Favorites from Christmas 2010

What could possibly make me smile more than a dozen roses?!? My husband bringing me branches! I have an obsession with branches and Carl has surprised me different times with branches he thought I would like.

I l.o.v.e these he brought me from the woods by our house!

Our December list on the kitchen chalkboard and a birthday wish for my mom.

Christmas Eve with the Brocks at my sister's home. Julie, Lisa ( my sister-in-law-to-be) and me

It's official. The girls want her to be their Aunt!

Ricky & Lisa

Our 15th Christmas :)

Hugs for Grandma

Love the Christmas lights in the background. He's wearing his new tool back pack because he wants to be a "worker guy"

Grandma & Grandpa

Gadgets

Juggling ~ a non-dangerous sports. This was after a few lesson from the juggling queen :)

Better than the BEST!

Tears when it was time to leave

Home on Christmas morning. Abby reading the Christmas story.

He was completely surprised and it made my day!

So did Abby's tears, smiles, and hugs when she opened her camera. The rest of the day she sported this pose.

Carl & Caleb hangin' loose with their snowboards

Carl made us bacon, eggs, toast, sausage, and hashbrowns for breakfast Christmas morning :)

We spent Christmas afternoon with the Eisenharts. Not sure what was about to happen here, but the moment was going to be preserved with pixels for sure!

More tears when Abby opened her violin! Then lots of smiles :) Super-excited about the potential here!

















And here!

Aunt Michele opening gifts

The Steelers fan

Grammy

Uncle Randy & Isaac

Ella & Grammy

The kids are enjoying their time off school and Carl & Caleb have been trying out their snowboards at PerfectNorth. We made lots of wonderful memories this year and it was so nice to spend time with family. And our dreams of a white Christmas came true!

December Days

Hot chocolate with whipped cream, and marshmallows, and red sprinkles, and green sprinkles. The sprinkles really do make it taste Christmas-y!

Decorating for Christmas

Looking for that special ornament!

The nativity scene

This one goes here!

We've collected a few ornaments each year since we've been married. Each ornament is special and I love remembering where they came from.

Did someone say mistletoe?!

Quick Christmas cookies with Grandma

Random

Christmas card picture attempt strike 1

He's my favorite!

The 3 stooges. CNC jr. church party.

Banana cake with cream cheese frosting and white chocolate snowflakes I made for my Mom.

Happy 68th Birthday!

Christmas card picture attempt strike 2

First snow day of the season! Caleb had some friends over for sledding & pizza

CNC Christmas Program "Peace on Earth"

Caleb as a German soldier

Isaac as a little angel

Looking forward to spending time with family the next few day. May your days be merry and bright! And may we get the white Christmas that is forecasted :)

Sick Days

Abby has been very sick this past week with an allergic reaction to an antibiotic. She missed several days of school and yesterday was the first day she was starting to feel better and wanted to do something fun. We found these shaped icecube-tray crayons online and they turned out so cute. She made these as a gift for a friend.
First she sorted through the crayons to find any broken pieces and began peeling the paper off.

Then broke the crayons in small pieces and put them in a silicone icecube tray

set the oven at 250 degrees

baked them for 20 minutes

till they were all melted, and let them cool for a few hours

Ta-Da! Flower-shaped crayons!

Then she decided to dress and organize all her Barbie's

But the biggest smile of the day came when Caleb got home for school and brought her a big stack of homework and a note & candy from her class. She loves school! I tried to convince her that she didn't have to do it all at once. But, she did! So thankful she is feeling better :)