Callie's Christmas party

Good old Moppy top; Moppy top Ethan Dean!


Playing


We watched my ALL TIME FAV; Charlie Brown Christmas!


We frosted our sugar cookies


Mikayla, Madison, Callie, Hope and Rachel


The girls had sprinkles, colored frosting, and cute santa plates to take them home on!


Hope and Rachel


...Cute little boy, again!!!


Mikayla


Callie's girlfriend/boyfriend gingerbread people!
(she claims they KISSED!) OMG!!!


Callie hosted her very first Christmas party on Tuesday, she invited four friends for pizza, ornament making, cookie frosting, movie watching and playing! Callie planned the whole thing and even picked out the craft and went with me to buy the things she needed. I had these cute plates I had bought a few years ago from Tai Pan that I was able to send them home with for Mom, it was a lot of fun for everyone!

Autie A-shell's cookie party

All pictures taken by Callie.

Making cookies

Adding sprinkles


Frosting with Grammie-gram


What a MESS! We had dinner AND cookie mess...
(DEBBIE, notice the DEW BOTTLE?!)


Admiring their work, then eating it!


One of my favorite Christmas traditions is my Mother's sugar cookies, they are the best! Ethan has really wanted to make them this year, specifically one shaped like a dinosaur, but we couldn't find one; my Mom got a train cookie cutter, and he was SO EXCITED, I told my Mom I didn't know if he'd make it to Sunday, seriously, the kid was ready to burst with excitement, he stood in the storm door Sunday evening and kept saying "where IS SHE"? then when he saw her car; "IT'S GRAMMIE"!

I have a sandwich cutter that is shaped like a dinosaur, so I was able to make him doubly happy....

Just three.

Mike, Brandi, and Jacob. Three of my five siblings. How grateful I am for these three.

Mommy's little helper

Such a good little helper that Ethan is!

Oh man!

I tried a new workout; ON TUESDAY! and I am still SO SORE in my behind that I can hardly walk!!


OUCH.

Funny!

Yesterday when I was cleaning/vacuuming the upstairs, I just closed the door on the offce, put up this note and went about my day......



Callie came home from school, read it, and went to work.....

Garland REVISED!

Notice the BLACK lettering??


..Whoa.. where'd he come from???


Much,


MUCH


BETTER....

Did you really think I would leave it NOT PERFECT? :)

GNO + a DUDE?

Jeff looks like we held him captive... let's try again....


Now, JEFF is smiling, and I look like that mirror in the fun house?! :(


Lounging on the new couch!


The ladies try to get together outside work to talk and laugh and catch up without the annoyance of the phones, it's alway's a good time and great food! This time, we added our good friend; Jeff, he sits in what he's referred to "the BERMUDA TRIANGLE" of women!!!..... Jeff keeps us laughing quite a bit with his "so let me run this past ya".....

It's lovely to have people at work who you really love and enjoy, I'm very lucky!

Christmas garland

Last year I saw a picture in an ad of a decorated stair banister, it was so cute; that I cut out the picture, put it in a plastic baggie, and waited for this Christmas to duplicate it.Unfortunately, I just don't have time on my hands like I'd like, so after a few weeks of "hoping" to get everything together perfectly, I had to settle for what I could find at Walmart to put it together; it turned out pretty cute if I do say so myself!

I wanted some kind of garland on my fireplace mantle too, and I wanted it to match the banister, so when I found this great garland last year, on clearance after Christmas, I was able to get enough to cover both. I've had one certain "idea" in my head for the fireplace mantle, and this year, I think I've finally got it together!

Ethan at Hale

My little guy won tickets to Hale Center Theater in the summer at the Healing Hearts Walk. He has been SO excited about this, as he is the last of my children to go to Hale and see a play with Mom. Cody and Spencer went with me to see "Into the Woods" for their birthday's last year, Callie and I went to "Hello Dolly" in June for her birthday, and now, Ethan and Mom, to "A Christmas Carol".

WOW. If you have the opportunity to go see this, they did an EXCELLENT job on this, as they alway's do. I am amazed each time we go, how they can do what they do in such a small, round space, and NOTHING about the story is lost, it was done beautifully.

Ethan was happy the WHOLE TIME; sat on the edge of his seat the whole time, and was engaged and interested. He did say "this is long, when will it be over"? about 20 minutes before it was over, but he loved the ending, and he has since talked about how the ghosts "helped him to be nice"......how precious it is to have children really understand something so important, and to get that message through music and theatre.

I am hoping to be able to take everyone next year to this one, maybe make it a family tradition; wish I'd seen it earlier.


Mom: What was your favorite part of the play"?

Ethan: "when the play was over".......

Thanksgiving

Ma and Zach getting the turkey ready


...J's FAMOUS gravy!!


Callie and Corbin; trying to wait for it all...Ethan, not waiting!


Zach and Melissa


Uncle J and Callie


Mom and J


Santa baby


Hopper, Zach and J


Looking at all the possibilities at Grandmommy's


J,me and Zach


...With Ma


Cool cody


telling Grandmommy what they want for Christmas


...And best of all, sitting with Granddad!!




We had a great Thanksgiving! I started the morning out going to "The Human Race" 5k, with Duch, which we mostly walked. It was a coooold morning, and we never really "warmed up" but it was sunny so that was nice, the only complaint was the working until midnight the night before, so I ran the day on fumes, literally!

The nice thing about dinner this year, was that it was small in number's, and as much as I LOVE my family, it was nice to have just Mom, Zach, Melissa, Jacob, us and 6 kids, and a partridge in a pear tree! Our family is now VERY BIG, and trying to cram everyone in the same place is tough; AND LOUD!

Zach cooked the most amazing turkey, of course my Mom's yummy stuffing, I brought the rolls (rhodes, they were SO GOOD) and my famous yam's, mashed potatoes and cranberry sauce, of course my Mom made pies, she is a wonderful baker; amongst other amazing things she does, and she made pumpkin, bannana cream, and well, I can't remember the other....... SO GOOD.

We then went to Doug's parent's; where we just SAT, too full to do anything else! :)

When we got home, I was so exhausted, the kids and I put on our jammies, crawled into my bed, turned on Home Alone, and FELL ASLEEP!!