Last, but not least

The last program for the season was at church on Saturday, December 20. They had practice at 10:00 on Saturday, and then their performance was at 5:00. They both did GREAT during the practice and were singing loud enough for me to hear them! Even the director turned around and told me "Hailey has such a beautiful singing voice!" Ahh, proud mommy moment!! :)

Before the performance, I had them pose for a few pictures by the tree. I wanted Ryan to kiss Hailey, but he wanted nothing to do with that! So, finally I told Hailey to kiss Ryan and this is the picture I got!!!


Here is the pretty princess girl!!


And, then I asked Ryan to come and have his picture taken by himself. After a few requests, he finally came and told me "back first" and this is the picture I got. Then, I got him to turn around and got a nice picture again!


Finally it was time to get to the church!!! Look at my pretty angel (for the 3rd year) and my super-cute shepherd!! How cute are they!??!!!


A close-up of Hailey (she is so pretty, if I do say so myself!!).


And, Ryan in his cute outfit too! How adorable can he get?!? :)


And, finally they got to sing!! They both went up there great, and sang their songs so wonderful! We are so proud of them!! What a fun night! The first picture is of Ryan (way to the right side) and the second picture is of Hailey (in the middle).


And, finally a video of them singing!! Excuse the crazy camera movements, but I was trying to actually watch it, and take pictures with my camera too! :)

Kindergarten program

Friday, December 19th was Hailey's kindergarten program. There are 5 classes at Boulder, so they ended up having 2 performances so that all the parents could come and watch. As you can see from the first picture, Hailey found us and was very excited! They sang quite a few songs, and even a poem too. It was cute watching them with their hand motions, etc.


Here is the video of one song....Hailey is standing next to her good friend Seday and you can see them playing and goofing off in the video of them singing. Look for Seday moving around and then you will see Hailey too. :) Hailey did FANTASTIC and it was fun to see her and her classmates all together and having a good time!

Here is Hailey's class (they are on the far right) and then one of all 5 kindergarten classrooms.


Great job Hailey!!! We are so proud of you!! :)

One more program to go...the church one on Saturday!

3 programs in 3 days

Last week was the week of Christmas programs. We started it out on Thursday, Dec. 18 with going to preschool for Ryan's program there. He was so excited to have mommy there...then got all excited again when Grandpa showed up (and had to show Grandpa all around as it was his first time there!)...then was even more excited that Daddy came too!! :)

Even before all that, I had to take a picture of Ryan before preschool. What a stud!! Look at him in his Christmas shirt, "Daddy" jeans, and of course his new belt. HANDSOME!!

The concert was so fun. Ryan had no problem standing by his class and singing along. In fact, during the last song, Ryan and his friend Keatin (also in his Sunday School class too so they are buds!) were singing SO LOUD! It was quite funny! :) Here is the video of them yelling...umm...singing :)

Here is Ryan and McKenna! Cute friends!! And the second picture is Ryan singing (Keatin is in the red next to him).


Of course the kids got to decorate cookies for us (they ran out of sprinkles....I wonder why?!?! :) ) and a picture of the 3 Pilcher boys.


That was a fun program!! Now, 2 more to go! :)

Just like Papa

This morning Ryan found his saw that he got for his birthday. Ever since it was open, the poor thing hasn't stopped going! Here he is....playing with this ALL DAY today! He is "cutting" everything! It better not work :) Oh, and I am proud of him. He always puts on his goggles before using it. Safety first! :)

Watch out Papa!! He even knows it came from Sears :)

Brrrrr

Okay....seriously...BRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR!!! It is beyond COLD outside right now!! Saturday started the day at 30 outside, but quickly went below zero and it has yet to get above zero again! COLD!! So, needless to say, we stayed inside the house A LOT this weekend!! What did we do!??! Lots of fun stuff...decorating more of the house / windows, the kids got their own Christmas trees up in their rooms, pictures drawn for Santa, lots of games were played, books/magazines looked at, and baking, baking and more baking!! I made the following on Saturday and Sunday : 12 small loaves of pumpkin bread, peanut butter cups, ritz/peanut butter sandwiches, snickerdoodles, chocolate crinkle cookies, A LOT of cut-out cookies and even frosted them too!! The only thing left is to make the molasses cookies and get all this OUT OF THE HOUSE! :) Anyone want some?!??

Here are the kids busy making the cookies....

The kids enjoyed decorating the cutout cookies the most...as you can see in the pictures below. Notice Ryan. Yes, it is anywhere from -10 to -20 outside and he is "hot" and spent the afternoon in pants only...no shirt...no socks. He didn't get that from me! :)

Here is Ryan showing off one of our cookies...the "Christmas Trout". Yes, we have fish cookies...and LOTS of them thanks to Hailey. But, this year we don't have the "Christmas Moose" or the "Christmas Bear." I had the cookie cutters out, but then we forgot about them. :) And the second picture is of Ryan's old rainbow trout. There are so many layers of frosting on that one little fish! It took him 1/2 hour for one fish...and enough frosting for 10 cookies. YUM!

Here is Hailey, hard at work. She is quite the decorator too! She told me she wanted to do it ALL NIGHT LONG...but thankfully we didn't have to do that!! I wasn't ready to be in the kitchen that long :) Her cookies you actually want to save and look at :)

Here is a picture of most of the cookies that we did...YUMMY!! Although it was FREEZING outside, it was nice to stay inside and get the baking done and have help from the kids too!

Ryan turns FOUR!

Ryan is 4. FOUR. Four years old. My baby. Four. How is this possible?!?! FOUR! Yes, I am in denial that my baby boy is four already!

Whether I like it or not, yesterday was Ryan's forth birthday. I think I can speak for him that he had a great day! He started out by picking his breakfast....green eggs and green apple juice. He wanted green muffins and green grapes, but we didn't have those. He must be ready for St. Patrick's day! :) He was excited to bring all his treats to preschool and daycare. It was a fun day...full of sugar! :)

After we picked the kids up after school and daycare, we went to Fuddrucker's for supper and then to Chuck-E-Cheese's for games. The Taylor family met us there too so that was fun for the kids to have someone to play with too!! Of course Ryan and Hailey weren't the only ones playing the games...look at the Pilcher boys all playing skee ball :) (oh..yes...Chris won!)

Ryan likes to ride....


Here are the kids together....do you think McKenna and Ryan were having a good time?? I love the look on their faces...100% fun!


After games, Ryan got to open presents. MORE TOYS! :) Surprise, surprise. But...what do you think was his favorite?? The Leapster? No. The McDonald's toy? No. The play-doh set? Nope. It was......a belt! :)

Happy Birthday Little Man!! We love you so very much!!!

The Polar Express

We had the opportunity to ride on a train on Saturday night. It wasn't any ordinary train either. It was ....

THE POLAR EXPRESS!!!!!!

Yes, we got to go to the NORTH POLE and pick up Santa!!! It was so much fun....for the kids and the adults too!!

Hailey, Ryan, Chris, Kari, Doug, Doran and I left in the afternoon on Saturday to drive to Lewistown, MT. After a quick stop at Pamida (oh the fun!) and a change of clothes for Ryan and Hailey into their pajamas, we made it to the train!!

We were all so excited that Mrs. Claus was waiting for us...and the elves were on the train waiting for us to board too! Finally it was 4:30 and we were allowed to board the train.

After we got settled on the train, it was finally time to start moving!! The kids were very excited to watch the sunset as we moved toward the North Pole. I am not the only one that wanted to take pictures either!!

Then it was time to listen to one of the elves read "The Polar Express" book. The kids went right there and sat so good. Of course Ryan had a few comments during the reading... "I can climb that mountain all by myself" was one to a picture of a mountain :). Then it was time for hot cocoa and cookies! YUMMY but HOT! :) Ryan of course didn't want anything, but Hailey sure enjoyed it :)

The kids started on writing their letters to Santa after that. Both of them worked hard on their letters...

Then...we began to slow down....and looked out the window to see...THE NORTH POLE!! It was on the side that the kids were sitting on. We looked outside and saw the elves coming out of one house, and they ran over to another house. And, guess who came out of that one?!?! YEP...SANTA!! Ryan was waving so fast!! Santa waved back too :) Then, Santa made his way to the train and came aboard. We started on our way back, and it took some time for Santa to make it to our train car. During that time, the kids finished their letters, got a candycane from Mrs. Claus, worked on some puzzles, sang songs, and just had a great time. Then, Santa came!!! He talked to both Hailey and Ryan, and then gave them both a bell like in the story. He even signed our "The Polar Express" book!!

(enlarge the second picture and you can see the North Pole out the window!!!)

We made it back to Lewistown and our journey was over. What a fun 1.5 hours!!! I would HIGHLY RECOMMEND this to anyone and everyone (it isn't just for the kids ;) ).

Here is our book from the trip, and the box and bell the kids got too.

Merry Christmas!!