Christmas Eve

We celebrated Christmas Eve at Kristy and Noel's house with the Simms, Betzholds and Mom and Dad. It was a fun-filled very busy time! We also got the fright of our lives when Hadley and Quinn went "exploring" in the neighborhood and we could not find them for over an hour! I think it taught them a very valuable lesson, and Reunion is a pretty safe place to learn that! Here we are in the midst of the kids' present exchange.

 Kristy and Dad looking at the calendar that we made for Mom and Dad. If you look closely you can see that someone (I'm guessing Kate) gave Gee some babysitting responsibilities....see that blonde hair? Maylen and Gage are at such a fun age...not messy at all either... :) So sweet!

The house looked SO beautiful...can you spot Christian?

 In the gift exchange Quinn got a horse with accessories and Tyndale got a Lightning McQueen racetrack. They were both thrilled! As a part of their present from Mom and Dad, the kids got these super cool whirly things that Mom and Dad got in Rome. They waited until it was dark to give them because they light up! The kids LOVE these!! And we had so much fun shooting them up into the air and trying to catch them again.

After all the fun, excitement and delicious dinner, we jumped into the car to head back home to get ready for Santa to come!

Eve of the Eve

Brad really took it to the next level this year for our annual Eve of the Eve party, dressing as a young Mrs. Clause. Everyone really did a creative job of dressing up and we had a ball! Jess won our contest competition with a velour jumpsuit featuring animal print presents. Awesome.

Sugarplum Spectacular

We just love going to the annual Sugarplum Spectacular...the table looks like Candyland! It is a fun time to visit with friends and Santa!

 ...and one of our favorite parts is that it is ALWAYS snowing in front of their house! Below is Quinn with her friends Georgia and Sara Rodgers.

 Tyndale is oh-so-seriously asking for a Polar Express train set. Quinn asked for an Itouch.

Look at the size of those candy canes Santa gave out...wow!

peppermint pancakes

We had peppermint pancakes and they were delicious! It was Quinn's idea to put peppermint in...and I had some reservations about how they would turn out...but they turned out great. We ARE a bit obsessed with all things peppermint in this house, however.  We make our pancakes like sticks because the kids love to dip them in syrup.

I had express permission from Quinn to publish the picture above (although it might embarrass her later...I think it is adorable!) to show off our finished pancakes. She really loves to roll her hair with these rollers that I have from the 80's...she unearthed them from some hidden place in my bathroom...do you remember these? Look how cute the finished product is!!