Christmas Concert

What a crazy week! RYan was loving trying to hit all of the girls' concerts. They were all on a different morning! We even had one cancelled due to the weather. Braelyn was supposed to have a little concert. I asked her if she was disappointed, and she said "no". I was looking forward to hearing her sing all of her Christmas carols.

Addisyn's class

Madison's class

Avery's class

Our Christmas Pictures!!!

This one was my favorite!!!!

Briggs pix

Poor Briggs - he's so bored watching football film that he nodded off! Who can blame the poor kid!

Braelyn & Briggs

We had an ice day and this is how Ryan and Briggs spent the day! They spent the whole afternoon sleeping.

Tayloran's 5th/6th grade choir

The whole choir

Tayloran had a short little solo at the beginning. We were so proud!!!

Singing carols at church

Tayloran was hidden in the back row :( Avery was home sick with the flu!!!

Madison, Tayloran, & Collin after they were done.

Our bright eyed baby

Can you believe Noel let the girls do this to her? Poor thing.

Addisyn & Braelyn dancing performance

Addisyn and Braelyn's dance teacher set them up to perform a little Christmas dance at a couple of area nursing homes. Addisyn couldn't wait - Braelyn, on the other hand wanted nothing to do with performing. It didn't help that she was up that morning at 5 am, and the performance time was 1 pm - naptime. It was a great kick off to the Christmas season.

My two pretty dancing girls.

This was right before Braelyn REALLY started wailing.

She fell asleep in the car between the two performances! I thought this might give her a boost to dance at the #2 place, but no such luck.

Baking cookies 2008

This is a tradition that I've tried to carry on with my girls. They love to decorate cookies. They did a pretty good job this time - meaning the floor wasn't covered in sprinkles.

Gingerbread Houses

Mom bought gingerbread houses for the girls to make over Thanksgiving break. This was a first for all of us. The kit was very user friendly!!! I helped the little girls and Mine supervised the older two. Our roof only fell in once! I think it had a too much pusing on one side. Addisyn decorated one side of the house and Braelyn the other. THey all turned out really nice. We were a little disappointed that we couldn't bring them home. We just couldn't find room to squeeze them in the van. Plus, we were afraid that Noel would eat them during a pit stop!

It was hard to keep Braelyn out of the candy! She wanted to do more eating than decorating!

Addisyn was very proud of her side of the house.

Avery and Tayloran completed their house and had plenty of candy to spare at the end. Guess who ate that?

Briggs was such a sport. He was a great little brother and was very content to hang out in the swing!

Thanksgiving

We ate lunch with Ryan's mom and then dinner with his dad's side of the family. A good time was had by all

Here is Ryan rocking out with guitar hero. His new favorite past time! I have to admit - he is pretty good.

Addisyn, Braelyn, & Briggs smothering GG. THe girls were excited to see her!

Addisyn holding a very happy Briggs.

Here we all our. Wow, we take up almost the whole wall!

Thankful

This is what Addisyn is thankful for. Sounds like I don't feed her. I've taken a little razzing over this.

THanksgiving Feast 2008

Benton Grade School doesn't celebrate Halloween. Instead, they hold the Thanksgiving Feast. It is a fun day all day long. THe children go to presentations, craft time, story time, and of course THE BIG FEAST!!! Parents are encouraged to attend to either help or to spend the day with their child. Don't hear that in Oakland do ya! All of the children dress up as pilgrims and indians! CHristy took a bunch of indians to school that day - Madison was the only beautiful pilgrim!

Addisyn & Avery ready to attend the Thanksgiving Feast at school.

Braelyn doesn't want to be left out!!!!

Addisyn's class listening to an Ag in the Classroom presentation. She told about how they took a mound of dirt and planted the corn. The corn grew up and the pole beans wrapped around the corn. THe squash and pumpkins were grown at the bottom of the stalk to keep out weeds.

Avery and her good friend, Brooklyn. Not sure who the guy in the background is.