The Sunday after Christmas

GOTTA LOVE NEW CHRISTMAS DRESSES!

My girls LOVE theirs!!!!



Christmas Day!!!

After our Christmas Eve festivities ended, we rushed home and quickly put the girls to bed.

It took them all but 5 seconds to fall asleep.  Lucy even less!

And because Santa had done his work prior to Christmas Eve, delivery and set up were a cinch.

 

On Christmas morning the girls woke up, (we actually woke them up!) to this....

They were SUPER DUPER excited!

The girls have absolutely loved their kitchen!  Thanks Santa!
 

Once the initial shock and excitement of their new kitchen wore off, we loaded up the rest of the presents and headed to my parents house again to open them up.  But not before taking a picture in front of the tree!
 MERRY CHRISTMAS EVERYONE!!!

It was a total last minute decision, to take the presents to my mom's, but we're glad we did it. 

It definitely made the present opening last a whole lot longer.

 

Just look at this crowd!

 One thing about opening the presents all together is that it takes a long time to get back to your turn.

The girls did amazingly well at waiting for their turn.

 I guess except for Lucy that is.  But she was having problems no matter whose turn it was.

She was just plain miserable!

 We made a huge haul this Christmas and appreciate all who gave and sent us gifts.

 

 After the presents were all opened, we had a yummy breakfast of cinnamon rolls and wassail!
We then headed back to our house where...
Lucy took a nap!  Thank goodness!
Mark, Hannah, and I played a couple of rounds Cooties and Guess Who!
(Abby stayed at Grandma's and played with her doll!)

For dinner, it was back to my parents!
We played some games and broke out RockBand!
That's right.... ROCKBAND!

 Starring: Grandma Lisa as Lead Vocalist
With Grandpa Broc, Abby, and Hannah as back up singers!

 Hilary on the guitar!

 And Abby as back-up Drummer!

Can't get much better than the family LITERALLY rocking out to the Beatles!

Talk about ultimate bonding!

 

CHRISTMAS DAY WAS AWESOME!!!!



Christmas 2012

So far we've have had a wonderful Christmas Break, How about you?

 

Ideally, we would have been in California celebrating Christmas.  I LOVE going to California for anything!

But due to circumstances beyond our control, we ended up staying home.

I was SUPER BUMMED!  Not going to lie!

 However, despite the original dissapointment, this Christmas has been one of the best since my childhood.

 

And although it would have been so great to celebrate with the family we don't get to see everyday (Miss you guys!),

We do appreciate the family we have close that can make the holidays special..

 

Here's a few of the things we've done to make this break an awesome one!.

(We have partied hard this week, so it may involve a few posts.  Just saying!)

 

AUNT HEIDI'S ANNUAL SPEEPOVER

It all began last year when Aunt Heidi decided to have a sleepover with her nieces. 

They had such a great time, it's kind of turned into an annual thing.

This year after dinner, they decorated cookies...

and watched movie...after movie...after movie!

  They were waiting for a surprise to come and had to do something to stay awake.

The surprise turned out to be my brother, sister-in-law, and nephew Broc.  Couldn't have asked for anything better.

 

The girls absolutely LOVE their sleepover with Aunt Heidi (they were packed for a week!)

And are already planning for next years!

 

While the older girls were gone, we took the opportuntiy to prepare a little for Christmas!

Santa had an extra special helper this year! 

And a super cute little helper at that!

 

CHRISTMAS EVE

 We spent Christmas Eve at my parents house with all my brothers and sister and both sets of grandparents.  With it being a monday night, I wanted it to be special, so I sorta put myself in charge of the program!  I have struggled the last few years on how to balance the fun festivities of Santa Claus and such, with the spiritual side of Christ's birth.  I want the girls to have fun and enjoy Santa, but I want them to understand and remember the real reason of why we celebrate Christmas.  While reading one of my Christmas books to the girls one night I had a few thoughts on how to find that balance, so I read the story and shared my thoughts with the rest of my family.

And then we acted out the Nativity.

 

 The Production Crew

And the Cast!

A big thanks to all my family for being such great sports!

And a HUGE shout out to the rest of our family and friends we couldn't be with!

We love you and miss you!  Hope you all had a Merry Christmas!

Abby's Christmas Program

Abby had her Christmas Program at Preschool yesterday!

But I, like the idiot I am, forgot my stinking camera!  Dummy!

So when we got home I took one immediately.  

Abby did amazing, of course (and as her mother I can say that!), and absolutely LOVED every minute of it!

I am so proud of her and all that she is learning in Preschool this year!

Next time, I promise, I will bring my camera!

Heidle Hodle's Graduation!

My little sister Heidi graduated from College last weekend.  

I am kind of in denial about the whole idea of my LITTLE SISTER graduating from College.

Pretty sure I'm not that old!

Anywho,  She did it!  Heidi got her degree in Elementary Education.

Mark tried to talk her out of it, but she just kept with it.

I know she's going make a great teacher someday!

We were able to attend one part of the graduation ceremonies!

And after it was all done, she got attacked by some very excited little nieces.

They are so proud of their Aunt Heidi!

 I'm proud of you too, Ho!

Peek-a-Boo!

 Now you see her!!!

Now you don't!!! (And I promise, she's really behind there!)

Yep!  She LOVES it!

Gingerbread Fun

For FHE we decided to attempt (and might I emphasize ATTEMPT) to make gingerbread houses.

I saw this kit of four mini houses and thought it would be fun for the girls.
Super fun, Yeah!  But totally messy and WAY more difficult than I thought.
Next year we'll know better.   We're forgetting the frosting and using a glue gun!

Aunt Heidi and Hannah had the most difficult time!

After a few hours, loads of mocking (uh...Heidi), and tons of giggles, here's how they turned out!  Not too bad...

Well at least 2 out of the 3.  Sorry Heidi!

Thanksgiving 2012

We had an awesome Thanksgiving week filled with lots of visitors and fun activities.

We are so grateful to everyone who came to visit.  We love and miss you already!

Here's how the week unfolded!

Friday (the week before)- Tyler and Rachel's (Mark's sister) family arrived.

Saturday- Grandpa and Grandma Bates arrived.

But not before the HUGE bonfire!

Mark had accumulated a bunch of tree branches and stuff over the summer and we have been waiting for the perfect time to light it up.  With Tyler there it was as perfect of a time as any.

  These girls watched from a safe distance!

 The other kids were mostly oblivious to fire.  They were having way too much fun playing in the snow!

 And building these little guys!

 That night Mark was asked to play on a basketball team against the Harlem Ambassadors.  Not sure if they are connected at all to the Harlem Globetrotters, but they whooped up on the home team pretty bad.

 Bet you can't guess what subject Mark teaches in School!  

 Mark 's team of teachers.  There was also a police officer team, radio station D.J team., and a bunch of high school kids.

 Sunday- Was our "Thanksgiving" dinner.  We opted out of serving turkey because most of us would have it later on that week.  We served ham, funeral potatoes, a couple of different salads, rolls, and pies for dessert, instead.

The girls decided to dress up for dinner.

 Monday- Mark still had school and the rest of us just chilled at home.

The kids played so great together.  Here they are performing a dance for us!

And I did give these two girls a bath.  I love how they were checking each other out!

Tuesday- Mark had school again.  Abby did too.  Her preschool was having their "Thanksgiving Feast" that day and she was suppose to dress up like a Pilgrim or an Indian.  She was the cutest Indian around!

Rachel and Tyler left on Tuesday, and Grandpa and Grandma left on Thursday.  Sad day!

We are so grateful for those that came.  We know it's a long way to the freezing cold here.

But it made our Thanksgiving wonderful having you all here.

Hope everyone else had a fabulous Thanksgiving!

All Is Safely Gathered In!!!

I LOVE Fall!

For many reasons...... obviously! 

But one thing in particular that I'm very proud of!  Canning!  I LOVE canning season!

Not that I'm really good at it!  (I don't think I've ever attempted it alone!) 

But merely for the bonding time with my mom and grandma,

and the satisfaction I feel at the end of the day to see the beautifully preserved produce.

 

There's not too many things better than hearing the pop of a succesfully sealed jar!  Am I right?

This season we were creative and tried a few new things.

Here's what we did.

 

Grape Juice

Pears

Peach Pie Filling (I'm anxious to try it out!)

Potatoes (I haven't tried it yet, but my mom has.  They LOVE them!)

Salsa

Jalapenos

Banana Peppers/Peppercinis

Pickled Beets (not for us, but my family.  Just gotta say, they were BEAUTIFUL!)



Halloween 2012

We had a typical halloween filled with nothing more than your normal festivities.

The girls didn't mind!

Next year I'm thinking to change things up a bit.

Happy Halloween Everyone!!!!

From, The Bates Family Zoo

The cutest little 1 year old around!!!

Little Miss Lucy turned ONE.

We celebrated with a YUMMY Baked Potato Bar for dinner and SPOOKY pudding cups for dessert.

 Followed by presents and pumpkin carving.  Super fun night if I do say so!

 

Even though I am not much into the whole costume and trick-or-treating part of Halloween,

I do love the CUTE decorations and FUN food ideas.  And with Lucy's birthday so close to Halloween, I took advantage (and WILL every year until she's old enough to decide otherwise) and tried out some fun halloween ideas.

 

I love the idea of displaying pictures of the birthday girl.  This was my spooky twist.

That picture, there in the frame, is the day we brought her home from the hospital... on Halloween!

Can't believe it's been a year already!

After dinner we sang Happy Birthday to her!

She LOVED it!

And then let her loose on her graveyard pudding cup.

At first she was dainty and delicate, just dipping her cookie and then licking it off ever so gently.

Well that quickly changed.

Yummy!

After Mark got her cleaned up we opened presents.

Lucy got an adorable crocheted hat, a new outfit, and lots of money for her savings account.

The biggest gift of the night, however, was the Fisher Price Little People Zoo we gave her.

I was so excited for her to open it.  I knew she would love it.

It has been constantly played with by ALL the girls ever since, so I'd say it was a good choice.

After presents we started the pumpkin carving!

This was serious business for Abby.

She even cleaned out the "guts" all by herself.  Probably not her most favorite part.

She wanted a flower and the sun. 

AND a flower and sun she got.  Thanks to daddy!

Hannah went with a more classic approach.

Uncle Nickle needed some inspiration for his pumpkin.  Lucy helped with this.

(*I hesitated adding this picture because it reveals a small portion of the dysfunction of my house...or at least one room.  Yes that's my computer... on the floor!  But I just LOVE how Lucy had her arm around him!  Super Cute!)

The final pumpkins... well... most of them.
They did a pretty good job!

Happy Birthday Little Lucy!

Words cannot describe the JOY you bring into our home!