New Year's Eve

New Year's Eve we took the kids to The Big Dam Bridge here in Little Rock. Hannah was really excited about walking over the "really big bridge". It was a little windy but overall nice weather. At the top of the bridge I did get a little cold because of the wind. The kids really enjoyed it and I know DJ and I did too. It was nice to spend the time together as a family! That night we had a relaxing night at home. DJ and I put the kids to bed and we stayed up to watch the ball drop and ring in the new year together.

Christmas 2011

So I didn't take any photo's of the kids Christmas morning. I know, Mom of the year award goes to me! But I was just excited about them opening gifts that I didn't stop to grab the camera. There is however documentation on my MIL's camera. She was taking the photos from Christmas at her house! I did however get photos of Christmas Eve night. We spent time at my dad's house. All my siblings were there with their family. So Hannah and Trey had some good cousin time!

Luke, my step-brother's son.

Hannah and Haley, my step-brother's daughter

Aaron, my oldest brother's son

Aaron scaring the girls

Everyone got a vehicle of some sort. The girls got motorized scooters. My brother's boys got bikes.

Trey got a motorized Lighting McQueen car. Luke got a train.



Thanks Mimi!

Christmas morning the kids woke up to find Santa came. Hannah got a Loving family doll house. Trey got a Cars Geo Trax. Both are items that can be added to easily!

Before church on Sunday. Such a cheeser!

Gearing up for Christmas!

This last week has been pretty busy for us. My mom had another surgery the beginning of the week to fix her bladder among other things. Getting old is looking more and more fun! She is doing well now! Then Hannah's last day was Wednesday. So we have been gearing up for Christmas day. Earlier this week Hannah wanted to write a letter to Santa. I know it isn't spelled right but she was so proud of it. And she did it all by herself. I'm going to keep it in her baby book because it is her first letter to Santa.

 "Dear Santa, I want a Hello Kitty [scooter]. Love, Hannah"

 She had to make sure it made it to him before Christmas and she insisted on putting it in the mail box herself! Thankfully I got it out before the mail lady came!

Presents! It's a hate/love relationship! I love giving them, and receiving them. I hate wrapping them! This year both sides of our family are putting emphasis on the kids instead of the adults. But since the number of kids keep multiplying the number of presents haven't really changed much! ;)

This year I got a little more festive and made bows for each present!

 And thankfully they all fit under the tree....barely!

Another family tradition we have is making a gingerbread house. Usually I get one big one and decorate it myself. Hannah did help last year, but I did most of the work. This year I thought it would be fun to have a little village of gingerbread houses. However as the week has gone by, I haven't really wanted to do them. So I let Hannah do one herself and the rest will probably not get finished.

  And it can get a little messy when the 5 year old is in charge!

but she was really excited about doing it herself. (I did have to help her a little with the frosting).

All finished!

And what would go great with Gingerbread houses than Christmas Cookies! We needed to make some for tonight and for my side of the family's party. Trey really just enjoys licking the beater!

 He has to make sure to get it all cleaned!

"It's yummy, Mama!"



Our favorite cookie in the whole world, Chocolate Chip!

MERRY CHRISTMAS EVERYONE!

LOVE THE JACKSON FOUR!

December fun!

Hannah's first field trip was to The Children's Art Center for the play, A Year With Frog and Toad. I was able to go with her. She really like it! She also LOVED riding on the school bus for the first time. The play was pretty good, I thought. Though it wasn't my favorite. :)

Hannah with her friend Emma.

I tried to get a picture of the two of us, but it didn't turn out so great. Emma stuck her head in the way at the last minute and I couldn't get Hannah to sit up anymore, so I look all crooked.

This was Hannah's bus.

My step mom's family invited us to come to Christmas this year. I made a cake to take along.

Trey helped!

 Finished Snowman Cake

 As you can imagine, playing can get pretty fun sometimes. But clean-up is not so fun! Hannah can make her room go from spotless to this in about 5 minutes. Not joking. But getting her to clean it up can be quite to chore. So I stole an idea from a friend. My friend made her son a "map" to help him clean his room without getting so overwhelmed. This is mostly Hannah's problem too. (And that she is lazy too.) So I thought making her a "map" would help. And it did!

 It's not fancy, but it gave her just the encouragement she needed. I put pictures next to the words to help her know what the word said. Since she is learning to read at school, I made sure she read it to me before starting on her room. They I put little check boxes so she could check off her accomplishments and to keep her encouraged through the whole process. I didn't get a finished picture, but she took her map and colored all over it as a reward. She really like the map idea and we have used it several times.

Hannah meets Santa

I have struggled with the whole "Santa" thing since I first had Hannah. I don't like lying! And I don't think it is good to lie to your kids, even about Santa. Hannah's first Christmas I took her to sit on Santa's lap just so I could get the photo. But I haven't taken her since. She has drawn up her own conclusions about Santa being real. And she has only seen him on TV. That is until she went to the library with her class and Santa was there to visit with the kids. So, for the first time since we was an infant, Hannah sat on Santa's lap. She whispered in his ear what she wanted. After getting up she came over by me. I could tell she was super excited and just as she got beside me she told me in a non-library kind of voice, "Mama, he's real! Santa is real and I told him what I wanted and he's really real!"

Now my dilemma is what do I do. I can't deny that he was real in the library! I can't lie to her though and say there really is a Santa Clause who lives in the North pole and delivers toys on Christmas Eve. One of my friends once told me what she did with her son. She let him make up his own idea about Santa and just went with it. She didn't deny it or confirm it. And she also put a lot of emphasis on Jesus! I agree. I have always told Hannah that Christmas is about Jesus' birth and that is why we celebrate it. But now that she thinks Santa is real, I have to somewhat play along. I refuse to lie to her and use "Santa" as a tool to make her act good. So when she asked me if he is real, the answer is: "Only on TV is he real, like Mickey Mouse or Cinderella. There is no real Santa Clause just like there is no real Mickey or Cinderella! 

Hannah telling Santa what she wanted. It was really cute to watch her "whisper" it to him. She didn't want anyone knowing what she wanted. Thankfully I already know!

Hannah made a Christmas necklace as a craft.

She was very excited about the songs, craft, and getting to meet Santa.

Hannah meets the "real" Santa.

Trey's Play Date

Today we had a few friends over to play. We are lucky to have several friends with kids right around our own kid's ages. I haven't hosted a play date in a while. So it was nice to see Trey play with some of his friends while I was able to visit with the moms. I also made lunch for everyone. I made ham and cheese crescents and potato soup. The star of lunch was the crescents I think! I am still trying to prefect my potato soup and I am looking for good recipes if anyone has one they would like to share!

The kids played outside for a little while at first. However, since we don't have a very fun backyard they decided to come inside to play. Good thing Trey's room was clean! :) 

 Trey was pretty excited about seeing his friends.

Christmas Card Outtakes!

 Taking Christmas photos have to be one of the things I dread the most, but always have to do. I love having a photo memory of this time of year. Sometimes I try to get the whole family and sometimes it is just easier to get the kids. This year we were going to one of the whole family. We went to the capitol to take them and ended up having to leave due to the amount of people were there. So, instead of the whole family I decided to just get the kids in front of our tree. It was more work than I thought, but I will cherish the photos in years to come. Here are the best outtakes and the last one is our photo we used for the cards.

 This would have been a good one, but I wanted more of the tree in it.

 The kissing photo!

 Trey thought he needed to give Hannah a kiss too! She wasn't so excited!

 Hannah hasn't really prefected the smile yet! Sometimes it is little and sometimes it is REALLY big!

 Finaly after about 30 minutes of stressful posing and about 30 pictures later, we got a good one!