Christmas Eve

We exchanged gifts with our friends on Christmas Eve. Charlotte got a Belle Barbie.


Brooke got a Hannah Montana Game. They also got a tub of Princess games, like Bingo, a fishing game, checkers, and some card games.
The kids having a tea party.


We read The Nativity and Brooke attempted to dress up as Mary. It didn't really work.
We decorated cookies for Santa.
Licking the icing is the best part!
The tree with all the present ready to be opened!

What we've been doing...

We've had some pretty lazy days this week. It's been nice sleeping in (if you call 8:30 sleeping in) not having anywhere to go and just hanging out. We have done a few fun things. We tried making gingerbread Santa sleighs instead of a house. Charlotte was more interested in eating the candy and the icing.


Brooke actually did a pretty good job. I think hers is the only one that survived.


We made 4. 2 survived until I moved them and now we're down to one :-(.
The box made it look so easy and cute. I think we'll stick with gingerbread houses.

Brooke and Charlotte found a new past time. Skiing. With the empty wrapping paper rolls and the sticks for our windows. It was actually Charlotte's idea.
We drove to Grand Rapids for Family Night. Nathan wanted to eat at Logan's for his birthday dinner. His birthday was actually on Sunday. We did a little shopping while we were there and saw some Christmas lights.

Charlotte falls asleep in the car anytime after 3:00. I'm still not sure how she sleeps like this.

Brooke is pretending to be asleep.
I tried to take pictures of the girls in their Christmas dresses. They don't like to be very serious sometimes.


I've also been doing lots of baking; probably too much. I became addicted to chocolate covered pretzels. But I think I'm done. Except for making cookies for Santa. :-)

Santa Train

Today we went on a Santa Train Ride. I guess you could say it is similar to the Polar Express but we weren't wearing pajamas and we didn't get any hot chocolate. But we did get to see Santa and a Princess did read The Polar Express to us. The train ride lasted about 1 hour and a half. The kids had a good time so that's all that really matters, right?

This is our conductor, Tom, right as we were boarding.
Santa gave each child a teddy bear.
Our friends, the Robertson's came too. Here is Brooke and Landen.
Kylee kept playing peek-a-boo with us.
Charlotte, Peyton, and Brooke
The Princess reading "The Polar Express".
We capped off our day with a trip to Steak-n-Shake. We sure do love that place.

Just Chillin'

The three girls were watching Enchanted and 'chillin' on the couch. Each one had their blanket and relaxed.

Sledding during our winter storm warning. We got about six inches of snow and then a mix of rain and snow all day today. The public schools were closed and the university closed after 5 pm. The children had a good time playing in the snow.

Girl's Night Out!

Last night was a Girl's Night! We had a great time and had some yummy food! We ate at a delicious Mexican restaurant that had so much good food, including queso and dessert!


From left to right: Mary, Amanda, Melanie, Kim, me and Melinda.

I thought we were showing off our fabulous desserts, Melinda thought we were smiling :-)
Let's try that again!
Amanda and Melanie digging in.
The peanut butter pie! So good, but not completely peanut butter of course. Something else was mixed in with it, maybe caramel. Divine!
Then the whole reason for our Girl's Night Out--- NEW MOON! It was a good movie. I wouldn't say I loved it, but I did like it. I thought the acting, especially by Bella, was much better than the first movie. Of course, a lot was left out that was in the book. It left me wanting more! I can't wait for the next one! I feel like I want to read the book again too. Anyway, thanks girls for a great night!

Winter is Here!!

Well, it finally snowed. I don't really like the snow all that much. Let me re-phrase that...I don't like the feet and feet of snow that Michigan gave us last year. I don't mind a little dusting like we had today. It's pretty to look at and fun enough to play in, and we didn't have to shovel our van out. The girls were so excited though and ready to go sledding on our hill. I was even surprised Charlotte wanted to go. Last year, she didn't like the cold and would only play for a few minutes. Tonight, she was having a blast sledding with the big kids.



Charlotte going down!
What goes down, must come up!
"This is fun, mom!"
"I'm to busy to look at the camera! I've got sledding to do!"

Family pictures

We took a friend to the park the other day just to get some family pictures. We missed the pretty fall colors and he we haven't had any pretty snow, so there wasn't really a pretty background. But it was a nice sunny day. One of these pictures will be in our Christmas card...I 'll let it be a surprise :-)