‘Twas the Night Before Christmas

The morning of the 23^rd I was hurting for family pretty bad. Greg and I hadn't made any party plans with our friends for the holidays so, about 10:30 Wednesday morning we decided we were going to party it up at our house. We invited 3 families over to have a good old fashioned Christmas Eve Party. We had the traditional Soup and Breadsticks. I made some Chicken Noodle Soup (it actually was horrible, because I timed it wrong, so by the time everyone was ready to eat my noodles were mush!) Luckily there were a couple other soups there to save the day. Everyone pitched in to help make it a great night.
We started off eating then let the kids play for a while before starting our program.

For our Christmas Program we tried to put in some of everyone's holiday traditions. The Denney's have a tradition of doing a reading of "'Twas the Night Before Christmas." I asked our friends, Matt and Alisha Lindsey, to do the honors. I think they thought I was a little crazy, but they were good sports and did an awesome job.

The Owen Family then hosted a white elephant exchange, including the traditional "Wright Family" passing game. I was glad this was one of their traditions because it was one of ours too! I was surprised at the boldness of my kids to get what they wanted. Tanner and Bryn had to steal their items from adults, not something I expected of them. Bryn ended up with a Hello Kitty Notepad and Tanner was the proud (very proud) owner of hand sanitizer. Funny kid, you would have thought he'd just been given $100. Kade was hilarious as the gifts were being passed from left to right; he thought it was the funnest game ever. I was worried he wouldn't want to give his gift up, but he played along with a huge smile on his face.


After the white elephant exchange all the kiddos opened their Christmas PJ's. So fun to have to have 13 kids running around in nice, cozy jammies as the excitement of Christmas was building.

 {And here is Tanner again showing off his hand sanitizer}

The kids played some more games as the party started winding down.

After everyone left it was time to set everything out for Santa and his reindeer.

Greg took care of sprinkling the reindeer food because (drum roll please) it was snowing!

The night ended soon after that. What a fun, busy way to spend Christmas Eve. We definitely missed our family in Utah (and Washington) but we are blessed to have good friends in Arkansas to help fill in the gaps.

“D” is For Dad

The kids LOVE their dad. Here are just a few pics we've taken recently of them. (Of course, Tanner is laying right where Kade wanted to, so we get a picture of Kade trying to fight his way into his desired spot.)

This is a picture Brynlee drew when they were talking about Dads at school.

She was also supposed to bring a picture of her and her dad into school to share with everyone.

Gingerbread Houses

We were able to do one of our favorite traditions the other night; making a Gingerbread house. The kids love expressing their creativeness through candy. Go figure. J We decided we were going to divide the house in 2 this year. Can you tell which side was who's?

Kade made several contributions to our night. I thought I was safe when I gave him 2 of the ornaments that came with the gingerbread kit. He had such a great time… but it didn't save me from any mess!

And this is what I found on my floor! (Plus a few extras) :)

We did have a good time, and the mess is still continuing as the slowly eat it up.  But it's worth it!
Gotta love it!

Class Parties

Brynlee had her class party this last week. I always love going to her school and seeing her in her element. Here she is all dressed up as Rudolph.

Here are the herd of Rudolphs that attend her school. All ready to hear a Christmas Story from Miss Becca, their teacher.

Chocolate Frosting Frenzy

Tanner has recently discovered his love for Grandma Bench's Chocolate Frosting recipe. Each day when he comes home from school he begs me to make it so he can smear it across graham crackers. Most days I have to tell him no. (You can't raise the kid on Chocolate Frosting, right?) But I gave in the other day, and earned the Mom of the Day award when I let him make it on his own. I thought I could completely stay away from the kitchen while he was making it, but I couldn't help snapping a few pictures. This kid loves his frosting!

5 Cents a Lick

I finally got all my Christmas Cards put together today... and I enlisted help from the kiddos.  5 cents a lick.  My sincere apologies if your card comes slobbery.

Brynlee's Turn

Little Miss Bryn has been growing up way too fast lately.  She has such a fun sweet sass to her  but I am always amazed at how sweet and caring she can be.  She definitely has a tender heart and enjoys 'mothering' those around her.  Sometimes this is a big help...  other times I have to remind her that I am the mom and I'll take care of it. 

She is learning so much at Special Start Preschool.  She has so many friends, I think it's a pretty even tie on what she likes best at school... learning or socializing.  Every 2 weeks they focus on a letter, color and shape, then they get to bring objects in for show and tell that correspond.  She absolutely loves this and has to have something new to take every day.  They also get to do gymnastics as one of their rotations during preschool.  This is probably the thing I hear most about.  She is always begging to get signed up for the 'real' class.  One thing at a time, is what I tell her. 

{Bryn and her class when they had a Policeman come visit} 

Her favorite part is when she got to sit in the back of the police car... where the bad guys sit.

{Bryn and her classmates playing in the parachute on PJ Day}

Bryn is also thriving in her ballet/tap class that she takes once a week at the Walton Life Fitness Center.  She has been chosen as "Princess for the Day" a couple times.  When this happens she gets to wear a "beautiful tutu and tiarra" and stand up by the teacher the entire time and lead the class in all their exercises.   They are learning the dances for their recital.  They'll be dancing to a couple of songs from Mary Poppins.  She comes home each week and practices her little heart out.  It's quite the show to watch.  She'll be in the kitchen while I'm making dinner saying;  "first I do this  and my hands do this, then when the songs says this, I do this and my feet do this, then when the songs says this I do this and then ....." on and on and on...going a million miles a minute.  I'll be honest.  Sometimes I make her practice silently.  But it's so fun to watch her do something she really loves, and something she's really good at.   It makes me smile. 

I just love this little girl.  I'm am so not ready for her to grow up.  I'm having way too much fun with her right where she's at.   Sass and all.