A photo shoot before they left town for the weekend

Excited

Sad

Mad (Piper is not capable)

Happy, so happy

The lines on our faces are from face paint. Brenna turned herself in to a cat and mom into an elephant. Last time, Piper was a cat/tiger and kind of freaked out so no more face paint for her.

January trip to the Zoo.

As I look back over past scrapbooks, it seems like we go to the zoo at least once every January.

I love Oklahoma weather!!!

Friday was our first trip of the year and we saw lots of friends. It was a quick trip, but we all enjoyed the fresh air, adventure through the bamboo and change of pace. And we got some pictures. Enjoy.



Oh...Grandma...this one is for you! Can you believe this is the same kid?????

Did ya miss it? Scroll down...

Socks and flipflops on my girl who hates strings on her socks and gunk in her toes!!!!! AAHHHHH

Life is good when your life includes this...

Drum roll, please....

Josh and my dad worked so hard the week of Christmas to make new beds for the girls. They are amazing. I could not be more proud of the craftsmanship or love that went into them. So tonight, we finally got everything together to present the new room to the girls (Thanks to Morgan, Jessica and Erin- it really does take a village!).

Before...

Notice all the crap...I mean treasures taped to the wall by B's bed.

After...

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!