My last post of the year

'07 was awesome...new baby, new friends, new hobby...

'08 promises to be great!

Here are the girls celebrating before bed:

Until next year... :)

The kids are bored...

Now that the surprises are gone, the gifts are all unwrapped and everything has been opened, the kids have nothing to do. ;) So I suggested we do a math page or two. Funny thing is, after their brains had been mushed by Barbie and the 12 Dancing Princesses and Barbie as Rapunzel (Christmas gifts), they surprisingly agreed--as long as they could work with their new American Girl dolls. Here's K with her doll Elizabeth:


After they finished math, they went to their most favorite Christmas toy of all...the box Micah's highchair come in! Why do we even bother creating list of fun gifts when all my kids need is some cardboard, tape and their imaginations? :)

Before I forget...

Merry Christmas!

Oh, the weather outside is frightful but the FiRe

is soooooooo delightful! (And the marshmellows are sooooooooo delicious!)

Matthew built a teeny tiny bonfire so that our highly deprived ;) kids could roast marshmellows. They had been on his case for weeks and he was stalling, waiting for colder weather. I don't think--and am very happy!--that it's not going to get much colder anytime soon.

By the way, these picts were taken with my brand new camera that my sweetheart bought for me! Not to bad for a novice like me, huh?

Our Real Christmas Tree

Last night, after everyone had finally fallen asleep, CG and I were up twirling our thumbs. Neither one of us felt like sleeping yet. The tree was still lit and CG asked if we could take pictures of it. It was dark in the living room and the pictures maxed out my little point and shoot camera (now when I get my dslr and can control aperture and shutter speeds...these will be awesome!) But you'll see the the fun we had with moving the camera around as the shutter was snapped...

Our Christmas Tree

Actually, it's our gumdrop tree, not really made from gumdrops, but from easily-obtained and cut candy fruit slices. We visited the county museum yesterday for their Christmas craft tour discussing the early 1800s traditions, and saw a replica of a gumdrop tree from years' past. So, of course, we had to make one. According to the kids, it's as delicious as it looks. :)

Finally...a typical day!

Whew! We survived the church's magnificent week-long Christmas pageant! What a wonderfully exciting, but absolutely exhausting, time we had! Now we can say the Christmas season has officially begun in the our household.

After a week away from their studies, the kids needed some structure and I needed my routine back. Of course, as anyone with a 6-month-old knows, a steady routine is non-existent. Kenna played with her doll, Mabry made clay snakes and Cayli decided to cook.

While I was feeding Micah his daily dose of butternut squash (his very favorite!) she asked if she could please use the bananas for something--something, as in anything. I told she could...if she had a recipe from a book. Truthfully I just didn't want another gross creative concoction of bananas-ketchup-egg-pancake syrup. So she found a book in one of the cabinets, preceeded to pull all the ingredients from the shelves and made a batch of yummy sugar cookies. She tells all on her blog.

Baton Class

Yesterday was open house at the girls' dance studio, so Matt and I were able to see first-hand what the kiddos do during dance class. The biggest surprise for us: K (in pink/purple) and M (in blue) are doing so well! You see, when we're at home, CG twirls and twirls and would all day long, if we let her. So we know what she can do. At home, K and M may pick up their batons a few times, but it's mainly to morph them into light sabers a la Star Wars! A baton is simply a prop for their imagination; whereas it's a dance tool for CG. We are very proud of our girlies and can't wait for the recital this spring.





Here is K preparing to throw her baton in the air, clap twice and catch it.


















Here is CG demonstrating a horizontal move. She is so happy when she has a baton in her hands.

I made the girls' day!

I surprised them with a tea party! I've been sick for the past two weeks and we didn't get to finish all I had planned for Cranberry Thanksgiving. I decided that I wouldn't like a passing holiday and I sinus infection stop us from enjoying ourselves today. Mabry and I prepared the cranberry bread using the recipe in the back of the book. As the bread was baking I washed out our tea set, found some fine china and prepared the tea. We had a delightful time. Well, everyone but Mabry--don't you see the sad drama? She didn't like the tea. :( But she did perk up when I let her fill her cup with lemonade instead. :)

While we sipped tea, Micah spit peas! :)

Twirlin' Elves

The girls marched in the Lexington Christmas Parade today. This is by far the highlight of the season! Aren't they cute? 35 twirlers participated; this was CG's second year and M and K's first. They are counting down to next year!

They twirled to Let It Snow, but the weather was far from wintery. What a perfectly beautiful day for a parade!


This is K in action!

What are little girls made of?

Sugar and spice and everything nice...

Yeah, right!

Cop guns: a hole buck
Scraps of fabric with pink hearts: Free (but wrinkled)
The entertaining bond sisters share: Priceless :)