Merry Christmas to all!!!

Sorry I am a little behind on the blogging. This time of year can be very crazy for us with dance recitals, vocal recitals and Christmas parties. But here are my cute kids on Santa's lap. I love this picture of Ty and Santa. He was afraid of Santa when he came in and sat on Brad's lap and didn't want to get down. After a little while Santa came around with his puppet reindeer.

He let all the kids pet him and Ty thought that was pretty cool. Then Santa got out his jingle bells and Ty was all over that. He was picking then up and shaking them. But when it came time to sit on his lap that was a
different story. He didn't want to so I took him up there and he fought for a minute but when Santa gave him his Chocolate he was just fine. He talked to him and

played with his glasses. As long as Santa had a treat for Ty he was in just fine. Ty asked for a train and a bed. Cortlyn asked for a Hannah Montana doll and an ipod. Hayden asked for a new pogo stick. He can pogo over 500 times and can do it with NO HANDS. Shawnee went to sit on Santa's lap and he instantly asked her if your makeup is all over the counter and her underwear in laying on the bathroom floor. She got this look of how did you know. That is so her it

bugs me so bad. You would think that there are four girls using that bathroom. She asked for a new phone and clothes. So what a teenager would ask for.

I just want to wish everyone a very Merry Christmas, and hope that the Lord is with you this holiday season. May all your wishes come true in the New Year!!!

NUTCRACKER

So me and my friend Julie took our girls to the Nutcracker this last Saturday. And can I tell you they LOVED it!!! We got there and they had a little boutique set up with a few things and as you can tell from the pictures they all had to have tiara's. Which I thought was very cute.

Shawnee was even wanting to be a princess for a day. They all wore their tiara's the whole time. We had great seats thanks to Julie. We sat on the sixth row from the front. The girls were mesmerized with the

dancers. I don't think that Cortlyn moved the in tire time. After the performance they had a tea party set up for the girls. They could meet the dancers and have their pictures taken with them. I am pretty sure the girls loved this more than the actual Nutcracker. They had cute little cupcakes and cookies with punch. Tables decorated to the nigh. It felt magical when you walked into the room. I think that everyone decided this would be a great tradition we could do every year. Thanks Julie and the girls for going with us we had a BLAST!!!

Gingerbread houses

Here's to the most creative house I have seen in a long time. I usually make one house and all the kids get to help decorate it. This year I didn't have to do any of the work. Marcy, Rob's wife who is very good friends with Brad made these cute little house's for the kids to decorate. Now I need to let you know that Marcy makes these little gingerbread houses from scratch mind you and makes enough houses for every kid that is in her children's class that year. Yes she does this every year. Makes over 50 houses. Plus puts them all together and.... puts a bag of mixed candy in a bag for each child. There was mini M & M's, regular M & M's, candy canes, gum drops, mini cookies, skittles, fruit loops, licorice, pretzels, kisses, you name she had it. She also had a cup of frosting for each kid and little spoon to spread it around. She has this down pat.

So the kids spent probably two hours on there house. I think they ate more than they put on they house but isn't that the way it goes. As you can see here Hayden was more interested in getting his sleigh to fly in the air than really decorate the house. You can see it in the right back corner. He had 4 candy canes to hold up the 2 candy canes that were the sleigh and two cookies with a mint and a gum drop. We thought that is was going to fall but it held up pretty good.

Ty did pretty good on his house with a little help from mom of course but he put most of the candy on the roof and the wreaths above the door. He got bored after a little while so mom finished up his house. You know me I have to make it PRETTY and COLORFUL!!! Cortyln was pretty funny when she was decorating her house she would look at everyone else's house and copy what they were doing. She would spread the frosting on her roof and by the time she was done the frosting would be a millimeter thick and dry so she had to do it again. She finally learned to just goop it on.

Shawnee is just like me in the sense that it has to look nice and even on all sides. She did a great job on it. You would have thought that I did it. But I guess I have taught her well. Notice her beautiful smile. She got her braces off two days ago. Isn't she so CUTE and grown-up! She did put mistletoe by her house. It is the candy cane arch with the thing hanging down. She is getting to big for her britches.

We had a great time as a family decorating the house's. Thanks to Marcy it was a lot easier to do with everyone having there own. I hope this becomes a tradition every year. Now I want to here what your favorite tradition is over the holiday. So I am going to tag everyone that reads this. So you better do it. I hope everyone has a great, safe, and HAPPY holiday.