Alyssa's third birthday was January 28th. She was so excited and I had forgot to go get balloons or anything to decorate the house with (good thing Tom is around to help me be a good mom) so I put her to bed the night before and went to good old Wal Mart. I didnt get much, as you can see, but she was happy with it. It's pretty funny because she got her first real bike this year so I set it up in the living room so she would see it right when she got up and the first thing she said when she walked in the living room was "balloons!!!" The two dollar balloons I had bought the night before were her favorite thing to see! Kids sure do know how to be happy with the little things in life. Then later that week on Saturday we had a party and my awsome sister Cortney made a Little Einsteins Rocket cake. It turned out pink instead of red because we didn't have enough food coloring but it was cute! My camera died when we got there so not many pictuteres. A few days after the party, Grandma Margo (my mom) took Alyssa for her special birthday day at Grandma's house. They made cupcakes, took a bath and played with toys. Alyssa absolutely loved it! Thanks everyone for making her birthday so much fun!

My wonderful decorating

Her Gifts

Absolutely loved the bike!

Such a cute cake for a cute girl!

She loves Grandma Margo's bug tub
Playing after cup cakes

My Ring

I guess I was not thinking when I wrote about my ring without posting pictures. Here are some pics that I found on the internet of my exact ring. It is just very hard to take pictures of a ring, who knew?

Christmas Day!

This was our first Christmas at our own house since we have had kids. We just always wanted to open gifts with other family members because Alyssa didn't really understand yet. This year she did and we had our own house and it was way fun! Santa did a great job! Tom did too. This year Tom gave me a new wedding ring! It is beautiful and I love that it is just like my original one, only this one is real. Yes my old ring was CZ and very inexpensive but I loved it. We were very young when we got my original ring and we decided to save our money for other things, so we got inexpensive rings. Well I didn't expect a new ring for at least ten years but Tom decided to be the sweetest husband ever and get me a new ring now, he said I deserve it. I don't even know if I deserve to have such a great husband let alone a nice new ring! Any way it was an amazing gift and I love him! I gave him a knife set for butchering the animals he hunts. Not quite as good as what I got but it will do I guess.

Here is Cody in his jammies.

Cody's gifts from Santa

Alyssa in her jammies

Her gifts from Santa

I have to explain this gift. As it got closer to Christmas people started asking Alyssa what she wants, well Alyssa, being the very hilarious little girl she is, had somehow decided she wanted a yellow worm. I have no idea where she got that from but she honestly wanted it because that is the only thing she ever told anyone. So this lucky little girl got a yellow worm from Santa. It was her favorite gift! How great would it be to be so content with nothing but a yellow worm. I love my kids!

This was Cody's favorite toy

Such a beautiful fairy princess :)

Cody and Alyssa's gifts

This is the Baldwin side of Tom's family. We had dinner on Christmas day with them(amazing food). This picture shows how fast this already huge family is growing. All of these babies were born within five months of eachother. Actually it was one baby each month except Cody and the little girl to the left were born within a week. Don't worry there are still lots of pregnant cousins to add to the fam.

Christmas Parties

We had a great Christmas this year! It was exhausting though. The Saturday before Christmas we started our crazy family parties. We had one party or event every day until Christmas. I think next year we will plan things a little differently so that we don't wear ourselves out. Here are some of the pictures I managed to get. There are a lot though.

GRANDMA MAC's PARTY

We do gag gifts for the adults in Tom's family and here are just a few. Jam and I have a problem keeping our husbands from hunting so these are to help us attract our husbands and keep them home. Layne is quite the slave driver on the farm so Chris got him a "TIME IS MONEY" shirt

Heidi got the perfect man.

GRANDMA MARGO's PARTY

We gave them new phones for Christmas

Alyssa loved her binoculars

She slept in this sleeping bag for the next week

Tom and Cody

Grandma "J" and Dale came too and they gave us great gifts!!

GRANDPA SCOOBY DOO's (My Dad)

Gingerbread houses

This ended up being a leapster 2 and some games

My new boots and hat

Tom got duck decoys and Cody got a double stroller.

SLEDNG AT GRANDMA MAC's

Our next door neighbors, the Blanscets, helped us decorate our tree this year. They are so fun and I love them to death! thanks for all the help!

Alyssa and Jordan

Alyssa and Emma

All done and eating Mack and Cheese

I dont know if you can tell how close they put all the orniments it was so cute!

Our awesome Tree!!!