Letters to Santa

Today we went to Santa's special mailbox at the mall to deliver the kids' letters to the big guy!

Here are the munchkins hoping they've made it onto the NICE list this year!!! :-)

 

Christmas Lights at the Zoo!

Tonight we ventured to the zoo to check out the Christmas lights and to see Santa.  It worked out perfectly that there was a very small line to see Santa, like maybe 3 people in front of us, when we got there...MUCH better than waiting forever at the mall!  Barrett was a little apprehensive and the girls would only go if Mommy was in the picture too...but at least we got a picture!! :-)

 

The rest of the time, the kiddos were happy as can be checking out the lights...although a bit disappointed that we couldn't see any of the animals because it was too dark!

 

Can't leave out my handsome Mister!

Kevin met us there on his way home from work for a fun family night!

..::Kickoff to CHRISTMAS::..

 

Kevin and I took the girls to The Gaslight Theatre last night.

This has become our family tradition to kickoff the Christmas season.

This year, the production was "Scrooge", their take on the the Charles Dickens' classic,

A Christmas Carol.

It was great and the girls loved it.

We had such a fun time with the girls and look forward to taking Barrett next year!

 

(A GIANT thank you to my dear friend Emily for watching Barrett

at the very last minute, due to unforeseen circumstances with our original babysitter!!)

JOY School

For the past several weeks of Payton's joy school, the kids have been learning Christmas songs and practicing to do a little skit of the Nativity at a senior citizens center (aka old folks' home) here in town.  They have been learning about the joy of giving, the joy of service etc. and THIS week, the week of the actual visit to the old folks' home and performance happened to be MY week of teaching joy school.  It's been a little stressful, I'll admit.  But we've still had fun.  On Tuesday, the kiddos helped make Christmas treats for our upcoming family Christmas party next week, as well as having a mini dress rehearsal for today.

Then, today, we ventured over to the old folks' home. And despite the kids' lack of attention or desire to sing on Tuesday, leaving me very anxious about today, and me leaving my manuscript (for lack of a better word) at home sitting on the counter in my kitchen, we managed to pull it off!

The kids did GREAT!

And a big thank you to all the other moms...couldn't have done it without ya! :-)

Even though I agonized and stressed over this week...it has really gotten me excited for the season and Spirit of Christmas!

Future Wildcat

 

And Future Heartbreaker.

I mean, really...look at those eyes!!!

 

(fabulous photo courtesy of my wonderful friend, Emily, who has THE cutest blog here)

Happy (almost) Thanksgiving!

from: Payton's Joy School Group!!

..::Happy Birthday Alexa::..

Alexa has had a very fun-filled few days of birthday fun.

On Sunday morning, I let her open her present from Gramma Jenny!

 

Then this morning, I let her open the gifts from Kevin's assistant and hygienist (Jona and Kim).

It was so very nice and thoughtful of them to think of Alexa!

 

Then I went and took Alexa lunch at school today.

She requested McDonald's.

It was a lot of fun to start this tradition, one I hope to keep up each year and for each child! 

 

And tonight, we had our own little family birthday dinner.

Since we'd already had cupcakes at Alexa's party, she requested trifle for her birthday dessert on her actual birthday!

Yum...it was devilishly good!!

 

Happy Birthday sweet girl!  You are now 6 years old!

 

A few facts about the birthday girl:

 

*She is currently 45 3/4" tall

*She weighs 44.5 lbs

*She LOVES school and is reading above grade level

*She loves all things girly

*She prefers dresses and skirts to any other clothing

*Her favorite foods are pizza, chocolate chip pancakes, waffles, french toast

*Her favorite color is purple

*Her best friend is Ally McGee

*Her favorite thing at school is spelling

*Her favorite movie is Beauty and the Beast

*Her favorite princess is Belle

*Her favorite cake is strawberry cake with marshmallow frosting

*Her favorite thing to do at home is "play babies"

 

Happy Happy Happiest of Birthdays Alexa!

We love you sooooo much!!

..::Fancy Nancy 6th Birthday::..

To start off Alexa's birthday celebrations, she got to go on a mommy/daughter date yesterday to Build-A-Bear Workshop.  That was the present she requested from mommy and daddy.  We had such a fun time, me and my big girl!  I actually LOVED the whole experience at Build-A-Bear and loved watching Alexa build her very own bear, whom she named Elizabeth.

 

 

Then, today, was her Fancy Nancy birthday party.  Here she is posing with Elizabeth.
Payton and Barrett wanted to get in on picture-taking too!

 

All ready for the party to start!

The best thing I did for Alexa's party (thanks Gretchen for the idea), was to hire two of our favorite babysitters to help me out during the party.  Maddy and Maggie were HUGE lifesavers and made the party run so smoothly!  They helped me get the girls all fancy...fancy nails, fancy face paint, fancy hats, fancy accessories, fancy lunch.  It was a FANCY party...perfect for these fancy little ladies! 

 Presents!

Once again, Alexa was spoiled by her very generous and giving friends!

We are so thankful for each and every one of them!

After presents, the girls sang Happy Birthday to sweet Alexa and then they each got to make a fancy cupcake of their own!

 

It was such a fun day!

I will definitely be hiring babysitters to help out with future birthday parties! :-)

I cannot believe my baby girl is 6 years old!

Happy Birthday Alexa!

He had me at Hello!

Kentucky Getaway

So for the majority of this year, I've been trying to get a girls' weekend planned.  We initially tried to match it up with Time Out for Women and that wasn't working with every one's schedules, so then we just tried a weekend getaway...well, that ended up being unsuccessful too.

 

A couple weeks ago, I was commenting to Kevin that I was bummed how it had all not worked out and he suggested I just go to Louisville to visit my good friends. And that was that...I booked my ticket the next day!!!

 

I arrived on Friday afternoon and had dinner at Cheesecake that night with my fabulous friends, Waveney and Rachael.  This was our typical girls' night out when I lived there, we'd try and do a Cheesecake night once a month, so it was wonderful to be able to do that again!

 

 

Saturday was a busy, fun-filled day of enjoying the beautiful Fall Kentucky colors, shopping, lunch with wonderful friends (Wave, Rach, Taffney and her mom and sis-in-law), ice cream with another friend (Christa), more shopping, and dinner with yet another fabulous friend (Amanda).

Fewf...tiring but sooooo fun!

 

Sunday, I headed to my old ward for church to see friends that are still there.

Then I stopped by to see my wonderful friend and old neighbor, Becky, before heading to Amanda's place for more visiting with her.

 

Then it was back to Wave's to just chill and hangout before heading home today.

I seriously love this lady...we just go together like peas and carrots, ya know?!!!

Thanks my friend for letting me crash at your house, hangin' out with me and letting me get away from the every day happenings of my life so I could recharge!  Love ya!

And special thanks and shout out to my awesome Mister for encouraging me to go

AND to my friends and babysitters for helping out with my kiddos while I was gone.

Couldn't have done it without y'all!!!

..::Dear Tooth Fairy::..

 

Dear Tooth Fairy,

We now require your occasional presence in our home.

I'm sure we'll be seeing lots of each other over the years.

Alexa, our oldest, has lost her first tooth!

She is beyond excited!!

Please be kind to her each time she loses a tooth

And don't forget when she places her little baby teeth under her pillow!

Maybe keep some dollar bills on hand...

Just in case!

Sincerely,

Kevin & Collette :-)

School Fall Festival

Tonight was Alexa's first school Fall Festival.  Alexa was really excited to go and see her teacher, Miss White.  I wasn't AS excited to go since Kevin is away hunting this weekend with his dad and brothers so it's just me and the kiddos.  Me and 3 kids at an outdoor school event didn't sound super fun to me...but we braved it anyways.  And the kids had so much fun.  There were LOTS of things to do to keep everyone entertained!  I really wanted a picture of Alexa with her teacher, but when we finally found her, Alexa became super shy and wouldn't let me take one.  :(

All in all, it ended up being a fun night...and something to do while daddy is away!

 

 

Halloween 2012...in a nutshell

Halloween is always a fun, busy time of year.  Lots of fun things going on.

Our Halloween celebrations started off with our Ward Trunk or Treat.

This year, we had a butterfly, a witch and a puppy!

Cutest darn lil' puppy I've ever seen!

 

 

 

Then Payton had her Joy School Halloween party.

She was one protected litte witch, surrounded by all her super heroes!!

 

 

Then we painted pumpkins.

Mommy and Daddy weren't feeling up to actually carving pumpkins this year as we've all been sick a lot lately!  So painting it is!!

The girls took it very seriously!

 

They even painted all of our pumpkins, not just their own!

This morning, Alexa decided that being a butterfly at school would be too difficult as the wings would get in the way all day long...so she was a princess instead. 

They even had a fun little picnic for their Halloween party. 

My poor lil' injured Bubba...still as cute as can be, bandaged hand and all! 

So excited to get candy!! 

The now traditional picture in front of the garage right before heading out to go trick or treating! 

 

My and my sad little puppy.

 

Once he figured out that he got candy by knocking on people's doors, he wouldn't let anyone hold him anymore...he just wanted to keep going to each door, all by himself.  And he'd get mad if we passed by a house because it was all dark...he didn't get that no one would be home, he just knew we were passing a house that should be giving him candy!  Funny boy!

 

Happy Halloween everyone!