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.