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.! :)

rough night?

this is how sweet baby kam toddled down the stairs this morning at 8:30! oh my! :) we think she was up all night partying! :)

lights in belton

can you see the smiles on our faces? the lights in belton were everything i remembered about last year and more! seriously . . . this year was so wonderful! we headed there with our bff's after a great g'town dinner . . . okay, the wonderful didn't actually start until after we waited about an hour to drive into the lights . . . yes, an hour in the car with four kids. the minivan has never felt quite so small. i let them unbuckle, but told them they had to stay in their seats . . . well that lasted all of a minute until they were crawling all over the van. there were 3 little bodies right behind my seat and b.c. sitting on my lap! i felt sooooooo claustrophobic! mck was getting a big kick out of how frustrated i was getting and kept sticking her head as close to me as possible . . . with a big ol' grin. how can you not love that girl? :)

the lights were wonderful and sooo worth the wait! how can you not be completely in the spirit of the season driving through miniature trees and a huge tunnel that dance to the music streaming through the car radio?!?!? it was great! the windows were down, the heat was pouring out, and the kids were so excited! ken and kam hung out on one side of the car .. . kam sitting in ken's lap in a good part of the way and mck hung out on the other side . . . pointing everything out to b.c. who was sitting with me part of the time and helping daddy drive the other part! ken's fav part . . . "the baby jesus lights" (is she my kid?) :), mck loved the tunnel, and kam . . . "the baby lights and the baby trees" (if it's little and she can put the word baby in front of it she likes it!) :) b.c. was just in awe of everything!

it was late when we headed home. mck and ken passed out as soon as we left the lights. . . but little kam talked to us the whole way home! :) she wanted to know where the moon was and where its baby was and where the deer were and where the baby deer (and wanted all of them to wake up so she could see them!) were and why we couldn't have her baby music blasting in the car! :) it was a special treat for her to pull onto our street and see 2 mommy deer and 2 babies laying in the grass in front of the driveway! :) (she said, see they listened to me and woke up!") too cute!

is it possible for christmas time to get much better?

christmas stroll

the bailey bunch had a great time watching the parade at the g'town christmas stroll! we got all bundled up and headed to the square just in the nick of time! the parade was pretty long (like an hour!) and the kids stood mesmerized for the whole thing! even b.c. enjoyed taking in the scenery! :) ken's favorite part was the "bethlehem people", mck's fav was "the people who gave out candy and the ponies", and kam loved the "baby ponies"! we walked the square for a bit, then headed home for a rest to gear up for our big night out! :)

another first . . . cereal! . . . ewwww!

b.c. is one hungry kid. he is eating every 2-3 hours STILL! yep, four months old and still eating like a newborn! i am nursing and giving him bottles and the kid will eat like 9 ounces at once! we don't have to worry about him being small much longer! :)

so the dr. gave us the go-ahead to try cereal. it was NOT a hit. he was a smiles until he tasted it. he wanted nothing to do with it, but didn't spit it out, just held it in his mouth until he starting choking. uhhh. so, we'll try again. soon. the kids needs something to fill up his tummy! :)

you mean we have to do this again?

let it snow . . . well, at least for a few minutes!

okay, so the news hyped up the snow to be HUGE! the kids were so excited . . . thinking that school could be canceled and we would have hot chocolate and sit by the fire all day . . . we live in texas. we should know better. :) there were however several minutes of flurries that the girls got to see. some pretty big snowflakes too! just nothing that stuck . . . and nothing to play in! at least we can say we saw snow this year! :) ken got to see the snow at school . . . luckily it was during her recess time and they had a little extra time outside to enjoy the rare occurance! :) yea snow! :)