Christmas Day

On Christmas this year we got about a foot of new snow, so it was beautiful! I just wanted to share a couple of cute pictures from this year. Sophie was so excited for Christmas this year. We were quizzed on lots of Santa questions, which was pretty entertaining to see how her mind was working to put it all together.

Carson was thrilled to finally get some 'boy toys'! He spent all day playing with his new race track and cars.

I think girls just come with that nurturing thing...these pictures of Bella just melt my heart they're so sweet!


I made tutu's for the girls, and I can honestly say this is the only time I've seen them wearing them! I thought they were cute....

And this last picture of my sweet husband, totally shocked and excited at the gift that his In-laws gave him--Garmin Forerunner!

Now I see the wisdom in my parents making us shower and get ready for the day before we came down for Christmas morning.

Christmas Eve Nativity

We always get together with the Harris side of the family on Christmas Eve and have dinner at our place and a program of some sort. This year we decided to do the Nativity (which hasn't been done since I've been part of the family). It was cute to see our kids dressed up--Sophie and Bella were angels (of course), and Carson was a little lamb. He was a huge ham that night in front of the camera, it was hilarious!






It's impossible to get all three kids smiling and looking at the camera at the same time.

Gingerbread Tradition

I realize this is a little late, but it was still blog-worthy, so here you go...

When you're a kid you don't realize all the time and energy that goes into some of the famiy traditions. Sophie LOVES to help me cook, so I thought she would be old enough to start one of my favorite family traditions--gingerbread houses! I had NO idea what I was getting into, and I still can't believe that my mom would make enough gingerbread dough for each one of us to make our own gingerbread house. WOW! It ended up being a two night activity, and despite the mess and time it took, it was by-far the best Christmas activity that we did together this year. It will be repeated next year, and the next, and the next. Definately worth it!

We spent the first night mixing up the dough, rolling it out and cutting all our shapes.


You'll see me using a ruler to get my house perfect.....HA! What a waste of time that was! By the time I moved it to the cookie sheet and baked it, I was more than an inch and half off on my wall heighths, my roof didn't fit, etc. So after it was all cooked I took a serrated knife to it and did some remodeling. Next year I think I'll just cook up sheets of gingerbread and then do the cutting.


Sophie had a great time rolling out dough and cutting shapes too.


Night number two consisted of decorating and constructing!


Mark helped Sophie decorate too and we all had a great time! They made a Mom, Dad, Sophie, Bella, and Carson gingerbread for the front yard, along with trees, snowman, etc. Mark mastermind a 'dog house' that ended up looking like a coffin for the front yard as well! (He said it was because I tried to 'fix' it!) Here's a picture of some of the best!


And the finished product was just too cute!

Our Ballerina

Sophie has been taking a little dance class in our neighborhood the last couple of months and had her first recital in January. (These pictures were taken in December, just so you don't think I still have my tree up!! ) I know this will come as a shock, but she was the cutest one there! She wasn't nervous and did a great job on stage! It was fun to see her perform!

Good ol' Time at Cornbelly's

Last week we had our cousins come into town to stay with us and we had a GREAT time! One of the things we did was go to Cornbelly's Corn Maze at Thanksgiving Point. The actual adult corn maze is 13 acres (if I remember right) and takes 45 minutes to 2 hours to get through. The 'kiddie corn maze' was about .003 of an acre and took approximately 5 minutes to get through....that was more our style. It had rained the previous weekend and so the mud was pretty nasty. Pushing the double stroller through the maze would have been impossible, so we opted for Mark to stay with the babies, while I ventured the small corn maze with the kids.

They also had other things there, as you'll see by the pictures. It gave us 'city-folk' a little taste of 'farm country'. In fact, the kids mentioned that Grandpa could have done all this at his house. So, Grandpa Larry, if you're looking for your next business venture, I think we've found it. You'd just have to start planting corn in that 30 acres!


















There was some pretty tough competition on the race track that day!

And nothing like a good sucker to finish the day off right!

Doggie Ears - Ooohh the little joys in life!

On Wednesday's Sophie attends a class at the public library. A librarian reads them books and they sing songs and make a craft of somekind. Sophie really has a great time. Today they sang that song, 'Do your ears hang low, do they whobble too and frow,...etc' and made 'doggie ears' to take home. Right after dinner, Sophie decided that she wanted to make doggie ears for Carson and Bella and asked for my help. They had such a good time and all looked so cute, that I had to take a few pictures. We then had to make doggie ears for Dad too. They are ready and waiting for him too! I'm sure he'll be excited to wear them!

Crazy Sleeper

At the end of each night, Mark and I go and check on the kids just to make sure they are snug as a bug and safely tucked into bed. Occasionally we find Sophie upside down with her feet on her pillow, or other random sleeping positions. Tonight we found this....head hanging off the side, sound asleep. So, of course we had to get our camera and take a picture.