Angelic

I did a really quick impromptu photo shoot with our girls in their Christmas dresses and I have to say they turned out pretty good!

Sweet little Mandy just had to smile. I tried to get her to be more melancholy like the other girls. Oh well, she's cute anyway.

These girls can be so adorable sometimes.

Where's Rudolph?

He, or should I say she is at our house! I went to pick Eden up from preschool today and this is what I got!
(Don't you just love her nose!?!)

She has soooo much fun at that preschool! They've already got her reading 3 and 4 letter words and a couple of 5 letter words, like zoo, fox, broom, cat, hand... stuff like that. This preschool also does the coolest projects. Both Ashley and Eden have totally loved this preschool. I'll be sad to leave it.

12 Days of Christmas for Kids

Last year I got the idea of doing a 12 Days of Christmas for my kids. Only each day would be a craft instead of a gift. Last year I thought of it too late, so this year we're doing it! I just went to the Oriental Trading website and bought 12 crafts off it there. Since all their crafts come with 12 each, that meant I had 144 crafts on hand.

I have Janina's name for Christmas this year, so I decided to do the same thing for her kids too. So now instead of having 12 of each craft, I now only have 4 left over. So, Christie, when I have your name, your kids are going to get them. And Melanie, if you want to do it too, let me know, I think I have your name next year.

So far we've only done the first 4 days. We have to wait for Ashley to get home from school before we can do today's craft, but here's what we've done so far!

My kids have loved doing all this!

Grandma Collette

Last Saturday, Paul's step-mom came over to have some fun with the girls. She brought her water colors and cookie dough. The girls had a lot of fun, and I enjoyed not having to entertain them the whole afternoon. I didn't get any pictures of them painting, but here's some of the cookie making!

Grandma Collette

My Happy Birthday!

Today was my birthday! My Mom called this morning trying to make me feel old. She said "If you live to be 90, then the first 30 years you're young, your next 30 years you're middle aged, and your last 30 years you're old." So according to her reckoning, both she and I are middle aged. If this is what middle age feels like, bring it on!

Today was pretty typical, it being a weekday and getting kids to and from school. But this evening my Mom, step-dad and brother took me out to dinner at the Cheesecake Factory. I'd never eaten there. It was dang delicious! Then I went shopping at the mall next to it and then went to Target, all without my kids!

Overall, it was a fun birthday!

Wasn't I a cutie! I wonder what went wrong!?!

Yeah, I was chubby. I still am.

Bravery

I have to say, I'm rather impressed with all three of my girls!

Eden has been bugging me for the last month or so, "When am I going to get my earrings?" So today I finally took her in to get it done. I asked Ashley if she was going to do it too and she replied, "I want Eden to go first." That made me laugh cause I knew exactly why she wanted Eden to go first. She wanted to see how badly it would hurt.

So, Eden went first. Did a wonderful job! She cried for just a couple of seconds afterward, until they gave her a sucker. A moment later she was fine!

Then came Ashley's turn. She had this totally frightened look on her face as she sat down in the chair. So I very lovingly told her she didn't have to do it. But with firm determination, she did! She got a little teary eyed right after, but got her sucker and was just fine.

As we're getting ready to go I hear Amanda's little voice say "I want earrings too!" I was totally expecting this cause she always wants what her sisters get. So I talked to her about them and let her know that it'll hurt for a bit. She insisted on getting them done. Thankfully there were two workers there, one on each ear, so they got done at the same time. Amanda cried the most and the longest. But as you can see, she's very happy she has them!

Amanda's face isn't dirty. She has a rash all over her little body.

Past Christmas Cards

By Ashley's second Christmas, I had all my photography equipment. So we decided to do a creative picture and send it to everyone as our Christmas card. It has since turned into a little tradition of ours. Although some aren't as creative as others, it's a fun thing for us to do each Christmas.

So enjoy this little trip down memory lane!

2002


2003

2004

2005

2006

2007

2008
Ha ha! And you thought I'd give it away! You'll just have to wait till they arrive in your mailbox. And if I don't have your address, you won't get one.

Christmas Card Contest!

Hip-Hip-Hooray! I've been nominated as a finalist on Tip Junkie! So head on over there and vote for the cutest card. If it's mine, great! If not, that's okay. Go HERE to vote!


Paul and I had a lot of fun taking pictures for this card. I can't believe Mandy actually tried to eat the card at just the right time. My kids are so stinkin' cute! Oh, and our card this year is coming to mailboxes soon!

My Amazing Grandparents

I mentioned in a previous post that Thanksgiving day was my grandparents 57 anniversary! Paul and I did up a DVD for them using a bunch of their old pictures.

My grandparents are amazing, wonderful people and I love watching them together. They have a wonderful sense of humor and are so generous. They've been a wonderful, loving example to me and my family. I feel so blessed to have them in my life.

I asked all of you to send pictures of your family and most of you did! Thank you! For those of you who didn't, if you'd like to send me a picture that you'd like me to use, please do. Merilee especially, I couldn't find a picture of you and your family anywhere.

It's kinda long, almost 15 minutes long, but here ya go! Oh, and you'll want to stop the Christmas music since this little clip has music of its own. Also, I'm sorry if it's a little jerky, I had to do a very low resolution copy in order for it to fit on. So the pictures might be kinda blurry. Sorry.

P.S. If anyone wants this on a DVD, high resolution, then once I get the rest of the pictures from people, I'll be doing at least one up for Grandma and Grandpa, Dirk, Sandy, and I don't remember who else said they wanted one. So if you want one, let me know!

Just a Couple

I'm trying to get the DVD I made for Grandma and Grandpa on here, but it's being difficult. So until my husband can take some time and help me with that, I'll just share with you a couple of decorations. I love decorating for Christmas! Unfortunately, our realtor said we should probably tone it down a bit so people aren't overwhelmed with Christmas decor when they walk through. Oh well, so decorating is a little easier this year because of that.

I love Nativity sets. We've got 6 or 7 of them and I feel like we always need more. I especially love this all white set.

I've wanted to do this All white & red tree for a couple of years now. Thanks Paul for letting me get the stuff to do it this year! The girls love it!

Unfortunately, I don't think we'll be putting the train set out this year. I don't know where we'd put it.

MERRY CHRISTMAS!