Merry Christmas!!!!

 We have had a nice Christmas day today!  We started our Christmas Eve out by making and frosting sugar cookies!!  :)  We then took some next door and caroled to our neighbor's.  :)

 After a big Christmas Eve dinner, we got to open Christmas pajamas from Grandma and Grandpa Yorke!  Don't these guys look so cute!!!!! (I like to make a big ham dinner on Christmas eve so that we can have a nice dinner on Christmas night with no effort on my part.)

 After that we watched the traditional Scrooge and ate home made Chex Party Mix!

 Here we are, all set for the kiddos!!

 Oh, the excitement of Christmas morning!!!!  These guys were all so excited!  :)  (The clock on top of the entertainment center is broken- it was 7am.)  It is always so fun to look at what Santa brought in your stocking and as a present.

 I love Christmas morning with a house full of children.  It is my favorite time of the year.  :)  There is just something magical about Christmas morning.

 Weston and his presents.

 Amber and her presents too!

 Amber and Evan helping with the passing out of the gifts.  They were so sweet helping each other!!

 Gifts at our house are opened one person at a time.  I like it that way so that I can enjoy seeing each child's reaction to what they have been given.  :)

 Katelynn opening her only toy.  She got some clothes too, but after looking all over, I decided that we have like every single baby toy known to man!  :)  She thought that unwrapping the gift was pretty interesting.

 I love this picture.  It looks to me like she is saying in her head, "What Daddy?  You mean that there is more than just the paper?  Oh, and I'm not supposed to eat this stuff?  It seems pretty tasty to me!!"

 We got a baby for Katelynn that was just like Amber's.  She loves to play with Amber's doll, so we thought she would like one of her own.  I didn't include individual pictures of everyone, but they all had a great morning.

Afterwards we had our traditional Christmas breakfast!  It was yummy!  We had a great day!  We hope that your day was good as well!  Merry Christmas!!   :)

The Nutcracker 2013

Amber loved going to the nutcracker so much last year, that we decided to go again this year as a special treat!!!  :)  We went to the matinee at 2 pm.  That meant that we had time to go and get a bite to eat at a place downtown that Daddy recommended before the show started!  Amber was so happy about it being just us girls.  I always love when I have a little one on one with my kiddos.  There were chips and salsa that came out once you sat down.  Amber swore that they tasted like her beloved pasta salad.  :)  She had fun telling me all about her friends and school and what she was hoping for this Christmas.

Then we headed over to the place where the show was going on.  We were lucky enough to see some ballerinas before the show started!  Amber was sooooo happy to be seeing the show.

The Aronoff Center was all decorated up for Christmas!  It was so pretty!

This one is a little washed out, but we then found our seats and Amber loved looking through the program.  She wanted to know who was dancing what part.  There was a little girl and her mom that sat right behind us that was Amber's age.  Once the show was done, we waited because they were having a special thing at that time where you could go up on the stage and meet the dancers!!  Since we were WAY up high, we were the very last of the people to see the dancers.  As we stood in line, Amber chatted with the little girl.  They were fast friends by the time they parted!  :)

Meeting the dancers was the highlight of her trip to the ballet. :)  She wanted a picture with all the dancers!  Even the fun gingerbread man!

Then she got to meet Clara at the beginning, her brother, and the mouse king!

Next was the sugar plum fairy and king as well as Clara's dog!  Amber said that this was her favorite ballerina.  She liked the costume of the flower queen best, but she liked the beautiful dancing that these 2 did the best of all in the entire show!

Lastly, she got to meet the Clara that was in the land of sweets as well as the Nutcracker!  We had such a great time.  I am thankful that I was blessed with a sweet girl that loves girly things.  Amber was already asking if I thought that Katelynn would be big enough to go with us next year!  Sweet thing!!  :)  Perhaps here in a few years!

Wax Museum

For the last few years, the third graders at our school have done a wax museum research project.  They didn't do it when Weston was in 3rd, but both Brian and Aaron have done it.  The kids research a famous person and then write a speech that they memorize and perform for the school and also for their parents on a special night.  Brian did George Washington Carver, and convinced Aaron to do the same person!  :)  The original parent night got snowed out, so it was rescheduled for this past Tuesday evening.  Aaron dressed up like his person, who was a scientist and most all pictures of him were in a suit.  I drew a mustache on him since that is what George Washington Carver always had, and then we headed out for the night.  The kids got set up while we had a PTA meeting.  Then we headed into the cafeteria where all the third graders were.  As you can see, Aaron's name of who he was is behind him as well as a red button that you had to push if you wanted to hear his speech.  The speeches were just a minute of two long, but so fun and cute!  Aaron did a great job and had lots of other parents come by and push his button!!  It was fun to go around and hear all about the people that the children researched!!  After it was done, we got to head over to Weston's band concert that night!!  It was a busy night and it has been a busy week!  I am glad to be done with school till January!!!!!  :)

Festive

 Katelynn has been taking great morning naps lately, so this morning, I made her a cute skirt to match Amber's.  :)  It didn't take long at all to make, and it turned out cute.  I got the cute shirt yesterday for not much and it kind of matched the one that I made for Amber last year.  Add a cute Christmas bow, and presto- one festive baby girl!  :)  It makes me laugh at how Katelynn looses her eyes when she smiles so big!!  That one Whitley gene certainly came through!

 Kinda blurry, but too sweet not to include!

 Evan was looking Christmassy too in his shirt.  He loves his baby sister and is so very sweet with her.  I am thankful that he loves her so much!

 Looking cute in front of the tree!!  I love my sweet little Evan boy!

 Once Mambers got home it was time to take matching pictures.  Such cute, happy girls.

 I really, really wish that this one wasn't blurry.  This was certainly the best of the group.  I will have to take pictures again when they wear their matching outfits again.

 I love these three little kiddos!  They fill my life with happiness!!!

 I LOVE this one.  I think it is so sweet how Katelynn is looking up so sweetly at Amber.  And it is a pretty good one of Evan too.

 I gave it the good old college try in getting a good picture, but it just wasn't in the cards for a great picture today!  The kiddos are still cute though.  :)

 And seriously?  Do you remember when Katelynn was the same size as this doll?!?!?  Look how huge she looks next to Amber's baby doll now!!!  She is such a big, healthy baby!  I am thankful for that!

I can't believe that Christmas is next week!!!  It is a busy, busy time!

Snow Day

There was a chance to snow for today again, and we were woken up this morning at 5 by the call from school saying that it was cancelled for the day!!  We were supposed to get up to an inch of snow and instead we got 3 inches.  That meant that we now have 7.5 inches on the ground outside.  There is still some ice on the trees too since we haven't gotten above freezing, but we are happy to have all the fun snow!  The road was plowed at just before 11 this morning.  The kids got out early and went to play in the snow around 10.  Evan stayed in with me and Katelynn took a great nap.  I went out to just snap a few pictures of the kids playing in the snow.

Brian was busy building up the snow lump to jump on the snow board!

Apparently Weston was giving snow boarding lessons to Amber and Aaron.  They are getting surprisingly good at boarding down the hill!

Look at that girl go!!!

Weston was sledding on a new to us sled that we got from around the corner at a garage sale.  He thought it worked great.  :)

Aaron did really well on the snowboard too!!

Weston after a sledding run!!  It was freezing out there!  I think it was like 18 degrees and felt like 8 or something crazy like that.  I can't believe that they stayed out for 2 hours!

My baby girl is growing up!  When did that happen!?!

Brian working on his snow mound and eating snow all at the same time!  He had lots of fun!

What a fun way to spend the day off of school!

Amber wanted to try a harder run on the snow board.  She wanted to go down the steeper slope of the yard.  Weston was so patient and kind with her and Aaron in teaching them.  I think she only got a few feet before she fell!

Aaron's turn for the steeper run.

My sweet Bri Bri having fun in the snow.

Most of the morning was spent snowboarding and sledding.

Weston is such a good big brother!! I am so thankful for the good kids that I have!!  They are kind and get along well for the most part!  I am blessed!

Weston showing off his skills on the snow board!  These were the best $5 things ever!!!  I think if I see the snow boards on clearance again this year that I may just have to pick up a few more.  So fun!

Brian is really good at snowboarding!  Here he goes.  He can do the hill really well and is even working on the jump (you know, that lump of snow he was working on) on the board.  Most of the time he can do the jump and still stay on his feet.  :)  Go Brian!

The two big boys ready to take off!

All of the kiddos out front in the snow!  Who needs to go to the slopes?  We have our own in our front yard!  :)

Go Brian!!

Evan didn't want to play outside.  He just wanted to make pumpkin muffins.  Katelynn took an unusually long nap today, so we had plenty of time to make our muffins, just the 2 of us!  :)  After he was done, he got to watch How the Grinch Stole Christmas (the cartoon version).  It is his favorite!!

A little later Weston came to show me a huge icicle that he had gotten off of the house!!  Wow, that thing is HUGE!  All in all, we have had a fantastically fun morning!!!