Another Fun Weekend!

We had a really fun visit this past weekend with Josh's brother, Jay, and his family. On Friday we went to Morehead City to visit my friend Kimberly's horse farm. Jay and Cristy have 5 kids and we have 4. Sweet Kimberly gave them all a ride around the farm on a horse. The kids really loved it! The little kids were really cute running after the horse. They had fun trailing along.

The kids in the hayloft...

After the horse farm, we went to Fort Macon. This is the funniest picture of the day...Josh being "shot" out of the canon! Jay and Josh were having a good time getting some fun pictures!!

I can't figure out how Josh climbed in the canon...hhmmmmm...?? :)

Me and my sweetie!

Part 2 of Weekend Get Away

Fun At The Pool!!!

Gabbie and Jamie

The reason we go to the Sheraton on the beach is because of the indoor pool. Yep, it's all for the pool! The kids swam for hours and hours. We pretty much chased away all the romantic couples trying to enjoy a hot tub on Valentine's Day!! One guy even asked Josh how much longer the kids would be swimming.....for a long time buddy!!!!

Tyler and Madison

These pictures are just hilarious to me. This one is a little blurry but still funny - Tyler doing the pencil!!!

Flying high with Madison!

Weekend Get Away!!

Our family went on our annual weekend beach trip. We stayed at the Sheraton Hotel at Atlantic Beach. Not far from home but far enough away to relax and have a quiet weekend. We went with our friends, the Millers. We had so much fun being on the pier, looking for shells, swimming in the indoor pool and relaxing in the hotel room.

This was Blake's first trip to the beach since he learned how to walk. He was quite intrigued by all the shells and wanted to pick them all up and throw them in the water. Of course throwing them in the water meant throwing them 2 inches past his own feet.

The kids had so much fun finding ocean treasures - shells, crab legs, feathers, sand dunes, pelicans and dolphin with their best friends.

The Millers...Carla, Troy, Gabbie, Madison and Anna

We had the best time this weekend.

When we got ready to leave, we went to the pier for one last walk. Pelicans were diving for fish, dolphins were swimming close to the pier and we had the whole pier to ourselves to enjoy the show!!!! As my Great Grandma Maples used to say, "This was a perfect ending to a perfect day! I'll remember this 'til my toes turn up!"

Toady

Just like all my other children, Blake LOVES our friend Toady. Toady is our friend at Toddler Story Time at the local library. We go every Friday morning with lots of friends. Blake is getting better at paying attention to the stories. With such a talented librarian, Ms. Pam, it is hard not to be entertained! There are stories, songs, puppet shows and of course Toady. One of the activities we do almost every week is "Hickory Dickory Dock". We say, "Tick Tock Tick Tock, Hickory Dickory Dock, the mouse went up the clock......" Anyway, Blake likes to say that for the rest of the week, "Tick tot" he says and holds his little hands together.
Blake is getting brave and over his "star struck" nervousness. He actually goes in for the hug now at the end of story time!!!! Last week Ms. Pam let him walk around with Toady. He loves Toady so much and lately we have seen great big frogs in Wal-mart with the Valentine's Day stuff. We can't get through the store without Blake pointing and yelling, "Toey, Toey!!!" I love this fun way the children have to be introduced to literature. Thanks Ms. Pam!!!

Shoes

This is Blake's "cheesey" smile. He likes to show off for the camera these days. We all love it (and him)!

This blog is dedicated to Blake's cute shoes. I have wanted to do this for a while but just keep putting it off. So here goes....
It is so sad how fast babies grow...especially out of their cute clothes and shoes! I am not very sentimental about "stuff" but all these shoes on the blog were so cute and I was SO SAD to say goodbye to these little shoes.
These slippers were given to Blake from our friend Nicole. She actually gave them to me when I was pregnant with Blake. They have been really fun winter slippers on a cold day when Blake refuses to wear socks.

These shoes definitely have a story...they were picked out at the store by Josh. They reminded him of beloved Vans. Blake wore these shoes A LOT - play, home, church, wherever. I didn't even tell Josh when I passed these shoes on to someone else. Ssssshhhhhh!

These little shoes were really the first pair of shoes that Blake wore on a consistent basis. We got these at the end of summer (I didn't even bother putting shoes on him over the summer when he couldn't walk). So cute....

I love these baby crocs!!! Luckily he does have a similar pair that he can wear now. They are great little shoes for big and little kids!!!!!

There...I have finally finished the "shoe blog" that I have been wanting to do for months now.

Snow Day!!!!

Jamie trying to catch a big chunky flake!!
Blake is not impressed that this pretty white stuff is cold and wet.

Beautiful snow angel Tyler! Nice boots!

Madison is a snow princess!

Josh and our kids plus our neighbor Heather and her kids.

We finally got a snow day!!! And what a great one it was!!! We were a little worried that we would be disappointed just like the last 4 years but we lucked out!! See...it can snow here in Eastern NC!!!

My kids were THRILLED to say the least. We haven't had a snow day from school for over 4 years!!! They played outside from 10am until 6pm. We went through about 4 sets of clothes per child. It looks like we will be home for a few days. Blake was pretty impressed with the white stuff all over. He kept saying, "brrrrrrrrr". He wasn't impressed when he got all cold and wet!!!

We are going to have so much fun in this snow and then we get to say GOODBYE on Friday as it nears 60 degrees.

Let it snow! Let it snow! Let it snow!!

Merry Christmas to You and Yours!!

We hope that each of you had a very Merry Christmas. Our Christmas was very exciting with a lot of little ones around. It always is and we try to stress the importance of how blessed we truly are with all we have, especially our Saviour Jesus Christ. We know that our Saviour lives and loves each one of us. We are so thankful for His birth and life here on this earth. We love Him. We are grateful to live in this free country so that we can teach our children about Jesus and His plan for each of us. We have enjoyed the spirit of Christmas in our home and hope that you have all had your hearts filled with that same spirit as well this Christmas season.

An Ouzts Family tradition is acting out the nativity with all the cousins. With 13 children in the cast, this has become quite the production. Girl cousins are all vying for the part of Mary or an angel (we had a few angels this year). The older 12 year old cousin is praying he doesn't have to be Joseph for the 10th time. :) (He got to be the narrator.) It is a crazy time getting together with everyone at the Ouzts house, but we make the best memories!!!!

Sharing the sweet moments of Christmas morning with the kids is priceless. (If you are wondering about the sheets....I got the idea from Josh's sister, Jennifer. We cover everyone's Santa gifts with a sheet. That way we can ceremoniously unveil each child's gifts and do it one at a time to savor the moment. It also helps with children who might wake up before everyone else (which has not been a problem yet.)

Carrie, Carla, Heather and Amy

Spending time with friends and loved ones is one of the best parts of Christmas. We had a cookie decorating party and caroling in the neighborhood before Christmas with some friends.

Here are the kids showing off their beautiful cookies. We hope our neighbors enjoyed eating all these treats!!!! Spreading Christmas joy is the best!!!!

Merry Christmas to you!!!!!!