Christmas 2009

The kids got up, attacked the tree, opened more presents, played all day and then we had our typical turkey dinner. Enjoy the pictures.LOL

The tree with all the presents:

They slept downstairs in the basement under their little tree in their sleeping bags:

Diving in:

Henry excited over Wyatt's Legos.LOL He actually ended up putting it all together himself:

LC playing with her new DS:

Wyatt with both Transformers movies. Or, were they the video games for the Wii?:

The boys with their new school Hoodies:

Observing the destruction:

LC styling my hair with her new hair-styling station:

The kids stayed in their PJ's all day and loved everything they got. It was a very successful Christmas in our new house.<3

Gingerbread Houses

While I am waiting for Forrest to upload the X-mas pictures, I thought I would blog about the gingerbread houses that I made for Henry's class and then went to help decorate.

Last Monday, I got a call from one of the moms about "helping to decorate gingerbread houses." Mom and Dad offered to stay with LC so I called the mom back and told her I would love to help. She then informed me that that was fine, but I needed to make 5 houses for the class by the next day. No asking me if I could. Just telling me to make them and giving me the instructions. WTF? I'm not crafty and you're telling me this the day before you need them??? I just kept telling myself that it's for Henry to keep me from completely panicking. Mom and I got them made, and I have to say that they were the best ones in the class. All the kids were asking for "the big one" which was mine.LOL

Henry loved that I was there with him and loved decorating his.

It was Pajama Party day there, so Henry was comfy-cozy whele he worked hard on his house:

The five houses I made:

Christmas cookies

We had our annual day of baking cookies yesterday. We made 5 different types of "cookies"---Gingerbread Hugs, Peanut Blossoms, Hello Dolly's, Fudge, and M&M Pretzels. It took us almost 4 hours but, the kids were a big help this year.

LC's Christmas Party...

Lauren had her Christmas party at school on Friday and I was able to stay and help out. She loved decorating her gingerbread cookie and singing the songs she's learned. It was cute to see her in that environment. She is quite the popular little thing, too. The other girls basically played musical chairs to be able to sit next to her. One little girl even asked me to move so she could sit next to LC instead of me.LOL

I skiied! And survived!

And I actually enjoyed it.

This is a huge feat for me. I was dreading it the whole way up there, but the mountain we went to had a huge deal going an all the kids were taking a lesson, so there was no absolutely no reason for me not to try. I mean...heck, if LC can try, then so can I. Seeing LC doing it actually made me a little verklempt.

I am actually quite proud of myself. I am bound and determined to not let fear rule me anymore and this was a huge step in doing that. And in doing so, I realized that this is something we will be able to do as a family for a long time to come. LC and I just need to get our own skis.

The only bad part is that my whole body hurts. I have never been more physically exhausted. A few more of these lessons and I'll have abs of steel.LOL

Unfortunately, my little camera is broken, so we have no pics. We really need to pick a pocket one up so we can take some pics.

Christmas decorating

We got the tree out on Saturday and set it up. The kids were so excited about doing it and so patient while Todd and I figured out the lights issue. It seems our 2000 mile move was a little rough on the poor thing. I still need to pick up some extra decorations and then take a picture of the finished product, but in the meantime, some pics of the kids working hard...

LC with her ornament for this year--it's the letter L since she is learning her alphabet at school this year and "L" is her favorite.:

Henry with his--it's an F-16 ornament:

Wyatt's is a ski boot acting like a stocking::

A work in progress:

One of LC and I that I just like:

I will post an after picture as soon as Todd gets home from Wyoming. By then, I should be done with decorating...

Happy Thanksgiving!

We had a quiet but wonderful day where we were able to enjoy our very first meal in our new dining room. Wyatt specifically asked to sit in there for dinner and Henry proclaimed, "Oooh Fancy!" when he walked in to sit down.

Hope all of you had a wonderful day, too!