Merry Christmas!!

Well, there has been lots of excitement this year. We are in Jacksonville with my parents and brother and sister in law. Not much to say really, seems a bit self explanatory. I'm a bit under the weather but wanted to show you the highlights.........

Sweet moment on Christmas Eve with Daddy.

Our tradition of reading Twas the Night Before Christmas....

Dying to dig in....

Mason loves his dump truck....

She's been asking for Webkinz for a while now....

And Madalyn asked for a cupcake maker and cake bakery

Aunt Jennifer bought Kenzie an American Girl Bitty Baby and matching jammies.

Mason enjoying his first Christmas!

Every year, Matt takes the girls to the dollar store and they pick out gifts for everyone. Tim got a new hat and shades this year........

Madalyn using the cupcake maker....

A lucky mama...

My handsome little dude.....

So from our family to yours, have a Merry Christmas as we welcome the birth of a Baby that changed it all.............

Ho Ho Ho....

I like this particular Santa because he is outside and this night was especially cold so it felt Christmasy for sure. We were at a park area where they do a Christmas tree lighting with fireworks and such. I know, fireworks, weird but whatever. We weren't sure how Mason would do as he doesn't yet like the Disney characters. But he walked right up with the girls as if he knew what he was doing. The girls were very excited, especially Madalyn. She is the one who insists on waiting in line. She asked Matt if they could get in line and being the good dad he is, agreed and waited an hour and a half. He was a good Santa and took time with them.

Discussing lists and wishes.........

OMG, love this. He is so stinkin cute!

Till next year's visit.........and to all a good night.......

Making a List.....

This is Madalyn's Christmas list......anything you can't figure out? Some of her requests cracked us up....uh, no, you're not getting a tv in your room!

Sweet and Seven Part 2....

So the celebrating continued this past weekend. I'm trying to get away from the big parties every year so I went more simple this year. She decided to go bowling as a family and then we just had a couple of friends over later for cake. The kids had never been bowling before and it had been a few years since Matt and I had gone. We all had a great time.

Madalyn was very excited to be seven and I can really see her beginning to mature in a whole new way. She likes to play jokes on you, play games, do "girl time on mama's bed", draw, write stories, and ride her new bike. She is definitely the most thoughtful and sensitive of my kids. She is tender hearted towards others and is a friend to anyone. I just love her heart. And she loves God with all the simplicity and innocence of a child.
So for the highlights of our day.............


Can't remember what precipitated this but I love catching the moment.


This would be Kenzie trying to "lean" her bowling ball towards the desired direction.


Mason helping Pap pa go for a strike.

Matt doing his thing with the bowling ball as any good Polock would....

Tim has done a bit more bowling than us....

Me and my girl

Gigi and Pap pa bought her new boots which she now wants to wear everywhere!

Love this shot. This is her new bike. She learned to ride about 3 weeks ago. It has been fun to watch her confidence grow. She has been on it daily.

Daddy keeping guard.....

The Birthday Girl! By the way, I tried my hand at making fondant and it turned out pretty well. I went simple with making a wrapped present. I made marshmallow fondant which was easy and tasted good. More on this later...........

Another birthday gone, how can it be? We love her so and are grateful for her in our lives. She is hard to resist. Happy Birthday Big Girl.....we love you!

Seven and Sweet.....

On Friday, Madalyn turned 7. Seems she has experienced a few milestones in the past few months. She has lost a few teeth and recently learned how to ride her bike. We spent the day at Disney as a family and we will celebrate with friends this coming weekend. Like Mackenzie, she received a Disney gift card and couldn't wait to shop. She had been considering her options for a several weeks now as she anticipated her birthday. Notice the above "before" pic and see the "after" pic below:


My girl is decked out!! She purchased a new Minnie hat, those fancy red hair ties, the multi-colored pin strap, a pin, a pen, two necklaces, and a 3 pack of lollipops to share. She is definitely my fashionista, or at least the one who cares more about it and seems to be more intentional about what she wears. Oh, and that is a Birthday button she is wearing courtesy of the Mouse.



Proud of her selections!

She looks so cute in a hat, I love this pic. She is my sweet, tendered hearted girl. She had a bit of an attitude at some point throughout the day. After some dialogue between her and I, she sat quietly. As we headed out of the park, she handed me a note that she had written on the back on the tag attached to one of her necklaces. It said, "I love mom. I'm sary I have ben rood to you. Do you forgif me?" She makes a mama's heart melt I tell ya.

Ok, so her favorite part of the weekend was that I surprised her by taking her to get her ears pierced. Yep, made the leap. She had been asking for several months. At first, I felt like I needed to wait till it was a more important birthday, like 10 or 13. Not sure what I mean by important since all birthdays are special but anyway. I decided it would mean most to her when she was really requesting it so off we went!

The prep.

The after shot, trying to look happy and excited but had just finished crying. I had been preparing for a little while. When I first told her what we were doing, she was excited for about 2 minutes and then burst into tears as she considered the pain. I totally gave her the option to pierce or not to pierce. But after a night's sleep, she woke up around 6:30am asking me if we could leave now to go to the mall. She had made her decision.

And there it is......a sweet pink flower with a diamond-like center. We spent the next couple of hours at the mall and she kept seeing all the grown up earrings and asked me if she could get those. I mean, like, huge, dangley, fancy earrings! Oh boy.....

Stay tuned for more pics and more about why I love her............

Food Friday

It is supposed to be a beautiful week here weather wise. This is the time of the year we live for here and we will spend a lot of time outside. Should be a good week...and I have a girls weekend coming up next weekend. My friends Becky and Tara and I are heading to St Augustine for a couple of days.

Anyway, here's what I have for this week.....

Friday: quesadillas with a variety of fillings
homemade black bean/corn salsa, guacamole and chips

Saturday: we'll be at Disney with friends from our Ethiopian travel group so we'll eat there

Sunday: we have an Ethiopian potluck so they'll be lots of stuff. I'm taking chili and cornbread

Monday: herbed boneless pork chops
mashed taters
cauliflower

Tuesday: tacos with all the fixin's

Wednesday: spicy orange chicken stir fry with green beans
rice
egg rolls

Thursday: Matt's day, maybe hot dogs and tots?

Now back to enjoying the weather................

Mackenzie's 5th Birthday...

This month is probably our busyest every year. So much going on and so much to celebrate that I'm just now returning to Kenzie's birthday. It turned into a birthday weekend really which can be the norm around here. So we had a little party on Saturday to have some cake and open presents. We were supposed to go eat dinner with Cinderella but they lost our reservation for that day. Luckily, after an hour on the phone, we were able to reschedule for the next day. So it gave her time to just play with her new things. My family was here and we went out for Chinese food. She had a great time and really seemed to enjoy her birthday this year. She can be shy and very uncomfortable with lots of attention. But this year, she seemed less embarrased and more willing to be in the spotlight. I really can't believe she is five. While we have Mason, she still seems like my baby. She loves this and probably feeds off my vibe but most days I don't mind. I am acutely aware of how darn fast it goes. Just yesterday, we were picking her up in China.....

She kept reminding me not forget the candles...


Our birthday Girl!


She asked for this particular baby and you can see her joy in opening it...

She is definitely my little mama.

Her new baby carriage given by GiGi and Pap pa. She also got baby bunk beds and a nursery center.

This cracks me up. We were waiting outside of the Grand Floridian and getting ready to eat with Cinderella.

The princess herself....and Cinderella too. While she has a Cinderella dress, she insisted on wearing her Minnie dress....might have been those fancy shoes she bought just days earlier!

Drizella, the mean stepsister.

The mean stepmother!

Looking on as they dance a waltz. I love this pic because it just represents every little girls dream of one day dancing with her prince. My prayer for her is for her heart to always stay tender and allow hope to exist.

Ok, this was hysterical. How could I not post this?

Mama's girl.

The kids with my parents....

Happy Birthday big girl! We love you so much!