It's a Great Day for a Picnic!

The other day the girls didn't have school because it was teacher inservice. It was a beautiful day, so we packed a lunch and headed to one of our favorite parks for a picnic. I'm so glad we took advantage of the warm weather because two days later snow flakes were flying here in Cincinnati!!!

Halloween 2011

The Annual Pumpkin Carving

Daddy the "master carver"

"Hurry, mom, take the picture! This thing is heavy!"

Trick or Treat

The hip hop moves were out in full force-LOL!

Not Sure Where to Begin....

It has been so long since I have posted anything on our blog, and every time I would say, "Oh, I need to post that", I felt guilty because there were so many other things before that that I hadn't posted. It became easier not to post than to try and catch-up. I decided yesterday that I'm not going to try and catch up-I'm going to just start fresh. If I get real motivated, you may even see some pictures from our exciting summer. You just never know when they might pop up!! Anyway, here's to a new start!!!

Yesterday we made our annual trip to Shaw Farms for pumpkin picking and a hayride. The girls had a great time on the hay ride. Emma and Olivia were still into running around and climbing on all the fun things, getting their face painted, etc. Grace... well, she's a big 7th grader now, so she enjoyed watching. It's not cool, you know to be running around. She enjoyed her time by taking pictures of her sisters for her scrapbook. As I looked around at all the other families with their little kids running around and screaming, I thought, "Boy, it just seems like yesterday we were there. Now look at us." Time sure does fly!!!

Emma got a real kick out of helping daddy push the pumpkins around-especially because the wheelbarrow had a flat tire!!!

"A 5'1" Center from Cincinnati Ohio....."

...Oliviaaaaa Hamilton!" Olivia got her uniform for the Swish today. She was so excited!!! She wanted number 4, but when she came home, she told me this. "Mom, you know how I wanted #4? Well, apparently the lower numbers are for the little girls, and we all know I'm not a "little" girl, so I got #22." She compared herself to one of her favorite Xavier players and said, "Well, that makes sense, because she was #54, and she isn't a little girl either!" The third grade team plays their first game on Thursday. It will be exciting!!!

Happy Soccer Girl

Emma has been playing indoor soccer at the YMCA for the past couple of weeks, and absolutely loves it! In fact, she comes off the court and says, "How many more days until my next game?" She is so cute out there. She goes 90 miles an hour and has a smile on her face the entire time. She has taken some pretty nasty spills, and even took a ball off the face last week, but she gets right back up and never complains. It's really amazing!!! I asked her if she wanted to play outdoor soccer in the fall, and she said, "No, I think I just like indoor sports because you never have to worry about getting cold." She is such a hoot!!!!

Dancer of the Quarter

Grace was dancer of the quarter this time at the dance studio. Way to go, Grace! Look at the awesome trophy she got! She wanted her picture taken in our new chair we had delivered the day before, too. I was glad, because I not only got to show off my beautiful daughter that I'm so proud of, but my beautiful new chair, too!!!

Camp "In"

A few Saturdays ago, Olivia and Emma camped "in" in their teepe in the study. They had a blast watching a movie and snuggling all night. They were just too cute!!!

Birthday Bonanza

Well, we've had an exciting month of birthdays! Daddy started us off by turning 39, then Olivia turned 9, and then mommy rounded it out by turning 38! Wow! Grammy came down for Olivia's birthday, and I'm ashamed to say that we didn't even take one picture of her that weekend. The night we celebrated Olivia' birthday was crazy with practices, piano, etc. I didn't even get the usual "3 sister birthday" picture! I must have really been out of it. Here are a few pictures we did get of our fun month of birthdays.

Daddy and the girls had a party for me a couple of days after my birthday. It was complete with balloons, dinner, and a cake!! Way to go, guys!

Mommy and her sweet girls (Olivia was the waitress. Can you tell from her apron?)

Daddy's Birthday

Last night we were finally able to celebrate Dan's 39th birthday! We were so busy with the muscial and what not, and we wanted to make him a nice dinner and whoopie pies to celebrate the fact that his chronological age is finally catching up with his grey hair!!! Haha!!! We are all so blessed to have Dan!!! I hope his last year in his 30's is just as amazing as he is!!!

I guess those 4 miles he ran before dinner made those candles difficult to blow out. He's such a ham!!!

"It's Saturday"!!!!

Thursday and Friday were the big Summit Elementary musical--"It's Saturday". The kids did a wonderful job,and it' always so much fun to see them all have so much fun. Grace had a solo, so she was really nervous, but she did great!!! I don't know where she gets her voice from. It has to be be from the Hamilton side of the family!!!!

Her big solo!!

Can you tell this was one of her favorite songs she was singing in the whole production?

Four good friends! I can't believe they are almost Jr. High students!!!

XU Fans for Life!!!!

Well, if the Hamilton girls weren't the biggest Women's Xavier Basketball fans, they certainly are now!!! We all went to the game on Saturday, and they had they opportunity to be ball girls during the second half. Grace had it all planned out so they would be at the goal that Xavier would be shooting at and would be able to be right there as they came out of the tunnel after half time. They were estatic!!!! It was so much fun to be able to watch their excitement during the game. After the game we had a tour of the Cintas Center, including the training room, the practice gym, the weight room, and the women's volleyball locker room (since the basketball locker room was occupied). Xavier is truly a high-class program and I'm glad the girls were able to have that experience. I am a little worried, though, because all they talk about is going to college at Xavier, and at 40K a year, I keep telling them they had better either get a scholarship, or start working now!!!

Watching the girls warm-up during half time. Olivia could barely contain herself!

Getting their instructions.

They took their job seriously. This was funny because Grace was trying to sweep close to the huddle. Dan said, "She's trying to get in on the scoop."

Getting a little encouragement.

Daddy-Daughter Dance--80's Style

Tonight was the daddy-daughter dance at the girls' school. It was an exciting and special night. It was special because it is the only school dance that all three of the girls will be able to go to with Dan because Grace is moving on to the middle school next year. The girls were all excited get dressed up-80's style!!!! I remember when I was pregnant with Emma and Grace said to me, "Mom, I hope this baby is a boy so you can go to the mommy-son dances." I thought that was sweet, but I was thinking, "If it is a girl, there will be night when mommy gets a whole evening to herself!" Well, that night was tonight. I think I was just as excited as they were. I headed to the gym and worked out without worrying about having to get home, came home and had a salad with the things that "I" like on it, and then took a nice long, relaxing bath. It was heaven!! I also got to catch up on some blogging, hence this post. The dance is now over and they should be coming home any minute. I can hardly wait to hear about all the fun they had and how daddy danced and embarrassed them (lol)!!!

A Late Christmas with Big Mom

Dan's mom came to stay with us a few weeks ago, and the girls were finally able to give her their Christmas gift they had made her. They had also picked out a few "treasures" at breakfast with Santa back in December.

P.S. As I'm trying to catch up on blogging, I realize that I haven't taken many pictures. We've been very busy and lots of exciting things have been happening. Now I just need to get back in the habit of taking pictures again!!!! Keep your eyes out!!!!

Finally-Pictures from Christmas!!!!!

Here are some of my favorite pictures from Christmas. Things have been really crazy around here, so I've been really slow at getting them posted. It was a great Christmas season once again!! We were able to do lots of fun things in preparation for the big day, Santa visited us here in Cincinnati, and then we made the trip up to Michigan the day after Christmas for the Brining Christmas. It was so much fun to have all the cousins together for the first time!!!!