Monday Makings

We took a two week break from Monday Makings but now we're back! Did ya miss us?! January isn't a very exciting month, sometimes I feel like I dread it...getting back to normal routine after the holidays and back to waking up early and getting to school on time after a nice 2 weeks of sleeping in and being lazy! Since Alan and I both grew up in Utah, we've come to miss the snow around the holidays...especially at Christmas. However, when it comes to April and spring weather, I'm glad we're not having to deal with snow storms still! Poor little Braden tells me pretty much everyday he wishes it would snow so he can play in it and build a snowman and make a snow angel and have a snowball fight. Or he asks me when we are going to our Grandma's and Grandpa's houses so we can play in the snow. I decided January is a good month to make snowman crafts! Our first one...cotton ball snowmen! The kids thought it was great and Brikelle really got into this craft with the glue and the cotton. I put glue all over her paper and she stuck every cotton ball on herself...she loved it!

This baby will not keep clothes on! Everytime we turn around she either has no pants on, or no shirt on, or arms out of her shirt or nothing but a diaper on! Thankfully she hasn't figured out how to take her diaper off!

Wii Fun!!!

Just a silly post to say that "Wii" have been having all kinds of fun playing the Wii!

Christmas Day

I'm finally getting around to posting some of our Christmas pictures. We had a very nice Christmas and were so grateful that everyone was healthy, happy and able to enjoy the day! Alan is pretty much a kid when it comes to Christmas. Not because he wants to see what he got for Christmas, but because he loves spoiling his kids and seeing how excited they are when they see that Santa came! No matter how late we get to bed on Christmas Eve (or actually in the wee hours of Christmas morning), Alan is always up and showered and ready to go by about 6:30. I always make him wait until at least 7:00 before he wakes the kids...I know the anticipation just kills him! This year Bailee and Braden woke up on there own at about 7:30. That was the first time they have done that...we have always had to drag them out of bed in the past! Since Brikelle was still asleep, we let Bailee and Braden go ahead and see if Santa came and look in their stockings and check out their pile of "stuff". Braden's remark to his dad once he did see that Santa came to our house and left presents, "See Dad, I told ya Santa wouldn't bring me coal." Yeah, he's too smart for playing that whole card about how you better be good because if you aren't Santa is going to leave you coal blah, blah, blah. Before Christmas, when we tried to play that card Braden told us, "I was naughty last year and Santa still brought me toys." Anyway, back to Christmas... the kids were very excited to see that Santa came and once Brikelle woke up we let them start tearing into their gifts. Braden was like a mad man and just ripped through everything as fast as he could, sometimes he took a second to see what it actually was! Bailee took a little more time opening her stuff and checked things out before opening another present. And once Brikelle saw her big present that Santa brought, that's all she wanted...she didn't want to be bothered with opening any of the other presents. So enough with my ramblings...I'll let you enjoy the pictures! There were so many to choose from so I just picked a big handful of the ones I thought were best!


Our tree full of presents...Alan took me serious when I told him I needed a new wardrobe! He did a wonderful job and in case you're wondering, yes, he is very tasteful and knows all the right sizes. He shops better for me than I do!
Bailee's loot from Santa

Braden's loot from Santa

Brikelle's loot from Santa

Alan grew up with Santa gifts wrapped, I grew up with Santa gifts unwrapped and set out in our own piles, so Santa compromises and only keeps a couple of the bigger things unwrapped, wraps everything else and puts everything in individual piles for the kids.

Of course it's always fun to check and see if Santa eats the cookies and drinks the milk we leave for him. I think we left one too many for him this year as you can see!

Bailee is always so excited about getting an orange in her stocking!

Braden asked Santa for Star Wars guys and a Darth Vader helmet. He scored a bunch of action figures and a Darth Vader costume!

Brikelle was thrilled to see that this rocking horse was for her!

Bailee started out wanting a Hannah Montana guitar for Christmas, but then while out shopping one day she saw this Hannah Montana doll that sings "Rocking Around the Christmas Tree" and decided that's what she was going to ask Santa for. She must have been a pretty good girl all year because Santa brought her both!

Brikelle had to take a break and get her daily Elmo's World fix in! She grabbed daddy's hand, took him to our bedroom and told him "Mo, Mo". So while Bailee and Braden finished opening their stuff, she watched her Elmo. And apparently we were too loud for her because eventually she shut our door and stayed in our room until her Elmo was over!

Sweet! Thanks Santa!

I think Alan was happy and surprised to find a new I-Pod in his stocking!

Our Little Rockers!

We hope all of you had a very Merry Christmas. Thank you for all the wonderful cards. We love you all and pray that everyone has a Happy and Safe 2009.

Just stuck this picture in because I thought it was cute. Brikelle is hugging and telling "Sa sa" bye. She freaked out when I took him out to the garage to box up!

Christmas Eve

Christmas Eve was pretty low key around here. We usually let the kids open a present or two on Christmas Eve. This year we decided to let them open the gifts they got for each other...we've decided to make that a tradition. They were so excited to open a present! Christmas Eve night we did our traditional dinner of ham, mashed potatoes and gravy, corn, rolls, and a veggie tray. After dinner and baths we read Christmas stories and watched Mr. Kruger's Christmas and the short Nativity movie. By the time all of that was done, it was time to brush teeth, put the cookies out for Santa and hit the hay (well, for the kids anyway!).


Brikelle knew exactly what to do with her present!
She was so excited to have these babies (Dora's twin brother & sister). It was funny though because once we got them out of the box, she didn't want anything to do with the boy baby...just the girl baby was fine for her!

Braden enjoys puzzles and is really good at them. Plus he loves trains so this was the perfect gift!

Of course Bailee is always thrilled to add another Bratz Kidz doll to her collection...especially when they have pink streaks in their hair!

I just had to add this picture. Nope, the kids aren't praying...they are fake crying. Yes, I said fake crying. Bailee and Braden thought it was the funniest thing that they taught their baby sister how to fake cry. So now when she's not crying for real, we get to listen to her cry for pretend...how great is that?!?! It really did make us laugh which is why we took a picture. She did it constantly for the next day or two. Now she only does it if someone reminds her to do it!

And here we are all ready to eat our yummy meal! Merry Christmas Eve to us!

Christmas "Stuff"

It has been forever since I've blogged...I'm having withdrawls!!! Okay, maybe it's only been a week or so, but it seems like it's been forever! I'm sure as with all of you, December was a very busy month and it totally flew by. I think I blinked and it was all over. I have about a million pictures to blog, but will spare you all and only post half a million. I was going to post all of the pictures on this one post called Christmas "Stuff" but then realized how many pictures I actually had. So I've decided to break it up into sections. Here is the first one...

These first three pictures were taken the night we got home from Alan's Christmas party at work. It was a nice time and not only did we see Santa, but the kids did all kinds of crafts and got their faces painted. Brikelle didn't get her face painted but she did get Christmas stickers on her cheeks!

Brikelle was done by the time we took this one!

Here we are making our cookies for Santa. We discovered we are not the best sugar cookie makers in the world, but we had a fun time trying! Good thing Santa doesn't mind chocolate chip cookies!

Bailee and Braden had more fun with the flour than with the actual cookies!

Yummy!