Merry Christmas

I hope you and your family had a very Merry Christmas. We had a wonderful time celebrating the birth of our Savior with our family. We are so incredibly blessed.  I can't wait to see what 2014 holds! 

Random Christmas Fun in Photos



We've been busy making cookies and ornaments.



He claims, he wasn't just eating the frosting, he was 'just linking it off my fingers.'



Dressed up for church in their Christmas outfits.



Amelia dressed up for her Christmas Program at school.



Watching the Christmas Parade.



Here comes the parade.



They were singing Away in a Manger and Joy to the World.  :)



Christmas Build-A-Bears with some cash they received. 

Snow Day(s)!!

We finally got a good amount of snow, plenty to play in, on more than one occasion.  The kids were so excited!  Amelia was out of school all week due to the road conditions and I'm not ashamed to admit I let Nathan drive us all to and fro for several days.  I'm not one to take a lot of chances, especially with the kids, when Nathan and I go the same place daily. :)  Here's are some of our snow day(s) pictures for you!!

Cheese!

Sledding at Sara's house!

Checking out the pigs.

Asher's snowman.

Cutie.

All three kiddos and their snowmen.

He was SO bundled up.

Snow angel.

Once he was down he couldn't get back up!

Smile!

We put her to work!

Him too!  It's good for them!

The Polar Express

On December 1st not only did Sparkles, our Elf on the Shelf return, we also went to Branson and rode the Polar Express train. What a perfect way to kick off the Christmas season! It was a super fun time with the kids, Mema and Poppy and Kylie.  Amelia and Asher both enjoyed the train ride a lot.  This year the Santa left a lot to be desired, even Amelia told me that he wasn't the real Santa he was just one of Santa's helpers.  She's one smart cookie! 

This year Sparkles arrived with a big box for the kids to fill up with their toys to give to other boys and girls who don't have a lot of toys, so Santa will bring them more. She also brought them their Christmas pajamas to wear on the train.  Sparkles reminded the kids to be nice, not ugly and to share.  And most importantly she told them that Jesus was the reason for the season, not her and not Santa.

Sparkles and her goodies!

Polar Express time!



I might be partial, but I think I have seriously cute kids!

Love this picture of Mema and Poppy with their grand kids.

One of the neatest parts of the Polar Express is the fake blowing snow!

Asher loved it as well.

Meeting the Conductor and getting their tickets stamped.

Very intent.

See? Told ya.

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Checking out the Christmas lights.

Thanksgiving 2013

Thanksgiving Day we headed to Mema and Poppy's house for lunch.  We had a great time and ate PLENTLY of great food.  After lunch we bundled up and loaded up in Poppy's truck and headed to their 'farm' to hunt for the perfect Christmas tree for their house.  We had a lot of fun searching for the perfect tree, then watching them cut it down and load it up to take it back to the house.



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Amelia sizing up the tree.

Waiting for Poppy to cut the tree down.

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Our next scheduled Thanksgiving dinner wasn't until Saturday. So Friday, yes black Friday, we loaded up, and I say we, I mean Nathan and the kids and me and headed to Springfield.  We didn't get up early and head out, just whenever we got around.  We were only after a couple of specific things and much to my surpise they were still available when we got to the stores.  After a couple of hours shopping we had Amelia's late Birthday lunch, due to her being sick the day of her birthday, at Hinode, which the kids call 'the fire place'.
 

Hiding from the fire.



She really loves eating here and REQUESTED that the dragon come out for her birthday, but was scared at first. 

Saturday the weather was AMAZING!  We went to my Mom's house for more yummy food and fun family time. The kids were even able to play outside after lunch, that's how amazing the weather was.



Playing outside.



The older kids buried them.

After lunch and playtime at Nana's house we headed back to Mema and Poppy's house to decorate their Christmas tree.    



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Beautiful!

We are so blessed and so thankful to have all our family close and able to spend time with them.  I'm working hard to get caught up on the blog!!

Cinderella 4th Birthday Party

Amelia requested a Cinderella Birthday Party this year, so a Cinderella Party she got.  I had a lot of fun planning and putting it all together and it made it even more special that she loved it.  We had a small issue that I'll get to later on, but other than that the party was a huge success.  I did what any other good mom would do and I went to Pinterest to gather all sort of fun ideas for the big day! 
The following pictures are all pre-party. 

Castle Piñata. Candy Necklaces as Drizella's Beads. Coloring books as party favors.



I made this carriage for the party goers to take their pictures in.  Easy enough, cardboard and spray paint.

Coloring station.

Make you own Crown of Tiara Station.  This was a big hit with the kids.

Being silly, all ready for her party.

Some of the details.

Yummy food!

I made and decorated the carriage cake.  Beth's Bake Shoppe did the sugar cookies, aren't they awesome?

Ready for her guest to arrive.

Pre-party time we had a talk with Amelia about being grateful and not rude or ugly.  Yes we are THOSE parents, but we wanted to stress to her that it was her party, but she still need to be grateful and polite.  She did great up until Piñata busting time.  When the candy came out she was in hoarder mood and I stepped in.  Then things went south.  Let's just say I had to take her to the bathroom and have a 'talk' with her.  I was pretty upset and in hindsight she wasn't horrible, this was her first real 'friend' party, she was hyped up on sugar, and there was A LOT going on.  Now here's the real kicker, we withheld her presents from her until Thanksgiving.  She did open all the presents at the party however when we got home NONE of them came out of my truck.  We talked to her every day about her attitude and how she was ungrateful at her party until it finally clicked in her mind that it was her fault, she chose to be ugly and selfish.  So on Thanksgiving night she got all the presents from her party, and I truly think she learned a good and valuable lesson.  Parenting is HARD stuff people, HARD!
Sorry for picture overload, but here are some shots from the party!   

Us in the carriage

This is Asher and his girlfriend.

Some of the girls posing.

 

My favorite people.

 

She's excited!

This is a quilt that Mema made for Amelia out of all her old baby clothes. 

All and all it was a great party.  I think everyone enjoyed themselves and a few days afterwards, Amelia told me it was the best birthday party ever.  So I'll take it, even if we did have a bit of a bump in the road.  Parenting is always a challenge and I think anyone reading this that has kids will understand.  I had a great friend tell me I handled it better than they would have in that I actually took her to the bathroom instead of doing it in front of everyone.  Got to love friends!  It's the small things....
Happy Birthday to Amelia Paige Beaver!