christmas day

we spent the whole day in our p.j.'s . . . does it get any better than that? the girls were thrilled with all of their gifts. santa brought them things that they were wishing for . . . kam's "dora soft baby", ken and mck got mp3 players, and b.c. got lots of great "boy toys". they got a surprise gift from grammy, grampy, and gigi . . . a trampoline that is sure to get lots of use! :) we tried to make the morning last as long as possible, taking several hot chocolate breaks to stretch things out! :) nothing like hot chocolate, marshmallows, and a sugar cookie at 9:30 in the morning! we played with the kids all day long and then had a yummy dinner on nana's china . . . in our p.j.'s! :) i think this was the best christmas ever! :)
we traveled to grammy and grampy's house for a belated christmas celebration and dinner on saturday. it was great to see everyone! we had a wonderful gift exchange ($5 limit!) and watched the kids open goodies. dinner was wonderful! we visited with the baileys on sunday for the day. the kids ran around outside enjoying the beautiful weather. gigi was thrilled to see all of them together. the girls loved seeing pa and keep talking about his magic! :)

christmas eve

a wonderful day at home! :) we made our gingerbread house, sugar cookies, and pretzels, played, watched the snowflakes, got dressed up, headed to church, saw more beautiful snowflakes, had a wonderful dinner of munchies, got matching p.j.'s (dorky, yes! but so much fun!), got ready for santa, and went to bed. . . such fun! :)

matching p.j.'s for our family of 6 . . . a new tradition for the baileys! :)

another early gift . . . 2 more kids! :)

yes, we have two new additions to our family! we have so much land we feel like the kids should have the chance to have some amazing experiences! so . . . bailey worked on a pen for our new twin baby boy goats all week! the girls were thrilled to find out that peanut butter and rocky road will get to come live with us! they can't wait! :) (just what i need . . . two more kids!) :) we'll bring them home next week! :)

a little bit of christmas a little bit early

the girls got to open one of their christmas presents super early this year . . . six flags passes for 2010! i was all packed up when bailey got home from work and ken arrived home from school. we gave them their gifts and told them to hop in the car . . . they couldn't beloieve we were heading there right away! :) (of course they were also thrilled that we would be staying in a hotel for two nights . . . such a treat!) we met grampy, uncle tim, aunt missy and baby sophia there too! (so sad grammy and sarah couldn't be there . . . next time - for sure!)

we walked the river walk, played for 6 hours at six flags, visited the zoo . . . what a great weekend! the lights along the riverwalk and at six flags were so cool. the lighting of the tree at the park was awesome! the kids had so much fun! we can't wait to head back again soon!

school christmas parties

what a treat! this year i got to attend both ken's and mck's school parties! it's so fun to see them around their friends! :) and also a treat to see how much junk my girls always seem to want to chow down on . . . hello, you'd think they never get to eat sweets at home . . . they're always the last kiddos to finish at their parties! :) mck had fun playing christmas bingo and showing us some of the things she'd been working on . . . ken loved having me at her school without the little kids and playing pin the carrot on frosty! :) yea! :) now it's time for two weeks at home! :) can't wait!

spinning underneath the tree

the holidays just wouldn't be complete without a spin or two underneath the zilker tree! :) (yes, bailey, we'll keep paying the $10 to park so we can spin!) and of course the trip wouldn't feel right unless we were there with our bff's! :) the girls had so much fun with spinning with their friends this year! :) we loved spinning b.c. for the first time! :) the trail was different and shorter, but the kids didn't care! :) and what could be a more perfect ending than playing in some snow? mck and ken had a great time . . . kam didn't like it quite so much! :) you can tell we don't have a lot of experience with the white stuff . . . ken thought she could make the hour long ride home with a snowball! :)

my dancing girls

wow. what a difference a year makes. ken and mck are quite the dancing girls! :) they put on a short christmas performance for us in their class . . . mck danced to "10 little angels" . . . soooo sweet and soooo her! :) she did so well! last year she would start the dance and then enjoy watching someone else do the dance the rest of the time! :) this year, she made it through the whole thing and did really well! ken danced to a country christmas song by clint black. wow. she had lots of fancy moves and did really well . . . i know for sure i couldn't keep up! :) what a treat to see them dance! :)

how hard is it to get a christmas picture?

holy crow . . . every year it gets a little harder! we rarely have instances where everyone is looking good, happy, in a good mood, or clean all at the same time. this year it took us two "photo sessions" to try to capture a good image . . . and we ended up having to do everyone separately. next year . . . i'll start in november! :)

we may have a thumb sucker . . .

try as i might to get b.c. to be hooked on his paci and avoid sucking his thumb, i think i lost! he likes to chomp down on his paci, but more and more lately he's finding his thumb. uhhhh. hopefully we can break him of this habit better than we did with our oldest . . . and stop it before he starts kindergarten! :)

homemade sugar cookies

the bailey bunch has always been a big fan of baking cookies. . . the kind where you open the package and stick them on the cookie tray! :) but, after trying some homemade sugar cookies at a friend's house we were hooked on how yummy they could taste if we made them ourselves! so the girls and i made a giant batch to freeze for christmas eve. yummy! mck and kam love holding the mixer and "doing it myself"! ken was busy making chocolate covered pretzels . . . she got really good at it, but i forgot to snap a pic! :)

marble falls trail of lights . . .

this is always a favorite of the kids . . . a small trail of lights in marble falls . . . just perfect for the kids to walk through. we headed there again this year with our bffs . . . after a rather short stop in burnet to walk through bethlehem . . . we gave up after finding the wait to be over 2 hours! (poor ken was soooo disappointed . . . all sbe wanted to do was see baby jesus . . . is she my kid???) the kids had lots of fun. . . we followed it up with a stop at the bluebonnet cafe for some hot chocolate and pie! yummy! :)

snowman breakfast

we were able to continue our new tradition of the nordstrom's snowman breakfast thanks to ms. s again this year. this has to be the highlight of our holiday traditions! the super early wake-up (5:30! with everyone dressed up and out the door by 6:30!) was so worth it when we arrived to a table set up especially for us with a gift of yummy hot chocolate and pretty place mats for the girls to color . . . a yummy breakfast of eggs, bacon, toast, and fruit . . . a personal visit by santa to our table (the girls were in heaven and b.c. was mesmerized by the big guy!). . . a balloon maker who was really fantastic . . . then we headed downstairs to be the first to talk with mr. c and take some pictures! the girls each got several minutes with santa and daddy snapped lots of pictures. even b.c. got a little attention! :) ken asked for an mp3 player . . . and of course, so did mck! kam asked for a "dora soft baby" and repeated it over and over but was so quiet that mommy had to translate! the girls got beautiful face paintings done, participated in a candy cane hunt, and decorated ornaments too! what a wonderful morning!

first christmas party and a visit with santa . . .

wow. what an awesome day! we have found the most amazing playgroup with the most amazing organizer! we had an awesome christmas party . . . all homemade food and treats, a very personal visit with mr. claus, goodies for the kids, door prizes for the mommies . . . wow is all i can say! it was so wonderful! :) the girls were really in heaven! the looked at their box of goodies the whole way home . . . even b.c. was included with an adorable "ho! ho! ho!" hat. too cute. he partied hard and crashed on the way home. the girls were worn out too! a dayof fun followed by naps for three kids . . . does it get any better than that? thank you so much ms. j for everything!

had to capture this moment. b.c. laughs like crazy everytime i get him undressed. he loves being naked and loves being tickled. he has the coolest little baby laugh! :) he is just a happy guy! :) he would lay there naked for a long time if it let him . . . it just scares me too much! :) he loves his baths now too! he could chill in the tub for hours! :) sweet little guy! :) note how much he is filling out . . . he is far from scrawny these days . . . he even has a little belly and some rolls on the tops of his legs! :) gotta love a chubby baby! :)

hey . . . this is good! :)

okay, we tried cereal with some mashed bananas . . . i got a smile, but still more ended up on b.c.'s bib than in his mouth! :) we'll keep trying!

making cookies with kam

kam's playdate today was making christmas cookies! it was at ms. j's house, so of course everything was perfect . . . right down to the wide selection of coffee creamers for mommy! :) kam had lots of fun cutting out cookies, frosting them, and of course decorating them. she is not a big cookie eater, but devoured the sugar cookie! :) she loved it . . . maybe that's because these were made from scratch and my cookies are straight out of the package and onto the cookie sheet kind! :) (we've gotten the recipe and will start a new tradition of making them from scratch!) she made one for each of her sisters to take home too! :) what fun! :)

growing snow!

mck's awesome teacher (and our family friend!) ms. b sent home some leftover snow for us to "grow"! we just didn't get our fill of it with the mini snowfall last week! the girls were so excited to watch it and then play with it! we stuck it in the freezer to see what it would fell like cold! :) what fun! :) a few more years and we'll have to head somewhere that it does snow! :) thanks, ms. b.! :)