christmas eve...

my most favorite day in the whole world-Christmas Eve.

this year was nice-minus feeling like junk, it was calm and relaxed...we even watched a movie in the middle of the day. church was amazing as always and we scooted right over to adam's parents for the annual.  christmas eve gathering.  

after we got back home-we opened one gift that the girls pick out for each other and one of us.  it's always so exciting for them...we love that we picked up this tradition a few years ago.

nativity at church-they wouldn't stand by the animals for a pic.

candlelight service....

cutie cousins

anne got a sassy little jacket

so much squealing and fun!

this girl loves her jammies!

Devon got a sweet dollie.  

surprise gift of a 'grown up' jewelry box

anne picked out an adorable sweat suit for kate

daddy got a wallet from kate

anne was enamored with her drawing book from kate

and she got new mechanical pencils!

twas the night before christmas....

all is calm....

shouldn't be so hard

sooo.  i have been under the weather the past few days.  christmas eve came and i had no voice.  zilch. not good timing. at all.  a mom has lots to say during the fleeting hours of christmas prep.
it was time to go to church and get the annual family picture.
watch closely as to what happens...
adam thought he was being HYSTERICAL...
until we got in the car and i flipped through the files on the camera and i went *hysterical with a squeaky yelling voice!*....

looks left

looks up

looks right

his smile is huge because he thought he was sooo funny

the crazy pose-and he looks right at the camera.

 Isn't it amazing how grown men can act like goofy little boys.  he STILL thinks this is the funniest thing ever!

 ~chat soon!

Four eyes...

So for the past few weeks Anne has been begging incesitantly to go to the eye doctor.
I really thought it was something she wanted, a pair of glasses, not necessarily because she couldn't see.
Then her requests started to become urgent.  She was having trouble seeing in school and reading close up.  Yikes.
Last Saturday was her appointment.
Today we picked these up...

I think they suit her well...and she loves how well they make her see.

~chat soon!

have you....

ever decorated a tree with kate?
this is kind of how it goes...

no words.  there are no words.

who doesn't have 4 inches of belly love hanging out?

after looking at this.  it looks like she has horns!!!

not one iota of this was posed.

feeling down?  overwhelmed? just look at these pics. :)

~chat soon!

thanksgiving

we have lots to be thankful for this year.

our house was filled with adam's family for thanksgiving day.
both girls took great pride (and some huffing and puffing) at helping prepare the meal for the family.
it was really great.

having holiday's at our home is not a new thing-the prep can be so chaotic and anxiety ridden.  this year i swore to myself that i would not get upset.  just take it as it comes....i'm not sure what came over me, but i stayed true to that promise.  everything went perfectly. except for a run in with the stove and my favorite cookbook-but nothing truly burned down-just lots of black smoke and the three w girls running around and squealing like crazy...so i consider that a win!


wednesday...

magical potion that the cookbook calls...brine! ;)

pie making

teamwork

Thursday...

the table...and adam's belt. ;)

we even norman rockwelled it this year and carved the turkey on the table!

lots going on here..

it really was a great day.

happy thanksgiving yesterday, and everyday!

~chat soon!

last game

so kate....has loved soccer.
her last game was this past saturday.
the team lost a bit of spunk since day light savings-practices were shrunk or cancelled due to lack of day light and you could kind of tell.  not a big deal.
this last game, did not turn out to be a winner, but was fun.
kate is a boss and a hoss on the field.
she keep everyone in line on the defense line.  cracks me up.

celebrating kate

so. kate turned 8 almost a month ago.
we had a fun little party for her mid october.
there are so many october birthdays in her class/grade that we combined her party with another sweet little october birthday girl.
it was a blast.
the weather was good.
the kids had fun.
it was an old fashioned birthday party.
just perfect.
i'm so glad we did it.

party favors

crafting

more crafts-super cute wooden owls

the big sissys held the limbo pole-they were so excited...can you tell?

love this

goofy little crew.

we had a carmel apple bar and hot chocolate-perfect.

best of buds

two thumbs up-even a broken one...

i looked and looked to see why they all had the same mouth position-vampire teeth.  does it everytime!

hats made from the two parts of the pinata. 

~chat soon!