Hannah's 12th Birthday

A couple weeks ago (yes I am behind) we celebrated Hannah's 12th birthday! She invited a couple of friends over and we went down to an art studio where they all made a beautiful glass piece - called "glass fusion" - it was so much fun. This picture shows what a beautiful young lady Hannah is becoming... Danny and I are so proud of the sweet, generous, modest, kind, humorous, compassionate girl she is. She is a young lady with many talents, but she remains humble and sweet to the very heart...

Here she is working on her glass piece

This is a piece that Jacob did

Ryan's work of art

And this is Hannah's - she made a very cute dolphin! The finished pieces turned out absolutely beautiful after fusion...

Hannah with her friends Cassidy, Isabella and Abigail

After the art studio we went to a Japanese Steakhouse for dinner - what fun that was! A great fuss was made over Hannah, embarassing her to death...

The WHOLE family was there - even our "often missing" college student and his girlfriend Sherry!!

I think Hannah had a great time!

This is Hannah's birthday cake - SHE made it with fondant, and spent literally hours creating a gumpaste shape for each person at her party. One of the girls broke her foot before the event, so there is even a pair of crutches on the cake!

On the day of Hannah's actual birthday she decided to try ice skating. Ryan was injured so Jacob (ever so faithful and sweet) went skating with her! It was sooo cute and sweet - they hadn't been skating for a while, and I watched at the edge of the rink, hoping to get a picture of them as they came around the circle. I waited, and waited, and waited. They NEVER made it around the circle! Both of them were so funny - they just couldn't do it! I know that my brother with his 9 hockey-playing star children would absolutely laugh at us - but hey, skating is not our thing!

She may not have skated but ain't she a cute, stylish skater???

Happy Birthday to my darling sweet daughter! You are God's gift to me in so many ways and I am sooooooo grateful for you and your wonderful, happy, outgoing personality!! God bless you in the year to come sweetie!!

Ryan's Thanksgiving Cake

I made a pumpkin cake for Thanksgiving this year (by the way - this is our family's new favorite cake!) and we had decided to experiment with using fondant. Well, Ryan did such a wonderful job - he rolled it out, spread it, cut the leaves, and decorated the entire cake! Hannah made the acorns on the top - and the whole thing was just beautiful!

Using fondant is very much like using edible play dough - this is why I think the kids like using it and decorating with it.

Ryan did an awesome job! This was a perfect Thanksgiving cake!

Deer Hunting

Here is Jacob loading up all his shotgun shells as he prepares to go out and hunt for the first time. Matt was never interested in hunting, so it was a strange feeling for me as a mom to watch my son go out and be excited about it! Killing Bambi's mother!! No, just kidding Jacob. I really did hope and pray that you would get one...

Here he is - all dressed in the proper gear to go out and shoot!

This is the view of the farm from one of the fields the guys hunted in. The hunting party included Danny and two of his brothers, his Dad, and Jacob and two of his cousins.

And the lucky one of the day was Steve! He got TWO BUCKS within minutes of each other! I know that Jacob was excited to see this, even though he himself didn't get one. Buck Fever has struck my son and he will hunt again until he gets one!!

Boys Weekend with Dad

Every fall Danny takes the boys away camping or to stay in a cabin. This year they stayed at a cabin up in the Catoctin Mountains. They seemed to have a wonderful time with Dad this year!

They went to Danny's parents farm to practice shooting a gun and scouting out the land to see where they wanted to hunt when hunting opened. This would be Jacob's first time hunting...

Grandaddy showing Jacob how to use a shotgun...

And Ryan, faithfully and patiently watching, knowing that someday it would be his turn to do this! But not for quite some time.

My own little "Jim Brickman" !!!

I finally convinced Hannah to let me record her playing my favorite song... (actually, she recorded it herself for me and shut the doors so that I couldn't hear her!!) Anyway, I am VERY proud of my little piano player! One of my favorite things in the world is to hear Hannah play for me...

A memorable anniversary...

Well, my husband did it again! He surprised me with tickets to see Jim Brickman at the Lyric Opera House in Baltimore. Up front, middle, I can see their faces seats. I was so blown away! Jim Brickman is one of my favorite artists - he plays piano so beautifully... but that was only the first part of the surprise.

That week, we had sickness in the house, and Ryan was very sick with the flu. I wasn't quite sure how to tell Danny that we just might need to give the tickets away, but he and the kids absolutely insisted that we couldn't miss this night! I knew something was up, but I had no idea...

He had arranged a basket of goodies....

FOR THE LIMO RIDE!!!!!!!

Now I had never been in a limo before, and I was quite surprised when I went to the front door, and a man in a tux and top-hat had a red carpet from my front door to the limousine... I just was speechless... now I understood why everyone was so insistent upon our going! And I was truly glad we were able to go. Ryan had started to feel better after MUCH PRAYER (I am sure now that Danny did some serious praying that day! haha). We rode in style and snuggled and snacked all the way to the concert, and back. We were so enjoying the ride we almost bagged the show and just rode around Baltimore!

On our actual anniversary, one week earlier, the kids and I had gone up to Danny's office to surprise him by "decorating" his office with balloons, flowers, chocolates, candy hanging from the ceiling, and signs hung all over the room meant to honor and call MUCH attention to my wonderful husband!!

This sign was on the door to his office...

Thank you Danny for such a wonderful anniversary! One of my VERY favorite ones!!!

Is this the same boy??

In the last year, Jacob's hair has gone from being straight all his life, to being curly! (incidentally so has Hannah's!!) Maybe it is the Jewish blood in them. Anyway, I asked Jacob to let me straighten his hair and he agreed - he looks completely different! It was so cute, Ryan ran away from him at first, and by the end of the day, put his hand up to Jacob's face, moved the hair aside, and said "You know what I just realized? You are still my same bubba under there!!" haha

The straight-haired Jacob

The curly version!!

Charm City Cakes

We are all fans of the show "Ace of Cakes" on Food Network - watching the laid-back cast create the most amazing cakes is something we really enjoy doing. We all gather together to see what they are making this week - and they are always really unique and special cakes. It is filmed in Baltimore, so many of their "customers" are local venues that we would recognize. We even tried to line them up to make a cake for Danny's open house but they were completely booked...

It was a thrill to drive up there one Sunday afternoon and see the building where they do all this baking and film the show. We could see lights on in the building but as it was Sunday, we are pretty sure nobody was there. After we left there we were all craving cake and so we went to a local bakery and bought several different slices of a variety of cakes to share!!

A night with the Spiro's

John and Kathy Spiro - dear friends of ours who are walking through a tremendous trial, one that I cannot even fathom without trembling, yet their faith shines like a beacon in a dark storm. John has been diagnosed with ALS, and the amazing way that they are walking through this is inspiring, to say the least. I can hardly think about it without getting emotional every time. They have always been hilariously funny, and this has not changed one bit. John is still the comic relief of his family, puts everyone at ease, draws everyone else out on how they are doing, proclaims his incredible passion for God and his gratefulness for what Jesus has done for him. He recently shared that his sufferings cannot compare with what Jesus endured on his behalf, and he says it with the most genuine humility and gratitude to the Lord. You cannot be with him for long without coming away totally inspired and with your faith completely renewed. We are blessed beyond words to be able to walk with him on this path - you cannot but feel you are on holy ground... I say this not to quote another cliche, it is simply the truth. Here is a man whose faith is being perfected through his trial. God is so good.

We went over last week to surprise and bless them with a meal, served on our best dishes, with candlelight, flowers, a fire in the fireplace and music. It was served by our children as the waiters and waitress. The intention was to give them a date night feel in their own home. We believe it was a success... we felt especially glad that we were led to do this when they confessed they hadn't had a date night in six months. Oh to be used by God in such a way! What a privilege it was for our family!!

Danny's famous filet mignon, garlic mashed potatoes and roasted asparagus dinner

Our children had, all on their own, been saving money in a jar for the Spiro's to present to them this night, and they poured it onto a plate and served it announcing they had a "special salad" for them! Can I tell you that my children are often the greatest inspiration I have??? Today Ryan learned what the word "philanthropist" means during school, and we learned who several of them are. He asked me if he could please write to Bill Gates and ask him to give a million dollars to the Spiros... a precious heart indeed.

More fall favorites

Halloween night - costumes - parties - this is one of my favorite things - I absolutely love to see my kids anticipate what they will dress up as each year and watch them get excited about it. Well, in this case, Matt and Jacob had to be forced... but hey, the rest still love it!

Matt and Sherry are sooooo cute - a construction guy and Minnie Mouse....

My two favorite girls in the world!

Gone are the cute, traditional pumpkin faces - now we have stargates, Mac symbols, video game symbols and "puking punkins" (courtesy of Ryan).

A drive to Matt's campus

Today we decided to enjoy the fall colors and take a drive to the campus Matt will start attending in January. Beautiful drive, beautiful campus. We are so excited for Matt - he is going to UMBC (University of Maryland Baltimore Campus) to major in financial economics. Since we didn't get the usual "parent weekend" or anything, we decided to drive and see the campus ourselves!

I thought this was the neatest way to send an acceptance letter!!

Matt will soon be walking the trails of this campus, studying his heart out, and starting a whole new chapter of his life...