Merry Christmas

We had a wonderful Christmas.  We are very blessed...

December 22nd - Pirate Exhibit at the Milwaukee Museum

We went to see the Pirate Exhibit at the Milwaukee Museum (and the other exhibits too:)!

The butterflies are always a hit!

Some Museum fun!

First Snow!

Finally, we have snow!!  The kids were so excited they got out of the car after school and headed right out to play...

December 16 - Live Nativity

My pictures didn't turn out well at all.  We went to a local live nativity at a church and it was very nicely done.  We all enjoy going to a live nativity every year and thankfully it wasn't to cold this year!

R & Kg's Pom Pom Performance

Adorable!  All I can say is adorable to the 50+ girls who got out on the floor and performed their pom routine at their school AND at the high school during half time of the basketball game!  So, so cute!

Kg and her Kindergarten Pom friends...

R and her 2nd grade Pom friends...

The entire group!

Happy Birthday Daddy!

Happy 39th Birthday Daddy! 

 We celebrated with Daddy's favorite pizza, Derango's.  His favorite cake, O&H.  Plus, presents!  I found a wind chime that combined two things he loves...Guiness and Fishing!

December 11 - R's Holiday Concert

R did a fabulous job in her school holiday concert!

Look how cute she is waving at us...

 singing!

 Grandma and Grandma came to see!

 The family:)

 goofy six year olds...

December 10th - Board Game Night

The kids love to play a board game together, but wow playing with six year olds is a bit more challenging than playing with an eight year old!  

A favorite-Monopoly Jr.

December 9th - Rudolph Play

We went out to lunch and to see Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer play at First Stage Children's Theatre.  What a fun family day!!!

December 8 - Make Christmas Cookies

Where are all my Christmas cookie making pictures?!?!  I can't find them:(

We did have fun making cookies at Grandma's and Kb can prove it....

December 7 - Christmas Parade

We had our first ever float in the local Christmas Parade!  R and Kg's Girl Scout Troops were in the parade.  I walked with them, Dh drove the truck and Kb rode with him.  It was a family adventure;)

Here is how the float started...

 more progress...

 ta dah!  Complete with lights that moved to the music(Justin Bieber Christmas:) and 30 girls ages 5-8...

We can't wait to do it again in May for the Memorial Day Parade!

December 6 - St. Nick

All three kids must be on the good list because St. Nick came!  When we put our shoes out Kg said, "I can't wait to see what kind of Christmas pajamas St. Nick brings me this year!"  His yearly tradition, he brought new Christmas pajamas and games.

Outdoor Decorations, Oh My...

Years ago I said, "I will never have multi colored lights, icicle lights or plastic yard decorations for Christmas".  Fast forward many years of marriage(to a man who likes multi colored lights) and three kids....

Today dh said, "I think we should hang lights on the house this year".  I almost fell over, we both have never been hang lights on the gutter people and I was suprised to hear him say this.  We went off to the store to buy lights and the kids picked out multi colored icicle lights...

to go with the many plastic Christmas decorations we have accumulated over the past few years...

We did say no to the light up pink flamingo Kg wanted, the light up swans Kb wanted and the light up Snoopy mailbox R wanted.  We still need to get our 'new decoration of 2012'....the choices they were picking today had dh and I saying we should wait until all the decorations are up to see what would fit in well.  Really, looking at our yard I think any of the above will fit in fine;)...

Next...the leg lamp is coming out this week!

Christmas Countdown...

It is December, time to count down the days until Christmas!

We have our usual advent calendar that some days have candies and others have activities...

Kg brought home her December calendar from school with a cute Santa count down.  She said she has to put a cotton ball on each day to count down.  Can I add that I was really excited to see a Kindergarten in a public school still use Santa in classroom projects(I know not all do)!

Barney, our elf, is Back!!!

We decorated for Christmas early this year(well, early for us) and Barney must have been excited because he came back early!!!  We found him in our tree Monday morning...

Oh Christmas Tree!

The kids are getting taller and the ornaments are getting higher on the tree!

They were so helpful in hanging ornaments today!

We had so much fun looking at all their 'favorite' ornaments from years past!  R's Hannah Montana, Kb's Little Einsteins and Kg's Barbie(wait...she still likes Barbie:)!

 It isn't perfect, but the kids are proud!!!