to give you a perspective...

this is a picture in early spring

and this is the same area taken on Friday...
The swing on the left of the picture is buried, there is a lot of snow out there...

Merry Christmas

from our family to you...

did you hear?

it's snowing!
this is the view at 10:30 pm
yes it's still snowing.
the weatherman is calling this wave 1 (there are suppose to be 4 before it's all done)
quite honestly we could be done with one.
I've seen enough white stuff for at least two winters.
sigh...
stay tuned for more pictures, unless of course we are buried and gasp lose Internet.

twas the night before the night before Christmas

and we are .....
dancing, and eating
making human pyramids, and baking cookies
drinking hot chocolate and watching movies...
and finally....sleeping by the Christmas tree.

wreaths....

made with almond bark and pretzels...
simple and tasty.
and of course fun!

ho ho ho

you made this in school...
it quickly brought back memories of other Santa faces
made by your brothers and sisters
along with the customary photo in front of the tree.
love how excited you were,
love seeing Christmas through your eyes.

snow fun...

everyday after school this is where you are...
playing in the snow.
there are forts, and dugouts.
snowball piles and hideaways....
you don't seem to notice the cold, or the wet, or the brrrrrr
all you see is fun.

hot chocolate weather

these December days bring colder weather, snow, and wind...
the perfect weather for hot chocolate with smushmellow's according to Rosie.
Me...whip cream and cinnamon is the perfect mix.

have you been wondering

how that sleeping in their own bed has been going?
One has slept in her bed since it was delivered, yeah! Yahaira...the other?
well she has been most creative in her attempt to do anything but sleep in that bed.
here she is last night, half in her room, half in the hall way, sigh a bit of a rebel this one is.
she has yet to make it through an entire night sleeping in her bed...but at least we are starting out in that location each night.

Daycare Christmas party...

yesterday we celebrated Christmas with our daycare kids and families.
So fun to see the excitement on the kids faces as they give their parents the gifts they made, not to mention the over the top excitement at the opportunity to open their own present.
Always fun to spend time with this great group of people, who make my job so fun and easy.

Gingerbread house...

usually a source of headaches, and stress for me.
often there is a meltdown or two...
tears are a given...usually they are shed by me.
We have done this for multiple years...and never has the experience been classified as simple.
One year we used 3 tubs of frosting besides the frosting that came with the kit. The roof continued to slide off the house base. Eventually it just stayed there resting again the house, I conceded defeat. There has been crumbling house pieces, candy that has been taste tested then applied (no we have never actually eaten a completed house, we are simply happy it was completed.) so why do we do this? simple, they love it, the gooey messy fun that is creating this little bit of holiday cheer. So I suck it up and embrace the moment...ok honestly I grit my teeth and pray I don't simply lose my mind. This year the challenge was made simply all because of a gift given to us a pre-assembled house as in take it out of the box and voila' it's ready to go, all we added was frosting and candy, (taste testing still occurred :) easy...simple...wonderful! Had the person who gave us this kit been available I most likely would have hugged them and shed tears of pure happiness. It was that simple.
besides those three above we had 5 other helpers all of which it was their first times in the gingerbread house decorating...what an amazing and fun experience to watch as they too discovered the fun in creating.

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ugly sheets...

Kevin was running errands this afternoon, I asked if he would stop at pamida to pick up sheets for the girls' new bed.
this is what he brought home...ugly sheets.
sigh ....
they don't match the girl's room...and yes that does matter.
the colors are, well ugly.
so are the stripes.
He said they were a bargain, he also thought they looked great.
he has ugly taste.
Thinking they are going to be returned tomorrow...or perhaps I will regift them...
there must be someone on my list that should get some ugly sheets for Christmas. :)

new bed

it was time to move them to a big bed...they
were quite excited when the bed was delivered...alas when it came time to go to bed that excitement had disappeared.
hopefully they will stay in their bed through the night...find myself thinking that would be way too easy.
guess time will tell.

Christmas dance...

they performed at half time, during the girls basketball game.
It was energetic, and loud, chaotic and wonderful.
They were excited, and eager, afterwards
they were simply tired, it was way past their bedtime.
meltdowns occurred once we reached home (not the best way to end a fun evening)
all is calm for now.