McKinney Christmas!

This year Dad and Lori had everyone over for the McKinney family Christmas dinner. We had Swedish pancakes and ham and then gathered to open presents.

The Carlson's gave us a 2010 Calendar - Cara has it hanging in her room!

More race cars!! Yay!

Uncle Jordan and Mandy's remote-controlled monster truck for Collin:

Hadley helping her Daddy open her Christmas present from Cara and Collin:

Battle Morph Mock 6 from Grandma and Grandpa:

Barbie pool from Grandma & Grandpa:

We are so blessed and thankful to have family who love and spoil us so much!

The cousins!

The last present to be opened was for Mandy from Jordan - an engagement ring! It was a very special Christmas for us. You can read their engagement story here.

Baking Cookies for Santa

It was an honor to join James' side of the family in baking cookies for Santa this year. James' Aunts, Grandma, friends and family were all there making contributions. We drove out to Mary and Chris' beautiful house in Bucyrus - just a few miles from Spring Hill.

Without Linda's help I would probably still be in the kitchen molding my peanut-butter balls and wrapping them in saran wrap. (: We had a great time!

Collin and Cara spent most of the time in the basement decorating a gingerbread house and their own sugar cookies. Here is Collin with his:

Yummy!

Cara thoroughly enjoyed having babies to play with and immediately took to her role as mother hen:

The table was loaded with cookies of all different types. It was so great to get to catch up with everyone and watch the kiddos play together. Here is Grandpa Ashworth "keeping an eye" on the cookies:

Mary gave out gifts of "Cookies for Santa" plates and personally embroidered "Cookies for Santa 2009" towels to match. The kids can't wait to use it on Christmas Eve!

Thanks for having us!

Our Christmas Pictures

I have adorable kids - and they are what I'm thankful for...

Enough said.

Merry Christmas from Cara, Collin & Sarah

Photo Credit:

A VERY special THANK YOU to Jeff Potts at 20/20 Creative for these precious pictures!

Halloween 2009

Ewy Gooey! Yummy pumpkin guts! The kids were a lot more help than previous years in carving their pumpkins....

The kids were in Wichita this year so here are some pics from James' phone of their trick-or-treating outing Halloween night!

Cara started out wanting to be Tinkerbell this year, but upon sifting through the costumes at Target, found great excitement over the Silvermist (character from Tinkerbell movie) costume instead. No, no one else knew who that was, either.

And, of course, when you're 3 years old you want to be Spiderman! (Cutest one I've seen yet!)

Trick or Treat?!

And they lived happily ever after...the end.

Cara's 6th Birthday

Well, my little princess turned 6 this year. I'm so sorry for the delayed post - life's been a little crazy. Just wanted to share a few of my favorite pictures from her birthday with you!

She asked for an ice-cream cake so Collin and I surprised her at snack time with her princess birthday cake at school.

She actually gave two of her figurines from her cake away to other girls in her class. Only Cinderella lit up, so she kept that one.

Later that night, we had friends and family over to celebrate.

My little budding artist got an easel to exercise her hobby.

So enthused to take pictures with Mommy.

Uncle Jordan and Mandy.

Grandma & Grandpa!

Thank you all so much for making Cara's birthday so special!

Cara's Last Soccer Game

Cara playing soccer this year was very interesting. She and I fought tooth and nail every Thursday night to even get her out on the field, let alone actually run some drills or run around with her team. But, we saw improvement by the end of the season and I think she understands the practice philosophy now - and the actual game for that matter...

Coach Thompson demonstrating how to "stay back and on the line."

Gotta say folks, 4/5-year-old soccer is some seriously intense moments!

Cara demonstrating her fabulous coaching skills...

AND we're running...

Cara got a medal for finishing up the season and claims she wants to play again next year. Collin is excited to turn 4 and get to be out there, too next year! Can't wait!

Our Little Soccer Girl!

We signed Cara up for soccer league this fall

with Spring Hill Recreation Commission. Her first game was this last Saturday, and she had not one, but two games! If you can spot her purple jersey, she is #4, and the only one on the team with the pink (way too big) shorts! Yes, a majority of her soccer gear is pink!

We were so proud when she scored a goal during her second game! Daddy has been doing drills with her (Mommy never played) and she also blocked about 5 attempts during her turn as goalie.

Having a little pep-talk break as a team:

We really can't wait to see how this season turns out! I have posted her game schedule below, please let me know if any of those dates work well for any of you to come out and catch a game!

September 26th, Field #4B, 11 am

October 3rd, Field #4B, 10 am

October 10th, Field #4A, 11 am

October 17th, Field #4B, 12 pm

October 24th, Field 4B, 10 am

Location: Spring Hill Recreation Complex

This is the map to Sonic, which is directly East of the soccer field complex in Spring Hill.

http://www.mapquest.com/maps?state=KS&address=909+North+Webster+&zipcode=66083