Winter Wonderland

We finally had enough snow for the kids to play in! We all went for a walk in our favorite nature preserve to enjoy the snow. Kale loves to pick up the snow and eat it. :) He likes to try to throw the snowballs as well.

This is them trying to throw snow on each other, and running from the ones their Dad was throwing. :)
My little snow angels. This time of my life is flying by way to fast!

Special Visitor

We had a very special visitor come to our house today! Santa wanted to let Mara know he received her letter she sent a few weeks ago. He told her that Mrs. Claus really liked it. He gave each child a small tree ornament, and told them what treats the reindeer like. (Carrots and M&M's). He allowed me to take a picture, and the kids showed him where the stockings were hung, and where to put the presents. We are so glad he made the trip to visit, and we can't wait to see what he leaves for us on Christmas Eve. Merry Christmas Santa!

HP Touchsmart Computer Review & Give-away

I saw this on a friends blog, and wanted to give it a try! I usually don't enter contests, but this one seemed easy, and fun. I would love to win this computer! Check out this link to see about this great give-away.

www.totallytogetherreviews.blogspot.com


With 5 people in our family, and the kids getting older and needing the computer more, we really could use an upgrade. Having another computer would be so handy. Especially one with so many fun features. Good luck to everyone!

Christmas Recital

Carson did a fantastic job on his piano recital. This is only one of three songs he played. We are so proud of him and all his hard work.

Christmas Trimming

This is the kids tree. It is the one that we put all our homemade ornaments on. Plus, every year the kids get to pick out one new ornament, and we put it on the tree. The kids LOVE to put "their" tree up. They spend so much time picking out the perfect new ornament. It has the look of all their personalities. This is the family tree. It is the tree that mommy decides what goes where on the tree. :)

They are so excited for Christmas and all the fun things they get to do this time of year.

This month has been pretty busy! I really wanted to post about decorating the tree. It happened over a week ago, but I am finally getting around to posting it. :)

Thanksgiving 2009

Thanksgiving was really fun this year. Lee's brother Jarett, and his wife Shannon, and their kids came to visit from NY. They were able to spend a few days with us, and we loved having them. We had a grand feast, and for some reason I took no pictures of it. :) We went to Micheal's later that evening, since they were open, and grabbed some things we wanted.

Shannon and I decided to try and go shopping on Black Friday. I am usually not one to undertake such chaos, but I thought I would try it this year. We had looked at the ads and had discovered that Toys R Us was going to open at midnight. I thought I would rather stay up late than try to get up early. We arrived at the store close to midnight, and soon realized that we were not going to stay! There were so many people that the line went around the building and through the parking lot up to the street. I value my life more than I value a good deal. I am glad we left because later we heard that there was a riot there, and the police were called. Crazy!

We did go the next day in the late morning and actually got most of what we had wanted anyway. I am actually excited about what I found for the kiddos. They waited in the car with their Dad's while we went into one store since we didn't want them to see. They went with us into Costco, and Kmart, and they did great. I was surprised by how the late morning shoppers weren't frenzied, like the early morning shoppers. It was actually not bad, I might try it again next year!

Mara was a leaf in the Thanksgiving Assembly at her school this year! She did great and was so excited to be chosen to dance. Only 7 kids in her class were picked to dance up in front of the entire school! She wasn't even nervous. She was awesome.
We took all the kids for a walk when the weather permitted it. They loved being outside and running around. My kids really has so much fun with their cousins. They were so happy to see them and spend time with them. They had buddies to play with for days, and got along so well. Thanks for coming Bartholomew Family! We loved having you come, and we hope you come back to visit real soon!