Christmas Break

It's hard to believe our 2 weeks of playing and sleeping in have come to an end. Tomorrow it's back to reality with early mornings, and our regular routine under way. I love the breaks during the year as well as summer, but always look forward to getting back into a routine. We enjoyed the holiday season with family, fun, and snow, snow, snow!

Christmas morning

The Wii has become a family favorite. LOVE IT!

We spent Christmas Eve out at my parents house with my brother and his family.

It wouldn't be a family gathering without Grandpa harassing the kiddos.

We spent Christmas afternoon with Steve's family at his sister's house.

McKenna & Chey

Miss Leah and her mommy

Tired Alicia

Snow time!

The kids played outside for hours....

And hours!

Frosting Christmas cookies

New Years Eve!

A night in Hollywood......We had a BLAST!

And of course, plenty of food to go around

Happy New Year!

NOW we can Dance!!!!!

McKenna's Birthday was last week and we had a family Birthday gathering for her on Saturday night. We all met for dinner and then came back to our place for cake and ice cream.

As most of you know, our McKenna is obsessed with clogging! To the point that one might think she has OCD over it. :) It's literally non-stop in this house. She clogs ALL the time. She even clogs in the shower! It often sounds as if elephants are coming through the ceiling.
So with her passion and desire to clog, Steve and I have been playing around with the idea for quite some time about using some of the left over pieces of wood we had from having our floors done, and making her an area she can clog on with her clogging shoes. Up until now, she clogs in her socks or else if she wants the sounds, she takes the shoes and heads to the garage.
Steve worked secretly for a week putting things together, then Friday night she spent the night with her cousins and we put it all together. She had absolutely no idea......

A mini dance studio!! She literally freaked out. LOVED it! screamed, jumped, danced, she thought it was all to good to be true.

We put the area in the backside of the house. She still however has to share her space with the piano. :) She of course doesn't seem to mind a bit.
When Mervyn's was going out of business here in Boise, we picked up all the mirrors. If your ever looking for mirrors, that's the way to go.

She had to test out the floor first thing! We put on a song her team is currently working on. I happen to get this picture at a point in the song/dance when they have to jump up and tuck their feet up. She had a blast showing us her "stuff" and of course enjoyed her cousins joining in.

And a BIG thank you hug for Dad and all his hard work. May your dreams come true McKenna. Be a star. Dance your heart out.

Happy 11th Birthday McKenna!

It's hard to believe my baby turns 11 today! This post is a tribute to McKenna and the wonderful addittion she is to our home. As I was looking through pictures to post I came across so many wonderful memories she has brought into our lives over the years. She truly is a WONDERFUL girl. (or as she would say, PRE TEEN!) I added the song playing on our sidebar just for McKenna today. It's one of our favorites. She likes to turn it up in the car when it is just her and I and have me sing it to her. SO, here is to my Sweet McKenna.....
11 things we LOVE about you.........
1. Fun
2. Intelligent
3. obedient
4. Trustworthy
5. Kind
6. Talented
7. Creative
8. Great Big Sister
9. Motivating
10. Happy/smiley
11. Good friend

Happy Birthday Magoo!

Winter Weather & Christmas Music

I think winter has arrived! We've had our first snow fall this past weekend and things don't look like they're going to be warming up anytime soon. I think our high on Wed or Thurs is supposed to be 13%. I'm not a fan of COLD weather but there is something about snow that is quite peaceful to watch. I know, call me crazy.
Anyway, with snow comes lots of driveways and sidewalks to be shoveled. Blake has been our #1 shovel boy. He has volunteered countless times this week to get out and shovel the walks. I thought the cutest one was when he'd gone out to shovel and we'd called him in for dinner. After dinner when he look out the front window, he couldn't believe all his hard work had been covered by a fresh batch of fallen snow. :)
The kids have been hoping for a SNOW DAY but I keep reminding them, that doesn't happen much here in FLAT Idaho.

This afternoon the kids piano teacher had a Holiday gathering at her house and the kids all played Christmas songs and had treats.

We have a more formal recital in the spring as well as a Halloween recital in October, so when it comes to Christmas, it's nice to have it a bit more low key when everyone seems to be so busy with the Holidays and various activities.

The kids had a great time, and it was fun to spend the afternoon enjoying Christmas music played by a room of talented kids. Thank you Kristy, for being such an amazing teacher and for inspiring so many kids to develop such a love for music. Your GREAT and they LOVE you!

From REAL To FAKE

We had every intention this year of once again heading out to pick a live tree for our family to enjoy through the Holidays. Steve & I both love a fresh tree. (after growing up in the Northwest, who doesn't) Then last week we had a friend tell us Lowe's had all their artificial tree's on clearance. I have to admit, after living here in Idaho the past year 8+ years I've seen more and more artificial tree's. They have been a bit tempting. The thought of no mess with pine needles, or worrying about the tree dying before Christmas. I guess I never knew any different than to have a real tree, not to mention not wanting to have to pay the price for an artificial one. Nonetheless, we thought by buying an artificial tree we would be able to use it year after year. I must say, It was a bit strange however when your used to bundling up to head out in the cold to pick the perfect tree, and then stop off for hot chocolate, verses heading into a warm store, picking out your tree in a box and going for ice cream on the way home. It did seem a bit strange but we all had a good time.

I thought it was quite funny we had to follow an instruction booklet for setting up our "fake" tree. It was like putting a toy together. The kids thought it was a hoot. Especially when they saw that the tree came in 3 different pieces.

Steve was teasing the kids about making sure they remembered to water the tree real good everyday. Yeah right, look at this EASY set up. No mess, or remembering to add 7-up or sugar to the water.

McKenna had fun bending all the branches and getting them in just the right spot.

The tree we bought came with lights on it. We plugged them in as we went to make sure everything worked. Blake expressed concern various times during the course of the evening,that he was concerned about the fact it wouldn't smell like Christmas. Steve informed him we would get a Christmas scent to help it smell yummy.

It had been a long day, Blake didn't quite make it. Just about the time we were done setting up the tree, I noticed Blake had fallen asleep under the tree. We decided to wait and decorate the tree the next day with his help, so we finished off the evening by making some cookies and watching Rudolph.

Here it is! Not to shabby for a FAKE tree. We're enjoying it, I must say. I did go buy 3 PINE scented car fresheners per Steve's request. We hung them on the tree, then came in the house after being gone and it was YUCK! They ended up in the garbage outside and I've since been burning my cinnamon/baked apple candles. If you have any brilliant ideas on how to make our tree smell a bit yummy & fresh, send them our way.