Happy Birthday Baby Jesus!

After the excitement of Santa had worn down and the presents were opened, we took a minute to celebrate the real reason for the season, the birth of our savior. Nothing fancy, but we placed candles in a cake and sang "Happy Birthday" to baby Jesus. This was fun and could be done w/any type of cake, cupcake,etc... Pictured with my girls is Reese, their cousin.

An Early Christmas Present

After looking at a million dogs online and some in person, we finally have the newest addition to our family. The girls have been w/o a dog since we moved in to this house, so this was a huge present for them. We picked her up a few days before Christmas and have had an exciting time with her since. Last night was the first night that she did not cry all night. Her name is Isabelle and the girls are calling her Izzy. She is the sweetest schnauzer!

Angels Among Us

The girls all have a separate Christmas party every year with their friends. In the past, we have done crafts, decorated cookies and made an ornament. Well, this year I wanted to do something different. My friend Kim gave me the idea. I went to the counselors at each of the girls schools in early Nov. and asked them to pick an "angel" child for us to buy for. Then I had each girl bring a gift for that child. At the party, we all sat in a circle and showed what we brought and then each girl wrapped her own gift. These gifts were delivered to the counselors this week to forward to these families. I do not know these girls, but am sure they will have a great Christmas now.
Kayla's party was WILD!!!! These girls have too much energy after being inside still all day! They were SOOOO sweet though when they talked about the girl and I was deeply touched by their questions and reaction to my story about this child. It is sometimes easy to forget the true reason that we celebrate and I believe that these girls have remembered, if only for a moment.

Hannah's party was the one that truly touched my heart though. All of these girls are 10-11 years old and are becoming young ladies. The insight and compassion they showed amazed me! I felt like I was in a room of adults with them. They were quiet also....big bonus after the wild party of 7 year olds. These girls brought SOOOO much stuff for this child. When I delivered this yesterday, the counselor was suprised at the first batch of 5-6 presents that I carried in, but I then told her that there were 4 more loads at least and she was very grateful. These girls also "scrapbooked" their own cards and the messages were very touching to this "angel." We had a little Christmas karaoke and most of the parents got here before we were done.

My Crazy Christmas Tree

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In what may be a record for me, my tree was put up the day after Thanksgiving. The girls wanted to do it earlier, but I believe that one holiday should be enjoyed and celebrated before another one starts. Every year, I change my tree.... I know it's a pain, but we love to do it. Well, we usually try to express our family and what we enjoy with our tree, so this year we did an "ocean/fish" theme. In years past, we have done red white and blue (after 9/11), a pink Barbie Tree and a nature tree (camo, pine cones, birds nests, etc... Had to make it up to Todd from the previous pink tree). Well, it has been quite hard to find anything to do with the ocean theme...I wonder why??? Todd's Stepmom was in a little store in Magnolia and found Caribbean lights that came in shades of green/blue.... how perfect is that? Tara re-arranges the tree everyday, so I gave up on making it look pretty and "in order" days ago.

The Magic Elf

Early in December, my girls wrote letters to Santa asking if he could spare an elf to visit us through the holidays. A few days after Santa picked up the letters, a magic elf appeared. She is named Tamara and gets to stay with us until Christmas when Santa must take her back with him to make the toys for next year. Sometimes our elf is nice, but sometimes she's not...as in the pic below. While we were all sleeping, she toilet papered the living room and destroyed Hannah's backpack, but she has become an avid Harry Potter reader! After the kids are out of school this year, many of us are having a "Magic Elf" party before all of our elves go home. I can not tell you what a joy this all is to these families.... these kids talk about their elves everyday and we all laugh at them making a mess of our homes.

Devil's Den

Todd and I took the girls to Devil's Den on a recent warm weekend for a hike. We were worried that Tara would have to be carried on the 2 hour hike, but she made it like a trooper! The caves were busy, so we didn't spend a lot of time there, but it was still a fun day for the family.

Halloween

Going to get caught up on this blog thing today. Here are a few Halloween pics of the girls. Hannah is Hermione from Harry Potter, Kayla is Hannah Montana and Tara is a butterfly fairy.

Slime and Crayons

The girls were out of school today, so we made slime/silly putty and melted crayons down into new shapes. They had their friend Emily over for the fun. Between these projects, and playing school, the girls are ready to head back again tomorrow.

First Day of School Blues

Thought both of my girls should wear blue today, because mom is blue that they have gone away. Tara missed them terribly, but also loved having Mom here to herself. She will start school next week. Both girls are exactly where they need to be in terms of teachers and such, so I am content in their schooling. My camera fogged up, which you can tell by the pictures taken in the humidity here.

Kittens, Swimming and High School Musical

As we were swimming last night, a few of the wild kittens under Papa's house came out and let me take a few pictures! Tara finally learned to swim under water!!! We had been trying all summer, then Re (Rita) took her to the Alma Water Park and she learned to swim...no floaties at all anymore. Now I am scared because she is a little too confident. We went to a party to see the premiere of High School Musical 2 and I took this cookie cake along. It was so much fun!

So many new pets here

My girls have been addicted to Webkinz since last December. As you can see, they keep multiplying, and I believe we have 40 between all the girls! Ridiculous, I know. It's the Beanie Baby craze all over again. For those of you that do not know about Webkinz, please google it and see what my daughters are so crazy about!

A Trip To Kansas

I took my girls on a surprise trip to meet friends in McPherson, Kansas. They thought we were going to a PTA convention..hahaha. Boy, were they surprised when we pulled up at the hotel next to their friends from Iowa! We became great friends with the Wagg family about 6 years ago and have kept in touch through their move to Iowa. Their twins, Olivia and Katie, had no idea what was going on either, so everyone had the great smiles of Christmas morning. It was great! The girls swam (a lot), we went out to dinner, got new Webkinz charms, ate space food, played games in our room and down the hall (OOPS!), and went to the Kansas Cosmosphere Museum...which was awesome! We spent the whole day there and our girls really enjoyed the IMAX production of Hurricane Katrina...I would suggest you see this if you get a chance...it opened my eyes about this issue. My girls miss the Wagg family already, and are planning a trip to Iowa.

Sleep-over Friends

The girls had friends over and we made rainbow cookie dough. They shaped them into aliens, butterflies and more. Thanks for coming Ashlyn and Alex!

Tara's Birthday

We had a wonderful day at Chuck E. Cheese. Thanks everyone for coming!!

Hannah's Room

Looks like a typical 10 year old room...Hannah is loving it!!

Kayla's Room

The 7 year old is loving her bedroom. She is in there right now listening to her Ipod.

Tara's Room

One thing that I do not enjoy doing is decorating...ugggghhh. Thanks to my friends Jan and Stephanie, my girls rooms are organized and decorated. Here is Tara's room...she is 4 now!