Meet the newest member of the Greenwoods....

This is WILLOW....our new fish :) Nope sorry no baby news on the homefront if that's what you were thinking...just some friendly fishies! I got Willow (the big one) as my white elephant gift at my work X-mas party. The girls were so excited and have loved him/her. I very carefully explained goldfish don't usually live very long - in fact I'm surprised he/she ahs made it through the weekend! Macee also had a free fish coupon from Halloween at a local pet store so we decided to get Willow a friend.....hence Angel :) We'll see how long they last!

It's beginnin to look a lot like Christmas!

Well I am actually on top of things this year and got the decorations up, did some after Thanksgiving day shopping that wasn't too terribly scary, mailed my X-mas cards (well most of them), mailed some packages, and delivered neighbor gifts last night! I am so impressed with myself:) Just thought I would rub it in for those of you who ahvn't even started your holiday shopping yet!! Hee hee:) Hope everyone is enjoy this wonderful time of the year!
My darling little blondies and their super cute new snowflake twilry skirts- courtesy of Aunt Brina the magnificent! If only I had a sewing machine I MAYBE just MAYBE could figure these out. They don't look TOO difficult and they are so cute and my girls love them! Jadyn got one last year that's red and green for X-mas and she wears it year round :) Yeah I'm that mom that let's her kid go out in holiday clothes whenever- like last Saturday when she wanted to wear her Halloween outfit. I got soem funny looks - but oh well the kid is happy and clothed right!?!

Macee had her Christmas Singing program this past week and she let me do her hair for once! She does her own hair most of the time so when she lets me I take advantage! I use the three barrell curling iron and it looked so pretty I had to take a picture. She did awesome singing and I totally had dejavu from when I used to do those programs. Soo weird watching my own! Loved every minute of it too :)

Turkey Time

We had yet another great Thanksgiving this year with lots of family, food, and fun. All of the Greenwoods were in Boise this year for the first time since the in-laws joined us this past year. The food was amazing and good times were had by all. Here's our lovely bird and the main cooks of the day! I got away once again without having to cook a turkey. My goal is to see how many years I can go without ever having to cook one myself! I'm too scared to take on such a big bird!!


Here's me just observing and making sure all was well....I DID make mashed potatoes and pumpkin bars though folks- I didn't make everyone else do ALL the cooking :)
My super cute hubby and his family..including Grandma Hank this year who also joined the Boise Crew this year while living with Dick and Jan now! We love her and her homemade cooking all the time!! She is a fabulous chef!~
Macee, Carter, and JAdyn hammin it up!
My super cute family :)
All the grandkids......
The whole crew- including our soon-to-be brother-in-law Casey!
Hope you all had a great turkey day too!

Halloween 2010

This is what happens when you carve your pumpkins too early before Halloween....YUK!
Macee the cupcake! MY first ever all by myself costume creation!! Macee actually found the design and I recreated by looking at it off the computer:) Turned out pretty cute I think!
This year we tried out something new and went to the Famous Harrison Blvd in downtown Boise. One of the oldest streets in Boise and soooo cool at Halloween. It's like trick or treating in the movies. Perfectly lighted streets with huge trees of falling leaves everywhere, tons f kids going door to door , and really cool old houses that were decorated so neat. Every year a group of houses does a theme show too where they dress up and put on a show. It was a circus theme this year, but we left before the show started but it looked awesome. The kids loved it but were actually worn out after about 6 blocks and asked to go home! Crazy!!
Right before we left our neighborhood there was a HUGE full rainbow in the skyline that was beautiful! I couldn't even get the whole thing in my camera lense it was so huge. You can also kind of see another one behind it that cmae out in full a little later- soo pretty!
Look at all the pumpkins!! I don't even know how many there were but all were hand carved covering the porch. These people on Harrison Blvd go all out at Halloween! No wonder half the city of Boise goes trick or treating there!

These kids got waaay too much candy! By the time we got back to our neighborhood we only went to four houses and they filled another bag halfway. I guess our neighborhood was pretty dead this year so they got handfuls at each house!
We had to make another stop at the famous "Witches Lair" down the street. The lady who lives here hand makes all her witches and fills her yard. She has over 25 hand made full size witches!!This was her latest addition- the witch walking her pet spider- we love this house!!
The witches tea party :)
Happy Halloween!!!!
There were lines of people at some of the really big neat houses. Luckily we got started early and finished up just as the lines all along the street were piling up!!!

Student of the Month....AGAIN!

Congrats again to my AWESOME kiddo on getting awarded the Student of the Month award for 'Responsibility' at her school. Her teacher wrote how she is always on task, finishing work right away and then helping tutor other kids in her class who are struggling. She is always offering to help her teacher in any way- which Ms Gallagher gladly takes advantage of! She is also acting as the reading buddy for the class helping the other kids with their daily reading. We are still a little unsure of where here love for school and brains are coming from but we are SO PROUD of her and her accomplishments!! Keep it up Macee!
Here we are posing for the award presentation at school- all clad in purple of course! :) I love that her school does this each month for a different character trait that children portray. The principal reads a small segment on each child that their teacher has written about them explaining how the exemplify the character trait of the month and it is displayed int he school all month long. Pretty cool idea to make the kiddos feel good- and parents too!! She got it last year for 'Citizenship' and says she wants to try and get one every year now! :) Good goal Miss Macee - keep up the great work:)

Loving fall weather....

The weather is turning colder here in Boise, but last Sunday it was just beautiful! It was sunny and warm and clear skies all around. We thought we'd go for an afternoon walk and take some pictures in the lovely fall weather. Not too shabby for ourselves and not knwoing how to use our camera very well :) We found a great park with all sorts of fun backgrounds. We LOVE Boise in the fall!!!









And of course we had to go down to the stadium to show some Bronco love!!

The Boise Open.....and Ben has a new friend :)

Every year Boise hosts a pro golf tourney and the girls and I went to a free golf clinic at the opening day that Ben told us about. They didn't learn much-it was more of a question and answer session with some pro golfers, but they did show us some great golf shots and cool tricks! Ben's dream of his girls being pro golfers is still looming! :)

Beautiful course!
The free hats they got were a little big :)
Troy Merritt- former BSU golfer turned pro-he can smack the ball!
The guy in the grey shirt could the hit the ball from on his knees as far as the others could standing! CRAZY!

Ben's new friend......little adorable Gavin. Ben's best friend Cody's little guy who Ben just loves. Here they are watching football since the girls just aren't quite interested.....:( This is Ben's dream come true .....maybe someday but with our luck it would be another girl!!

Macee's Birthday...

I can't believe it's birthday time for her again! We had a little family dinner and then a birthday party with friends that weekend. Everything was BSU themed- her request:) Super fun idea. Everyone- well everyone who wasn't a vandal fan- came dressed in orange and blue, we had tailgating food, had contests to see who was the best quarterback and who ran the best 20 yd dash. The girls loved it :) Of course blue and orange cupcakes too!
A little about Miss Macee......she is still acting very mature for her age and wanting to be independent. I'm not very good at this oldest child thing since I was the third child, but she seems to be carrying on the "oldest child" traits a bit-YIKES!! School is very exciting this year- although first grade has not been "challenging" enough for her yet she says. The first day was "just like Kindergarten, Mom, I didn't learn anything new!"
She can't wait to go to the bus stop in the morning- and loves riding it home. The bus usually beats me home by two minutes so she calls me in he car as soon as she walks in to say she made it. I try to keep her on the phone till I get home but she insists that I talk too much and she's fine so let's get off the phone:) Her end of the week homework is done the day it gets sent home and she is always the first one done with work at school that her teacher can't keep up with her:) She told me the other day that she got 5 'kid bucks' at the end of the day from her teacher because she was on task all day. "Now I have twelve kid bucks and everyone else only has two or three mom!!" Hmmm...teacher's pet already or just a great kid!! And she brings a math workbook on the bus because the bus ride to school is "long and boring!" She just LOVES school! Hope this keeps up forever!! The minute she gets home though it's finding the first kid int he neighborhood who can play- and play for as long as she can! Forget about dinner or mom and dad it's all about the friends :) Wow-sounds like me when I was little! I have the perfect mix of a nerdy socialite I think!!!
On the other end though she seems to be a bit of a perfectionist and gets very emotional over the sillliest thigns and NEVER wants to mess up. This has been a bit frustrating when she bawls because we giggled at how she tried to spell a word and didn't spell it right! OK my bragging about my child is done but I am just so proud of my big seven year old and how much she has grown over the past year. I love her bunches!!! Happy Birthday Macee!
She really was excited for her b-day... I think! Jadyn was the photographer for the night and I think she caught her at the wrong time! :)
Great Grandma Hank has moved to Boise so it has been fun to have her visit with us!
It's a PILLOW! IT's a PET! It's a PILLOWPET!!!! Yahoo!!!!
Cute fuzzy pink P.J.'s from Auntie Colleen!!
Just take the picture Jadyn!!! Jadyn was taking too long for the photo shot waiting for just the right shot and Macee got a bit frustrated! Tinkerbell UNO- loves it!! She has mastered Skip- Bo so on to beat everyone in UNO!! My little card shark :)
IIIIIIt's CAKE TIME!!! Go Broncos!!!
The best sugar free chocolate cake EVER!!!
Great Aunt Lynn was in town too and the little ones loved having "another Grandma" to hang all over:) Thanks for a great birthday Greenwood family!! See ya next year:)