I was lucky enough to get to tag along with her.  We headed out to Chase Farms in Macedon, NY.  The weather was awesome and me and Zoey had a good time together.  We got to do some fun stuff such as:

-go on a tractor ride

-pick out a pumpkin and some squash

-go through a corn maze and eat freshly picked apples

-pick fresh raspberries straight off the bush and eat them

-pet and feed some goats

It was so fun seeing Zoey with her little preschool class and interacting with her little friends and teachers.  So grateful for the little bit of mother/daughter bonding time we got to have.

Zoey on the tractor ride

In the pumpkin field

The Mamma and her mini me

Chase Farms!!

Picking Raspberries

Petting the goats

Feeding the goats

3rd Annual Trip to Stokoe Farms

On 10.12.2013, we made our 3rd annual trip out to Stokoe Farms for their Fall activities that they have each year.  As always, the kids had a blast and the weather was perfect.  

The girls doing the giant hamster wheel

Going through the corn maze

Rhett has just fallen on the ground and wasnt too happy about it

Always a good time on the giant "hill slide"

Thanks Stokoe Farms!!!

We Heart Mickey!! Days 5 & 6

10.07.2013 and 10.08.2013

Monday an Tuesday we got our Disney on, again by going to Epcot and Magic Kingdom.  All day Monday we spent at Epcot.  Epcot is not the greatest for kids, but ours still had a fabulous time.  And then of course on Tuesday was Magic Kingdom day which is a blast for the whole family.  Again, the crowds werent too bad and Thank Goodness for Parent Passes, Disney is so smart.  We rode every ride and some of them we got to ride several times.  How can one not be happy in the happiest place on earth??  Once again Disney did not disappoint!

Zoey at Disney World

The Mamma and Zoey...Addison was going around taking pictures, she insisted they all be put on the blog...the next 5 pictures were all taken by Addison--not bad for a 6 year old

We were waiting for one of the shows to start, it was hot and we waited longer than we had planned, so this would be the classic "Rhett look" and him saying lets get going....

Daddy and Addison (this pic was obviously not taken by Addison)

The girls, minus Zoey looking

The mamma and Rhett

Daddy and the Mamma

The next part was just pure genius on Disney's part.  At some of the more popular rides exits, they have children's play areas for those kids too young to ride on the rides.  Mike and I had to take turns going on Splash Mountain and this year Addison was finally big enough to go.  It was Mike and Addie's turn to go on the ride, so me, Zoey and Rhett hung out at the play area.  It was fantastic!  We were able to switch off and ride Splash Mtn 4 different times without a peep out of Zoey and Rhett.  They were perfectly happy playing around here.  Genius I tell you, Disney is genius! Made our lives so much easier.  

Classic Family shot in front of the castle

We didnt get many pictures at Epcot...we suck.  We did get one with Belle in it---now let me explain....so at Epcot, you can usually spot many characters, but with those characters come LONG lines.  One thing I cant stand that Disney does, is you get in a line thinking, yes we made the line, but then all of a sudden, they will just send the character away, even though there is a line and then have the nerve to tell you that, that particular character will be back in 30 minutes but to stay in line.  RIDICULOUS.  So this is as close as our poor kids got to get to some of these characters...sorry kids.  But hey!  They got to see her, right??  

Here is Rhett and Zoey waiting for food in "Mexico".  

And that about sums up our trip.  Our pictures were pretty pathetic the last couple of days.  But once again, we had a fabulous trip.  We have plans to head back to Disney hopefully in the near future.  It never gets old.    The kids did great throughout the whole trip.  So proud of them.  Until next time, Mickey!!