Family Photo Shoot

By some miracle, we were all together (except nathan who is in Florida) a week before Thanksgiving. We took the chance to take some family pictures in mom and dad's backyard. They turned out great. My sticker on my white shirt promised that it would be "slimming" but I wish it was a little more effective :) The kids all cooperated nicely but some of the adults (cameron) had a problem keeping his eyes open for the shot. Anyway, we took enough to get some good ones. I love it when all the family is together. We even had an early Thanksgiving dinner and spent the evening playing games. Cameron is going to be deployed with the National Guard in June so it makes the fact that we were all together even more important.

Gingerbread fun

We traditionally build gingerbread houses with the kids each year, but I had wondered if they liked it as much as I did. I decided not to say anything about it to see if they brought it up. So far, nothing. But I did feel bad for Cord since he wouldn't have that fun experience. But preschool saves the day. We had a fun family day at school where we build candy house. Cord did the whole thing himself and had a lot of fun with the frosting. I think it looks fantastic.

Dance Open House

At Christmas time, Brianna's dance studio invites the parents to come see what they have been working on. We sit as they do their normal stretches, exercises, and routines. It's fun to see how Brianna works with the girls in her class (she's friends with everyone - big shocker), and to get to know the teacher. Then the girls preform a christmas dance that they have been working on. No pressure, just fun. I'm glad Brianna enjoys being here since it seems like she is here a lot!

Naughty or Nice

Some days I wonder. This is the first year that Cord is understanding all about Santa and that he brings presents for Christmas. But he's not old enough to do the "santa's watching..." to make him change his behavior. We went down to the Bass Pro Shops today for a fun activity with friends. They have a nice Santa there and a fun workshop with free games for the kids. Cord told Santa that he wants a "Toy Story 3 shake and go race track and a pillow pet. Let's hope that Cord can be nice for just a little bit longer so his Christmas wishes can come true!

First Band Concert

Mason has been loving his band class in school (a lot more than he thought he would) and is doing really well learning the saxaphone. Tonight was his first band concert. We really enjoyed our evening. Not only did we enjoy hearing Mason play but we really enjoyed hearing the older bands. Michael loved hearing the jazz band. Oh the memories!!! We hope Mason keeps up the hard work and sticks with the saxaphone. We love hearing his songs!

Happy 4th Birthday Cord

My baby finally turned 4 today. He's been arguing with me for months now that he is 4 so now it's official. I tell him that he's such a big boy but he responds, "No, I a short boy." Gotta love that kid. To celebrate his big day, we invited the kids from our primary class over for a Christmas party. We also invited Cords little friends, Matt and Cam to party with us. We made fun craft projects like decorating our goody bags with snowman stickers and jingle bell necklaces. Then they decorated cookies to take home to their families. We had lots of fun games planned but didn't get to do all of them. It was a fun celebration. After the party, Cord got to open his presents. Tonight we celebrated some more as a family with a dinosaur cake that Cord picked out. Got to love birthdays.










YUMMY CAKE! It's finger licking good!

Piano Concert

We had the pleasure of listening to Chelsea preform her Christmas piano piece at their Christmas recital tonight. She's was assigned the hardest piece of all her students and has worked so very hard to get it right. She played a beautiful verson of "It came upon a Midnight Clear". I wish I could get the video to load and share it with you. She also preformed a duet with Mason's friend - Langdon that was also great. I love seeing her get joy from all her hard work and I'm so very proud of her. She also looked fabulous (don't you think?) We found this beautiful dress that fits her really well at the Goodwill and it costs me a whole $15.00. Best deal ever!

Christmas preformance

Brianna is not only on her school's dance team, she is also on her dance studio's preforming team. Busy girl! This was her first preformance with the studio. They have put together a fun Christmas program together and have several preformance dates scheduled this month. They were dancing in the mall today and were challenged by the small space. But they did a great job and it's always fun to watch her preform. It makes my heart happy so see her doing her thing out there on the stage!

Swimming lessons

Nothing says "Fall" like...... swimming lessons!?! We are blessed to have an excellent indoor swimming facility that does lessons all year round. Summer is just to busy so we took the chance to partake in some lessons. The cold weather wasn't so bad, except when it was time to leave and they were soaking wet. We had to hurry and turn the heater up on full blast. The boys had a good time. They just finished their month of classes. We'll take December off and perhaps do more swim classes in January. We are hoping Mason can get strong enough with his skills to get his swimming merit badge.