So I finally have a good family picture for my blog heading. I love it!!! I am grateful to my sweet friend, Jen, who did the photo shoot. She has a great talent.
www.sugarblossomphotography.blogspot.com
Check it out!!

My little girl turned Five-years old!

It was no surpise when Braedyn requested a Princess Party for her birthday. It was so fun to plan with princess tiaras, glittler, plastic goblets, pink sandwiches, and even a Kiss the Frog game. We did Princess make-up and even read The Princess and the Pea. I got really into all the pink fun...

Braedyn wanted to dress like Giselle from "Enchanted."

Here is my sweet five-year old. Her birthday cake came in this cute princess box behind her.

I had plans to make a Barbie cake for the party, but since we thought we were going out of town until the day before it, Grandma Becca offered to order it from HyVee instead. It was so beautiful...and yummy too!!! You can see Brittney wanted to be Cinderella...of course.

Here are our princesses and pinces sitting down for lunch. Everyone wore their royal attire.

Yep, I even found pink swirl bread to make sandwiches for the royal lunch. We made fruit kabobs and had colorful Goldfish crackers to go with them. Pink gatorade filled their plastic goblets.

Can she stay my Little princess forever?!!

Ready or not, here I come...

Tonight, I was reminded that when we do simple things together as a family, we have the most fun. Finally, at 8 o'clock we got around to doing family night. We didn't have anything planned so it was a short story about Jonah in the Bible and then Hide and Seek. Hearing the girls giggle from their hiding places and waiting like a child in my own hiding spot, it was the most fun I had all day. It is a comfort to be reminded that I don't have to be the most creative mother, I just have to find time for simple moments with my little family.

Breadyn hiding in the tub.

Troy helped Britt get under the blankets in the back of her closet. Too bad the music box she turned on in there was a quick clue for her spot.

We love our little girls!!

Merry Christmas!

We hope you had a Merry Christmas! Ours was a busy one, but so fun. We did Christmas Eve dinner with Troy's family. Chistmas day we went to his parents' to open gifts. My family came over to our house later in the afternoon to open gifts with us and then we all went to my aunt's for dinner. Whew, it was a day full of wrapping paper. It was a great two days.

The girls were so excited to wear their Christmas dresses out to dinner on Christmas Eve. That is a tradition of Troy's family. The four of us came home afterwards and opened Christmas jammies and "attempted" to do a little story about Christ's birth. As you can see, they (my 3 kids) were all a little giddy with excitement. I don't know that they heard any of it. Isn't that the way it always goes?
A Christmas hug for Daddy.

Cute jammies huh?

Santa brought them both Barbie Maraposa. She was a big hit.

Isn't she a beautiful barbie?

Britt was so excited to get Cinderella chapstick in her stocking. She put in on for a good minute.

Yep, there's a lot of shine on those lips. What a sparkling smile!

We Love Snow!

With just days before Christmas, we were excited to have a good day to play in the snow. After twenty minutes of finding out gear, going potty, and getting bundlged up, we stomped out int the snow. The girls threw snow in the air, pretended to be snow spies and of course, made snow angels. I think I made a good angel myself. It was fun being out their with them. When we were cold enough, we came in for hot chocolate and marshmallows...a must in out house. It was a great day!

Satna Clause is Coming to Town

I am always wishing their were cooler festivites around Christmas time for us to do. When I found out Village Pointe (Shopping Center) does a Santa Parade and Tree-lighting ceremony Troy new he was in for a cold night. It started with a kids' holiday concert in the amphitheatre and then a parade down the strip.

Brittney fell asleep on the way there. She slept through almost the whole concert.
The String Beans (like the Wiggles, but not so freaky) did a kids concert. Braedyn danced for the whole hour. They served hot cider and cookies to keep us warm.

Santa was a little late. "He had a little sleigh trouble over Vancouver." Brittney was freezing at this point.
The parade was worth the wait. Rudolph, the Grinch, Santa's Elves all lead the parade with Santa following in a lighted Cinderella carriage. That really got the girls excited. When Santa turned the switch to light up the Christmas tree, their faces lit up right with it. It was a great family night. I am glad my mom could be there too.

"Gobble, Gobble, Gobble"

So I got this great idea to "help" the kids make Turkey hats to wear on Thanksgiving. It seemed like a quick project, but it really consisted of me cutting turkey heads, beaks, eyes, and headbands for an hour. The kids were great at cutting out the feathers. I guess that is the way most projects go. They wore them all of 20 minutes on Thanksgiving, but they were excited about them.

We heard "Cockadoodledoo" all throughout the house. Braedyn couldn't remember what a Turkey said.