Sunday, December 26, 2010

Snow Day

This morning I woke up and started getting ready for church when Natalie ran in my room and said, "Mommy! It's snowing!!" I looked out the window and these huge beautiful snowflakes were falling from the sky and actually sticking to the ground. Being the scardy cat that I am I decided not to go to church. Instead I had my dad come pick me and the girls up and then make us waffles at his house. It was a brilliant idea. :) I got them all dressed up in their warm clothes and they played in the front yard of my parents house.  There really wasn't much to do cause it wasn't sticking. I tried to show them how to catch the snow on their tongue and then we played tag. It was a pretty wet snow so we came back in and had breakfast. My dad makes awesome waffles. After breakfast we went back outside and tried again. Heidi tripped and fell face first right into a puddle. Her gloves got soaked and her pants. I tried to get her to come back in the house but she didn't want to. Finally I just bribed her with fruit snacks. :) After Daddy took me home we just stayed in the house for the rest of the day. The snow kept falling and it was so pretty. 
 I love my girls
 Trying to teach Heidi to catch the snow on her tongue
 These are kinda blurry but we were playing tag


 Beauj covered in snow
 Practicing her snowflake catching
 Love this face
 Nokie had on her pajamas so Dad carried her out into the snow
Dana and James

Christmas Eve and Christmas Day

What a great Christmas weekend! We had so much fun together as a family, with family and with friends. I took a million pictures too...just to warn you. :) So let me start with Christmas Eve. The guys went on their annual christmas eve shopping trip and I had Sabrina, Jaime, Jayden and Kingston over to decorate cookies for Santa. 
 
 
After naps we all went to the Candlelight Christmas Eve service at church. The girls loved it...for the most part. :) They loved the music and the singing. They were dancing in the aisles. Natalie got upset cause she couldn't go up on the stage and sing with the other people. :) When we sang Silent Night I had Heidi in my arms and we were swaying and singing together. I just felt very blessed to have my family and to be at church with my girls, celebrating the true meaning of Christmas. After church we went home and fed the girls dinner and played a game of Candy Land. This was their first time playing and they were so cute! Natalie was just happy that she won...she's pretty competitive!
 
 
So Christmas morning was so crazy. Natalie woke up at 6 and tried to wake Heidi up but she was too tired. So she hung out in bed with us till 7. Every five minutes she would tell me something or aske me something. Pretty funny. My favorite one was...
"Mommy. Did you see Santa last night?" 
"No, Baby. I didn't."
"I did...I looked out my curtains and saw him and the reindeer flying in the sky."
"Really? That's pretty cool."
"You should look for him next time Mommy."
When Heidi woke up the first thing she did was clap her hands together and say "It's Christmas!" I love having kids! They waited at the top of the stairs till Shane got the fire going, turned on the Christmas lights and turned on the music. We did stockings and Santa gifts and then the rest of my family came over. It took us all morning to open gifts! 
 The girls with their Santa gifts
 Mom and Dad in their matching pajama pants. They say...That's How I Roll. :)
 Bub, Solongo and Nan
 Nokie wearing the jacket and hat that we bought her
 Heidi loved opening her own gifts
 Heidi got a harmonica in her stocking. She loved it and played it all day!
 Shane bought Natalie a computer game for Christmas. He set up a table with our old computer and had the game already set up so they could play. They really liked it.
 Nan bought the girls these little play ponies. Totally cute. Heidi ran around the kitchen saying Giddyup Horsey. :)
Shane and I gave the girls a dress up box for Christmas. I got a ton of stuff on sale after Halloween and it turned out pretty awesome. Tons of hats, fairy wings, bunny ears, fireman jacket and a couple frilly skirts. Heidi spun around and around trying to be a ballerina. Natalie just tried on everything. 
 After naps Jim, Rose Marie and Jaime came by to say hi. I love this picture of Shane and his mom.
 The cool jacket I got from Colie. I saw this when I was in Alaska and tried it on. It's my favorite color! I just can't believe that Colie bought it for me. :)
 This is my Christmas gift from Shane. I could not believe he bought them for me!! I tried them on a while ago but they were out of my price range. It was a huge surprise. :)
We went over to my parents house for dinner. Nan's yummy lasagna!!  Nokie looked so pretty in her Christmas dress. I just couldn't get her to smile for me.
 The girls coloring together.
 Heidi having a tea party with Becky
 Me and Dane
Daddy showed the girls how to put olives on their fingers and then eat them off. They thought that was pretty cool. 

Thursday, December 23, 2010

Yeager/Marshall/Dean Christmas

We had Christmas with Shane's family tonight. With Justin being a fireman and Colby being an EMT we have crazy schedules to deal with. Justin ended up working overtime so he wasn't able to celebrate with us this year and two of his kids were sick so Christi stayed home with them. It just wasn't the same without them! We did have a good night. I made a lasagna...my grandmother's recipe with a few of my own twists. It turned out really yummy. My dad made fresh bread to go with dinner and I made a chocolate cake for dessert. I know...I'm all about the food. :) After dinner we did gifts. Youngest to oldest. Natalie really wanted to be youngest. :) Then we had coffee and dessert, I put my girls to bed and we played Apples to Apples. It was so fun! 
 Colby and Kingston
 Sabrina and Colby
 Heidi opening her present all by herself
 Love this shot of Kingston
 Heidi and Jaime being silly
 Natalie was so excited to get a penguin pillow pet!
 All the girls...Rose Marie, Me, Sabrina and Jaime
 The boys...Kingston, Colby, Jayden and Shane
Dessert...chocolate cake, a melted chocolate/caramel sauce and then caramel sprinkles. Yum!!

Can't Wait

Shane and I were cleaning the house this morning and I didn't hear Natalie at all. Usually that means trouble so I went looking for her. This is what I found...
 She was just lying on her tummy looking at the presents under the tree. How cute is that??
 When I got out the camera she started posing for me. Silly girl. :)

Monday, December 20, 2010

Imagination

The girls are pretending to be super heros with my Christmas tissue paper. :)

Saturday, December 18, 2010

Lights of the South

 Lights of the South is this really cool Christmas place here. They have a Santa, they have a playground, a christmas light maze, hot chocolate, a place to make smores and the best thing...a hay ride through a million christmas lights. The kids love it! They love it every year but each year they love it more. We went with my parents, Dane, Nokie and Becky. We went on the hay ride first. The girls sat on their knees in the front, holding onto the rail, pointing out the cool lights.  After the hay ride we let them play on the playground this year. Every other year it has been FREEZING! But this year it wasn't too bad. They got to play for a while, then we bought smore kits. Shane roasted the marshmellows. The girls didn't want to go near the fire. After they were all warm and gooey I put them in the graham cracker chocolate square sandwich. YUM!! It was so good. I don't even remember the last time I had smores. Anyway...it was a really fun night.
 At the end of the hayride you drive through this huge castle lit with Christmas lights.
 The girls playing in the gingerbread house
  The beginning of the ride starts in the rainbow tunnel.
 This was Christmas tree lane...all the trees  were different colors.
 
 The playground was really cool...this was a huge wooden train.
 This was a two story playhouse with slides coming out all sides! Heidi flew down the first time and landed on her face. The second time I made sure to catch her. :)
 They had two huge bonfires. Shane roasted the marshmellows for our yummy smores!
 Nokie loved the smores best! My kids tried a bite but weren't too sure about it. Nokie loved it. :)