being silly and photographer's in training.

These are just some fun pictures of us being silly after we cleaned the girls room. We were taking a picture for the house fairy so she would come and check their room and leave a surprise. First Katrina wanted to take a few pictures. Except for the top of my head being cut off she did a pretty good job.

She also took this one of Lizzy I think she looks so cute.

Amanda wanted a turn as well and told us to make faces for her so here we are in all our refined glory :)

Of course after us being silly Katrina had to take one more of Amanda. The beauty of digital cameras is you can see how silly you look immediately and they love it!!!

Christmas Eve

This was Christmas morning before the kids opened their gifts. We had a lot of fun opening and made a huge mess as usual. We spent the afternoon with some friends and we all had a great day.
Ali's Christmas

American girl doll bed/with Hannah Montana bedspread and a Nintendo DS were her main gifts










Trinas Christmas her big gift was her bike but she was also really excited about her wedding Ariel barbie.












Amandas Christmas she got a dollhouse and because it said Emma on the box it is always referred to as the Emma dollhouse

Lizzy's Christmas consisted of a baby, bed stroller and bottles.

We had a great Christmas this year!

Catching up. 1

Here we are on Christmas Eve making our gingerbread men and decorating our cookies for Santa.

Lizzy is at the stage where she squints her eyes whenever she sees the camera. So cute!







Katrina and Amanda had lots of fun and their philosophy was the more candy and frosting the better. Katrina tried to make clothes for her gingerbread man. (the influence of her big sister helped) :)









I get the feeling that Ali has seen and done some real decorating with her mom, because she was using the tips, outlining, and filling in. It was fun to see her work so hard.

The Break

Wow what an eventful couple of weeks. I'll start by saying we had a GREAT Christmas this year. Santa found our home and with a few minor setbacks left a bunch of happy girls in his wake. Ali got a Nintendo DS, Katrina got a bike, Amanda got a dollhouse, and Elizabeth got a baby complete with stroller and bottles. They were all very happy (until later that day when the adrenaline wore off from waking up so early). We spent the day with friends and enjoyed watching the Lakers play and win :)
After Christmas was over we set off to see family for a couple of days before Ali went home. We enjoyed the time we had with family. Steve ran a 5 k on new years eve and so Ali, Katrina Megan and Ashley stood and froze while we waited for him to finish and then we celebrated the new year. OK so we shouted Happy New Year to each other as we hurried back to the warm comforts of the van. We met together as a family to make plans for our up and coming business and I tried (and succeeded) to get some last minute authorizations for banners and permission to represent our business at a soccer tournament. After the family meeting I was flying high. We are doing better then I expected to be at this point and I am optimistic that this is a winning opportunity.
The kids went back to school today and I tried to catch up on all the laundry that a vacation brings and cleaned out the girls drawers to make room for the new clothes they got for Christmas.
All in all it was a great holiday, but I am glad to be getting back to a normal routine!!!