Christmas

Christmas morning was great at our house. Santa visited during the night and brought us all what we'd asked for. We are such good kids. Most of the time. ha
Here's a little video of the kids first thing.


I didn't take many pictures with my camera. I was so busy trying to keep the kids calm. Gracie took quite a few with her camera, and some are pretty good. I'll add them later.
Here is Gracie opening her Karaoke machine. She loves that thing. She sings and teaches and reads stories and more!!!

And here is TJ with his very own pair of binoculars. He just loves anything to do with Hunting and being outside.

We had a great day and were all very blessed. Thanks to everyone for their thoughtful gifts.
Hope you all had a Merry Christmas!

Santa Claus

The kids got to see Santa Claus today. He made a special visit to my work, so I went and picked them up. Both kids asked for ice skates. Gracie asked for a video camera & a dress for her American Girl Doll. And apparently she asked for a video camera for me.

TJ asked for a real Bow & Arrow set and a remote control helicopter.

Both kids have been good this year. So I'm sure Santa will do what he can do.

Snowmobiling

Tony LOVES snowmobiling. He goes every chance he gets. This year has been a little bit scary because of all the avalanches, so he stays in pretty flat areas. I have gone with him once, up to Strawberry, and of course I forgot our camera. But here is another time when he went with a friend up to Wolf Creek. No pictures of him, but still some good ones. It was snowing pretty good on them while they were out.
This is Tony's sled:

This is the elevation sign...9485 ft.


Here are his friends and all the sleds.

Tony is pretty dang good at snowmobiling. He looks awesome side hilling and such. I am not so good....crud I'm terrible. I can't even turn. I need to practice big time!

Christmas Program

Last night was Gracie's Christmas Program for the musical group she is in at school. They sang a lot of fun songs. It was a little hard to hear the kids, because they had the music with a lady singing turned up so loud. But you could hear them now & then...and you could see their mouths moving. lol. The did a little skit with the songs. Gracie had a couple parts and did an excellent job. No fear, no nerves, just belted out her lines...with emotion! She seems to enjoy performing.

Gracie was an elf. There were elves, reindeer, Santa & Mrs. Claus, and kids coming to see Santa. Then the K-2nd grade kids were back up singers.

So here are a couple pictures from before the program started:

Such a helper. She's trying to help get this little girls antlers on straight.

TJ was going nuts. He wanted to run around the school so bad. Gotta get a drink, gotta go to the bathroom. Whatever! So I finally took a picture of him, while waiting for the show to start. Talk about deer in the headlights look! He was being goofy...

And here are some pictures of her singing.

This picture below is while singing a sad song about Christmas missing. She was so in character, I had to take a picture. She was totally sad. :(

Oh but she couldn't stay that way. She cracked a smile when she saw me taking a picture of her.


Here they are singing Up on The House Top. The beginning is missing. I'm a little slow. Ha!

Now she is up for her part in the skit. Someone else is talking about how to make Santa happy. He's sad because he feels like people have forgotten the meaning of Christmas. That's what the skit has been about, with songs mixed in.

Here she is doing her fist part. They were talking about people helping Santa know that they remember the meaning of Christmas. She is asking what people can do, or something like that. In her next part she asks the audience to make a jingling noise. So we all use our keys. TJ shook mine a bit. And then we all sang Jingle Bells, and Santa felt much better. lol

Singing in the store

The other day at the grocery store, they were giving away toys to any kids who would sing a Christmas Carol over the intercom. Gracie and TJ were so excited. That was our first stop. They sang Santa Claus is Coming to Town. They did really well. TJ was a little unsure, but Gracie belted it out. I was impressed with how well she knew the song.

Once they were through, they headed to the toy isle and made their selections. TJ of course got a dart gun. Gracie got a little doggie with a stroller and toys. Girl loves animals.

As we were finishing our shopping and getting in line to pay, they asked for any adult that could name all of Santa's reindeer to come up and win a ham. Gracie grabbed my arm and drug me over. Seriously. Of course I was caught off guard so I wasn't to hard to pull on. Anyway, I was successful. I won a ham. Aren't you impressed? I know, it's hard to live in my shadow! lol NOT!

So in case you don't know, the reindeer are as follows:

Dasher, Dancer, Prancer, Vixen, Comet, Cupid, Donner, Blitzen, and our fave...Rudolph!

Decorating the Christmas Tree

The week after Thanksgiving, while I was still sick, the kids and Tony put up the Christmas Tree, while I watched. This was totally different from years past. Usually I put up the tree and Tony watches. It was quite enjoyable. The kids did all the bulbs. They did a really good job. I only had to move a couple. So here are some pics of the decorating process.

Rudolph the purple nosed reindeer. Could be interesting....

Cheese!

Gotta use the step ladder to get some up at the top. It was starting to look bottom heavy.

Or my furniture works.

Help? Anyone? I just can't reach!

It's starting to look so pretty.

Ah....there we get some at the top!

Yes my tree in the front room is purple and silver. 3 shades of each color. Then, when I felt better, I put the bows on. Silver and Purple bows with a big Silver bow on top. A dark purple skirt finishes it off.

Last year we put up 2 trees. But this year, we just weren't up to it. We'll see how Christmas morning goes in our little front room. Could be interesting. If you don't hear from us, come dig us out of the wrapping paper.

Once I got the bows on and everything cleaned up, we did a little Christmas photo shoot with the kids. I used one of them on my Christmas cards. So, here are my cute little kidlets. Dang I love those two!

Merry Christmas EVERYONE!!! We hope your holiday is bright and full of love!

Book: Hunger Games

So, as many of you know, I am a reader. LOVE TO READ! I was browsing the website of one of my fave authors a while back when I ran across a book recommendation. So the next time I visited the book store, I bought it. It's by Suzanne Collins and is called Hunger Games. It's in the teen section. Now don't go thinking it's not any good because it's in the teen section.

I'm here to tell you that it was a pretty good book. It grabs you from the beginning and you want to keep reading. So, just a recommendation if anyone is looking for something to read over the holidays...you may enjoy Hunger Games. It is the first in a trilogy.

http://www.amazon.com/Hunger-Games-Suzanne-Collins/dp/0439023483/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1229457100&sr=8-1

PTA Movie Night

A few weeks ago, before Thanksgiving, the PTA had movie night at the Elementary School. We all set out our blankets (I took a chair) and watch Kung Foo Panda! The kids loved it. We got Happy Meals before we went, and they had a "picnic" on the gym floor at the school. They of course want the movie now. I think they just want every movie! lol

Thanksgiving 2008

This year for Thanksgiving, the kids and I decide to make some place cards, with the help of my cricut. We decided to make the families in identical characters. So here is the whole gang:

Each person is carrying something different, with the exception of Tony & TJ.

Ray & Kasi are pumpkins, with Ray carrying a cornucopia and Kasi a bowl of potatoes:

The Grandparents were Turkey's, once with a bowl, one with a sack of flour and one with a fork and spoon:

Our Family was the indians. Tony and TJ are carrying a bow and arrow. I have a corn stalk and Gracie has a pot. Gracie and TJ drew their own faces, and TJ wanted a different color for his clothes:

The Ford's were the pilgrims. Violet is carrying a pie, Jenn a Turkey, Summer a loaf of bread and Steven a Musket.

They took us 3 days to make. I think they turned out really cute. We had a lot of fun making them.

After we had finished the last of them on Thanksgiving morning, Gracie and I went to making food. I had her mixing the ingredients to a pie, when she told me it wasn't mixing right. She was looking in the bowl, and I reached over to turn it off, but accidentally turned it up. Thus the powdered sugar flew out and Gracie was covered. We got a good laugh out of it though.

While grocery shopping for the Thanksgiving food, the kids and I came across some light up Rudolph noses. The kids have had them before, but they died...so we bought some new ones. Here are Jenn and Violet trying them on. Violet just loved it!

I didn't take any pictures other that these. I got sick and we were so busy. But, we had an enjoyable time. Meals were at our house. We really enjoyed having everybody over. Violet liked Arrow. He kept trying to run away from her. It was quite funny.