Not Pictured in 2010

Remember I did this last year.

Might just be a new tradition.

 January
Ash rocking out

February

our Valentine Day photo

March

 My sweetheart

April

Two 7 year olds

(hard to think they'll be 8 in a little over 3 months)

May

Clay and Sissy

June

Last day of 1st grade

 July

Jake at the river house - happy, dirty and tuckered out

August

Ash's picture of me and J.

September

a day we had the pool all to ourselves

October 

canning peaches

November

the girls singing with their MP3 players

December

Abigail reading to Ash

Happy New Year's Eve!

Our Christmas Story

The girls slept all night.  Ash was the 1st one up at 6am.  She came in asking what she always asks, "can we go downstairs?".  We told her we'd have to wait for Abigail to wake up.  Ash wanted to wake her but before we could get to her door, Abigail came jumping out of her room.  She said she was nervous to wake up, not wanting to accidentally and run into Santa if she woke up too soon.  What a girl.  

It's time.  Let's go see what Santa brought!

Santa didn't forget Jake.  Plus, Abigail hung a sign by Jake's stocking telling Santa that it was a dog stocking. It worked, Jake had some tasty treats in his stocking.   Jake was happy to finally get a hold of his gifts from under the tree.  I would catch him over at the tree sniffing for his present.  When Abigail went out to gifts for the family (with her own money) she also bought one for Jake.  He loves tennis balls, but not for playing fetch, it's just another chew toy to him. 

It was so fun to watch the girls rip through their present.

Then it was J and my turn.  I asked Abigail to snap some pictures of me opening gifts.  When I looked at them they were all headless shots of me.  I laughed.  But this one (do you see my leg?) I was happy she got,  it shows the sweet tag Abigail wrote.

Another wonderful Christmas.  

I am so very thankful for my little family.

Round two was soon to follow.

My sister, parents and grandparents came over for breakfast and stayed through lunch.

Ashlynn was surprised when she came back into the living room and saw more presents under the tree.

It was so nice to have my grandparents spend the day with us.  Grandma told my mom that it'd been awhile since they'd watched kids open gifts on Christmas.

My favorite part of the day was watching everyone play Abigail's new game, Hedbanz.

Merry Christmas!

Twas the Week Before Christmas

We had a very fun filled week before Christmas.

Monday we did a little gift exchange with the boys and Melissa surprised us with a video she made from all the countless photos we have of the kids playing together.  I love it!

Tuesday I ran a few errands.  Christmas is at our house this year and I needed a few things from the grocery store before the big day.

Wednesday we had our annual cookie decorating party with friends, 24 friends to be exact.

And then my dear friend Kelle stopped by.  I sure do miss seeing her everyday, it was fun to catch up.

We also watched Despicable Me.

Thursday was our cookie baking day.  The girls and I had fun hanging out in the kitchen and snacking on all our goodies, that night we also went out and  looked at Christmas lights.

Friday we took the girls to see Tangled, then J needed to run to Kohl's (in order to save Christmas/get Amanda stocking stuffers) and on our way home we delivered a plate of cookies to my sister and mom.

And then it was finally Christmas ... what a very Merry day we had.  

I'll be back to post on that, soon.

Children's Church

Sunday was the Children's Program at Church.

I love to hear all the kids singing.

I was happy that Michayla was a part of it again this year. I wish I would have taken a pic of the 3 girls together.

This year Ash and Michayla were in the same group singing How Great Our Joy

and Abigail was in a small group singing What Can I Give Him.

Jason worked, so he missed the program, but the girls decided to put on a special program for him last night.  It was very sweet.  They giggled through a lot of it and were hamming it up but Jason smiled and clapped through the whole thing.

Break Time

It's official, we're on Christmas break.

I'm looking forward to spending the next 17 days with this cutie!

I get her all to myself and I couldn't be happier.

Christmas is Saved

Today was Ashlynn's preschool program.

Jason had a closing shift so he was able to go and I took Abigail out of school early so she could go too.  Ashy looked so cute all lined up with her classmates.

The kids sang a few songs for us and then acted out a story from a book they've been reading.  It was super cute.  One kid was Santa (Ashlynn) and the other kids were his elves.  After they woke Santa, he couldn't find his red hat. He told the elves no hat, no Christmas.  So they helped him look.  He found a pile of dress up hats and tried them all on, each time the elves would say, 'that's not it!' So, he kept looking.  Then an elf remembers he has a present for Santa and it happens to be his red hat, Christmas is saved.

I'm so proud of this little girl, she sure is growing up right before my eyes.

Thanks for the fun afternoon Ash, we loved your program!

It's starting to feel a lot like Christmas

O Christmas Tree.

Where are we going to buy you?

Our requirements for the perfect tree - somewhere close by (Kuna), beautiful & reasonably priced

 Rustic Gardens was our 2nd stop, we were a little skeptical but it ended up being the perfect little tree lot for us.

 Fresh cut, brought in weekly ... that's a bonus.

 The sweetest older gentlemen and a very nice lady helped us.

Their dogs were friendly too.

They measured the trees we liked.

They held them up in the open so we could get a better look.

And once we finally decided on the perfect tree, they gave the stump a fresh cut

and helped us load it in the truck.

Another bonus.

The girls were tickled that today was the 'day' we were getting a tree.

 I loved these red, simple, classic looking tree stands.

Much cuter than the big, plastic, green one we have.

Lets decorate!

It was a fun night going through all the ornaments.

The girls were very much into trimming the tree.

Ash kept asking if there were anymore ornaments she could hang.

The girls loved that we hung candy canes on the tree,

something so simple brought such big smiles.

Today, while both girls were at school,

I sat down and wrapped a few presents while watching the movie,

A Christmas Box.

It's definitely starting to feel a lot like Christmas around here now.

Born in a Manger

This past fall, while my mom was helping my grandparents move, she came across this nativity set.  My grandma said it could go into the garage sale but mom asked if she could give it to Ash.  My mom knew right away that Ash would love it.

And, she was right, Ash does.

Ash took it to show and tell last week to show her friends.

We tried to say it was for both girls but Ash has claimed it as hers.

She plays with it all the time.

I love to see how she sets up all the people and animals.

Do you see the chickens up on top and the sheep.

I've been wanting to get the girls their own nativity scene that they could play with and this one is perfect.

Thanks Grandma and Mom, it will be set up and loved for many years to come.

Breakfast, Santa and a Fort

(this picture cracks me up, hello Santa ... and it's the best one I got! Haha)

 This morning Abigail's school had their very first

Breakfast with Santa.

I wasn't sure what the girls would ask Santa for.

Abigail is wishing for some pretty big items and can't seem to settle on that one

special gift she wants Santa to bring,

and Ash, well, you never know what that girl might say.

Abigail ended up asking Santa for a computer or arts and crafts

and Ash asked for a bear that will hug her back. 

So sweet Ash.

After lunch we headed out to shovel and play in the new snow that fell today.

Abigail was determined to build a fort.

It was cute watching her work so hard at it and she was really happy

when J was finally done shoveling and could help.

 It turned out to be a pretty cool fort, the girls spent a couple hours out there

playing in it, repairing damages and adding more to it.

Look at Jake. Do you see he's stolen a snow ball out of the fort.

That dog loves to eat snow!

Snow Much Fun

Hello December

So glad to see you and all this snow!

What a great day for a snow day.

Both girls couldn't wait to get out there in it and play.

So, that's just what we did.

 Then the girls couldn't wait to play with their favorite snow buddies, so we did that too.

  

 Melissa built the kids a hill to slide down, what a hit.

 

What a fun day of playing in the snow!