Lindsey excited/shocked/shy about her new Loving family dollhouse. I don't know who was more anxious to play with it, Lindsey, me, or my Mom. It has so many cool pieces. Fun, fun.




















Michael, A.K.A Major Bedhead was having a grand ol' time at Grandma and Grandpa's.


















Natalie thought she would try something new, an apple! She has no teeth yet, but she tried!




















Cookies for Santa, made by the kids. They really made some delicious cookies! Wonder what Santa has in store for us?

I sure do love those Christmas Cookies, sugar.

One of my favorite Christmas songs.....Christmas Cookies sung by George Strait. Anything he sings sounds good doesn't it? The kids had a terrific time making the cookies from scratch, cutting the cookies out, and decorating them. The flour was one of the highlights, that's for sure.

Christmas fun by Candi.

Per Candi's request, we opened her presents early. She wanted the kids to know what Aunt Candi, Brad, and Ariel had sent to them. Boy, they had a good time. She sent them each a fun piggy bank to paint themselves.
Thank you so much for all of your gifts. It was really thoughtful of you. We loved the tower of snacks and the Nick Christmas DVD. Thanks for making our Christmas special. We love you!

Those generous Little Harmons.

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The 3 Little Harmons, our blogging friends, sent a fun box of Christmas presents to us. Lindsey was so excited that Kyra sent her mail. We didn't wait until Christmas, sorry Rachel. I wanted them to enjoy what you all sent without all the other presents being around to distract. Elijah sent Michael his favorite thing, A Cars car and a Cars book. Also, he was really happy with the Kidsongs truck DVD and Superman DVD. He thought it all was so cool! Kyra sent Lindsey two cute Pet Shop kitties, whom she named Cutie and Kyra. She also is enjoying her Kidsongs animal DVD. The big hit was watching Natalie with her new stuffed Octopus. The cutest thing ever. She was squealing and snuggling with it. Here she is napping with her new favorite toy. Don't worry, I moved it away from her face.

Lindsey on stage!

Lindsey's Preschool had their Christmas program and she was one of the butterfly angels. We couldn't get a real close pic of her. She did a great job! This is a picture of her and her little friend, Kristina. They have become fast friends. Aren't they cute? Lindsey really stood out with her ornament dress.

Oliver is at it again!

There is some good ol' elf magic going on at the Darwin's! Check it out.....you may have just found a new tradition for next year!

It seems I have done it again.

A couple of things I have failed to mention.

Happy Birthday Robert~ Hope it was a happy one.

Janice celebrated her, what is it now?, oh yeah, her 29th birthday! Happy Birthday, friend!

Some cookie exchanging and some tree decorating.

We were invited to our friends, the Meyers, cookie exchange party. It was fun to see some of our friends that we haven't seen in awhile. Did those kids grow or what? Also, the highlight for the kids was the gingerbread houses they got to decorate. Janice found these cardboard doilies at Party City 10 for $1.50! I was surprised how much Lindsey got into it. I wish I had my camera(do you believe I forgot it?). Thank you Janice for such a nice time! Here is the recipe for the rumballs that I made. Who knew they were that simple? Not me!
1 1/2 cup of Vanilla Wafer crumbs (about 50 cookies)
1/4 cup Bacardi dark rum
1/4 cup honey
2 cups of ground walnuts
Confectioner sugar

Combine all the ingredients, except sugar. Blend thoroughly. Shape into small balls and roll in sugar. Makes about 2 1/2 dozen.


After the party, we decided to finish decorating the tree. Everyone was very cooperative and excited during the whole process. What a relief, not to have too much fighting going on.

Good mail + Good mail = Great mail!

My Aunt Pat & Uncle Rich sent us this beautiful musical Santa Claus cookie jar. Cool, huh? Thanks for the early Christmas surprise!

Then, to top the day off, I got a sweet gift from our new friends, the Mathers. A Rattles and Roses black tank, red pants and an adorable barrette. Don't you just love it! Thank you so much, Cristina for thinking of us. Natalie is going to be so cute in it, as was Ellie! Cristina also has a new blog that she has started with all of her creative ideas. Check it out here.

Winterhaven.

This one is not that clear, but it was Santa in one corner and the Grinch in another. They used red garland for the boxing ring and the sign above them read "The Main Event-Santa vs. Grinch" The funniest part was they were playing the Rocky theme song in the background.
Festival of Lights is a yearly tradition here. An entire neighborhood decorates their homes. Some a little and some alot. It is great fun. They have hayrides and nights were you are able to drive through. I think there are even nights were you can only walk through it. We ate dinner, took baths, got their pjs on and headed out. We ended up waiting for 45 minutes to get in. Just as we were entering, we look back and all 3 of them were ASLEEP! We could not wake any of them. We tried gently waking them, we tried shouting, we tried shaking them awake. Nothing worked. They were snoring!!! So, Tyler, Charles and I got to see the lights. They were really cool. We are going to try it again and walk through it. For info on the festival check out www.winterhavenfestival.org Here are a couple of pics.

Our family gift from The Darwins.

We received this wonderful gift from our good friends, The Darwins. Every year, Stacy and 24 of her friends get together and make ornaments for the Advent Jesse tree. They each choose one day and make 25 ornaments of that day. Then they get together and exchange and talk about their ornaments to complete their tree. They also sent the book that goes through each day with you for both children and adults. I can't tell you how special this gift has made us feel. The kids are so excited to do this every night with us and I can't believe she didn't keep all the ornaments for herself! These women are pretty amazing. They really did come up with some creative ideas for each ornament. Thank you Stacy, Ray, Miranda, and Sam. We are blessed to have friends like you in our lives.

It came!

Today, my Pink Christmas gift arrived! So exciting! I opened the envelope, but shouldn't have. It wasn't wrapped, but was inside a pretty pink satiny bag. When I opened the envelope, everything had shifted and had fallen out of the bag. Sorry I couldn't wait til the 25th Kristi! Thank you so much Diana! You know what the perfect gift would be for me......a chance to RELAX! I haven't had the opportunity to listen to the cd, but I can't wait. Thanks again for taking the time to send me such a fun surprise.

I can't help but wonder if my Pink Christmas friend is enjoying hers....I hope so!!!!

Let there be light!

Okay, it is not decorated yet, but it does look very festive! This is very blurry, but I had to include it. Don't they look like candy canes? I liked yours better though, Cristina.
 

Oh, Christmas tree

Normally, we get our tree at night at Home Depot or a fun tree lot. Not this year, Charles had the day off and we heading to Target. It was a good deal for around here anyway. $40 for a 6'-7' tree. We did get a beautiful tree. Lindsey liked this one.
Michael liked them all. He just loved being able to run among them.
Natalie could care less. As shown by her tongue/raspberry maker!
Tyler by the one we chose. 

It was just like a tree lot....plenty of puddles to get dirty in. In true boy fashion, he got good and muddy!
Lindsey and Michael asking Daddy for their "trees". The rosemary bushes shaped like trees. How could we say no?
They enjoyed watching the branches getting cut, but the noise was a little too much for Lindsey.
My guy bringing it in. Now the house smells of pine..........I LOVE it! 

Two surprises.

As she was playing, Lindsey said "Look Mommy. I am the letter A." I was surprised that she thought that one up by herself!
Looky, looky what we got in the mail. A fun surprise from our good friends, The Hartys. They just recently moved to Oregon. I absolutely loved how they packaged it underneath pine branches/needles. It was so fragrant. It gave me such a cozy warm feeling...............like an old-fashioned Christmas. They included some wild blackberry jam that is made locally and lots of yummy chocolate treats for the kids. They also gave us this cool cutting board made of myrtlewood. On the tag it says that myrtlewood trees can use as much as 1 ton of water a day and that they are only found on the Southern Oregon coast and in the holy land. How did she know we needed a new one! Thank you, Hartys for such a wonderful surprise! 

Tyler's winter concert

As you can see, the star of the evening wasn't photographed. He had to be at the high school auditorium about an hour before the show started. We rushed through dinner and tried to get him ready....anyway, in all the rush we didn't get his pic. Here are a couple of the kids that I took while I waited for Charles to come home from dropping Tyler off. See what I mean about pictures? They tried though and looked very nice for Tyler's show. Okay, can I tell you what an amazing job my son did? If I haven't already mentioned it, he got the part of the Genie in Aladdin, the 6th grade play. They just did one song from the play for the concert. He was up there with a wireless mic and a spotlight on him for most of the number. He sang that song "You never had a friend like me". Or is it just "Friend like me"? Either way, he sang that and were we impressed! It was such a weird experience for me. I was both proud and scared of/for him. I could never stand in front of an audience that large! Especially dancing and singing. We did get video of him. I cannot wait until May to see the whole play. There will be lots of photos then. I learned my lesson:)

Oh, the whole class did a great job also, I just had to brag about Tyler a little bit. It will be so fun to see.

 

High expectations.

Every year, I think....this will be the year, the year that everyone will say "Cheese" at the right time. Let's take a stroll down memory lane.
Tyler and Lindsey in 2003....notice there is no 2002. I am lucky I got any cards out that year. This was a pretty good pic, if not for the huge glare/dot on Tyler's collar. Overall, I was pretty pleased. Tyler, Lindsey, and Michael in 2004. Not our best work. The blanket on the couch(a poor choice), Lindsey refusing to put on tights hence, the diaper show, Tyler totally faking his smile and Michael's eyes being partially closed were just some of the "oh-nos" in this photo.
By far, 2005's card was the best. Only thanks to Stacy, who helped me out! They would not take a decent photo together and splicing wasn't working. Michael was running around like crazy and we were really fortunate to get the pic of the two brothers together.

So, beware......this year's card is no different. I do have a couple of smiles, a half-hidden face, crazy hair and someone looking in the wrong direction. Sometime after Christmas, I would love to post a couple of the photos we took while trying to get just ONE "normal" photo. It's funny once you think about it, and weren't the one actually taking the photos.

All kidding aside, I am glad we have the messed up photos. I love them. It is true to life. We aren't all perfect, no matter how hard we try to be and I hope that I can teach my kids that it is okay to be exactly what you are. Even if it is a pouty, eyes half-closed bedhead. We love you all.....every wonderful part of you.

It's starting to look alot like Christmas...........

When the dollhouses are even decorated with a tree and bows!

It's December 4th and can you guess how many Christmas ornaments/decorations/candles have been broken/ripped/shattered or eaten? Okay, so maybe nothing has been eaten, but the rest is true!!!! 

Okay, I lied.

Lindsey didn't go back to school today, we headed to the doctor with Natalie in tow. She woke up with the same wet, icky sounding cough Lindsey had. Sisters....I guess they have to share everything:) Lindsey was great! I don't know if I posted about this before, but Lindsey is not usually the most cooperative when it comes to a doctor visit. She was the one child that the office cringed when hearing her name called. She would scream just to get weighed. It was truly agonizing every time we went. This time was a wonderful change. She was quiet/shy, but she did what she was asked with no complaint. She was such a proud girl when we left. She wasn't the only one:) The doctor said it was just one of those viruses going around and there is really nothing you can do for it. He said it could linger for a few weeks!!! What?? I want him to fix it now. It is so hard to hear them cough like that and not be able to help. Hopefully, they will be well soon, rather than later.