pictures of Christmas

Jaxon had his preschool Christmas program last week. It was fun to see him participate. He can be a bit shy at times, but to our surprise he was really excited and stood up there and sang his 4

year old heart out. It's great to see him grow up and become his own little person. He goes to a little church preschool here in town. I thought they did a great job with their program, all about the REAL Christmas story.

Way to go Jax man were proud of you!

Getting ready to go

do you think he's excited?

here's the cute teacher shuffling them all into place.

jax, you will notice is playing the part of a wise man. his crown was a touch to small and kept wanting to slip off his head. with great determination he managed to keep it on for the whole program...so cute

this picture is a bit blurry, but i wanted to show his cute costume

darling kids

the whole crew

home for a visit

I had the opportunity to go visit my mom and dad last week. It was such fun to hang out with them. As most of you know my dad is currently undergoing cancer treatments (hence the new bald look). He is at a point where he is able to have visitors - so I was thrilled to go and spend the weekend at their home. We watched movies, played cards, played some scrabble (my dad beat me soundly, seriously you do not want to play scrabble with my parents - they are both wickedly good) made yummy food and visited. My sister and family were actually in town for Gary's sister Maren's funeral, so we got to attend the funeral and visit with them one day as well.

Thanks so much for an awesome time mom and dad, I only wish it could have lasted longer.

I love you both so very much.

* a small side note: I want to take a moment to give a shout out to my ridiculously nice husband who has let me fly home to Utah 4 times without him this year. He has willingly taken all his extra vacation to watch the kids while I have flown home on several different occasions.

Thanks so much honey - you are the greatest.

Me and my cute dad

and us yet again...do you like the Green Bay beanie? - a gift from Tyler and I
a few photos of some of my sisters kiddos
Annie Grace
We made sugar cookies with the kids - here's Ethan showing off his handy work

Lauren - isn't that the cutest Santa cookie, she did a great job

So - let me explain...

Here I am painting my mom's front window. We should have taken the picture from a bit further back so you could appreciate how high up it is. Anyway it was a fun way to add some holiday cheer to their house. I used to paint it all the time when I lived at home, so it was just like old times. And just like old times my dad reminded me about four thousand times to be careful up there. Once a parent always a parent...right?

My brother in law Gary and my dad.

A couple of our favorite bald men!

I'm sure Gary would like to have you believe that he is an ultra supportive son in law and shaved his head in support of Steve.

I assure you however that with Gar it was a pre existing condition! :)

Sorry Gary I couldn't help but tease a bit!

proving that bald is dEFInitELY BEAutiFUl

this is what happens when you let your brother in law see your camera and tell him not to take your picture..nice
I was also able to run over to Tyler's parents house one evening and attend their annual Christmas party. Here's a picture of some of our cute nieces and nephews. Such cuties.

Serious Snow

We have experienced some serious snowfall here in our neck of the woods this december.

Here are a few pics of the freezing cold fun.

tyler's new morning ritual

i'm finding our entry from the garage looks like this ALWAYS!

Lia's Christmas Concert

Lia's elementary school Christmas program was this past Wednesday. The performance included all the children in the school grades K-5. It was held at Neenah High School and the auditorium was packed. Lia was so excited to be a part of such a big show - she loves to be on stage.

Here our some pictures of our night -

Crazy kids getting ready for the event..
my maggie jaxon refuses to be normal when you are taking his photo..nice

if you are wondering...yes maggies shirt is wet, she had just eaten a bowl of oatmeal and spilled it all down her front :)
Lia doesn't love having her hair done, but for the Christmas concert she let me do it!
A happy day for the mom!
She is so old, who let her grow up so fast? I'm not sure I'm OK with it.

I lOVe that bLUe EyEd gIRl :)

well we sort of got a picture of all three of them..

I turned on the camera a little late for this video clip, Lia has already turned around. It is still cute however due to the fact that Lia's friend Delaney next to her missed her cue to turn around by a bit. If you watch closely you can see Lia turn her around. Their other friend Natasha is on the front row of the risers motioning like crazy for Delaney to turn around! Nothing like a few good friend to help out just in case you have a bit of stage fright in the middle of the concert!

Lia is on the third row up on the end with the red shirt and black flower in her hair :)

when uno attacks

My sister gave the kids UNO ATTACK for Christmas - they opened it when I came home from Utah this past week - Maggie has never been so thrilled with anything in her entire life. She can't help but be surprised every time the little machine spits cards at her! ENJOY!

november pics

The following are just some of my favorite around the house pictures from the month of November -

0 degree temps inspire ty to grow out the beard for winter

school pics for jax

close up of jax in the picture - next to his friend paige, he is a big paige fan :)family movie night

silly maggie

sweet lia
jax - fell asleep on the way home from running errands -

we had just gone to the bank (hence the sucker in his mouth)

he also had insanely pokey hair that day...no amount of gel could tame it

maggie gears up for winter in wisconsin

can you say trouble?

and as the month came to a close we did put up the holiday decor to get ready for december :)