Love at First Song

We started opening presents tonight..so much fun!! The kids were so excited, and they could not wait to rip into those gifts! Well, I could not resist posting this video of Teaghan and her new Diamond Castle Barbie from Auntie Amy. She loves this movie and sings along with the music while she watches. Amy, this gift is a huge hit! Thank you so much for making her night. Here she is...this is sure to make you smile! (By the way, she is wearing Maddison's shirt for some reason, hence the very low neckline!)

Christmas Traditions

I love family traditions!! We have a few traditions here in our house that we use to help our family celebrate Christmas. We started a new tradition this year with the addition of our elf, Jolly! He arrived shortly after Thanksgiving, and we have found him in a new place each morning! The kids have had a great time searching for him before breakfast each day. He's turned up in some unusual places!





Have you heard the story of the Pickle Ornament? This special ornament is hidden in the Christmas Tree and on Christmas morning, whoever finds it first gets a special present from Santa! This present is always something that can be shared well by four, sweet, selfless children who never fight over toys! *wink, wink* Our kids love looking for the pickle on Christmas morning!




We keep a basket of all of our Christmas books and starting on December 1, we read a Christmas book each night. I was surprised how many Christmas books we actually had! Next year I want to wrap each book, so that when they pick a book, they will have to unwrap it to see which one it is....I better start now, if I want to be done by next Christmas!

One of my favorite things to do around this time of year is look at Christmas lights! For the past few years we have started going to see Life University's Lights Of Life. They do such a good job with all of the displays and it is set to music! The kids look forward to seeing this every year. And before we go, we go out to eat at the Marietta Diner, now made famous after being featured on Diners, Drive-Ins, and Dives on the Food Network. This place is the bomb! Good Eats! We let the kids order whatever they want, even if it is a mile-high piece of cake! Of course, they love that!! I am looking forward to this in just a few short days!

And finally....Every Christmas Eve since I can remember, at least 29 of them! *smile* before we opened our gifts, my Dad reads the Christmas story from Luke 2 and we use my Mom's nativity scene to act it out as he reads the story. Our kids are enjoying the role play now with the same nativity scene I played with when I was their age. There is something about my Dad's voice as he starts to read..."And it came to pass in those days..." I love it...it gets to me every time.

Well, here are a few of our fun traditions! Don't you love this time of year?! Enjoy each moment!

Crafting Day with Good Friends!

A few weeks ago, 2 of my girlfriends came over and we had a "crafting day!" If you have not checked out The Nester's blog, you are missin' out! This woman has great ideas and is very talented in decorating her home. We got the idea to make the Ragamuffin Garland from one of her blog posts. We had a great time, ripping fabric and tying it all morning and into the afternoon! Our finished products turned out great! (if I do say so myself!) It was a fun day to hang out with friends and catch up with each other. I made one garland to clip my Christmas pictures and cards on, and the other I made for Maddison's room, over her bed. One word of warning....if you go to visit the Nester's blog, carve out a good piece of time....you'll be hooked!

Where's My Camera?!?!

I finally have a free minute to blog, and now my camera is no where in sight! I think that Jake might have taken it to work today. He sometimes needs it to photograph his customer's damaged packages....not that UPS ever, ever would damage a precious package! (wink, wink!) So, I will have to blog later when I have pictures to post! I'll be baaaack!

Happy Thanksgiving!

We had a wonderful Thanksgiving! This is my all-time-favorite holiday! Good food, time with family, and no stress of gifts! I just love it! We did manage to get one picture of our family! Not looking quite all put together, but I'm not sure that has ever happened anyway! I hope you had a blessed Thanksgiving time!

Tea Time

We have started a new "day after thanksgiving" tradition. All the ladies go to Tea Leaves and Thyme for afternoon tea. If you live in the Woodstock area, you have to go there! The tea is wonderful and the food is delicious! The flowers are even edible! And there is nothing quite as "girly" as having an afternoon tea! There is a whole room of dress-up clothes, and our girls made good use of that! I think Maddi changed her clothes at least 3 times! The girls get the "Alice in Wonderland" tea which is so kid-friendly, not to mention adorable! Little chocolate mice, bunny-shaped sandwiches dipped in chocolate, so cute!! I love this new tradition. After tea, we went to a few shops in downtown Woodstock. No crowds! There will be plenty of time to fight crowds and stand in line during the next few weeks! It was nice to enjoy a relaxing day with "just the girls!"

God Our Father...

I couldn't pass the opportunity to video this and share it! I love this prayer, and Teaghan looks so intent while she is singing....Here's a smile for your day!

Tomato???

This is a leftover veggie tray from Saturday night, when we had friends over for dinner. Now, our kids are NOT veggie lovers! Corn, on a good day, but otherwise it is a major struggle for them to get those veggies down!

Of all those veggies, guess what little Teaggie loves the most? The Tomatoes!! Neither Jake nor I are big tomato fans, but Teaghan eats these every time they are available! Carrot sticks smothered in ranch, I could see, but she loves her some baby tomatoes! YUM!

Dancing Queens....

This is one of many reasons I love having girls.....this just makes me happy! I bet it will make you smile too!

Happy Thursday!

Traci

The Pink Bowl!!

Every morning at the breakfast table, I hear the same question from all of our girls...."Can I have the PINK bowl?" We have these cereal bowls that I bought at Wal-mart, that have built in straws for sipping the milk when they are done with their cereal. We have 6 bowls, but only 1 PINK bowl. And all of our girls LOVE PINK!! They have learned to take turns, but they are always extra excited when it is their turn for the coveted PINK bowl, and very disappointed when it is not! Who knew a $1 cereal bowl could cause such excitement every morning!

COOKIES!!

These beauties are my all-time favorite cookies! I wish that I could say I baked them myself, but I'll have to give the credit to the good folks at Lofthouse Bakery. I don't see these in the store very often, so when I do, I usually buy 2 dozen! YUM! The kids love these as much as I do, especially with a cold glass of milk! I wish I could find a recipe to duplicate these cookies. I've tried a few, but nothing seems to compare to the soft, chocolatey goodness of these wonderful cookies! Are you hungry yet?

I have the worst head cold right now. Yesterday, we taught our Sunday School class and then came home and I went back to bed. Jonah kept telling me that I was talking funny. While I was eating some Chicken Noodle soup....I love that stuff!...the girls brought me these little notes. They were whispering about something all the way home from church, and they kept asking me if I heard what they had said. These Get Well notes were their big secret! I love it when they conspire together to do something sweet!

Well, here we go.....Our car is in the shop, AGAIN! Thankfully, Jake's car is running fine, so we have been packing the kids in the back seat like little sardines. Cute, but not fun...especially for them! This picture was taken after we got to my parents' house this past Saturday. They had all fallen asleep, and were all huddled together. I love our sweet kids...aren't they always sweet while they're asleep?