What In The Heck...Where Have I Been?!

Okay Okay...it has been a while. I know I know "a while" has really been more like months...but this is the deal, we have (well now it's had...) one computer that was the kids and one laptop that was Mark's work computer (which all our pictures get downloaded to) about 3 months ago the laptop (which Mark and I always joke is more like a 90 year old man with emphysema) took a "turn for the worse" and we have been unable to access our photos from the first half of this year. After a little trip to California to visit my AWESOME brother, he sent us his old computer and Mark's brother gave us his old (flat) screen monitor so we now have (what's new to us) a computer! So please forgive the first half of the year but now that I'm back in business with a computer and pictures it's on to the last half of the year!

Christmas 2010

Christmas morning! Before anything was touched...

We have a strict rule at our house...no one is allowed to open anything until everyone is up and sitting around the tree and no one is allowed to wake Mom & Dad up before 8 am. It never fails every Christmas morning we can hear 5 little people sitting around the tree shaking presents and trying to guess what they each have received from Santa. Then they all tiptoe into our room, whispering and giggling as they all stare at us waiting for the clock to tick 8 o'clock. Once it does...no one is safe or should I say no present is safe.

Morgan & Mckinley smile for the camera as Mckinley tries Megan's new headphones from Uncle Ford & Aunt Samantha.
Megan and her headphones...she wanted these sooo badly!
Not everyone can be happy on Christmas...
Mommy always makes things better. <3
As does Daddy & his earphones, Mckinley loves listening to music through earphones (think we had a bit of a ear/headphones theme this year?!)
My sweet red!
Morgan playing one of her gifts...the babysitting wii game.
Macy being...Macy (and showing off one of her gifts, her princess dress, it even says it on the front!) Dang she is one cute kiddo!!!
Later that night we had a small family dinner that consisted of some of our family favorites..steak, Honey Baked ham, mashed potatoes and asparagus. Hmmmmm....soooo goood!
Yum!
Merry Christmas 2010!

(just for reference that's sparkling cider in all our glasses :)

Christmas Eve 2010

Our Christmas tree on Christmas Eve night!

December's Lunar Eclipse

December 21,2010- This was to be the first total Lunar Eclipse to occur on the night of the Northern Winter Solstice since 1638. Pretty cool! This was a freezing cold night and the girls went to bed begging us to wake them up so they could watch the Lunar Eclipse that was supposed to happen around 1:30 am. Mark & I decided to wait to wake them until things really started happening. This was the first shot of the moon that night.

We woke the girls up about 2:30 am when we noticed the moon starting to "change"...(which it really didn't change that's just what Megan kept saying about it!)

It's almost gone! Only a sliver left...

It's done! We watched a total Lunar Eclipse! Something that happens once every 19 years. It was neat to watch although I think by the time it finished the girls were beyond ready for bed...a bit anti-climactic for them but an experience still the same.

It's Tradition!

December 18, 2010 - What has become one of the girls favorite traditions over the past few years at Christmas time is a "craft night" with Grammie. My girls LOVE it and look forward to it every year. My mom and I pick a weekend night in December for her to watch the kiddos while Mark and I go out to Christmas shop. While she's here she does some fun crafty creativeness with the girls (which usually results in a Christmas gift for Mark & I from the girls...which is one of my FAVORITE gifts to get every year!) This year Mckinley became super sick about an hour before we were supposed to leave soooo...we didn't. Hence the reason I have pictures. Usually this is top secret stuff but by the time I was "allowed" to take photographs the super secret gift making craft was finished and they moved onto gingerbread men. At this point in the activity it looks like Megan and Morgan were much more interested in licking the frosting rather than decorating (a common theme with these two through most of the activity!)

Macy working very intently to get her "guys'" chocolate chip eyes on...
Morgan chose M&M "eyes" instead...
Sprinkles are a must have!
There were lots of smiles during this "craft"...
As you can see :)
Morgan's masterpiece...
Macy's...
Marin's...
Megan's...
They all couldn't wait till lunch the next day when they got to relish in the crafty edibleness of this most fun tradition! Thanks Grammie for providing us with one of our most fun Christmas traditions! We think Grandmas are the most wonderful people on Earth!

Quote Of The Day

I couldn't help but post this because it was so sweet ( & Mark actually found it quite amusing...) while we were finishing the end of dinner tonight our conversation had turned to a topic that our oldest daughter brought up and of course Morgan & Megan both chimed in with their opinions (as younger sisters often do). Marin was telling us about a young man at their school & showing us the video recap of how cute he is that she took with her cell phone (thank goodness for cell phone videos what ever did we do before those?!) I use the word "young man" because he is a junior so I would say young man is appropriate.

Anyway, this 11 grader, who they say is a Taylor Lautner look-a-like and from the video he actually does look A-LOT like him (everyone at this point has to know that Taylor Lautner plays Jacob in the Twilight series) well of course all the 6th grader girls (aka Marin & her friends) think he is just the cutest thing since...well...Taylor himself. So she was telling us about him and how they all like to swoon over him (completely innocently, it is so fun to listen to my daughter with her first "crush") and of course telling us how amazing he must be, etc. Then the conversation got more interesting...it went something like this:

Mom - "Marin did you ever take into consideration that maybe he isn't that nice of a boy?"

Marin - "No way mom. He's really nice. I know because he was in the talent show with me last year"

Megan - With COMPLETE AND TOTAL sarcasm in her voice "Of course you know him...because your act followed his in the show" then as she laughed at her own sense of "good humor" she added a smirk for good measure.

Mark - Again with fun loving COMPLETE sarcasm (I'm noticing a trend of sarcasm here...maybe we should work on that) "Of course he must be nice because he's soooo good looking, all good looking people are nice."

Next was the best part....

Morgan - Without hesitation she said "That's right dad, look at you! Your nice AND good looking! Your funny too!"

Soooo sweet. She meant every word of that last line. Mark thought it was absolutely amusing (OK...that's my take on it...he just corrected me as he reads over my shoulder and says that he thought it was absolutely hilarious!) He got quite a chuckle out of it. As we all did. Man I love my kiddos, each and every one of them.

Is It Too Early To Call Them Bach & Beethoven?!

December 11, 2010 - Marin and Morgan's very first piano recital. They have worked all year (Marin started in Jan. & Morgan followed in Feb.) and they have two times a year to "showcase" their talents. In March they go to a festival (which neither one was ready for this past year) so the next event is the Christmas recital. They were so excited (a little nervous) but they worked hard the last few weeks leading up to the recital and they did AWESOME!

Marin & Morgan getting in a quick practice (to get a feel for a different piano) before their recital started.
Meg was by their side the whole time...she can't wait till it's her turn to start playing!
Not sure why we didn't take any pictures while they were actually performing but neither one of us thought to pick up the camera (Boo hiss...bad parents...) we must have been so completely mesmerized by how AMAZING they did on their pieces! Here's a shot of our little pianist after they were done.
A cute shot of our little ones in pink...they were both so happy they didn't have to sit still anymore :)
All our girls!
Morgan & Marin with their INCREDIBLE piano teacher, Ms. Sung!

What's In Your Mouth?

Macy found one of the big girls ugly...er...I mean fun vampire teeth and decided she was a vampire!

Trying to make them fit...

Still working on that...

Success!
Macy - "Mommy I want to suck your blood"
Mommy - "Halloween is over there will be no sucking of blood till next year..."
Who knew that vampire teeth could create hours of fun for a toddler all year long?!?

Let's Swing!

December 2, 2010 - One of Macy's FAVORITE things to do in the whole world is swing! She probably asks me everyday at least a half a dozen times...we have a great swing in our backyard that Mark attached to one of our trees. The only problem is that because the trees branch only had one space where the swing would be level (anyone that knows my man knows that all things done must be done well...so there's no hanging a second swing from a unleveled branch) so even though we have a "baby swing" and a "big kid swing" we have to detach one and put up the other when swinging kiddos. Which for all those that know me...this process is waaaayyy to much of a pain in the backside. So on this day we put the baby swing up and let Mckinley get the first turn (since she's usually the one who goes without a turn since I HATE changing out the swings...) and boy did she absolutely LOVE it!

She LOVES that Mark will pushes her so high! It is crazy to me that she leans so far forward but she loves every minute of it :)
I think daddy does too!
Nothing like feeling the breeze in your hair...
Then it was Macy's turn...and daddy always pushes her really high! Usually the conversation goes like this:

Macy - "Daddy you have to push me higher"

Daddy - "How's this?"

Macy - "Not high enough daddy...higher please"

Daddy - "How's that?"

Macy - *insert deep heavy sigh* "Daddy...I would like to touch the tops of the trees PLEASE!!!"

Daddy - "O.K. hang on"

Macy - Laughs, giggles and squeals of shear happiness.
This is her "YES...Now that was how high I wanted" grin.

I hope that her love of high "flying" doesn't turn into anything other than her bum sitting on a swing. No jumping out of planes or off the sides of mountains in this family!

Nothing but smiles :)
Especially on daddy!