Katie's Award

The character trait for the month at Katie's school is respect. Katie's teacher chose her as someone that shows respect for other people by her words and actions. She was recognized at their monthly character assembly and given a certificate. We are very proud of Katie.

My first ponytail!!

Kami woke up from her nap today and her hair looked a little disheveled and thought I'd see if it was long enough to put in a ponytail. I took a picture of her when I was changing her clothes.

Here she is afterward, still has the rosy cheeks from her nap and a tiny ponytail on top. Jacob wanted his picture taken too. He kept looking over Kami's shoulder from behind. I tried to get his picture by himself but he insisted on being with Kami. So I set her on his lap and after several takes I got this cute one. They are getting so big!

Here comes Kami

Kami got a new toy for Christmas that encourages crawling. She just started really being able to get around this last week or so. She use to just roll from side to side but she has started getting up on all fours and doing an army crawl. I captured this video recently of her with her toy.

New Year's Eve

We celebrated New Year's Eve on New York time at my sister Lisa's house. The kids all had a blast with hats, silly string, glow sticks and poppers courtesy of Grandma.Jason gets it right in the face.
Justin ducked just in time, but I think he still got some in his mouth.

This is what Lisa's floor looked like after we were done. Thanks Lisa for hosting the party. She said something about it being my turn next time.
Afterward the kids all settled down and watched a movie. They watched a Veggie Tales movie called The Pirates Who Don't Do Anything. It was actually a pretty cute little movie.

CINNABON

I got the Cinnabon recipe from my friend's blog (thanks Carrie) and I was finally able to make it with my new Kitchen Aid I got for Christmas. It took a lot longer than I thought. I started it around noon on New Year's Eve Day but had to let it rise twice. Here's my mom and Justin finishing them up that night while the kids watched the movie.

First you spread the butter. Mmmmm...fattening my favorite.
Then Justin sprinkled on the cinnamon and brown sugar.
We were trying to arrange them correctly so there would be room for them to rise, we weren't sure how big they would get.

Unfortunately I don't have any pictures of the finished product. While we waited for them to rise my stomach wasn't feeling good and I fell asleep on the couch. We had gone out to dinner at Black Angus and I think I ate too much. Between the bread, the salad, the fried zucchini, the steak and the Mud Slide dessert I think you can see why my stomach was mad at me. Which is why I am dieting and watching what I eat in the New Year. Anyway, the cinnamon rolls had just come out of the oven when Justin woke me up and we went home. They were really good the next morning when I finally got to have one..or two. (I have no self-control.)

Christmas Day

Christmas morning in new jammies.

Jason carefully laid out all his presents before he would let me take his picture.

Three guesses what Katie's favorite present was...did the giant grin give it away?
Jacob's just chillaxin' Kami amid the chaos that is Christmas morning.

Me and my girls

Justin and the babies

Grandma and Kami

Mommy and Kami

Christmas Eve

Ellie put Kami to sleep with a little help from the magic fingers. The Grown-Ups Table The Kids TableThe Little Kids Table Katie was Mary, Luke was Joseph, Logan was baby Jesus

and Kami was a lamb.

Ellie was an Angel, Jason was our one and only Wiseman, and Jacob and Ian were shepherds. Baby Jesus cried the whole time and Jacob the shepherd kept laying down next to the sheep. This is the only picture I have of him upright.

Grandma and Grandpa with the grandkids.
Lisa, Grandma and Kami, she loved being spoiled by Grandma.

Grandpa showing Katie how to solve a Rubik's cube.

Getting ready to decorate cookies for Santa.