Dear Santa

Tuesday night we wrote our letters to Santa. I was so proud of Hailey...she wrote it all. Most letters she knew right away, but a few I would "write" in the air and then she would do it. This is her first real letter!!! She asked for barbies...nice, huh!?? :)

The finished letter, ready to go in the mailbox. Click to enlarge! :)

And a little video of Hailey. She is talking about a few weeks ago she sent a picture to Santa (with a dollar and and piece of gum :)), and left it in our "Santa mailbox". When Santa takes the letters, he leaves a treat in there for them. So, on Tuesday night we checked and there were 2 Hershey kisses in there and she was excited about that as well (as you will see).

Chris helped Ryan with his letter to Santa. When Chris asked him what he wanted, Ryan said "a gun to shoot a buck." Oh come on!! I told Chris he better "help" Ryan out a little more with his Santa letter! :)

Ryan is so silly! Here he is playing with his guitar and microphone...pretending he is at church (he loves watching Allen with the guitar at church and talks about it ALL the time....that and we had to talk about Auntie Kari and her band kids again last night and he asked when we got to go see them again). Not too much to watch, but the ending is funny! :)

Ryan's 3 year pictures

Yesterday I took the kids out of daycare to have their hair cut, and Ryan's 3 year pictures taken as well at Sears. I was hoping the pictures would go better this time (at 18 months and 2 years he was NOT interested in pictures at all!!). Well, the same thing happened..."no smile. no sit down. no stand up. NO PICTURES!!!" So...we got what we could. Not terrible, but he does so much better when it is my camera at home. We might need to experiment with pictures at home from now on. :) Anyway, here the best ones...enjoy the preview.

Gingerbread House

Monday night we spent the night working on decorating the Gingerbread house. I couldn't believe it...but Ryan was really "into" it and even Chris helped with the frosting too (then he was done and had to go watch Monday Night Football :)). Hailey was concerned with getting our house to match the one on the picture, but soon gave up on that!! :) It was fun, and we had a lot of candy left over too.

Chris was going to "eat" the house!!! Hailey & Ryan did not like that ;)

Helping decorate the house :



The finished product --->

Our Angel

Saturday night was our church Christmas program. All the Sunday School kids from age 3- grade 3 sang at the beginning of the program. For some reason Hailey really didn't want to be an angel this year, but we talked her into it. She did very good most of the time singing and doing the actions, but we need to work on "focus" a little more with her :)

Isn't she beautiful!?!? This is her Christmas dress and she thought she looked ready to go to a "ball"!!

And, a Christmas message from Hailey. I just told her to talk...and this is what she came up with :)

And, a few pictures of her dressed as an angel and also performing. I will add a short video of the performance as well.

Cookies -- take 2

Over the weekend we made more COOKIES!! This time it was cutout cookies. We made the cookies on Saturday morning (that was a mess with the flour and trying to control the amount of cookie dough Chris and Hailey ate!!). Then, on Sunday morning we decorated the cookies!! There was frosting and sprinkles ALL OVER the kitchen. Ryan's favorite was putting red hots in his WATER and mixing them up. They were his "fishies"...the kid needs some time to go fishing I guess. :) It was fun, and Hailey lasted a lot longer than I thought she would!! She is becoming quite a pro at decorating cookies now.

Ryan holding one of his finished cookies, and all the finished cookies!!

And, check out Hailey hard at work. She didn't know I was recording her. She is singing one of her songs from Sunday School. :)

And, we ventured out-of-the-box and made moose, fish, and bear cookies. They cannot be forgotten on Christmas, can they!?!? :) Aren't they cute!??!!! They are HUGE cookies too!

Oh Ryan....

Okay...if you need a good laugh....here is one for you!! A few days ago daycare had to tell us this.

Ryan sits at this small table for snacks, lunch, etc. with other toddlers there too. The teachers walked over one day and found Ryan had told them all his cup had PRETEND BEER in it and had them ALL doing "CHEERS" with their cups! Oh my Ryan....it is a surprise no parents called us :)

Christmas cookies...take 1

Last night we made another batch of Christmas cookies. Hailey has really been helping me a lot, but I haven't taken the camera out until last night. Ryan even got involved a little too! :) Let me explain Hailey's outfit! :) She has dance & gymnastics on Wednesday nights and the weeks theme was "beach party" so they were able to wear swimming suits. But it is COLD out here, so the jeans went on over it!! :)


Of course they had to TASTE them too! :)


Ryan's new favorite thing is the video feature on my camera. He loves to record things and then watch it on the camera. So...here is another funny moment from Ryan! :)

The birthday night

We did a lot of celebrating on Ryan's birthday. First, I surprised the kids and picked them up at lunch time to go OUT to lunch at McDonald's. That was fun...and a special time!

Then, after daycare, we went to Fuddrucker's for supper (Grandma & Papa, Kari, Ed & Hailey T & McKenna were there too!!). Ryan wasn't interested in eating too much...he has a little cold. He did enjoying having his chocolate milk in a cup with a lid...only to tell us it was "pretend coffee." :)

After supper, we all went over to Chuck-E-Cheese for GAMES!!! Oh my did we have FUN! The two Haileys really got into playing skee ball...they were addicted and were working up a sweat!! Ryan loved running around, playing a few games here and there, and running back to me saying "I need more moneys mommy". Click on the middle picture here and look for the brown ball that Ryan is playing with. For the game, he should ROLL it. Well, Ryan THREW it overhand every time!! :)

Finally we made it home to open the last of the gifts..and sing one last time to the birthday boy. He is so happy to be THREE...and we are too! :)

American Idol watch out!!

Check out Hailey's internet singing debut!!!

He's THREE!!!

Not sure how this happened so fast, but Ryan is THREE today!! :) How did he get from this......to that?!?!?!


He is so funny. Ryan LOVES a nice hot breakfast!! Most kids get cold cereal for breakfast. Leave to it Ryan to ask for pancakes, waffles or french toast almost EVERY morning!! Some days we try to get him to change his mind, but when he is only 25 pounds and so cute, we ususally give in. Today we knew we would have to make waffles so we were ready for him! :) Here is he with his big waffle (can you believe he ate 1/2 of that!!) on his birthday plate.

And, he wanted to create a little video for you as well! Enjoy!! :)

Cars Party

Sunday was Ryan's 3rd birthday party (his birthday isn't until Tuesday). He wanted to have a "Cars Cake" so we went with the FUN Cars movie theme. He did so awesome at his party...not one grumpy moment, and I think he LOVED the whole thing! :) He was excited about his Cars cake (but he wouldn't EAT any of it ;)), blowing the candles out (and don't you DARE help him on that!!), opening presents (Cars fruit snacks were the highlight!), and just having FUN! :) It was a good time for everyone ;)

Opening presents....a flashlight, laying his head down on his new sheets, and opening Hailey's gifts to him. Before the party she decided she needed to MAKE him some presents. She made him a sign for his door, and a book with pictures, and she gave him a dollar too!! She was so excited for him to open her gifts, and I was very proud that she wanted to give him those things and make them for him. :)


The famous "CARS CAKE" he was waiting for! :) and blowing out the candles.


Showing off his Cars tattoos & eating the ice cream ("NO cake on my plate!!").


He got a kiss from McKenna before she left (awww) and Hailey had fun playing with Thomas!!


One proud and spoiled boy with his gifts!!!


Thank you to EVERYONE that came to his party. It was a fun time for all of us!! :)

Arts & Crafts

Saturday Hailey, Ryan and I went over to Hailey T. & McKenna's house for Christmas arts & crafts. The kids were all so excited (well, everyone except McKenna) and started out good...but then faded fast! We had 4 different projects...and they only did one good, and one a little bit :) Oh well...it was still fun! :)

A picture of the "two Haileys" hard at work, and Ryan & McKenna watching tv and reading books!!