Rice Party

I was desperately trying to come up with ways to entertain the girls while Halle Kate wasn't walking last week.  I hope that whatever possessed me to dye rice and let the girls play with is something I have the desire to do again. The girls had a great time but boy oh boy did they make a mess!

We bought plain white rice and added food coloring and rubbing alcohol. Once the rice was dyed it sat outside drying for about an hour. Then the mess fun began!

Can you see the pile of rice on the floor? I finally was smart enough to stop sweeping until they were done. Thankfully, about half the rice landed on the ground and got thrown away. At first I was frustrated with all they were dropping until I realized that once it hit the ground once I'd only have to clean it up once before it was trash!

They scooped and poured and funneled for a good 15 minutes before they were off to something else.

Even with the mess it was a super fun afternoon! 

ps- don't you just love HK's monster shirt? She is one funny kid.

Nose

The crazy squares from my camera don't help much but here's the picture you asked for. I love a crooked nose! Actually, this was taken around Christmas, now my nose looks pretty normal. Thanks for the experience Halle Kate!

Still no walking

HK did something, we don't know what, to hurt her leg on Monday and she still isn't walking. She had xrays that didn't show a break so now we looking at going to an orthopedic dr if she isn't up soon. My normally wild girl has been getting quite cranky being still! And we have lots of new toys but are quickly running out of ways to entertain her.  The good news is that I can now wear my glasses without them hurting my nose...we are thankful for the little things around here!


***Update - 12/30 Halle Kate has started walking fine and shows no sign of any injury. We are thankful that she is ok and that we won't be having to make another trip to the dr next week. She was terrified of the xray machine and having to hold her down was NOT fun.

Christmas Morning 2011

Christmas Morning 2011

I will have to get pictures from the other cameras off my phone and fill in some gaps here but I know there are several of you who would want to see these sooner than later. Right now I'm working on getting some order restored to this house because it is a MESS so who knows when I'll sit to blog again.

The reindeer food must have worked because Santa found our house!

Max and Uncle Josh became good friends.

Matney was awake and excited but had a hard time waking up. Halle Kate however was bouncing off the walls at 6am.

Wooo hoo! Santa did come!

Halle Kate has been begging for this baby Simba (from the Lion King) who wraps up in a leaf and purrs for months.

Matney's big Foofa from Yo Gaba Gaba

Halle Kate stayed in her cute jammies for all of 5 minutes before she saw her new Batman shirt and made Jared change her clothes. I started to get frustrated (because I wanted them in the same cute matching thing for pictures!) but since 2012 is the year for "enjoying the moment and relaxing" I ended up laughing at her new clothes.

Matney has wanted this baby Rapunzel for months. I can't wait to spend my days brushing and brushing and brushing all her hair. NOT!

Because every house needs a roller coaster! The girls are assured of one crazy gift each year as long as Grandaddy is around.

Stockings!

Poor Max didn't think he was getting enough attention. And yes, these are well photographed girls. I think we had 3 still cameras and 2 videos going today and I took the least amount of pictures.

Robot stickers!

Toothbrushes? I love that Santa is practical!

Yep, Santa ate our cookies!

Matney got a whole box of dress up clothes from TX and had to put them on before she's open another box.

Robot got his own present...a new Robot friend named Plex. They are both curled up in HK's bed as I type.

Jared and some of his man tools.

I got a surprise present from Jared. Don't you love his wrapping skills?

A tetherball! Whooo hooo! He put the pole up yesterday in the backyard but I didn't notice it even though I was out there more than once. I would make a horrible witness. I've joked about needing a tetherball several times and he listens. How sweet! We went out to play today but it got toooooo close to my already painful nose and I decided I'd stay away from any more potential nose injuries for a while.

Most. Exciting. Gift. Ever. The brand new Silhouette Cameo and a Micheal's gift card. Preschool please hurry up because Mama wants to go shopping alone!

Spidergirl stayed on her roller coaster for a large majority of the day.

Matney got new shoes and tiaras so of course she needed to put on a princess outfit.

Christmas Eve 2011

It was so hard to get in the Christmas spirit this year because the entire month of Dec felt like it flew by in 3 days that each were 65+ degrees and warm! Either way, Santa was coming so we made sure to get some cookies for him! And we made sure that there were plenty of sprinkles for Santa and his reindeer!

Every year since I was little we've always gotten to open one package on Christmas Eve and, sometime around when I was 10, I finally caught onto the fact that every year that box held jammies. We've continued that tradition with the girls (and still with J and myself because it is fun!) and the girls were excited to open one box early. I think they would have preferred toys but they were excited with new jammies.

They were especially excited once the Spiderman and pink bunny slippers were unwrapped!

Starting about 5pm both girls, who normally HATE to go to bed, were begging to go to sleep. They knew Santa wasn't coming until they were bed so they were willing to go bed as soon as their jammies were on. It was a challenge to keep them up and not fighting until 7pm. If I didn't know that a 5pm would have had us all awake at 3am I would have tucked them in early and done a dance!

The girls made sure to leave plenty of cookies for Santa.

The girls made reindeer food at preschool and we made sure to sprinkle it in the yard.

Jared has been adamant that Max will never wear any type of hat, bow, clothes, etc. All that is totally fine with me but he's such a pain about it my brother and I put several big bows on Max. Jared came down and was not impressed!

See those scissors in his hand? Max's bows did not last long. The little girls were in bed by 7:30, the guys went to a movie and were home by 8:30. We had stockings stuffed, presents out and dinner eaten before 10pm and went to bed to wait on Santa!