Christmas

A few pictures from Christmas Eve and Christmas morning. Caroline made sure that Santa had plenty of cookies and milk at our house.


Sprinkling the Reindeer food on the front lawn. (Can't forget about those poor reindeer!)


This was Caroline's favorite gift~a Walking Puppy from Nana and Papa. She has named her puppy Lilly and Lilly came with us to the airport to pick up Daddy :)

Connor wanted video games this year (anyone surprised?? no? me neither.)

Santa brought Caroline the Ramona and Beezus movie. She was so excited that she was screaming "Ramona and Beezus...I CAN'T believe it!!!

Connor got the Diary of a Wimpy Kid movie. He can't wait to see it and asked if we could have movie night tonight~with popcorn.

It was a wonderful Christmas although Caroline told me that she wasn't happy AT ALL that Santa thought to bring her socks :(

Christmas Concert

Caroline had her Christmas concert last night. We took this picture for Daddy so he could see how pretty she looked :) See the white fur ball curled under the tree? Sabrina and Katie can be found snuggled under there all day long...



I wish I could have gotten a better picture but unfortunately this is the best one I have. The kids sang us 10 songs~Caroline's favorite was Away in a Manger. (It had hand gestures with it..super cute!) The little boy behind Caroline and to the right is our friend Kyle. As usual Kyle sang with gusto and big hand movements:)

Here is my videographer for the evening. Connor did a great job capturing everything for me and even uploaded it and e-mailed the video to Dad and Nana! Thanks Buddy, I couldn't have done it without you!

After the concert there was a Winter Carnival and the kids played games. They even won prizes like candy canes and Christmas mugs. Caroline just went fishing and caught a candy cane! Imagine that!

This is Caroline with Gavin. She tells me that he isn't her boyfriend but they are inseparable and Gavin told his Mom that he "doesn't even mind playing kitchen and dolls as long as he gets to play with Caroline." He also mentioned that he thought she was "just so pretty!" Thumbs up for the tie Gavin, I always liked a well dressed man myself.

Deck The Halls...

With salt dough ornaments! Caroline had a playdate with her friend Kyla yesterday and the girls decorated ornament after ornament...hours of entertainment....

Here are the finished ornaments~aren't they "pretty?"

Of course the best part is actually hanging them on the tree!

Gingerbread Houses

Well...actually graham cracker houses :) The kids really needed something to do today, so we put on some Christmas music, dug out the candy and continued our tradition of making these sweet little houses.

Caroline worked very hard planning out just where she would put her decorations. Notice her cute little apron~a present from MOPS! She thinks that she looks just like Grandma Lori in her apron and we all agree!

Connor went with a more minimalistic approach. A little here and a little here. Doesn't that Frankenstein face just scream "Merry Christmas?" (And yes, he ate just as much candy as he put on his house. It's one candy for the house...one candy for me approach for Connor!)

Change

"If nothing ever changed, there'd be no butterflies..." ~Author Unknown

Not only has our weather changed but it seems our journey has changed as well! Chris left this morning to start his new job back in Detroit. While we had a tearful goodbye, we know that this is a good change, one that will eventually get us back to family and dear friends. It was wonderful to have a few weeks of "vacation time" before Chris left and we enjoyed every minute of being together. Up until last week we were having the most beautiful fall! Temperatures were in the 60's and the sun was shining.

Here are a few pictures that we took on a hike thru Two Moon Park.

And then this happened: SNOW..and lots of it! The best part of this record breaking snow fall was that the men snuck in a full day of skiing in Red Lodge. Connor really enjoys these special days with Dad.

Last night I wanted to get a picture of the kids to get a jump on our Christmas Cards. Well, after many, many attempts this is the best I got.

Safe travels my dear...we miss you already! I am excited to begin this new chapter of our lives together :)

Birthday Pictures

Here she is, my birthday girl.


And here are the girls from preschool! They are an adorable bunch of little ladies.


They laughed..a lot! It was so much fun to see them act like girlfriends gabbing around the table :)

Every party needs a craft so Caroline and I decided that we would make "Haunted Houses" at her party. The girls loved it, but I think that they ate more candy than they managed to put on their houses. (Yes, I apologized to their mothers for sending them home on sugar highs!)

Caroline got so many nice gifts from her friends! The best part was that she was excited about everything and said "thank you" after opening each gift. It's the little things that make me proud :)

This picture makes me laugh. While not the best of the birthday girl, Addison just had to sneak in there!!!

I hope all your wishes come true my dear. Happy bithday, I love you.

Field of Dreams

On Thursday Caroline and I tool a field trip to the Field of Dreams with her preschool class. The kids played some games, took a hayride and were able to pick a pumpkin.

Yes, I know that she is the only girl without a costume on...let me explain. It was 27 degrees outside when we started. I was a "mean mother" and told her that she had to wear a coat so she stomped her feet and decided that if she had to wear a coat then she was NOT going to wear the costume. Fine with me. (I secretly had her costume in the trunk of the car so that she could wear it back at school for the Halloween party. See, I'm not really that mean.)