Indoor Play

I'm always a bit nervous when there is a threat of a snow storm bad enough to keep us indoors.

I am not sure why? It has always pushes me to be creative and keep things interesting.

Like "island jumping" to keep the alligators from eating our little piggies.

Making model magic monsters.......LOTS of them!

Scissor practice.

LOVE the faces they make when they concentrate...

and, of course, dress up!

Em is really into the ballerina meets flash dance look right now!

What do you do when you are trapped indoors? 

Always looking for FUN ideas!!

Anyone out there???

life

ben took this of emme

 emme took this of ben

THE END

What are you doing to prepare?

BEN is ALMOST FIVE!!! Check it out!!!

Click here to view this photo book larger

We are THAT family....

On my first date with Sam, he whipped out his checkbook to pay

and his checks were covered in Star Wars characters.

To the faint of heart, this may have sealed the deal

NO MORE SECOND DATE!!!

But for me...

in combination with him talking to his food and painting "I like you" on my wall.

I decided to stick with him. 

Afterall, I grew up watching Star Wars, and had my own princess Leia fantasies.

Fast forward to our wedding where the Skywalker Symphony Orchestra played "The Throne room" as we first walked down the aisle as husband and wife. 

SO should I be surprised that our nearly five year old son is now wanting to make his way through the 

STAR WARS cookbook?

And our daughter is now wanting to be a Princess of the Leia kind as well..

SO, for this time, as long as they show interest

We will create Skywalker smoothies, wookie cookies, and tonight... 

We eat Boba-Fett-ucine!

IT IT WRITTEN IN THE STARS....

{WARS}

Greyson Shane

Yesterday, I had the pleasure of spending the afternoon gazing into these gorgeous eyes.

Isn't he just the sweetest thing?

If ever there were a mom and dad made more perfectly for their offspring.......

Thanks Brooke and Michael and sweet baby G!

(Go by and visit Brooke and tell her what a precious babe she has, and see what she is up to...you will be inspired!)

Say Cheese!

She's a Natural........

WATCHOUT!!!!!

Happy SNOW day

We woke up today to a snow covered home and internet for the first time since Christmas.

So here are our sweet cherubs in the white stuff.

We are off to make cookies, play board games until our fingers hurt, snuggle til we are toasty warm, and 

stay in our pj's ALL DAY (with the exception of our time in the white stuff, of course!)

Eve

A few Christmas Eve traditions in our house

We always read the night before Christmas

Sam has read this to me every year we have been married, and now reads it to me and the kids.

I love this tradition, his voice is {like butter} and it is such a beautiful end to the eve and beginning to Christmas day.

We have purchased a new version of the book every year, and have written the year, where we live and what gifts we received in the front cover.

A tradition I know we will someday look back on and be thankful we did it.

A spin on an old tradition of oats and glitter for the reindeer is adding some carrots to give the reindeer energy for the long flight. As the story goes in our house......Blitzen is a very picky little reindeer who does not like carrots. So, Christmas morning a few carrots were chewed up and spit out by silly old Blitzen. Ben suggested we leave some Ranch dressing out for Blitzen this year....ya know, to make the carrots more tolerable!

Watching "The Very First Noel"

This movie is an amazing addition to the Eve of Christmas, reminding us all what the holiday is really about. The narration in done by the Andy Griffith guy and the music is simply wonderful. I wish I could find an Mp3 version of the music to put in our Christmas mix....it is just toasty warm.

and speaking of toasty warm, we all get new pj's for our Christmas eve slumber and Christmas morning pictures.

We call this tradition "Santa Mouse", care of the Hamilton Family and I have no idea why. But we do it, and we love it, and we love telling the kids that Cate and Claire do it too.