Xmas, B-day, NYE smooshed into 1!

We had a very merry Christmas season with both sets of grandparents and lots of activity. I hope we get to do it again next year (Hear that, ya'll???)!!!!!

I don't know how to condense the holidays into a few pics, so this is the best I can do....

Christmas Day(ish)

matching dresses

Brenna handing out gifts

Lipstick and jewelry

Miracle Whip. that gift made me laugh out loud (as did the great ball cap Brenna bought for her daddy at school!)

Chapstick and gum were the hit of the year.

Bren and Grammy doing an art project

Piper's Birthday

Piper's birthday is December 26th, so we ripped down the Christmas tree and pulled out the party favors. Ok, she really didn't get any party favors, but she did get cake and ice cream. (Grandpa died on the morning of her birthday so that thwarted our plans for a big family party. We needed to get things done and head to Arkansas.)

She wanted a Dora cake, just like Brenna had when she turned 3.

She, however, wanted to eat the eyes...

Arkansas

We then headed to Arkansas for an already scheduled visit with lots of family. Since Grandpa died, we were all there together. It has been many years since that has happened.

The kids and spouses

The grandkids and spouses

There were many tears shed. But honestly, most of those were tears of laughter. That is how Grandpa would have wanted it. That is how it always is when the Bailey's all get together.

New Year's Eve

Then we came home in time to ring in 2009 with good friends and their Wii!





There is my nutshell summary of the last week or so. If you want more details, you'll have to wait for the scrapbook that will hopefully be finished before the summer. I didn't even get to mention ticket rewards, new beds being built, the road trip, Pops, or playing with grandparents. Oh well, I'm sure you will survive. :)

I hope your 2009 is as good as my 2008 was!!!

Among all the joys of our holidays, we are saddened to say goodbye to our beloved Grandpa Bailey.

We will miss him dearly, but are confident of his eternal home. He has shown generations the paths of righteousness. Thank you, Grandpa Bailey, thank you.
Parents are the pride of their children. Proverbs 17:6b

It's the most wonderful time of the year!

Here it is, Christmas Eve. The kiddos are tucked in bed. We are waiting for Santa to arrive. Our grandparents are here and we are remembering why this really is the best time of year. I have witnessed amazingly kind gestures and sweet sentiment in the last few weeks. Not just obligatory gifts and well wishes, but truly random acts of kindness. It does warm my heart as no other time of year does. And these girls do the same!!!


Merry Christmas to all, and to all a good night!

Sugar Cookie Frock GIVEAWAY!!!!

Sugar Cookie Frock GIVEAWAY!!!!

Wouldn't this be perfect for my little naked bakers?!?!?!

Much sooner than I expected....

Brenna reached her first prize for keeping her tickets. So fingernail painting we did!!!



We don't do many outside Christmas decorations, but our neighbors do.
My hopes are that someday the girls will look back at these pictures and wonder whatever happened to our Christmas hippopotamus and moose. And follow that up with the thought of what great parents they had for going all out for the holidays. :)

Catching up. I actually had to put "blogging" on my to do list!!

This is Brenna's behavior chart. She starts each day with 5 tickets. Bad choices result in loss of tickets. If she looses all five tickets in day, she has an immediate and harsh consequence, i.e. can't play at friends house. If she keeps all tickets for 6 days, she gets a prize. The more great days, the better the reward. Her first reward is getting her fingernails painted. (bet you wish YOU keep 5 tickets for 6 days, huh!!!!) The grand prize is a trip to Incredible Pizza. She has responded VERY well to this! (Yes, Tuesday of last week she lost a ticket.) Most days she has only lost one, if that. Sunday, she was down three before we left the church building. Ugh.

And while you are here, please note that she is wearing pony tails. I have no idea where this came from. I could hardly get her to wear them when her hair was long, not she really likes them. Go figure.

Piper is trying out some new looks for herself.
Baby, it's cold outside!!! (Sorry about the naked Barbie)

We have our tree up. I might add those pictures later. Or you can look at all the other blogs with Christmas tree pictures and think to yourself "Seen one tree, seen 'em all".

We've been crafting and baking, but the girls are naked in our crafting pictures and you've already seen that. Several times. And let's face it, you can look through old blog entries if you are dying to see what they or my kitchen looks like. Not much has changed.

There...all caught up...on to the next task....hmm...clean toilets? Maybe I'll just look at your blogs for a little bit before I start that.

The next great inventor!!

Brenna has an art center in her class that she really is taking advantage of. She brings home purses, necklaces, pictures galore. Lately, all these have been made of wallpaper border section ranging from 4 to 12 inches wide and crepe paper. She also has master making hats out of crepe paper. Imagine a Daniel Boone hat without a top that is hot pink and blue. Lovely, huh!?!?!

So, yesterday, she pulls out her latest creation...

A Lunch Holder.

I really am impressed with her creativity!

Thanksgiving

We have so much to be thankful for. Our wonderful friends and family are right at the top of the list.

Here are some highlights of our time with Grammy and Granddaddy. Our girls loved spending time with Beck and Briggs. They played very well together and were constantly moving. It was difficult to get a good shot of all of them because they seldom stopped long enough to take a picture.

Grammy's cool play room

Reading stories before bedtime

A duet with the church microphone.

playing piano

Grammy, Granddaddy and the grandkids

(Brenna, 5; Briggs, 1; Beck, 4; Piper, 2)

A plug for a friend

We had a wonderful Thanksgiving!! It was great spending time with family. More on that later.

I have a friend and co-worker, Stacey, who made these wonderful sugar cookies to take with us for the holiday.

I cannot begin to tell you how delicious they were. They tasted as beautiful as they look. I highly recommend you contact her if you need any cookies for a holiday party, birthday party, or whatever. They are a fantastic price. Check out her blog to contact her. I will definitely be ordering more. She also has fantastic cookies in her Etsy store.

It's a win-win for everyone. She does the labor and you get to bring great cookies to the gathering!

A good weekend

Silly friends
"All I want for Christmas...."

Reading to Grandma and Grandpa on the computer.

Huh?

The girls are playing in the playroom with small plush cheer leader dolls. Piper is singing the High School Musical song (I really didn't THAT would happen this early).

Brenna says "We're not that kind of cheerleaders. They are Africa. We are America cheerleaders."

I have no idea what to do with that.

Kari, can you give me some insight please?

Another great giveaway

Downtown Holiday Jacket and Pant GIVEAWAY!!!!

The odds of me winning this are slim, I realize. So...any of you seamstresses are welcome to make one for Piper. Or better yet, one for each of my girls !!! haha

Out of place

This is out of place, but I wanted a new post today and don't have my camera.
Enjoy. :)


This picture cracks me up. This was right near the end of Brenna's biting phase. There was one day at SSS that several kids gotten "written up" for biting. Brenna bit L, L bit someone, someone bit I and I bit Bren. On the face. If you look on her right cheek you can see the bruises from the bite. When I see this picture I can't help but think that Bren was looking for protection with the helmet. Sadly, that was not the last time she bit someone.

So glad those days are over.

Commissioned Watercolor Portrait GIVEAWAY!!!!

For those who look at Grosgrain, you'll appreciate this. Those who don't...should check her out.

Commissioned Watercolor Portrait GIVEAWAY!!!!

Go Dads Go!!

This is one the cutest things I have seen in a while!!

For Damma

because Dampa doesn't share.

We love autumn!!!

We have a LOT of leaves in our backyard. I have wanted to rake them up all week. So, Saturday, I did just that. Mostly. (We do have a LOT of leaves in our backyard!)

Once I got the first pile ready to go, I told the girls they could jump on them.
Neither were sure what to do at first, so after a little coaxing and one big
jump on my part, the fun began!

I love the action in the picture.

Pure joy!

The morning ended with piles of leaves and laughter. It was a great day!!
Now, Anyone want to bag and haul off several large, crushed piles of leaves?
And for those interest, Piper's bandaid is a result of a really bad week for her.
Sunday she fell of the chair in our dining room and slip her lip open.
Tuesday she got her finger slammed in a door.
Wednesday she threw up a large portion of the night.
And Friday she fell cheek first onto the door of our van.
I'm hoping this new week brings her a little relief.

Silliness at our house

First place!!!!

Brenna's school had a cake decorating contest for their Annual Fall Festival. I was hesitant to even tell Brenna about it because it was a very busy week. Well, I decided to see if she wanted to particiate, and, of course, she did. We decided on a gum ball machine cake, but only because I ruled out a castle cake like Cinderella made in one of her books.So, she mixed the cake and I baked it.

The next day, she iced it while Piper looked on.

I did the sides and she did the top completely by herself.

Then she and Piper put M&M's on instead of gumballs.

I put on the finishing touches.
Brenna was quite proud. And should be. She did a great job. So good, in fact, she won first prize in the Pre-K class!! In the not too distant future, she will get to have lunch with her favorite teacher, Ms. P. Way to go, B!!