Happy Girl!

Things that make me smile:

• Pictures of my dad-with hair....

• When my husband is home from work and bored out of his mind-he does this: COOK!

Cheesy Roasted Red Pepper Dip 

7oz jar roasted red peppers (about 1C diced) 
4 C grated pepper jack cheese 
8oz cream cheese 
3/4 C mayonnaise
2 T minced onion 
3 cloves garlic, minced 
1 T Dijon mustard 

and this...

now if I could get my kids to nap at the same time-I'd be in heaven!

Cookie Fun with Aunt Michelle

Bryce was able to have some quality 1 on 1 with Aunt Michelle last night. He loved it! They made cookies together. As you can see-Bryce was SOOO helpful...ha ha ha. He's a great taste tester too!
Thanks for making his night so fun Aunt Michelle!

Christmas with Cousins!

Knowing we were headed to Bremerton, Emma had been dying to play with her cousin Maddy. Although she didn't see much of them with all the hectic christmas schedules-she was able to get in a little playtime during the opening of presents! Go figure that when we pulled up we realize we forgot our ENTIRE bag of clothing-for all of us!!!! So Auntie Michelle went to the store and bought the kids some jammies and undies to get us through the weekend. What a lifesaver! Plus Em was delighted by the Christmas Tink jams with sparkly buttons! lol!

(the cute christmas bucket from Auntie Ashley-see, I told you I rarely buy anything for my kids! They are well loved on by their Aunties!)

Em & Maddy coincidentally both got Snow White costumes as gifts, so it was fun to see both girls in their new dress up. They had fun playing Princess & the Frog with Maddy's new Disney Store figurines (which Emma pretty much coveted and has put on her birthday wish list!), Bryce's favorite toy from Grandma & Papa was his giant SUPER WHY action figure. (He held it the entire car ride home today too!)

(...and chocky)

(all the kids got Zu Zu pets...)

(Bryce LOVED this pirate book called "Pirates Don't Wear Diapers"! :)

(look at the fun Tinkerbell Cafe that Maddy got!)

(Bryce's new additions to his GeoTrax set...)

(the 2 princesses playing "princess Tiana" together)

Emma's view of Christmas dinner....(all photos I got of Christmas dinner were courtesy of Em's photograhy skills!)

(yes-that is Emma's plate-she ate 23 of Grandma's famous rolls and....yep-GUMMY WORMS!)

This is the toy Emma picked out for Maddy but DESPERATELY wanted herself (so Momma headed to Freddies and picked one up-hey-It's Christmas-don't judge me! :)



She has napped with Ariel, and bathed with Ariel, sang Ariel lullabies, and tucked Ariel in to watch movies together....

After the christmas morning present madness, I took Stephanie & EmmaLee to see the new Princess & The Frog movie (once again) since Steph hadn't seen it yet. Steph brought treats for them and Em had a fantastic time with a cousin she doesn't see very often. Steph was such a helper and so responsible. We wish she lived closer-she'd really come in handy! :) The girls both enjoyed the movie and Steph got a kick out of how excited Em was to see it for the second time.

Another whirlwind trip-but the kids had fun nonetheless!

A "Just Us" Christmas

Last night we let the kids open a couple gifts from Grandpa & Grammie-as you can see-they were a hit! Then it was off to bed so Santa could come! Mike wasn't feeling well, so he fell asleep at 7pm and I got the fun job of being not only Santa-but his elf too...I was up until midnight assembling all the toys for tomorrow's playland Christmas! It was totally worth it. I crashed on the couch with Peyton to snuggle, and the kids woke up at 7:30am. While Emma rushed to get some clothes on (she was naked prior of course) Mike rang bells outside the bedroom window. She was oober excited to rush out and see "ho ho", but he had vanished by the time she finished putting on her pants! She walked out of the room and all she saw was the Radio Flyer horse....she climbed on and then noticed the room FULL of toys and didn't know what to play with first-so she RAN into her brothers room to wake him up and ask him if he wanted to play with her. He wasn't happy about that-but with some quality snuggling with dad while they explored his stocking treasures-he got over his tood.

Peyton has been eyeing his stocking since last night and FINALLY got to break into it this morning-talk about MERRY CHRISTMAS to him! Brink was most excited about the new toy Em had picked out for her.

Nana got each of the kids their first Tricycle...

The kids played and played this morning-the best gift of all these items must have been the Grocery Store because they played pretend for almost 2 hours straight!

Mike and I gave each other a small amount to spend and decided the other gift needed to be from the heart. I made Mike this tile plaque for his desk at work and a flip book of "things remembered" about us.

My creative husband made me a collection of 50 tags. Each one had a favorite memory he has of "us". Needless to say we were both full of tears after we read each others gifts-this Christmas couldn't be more perfect and full of the most important thing Christmas needs....the greatest of all gifts-L.O.V.E.

I will treasure this bundle of tags forever...it's nice to know that after 15 years, he still remembers the little things that have brought smiles along the way. :)

This is the flipbook I made for him...

Now we are packing up to head over to Bremerton where we get to enjoy another Christmas with our family there. Emma has been talking for a week about playing with her cousin Maddy-so here we come!