And You Thought Your December Shopping List Was Big....

We have a very busy December at our house. Not only do we have to shop for Christmas, we also have two birthdays to think about. Brianne's was yesterday, and today is Shaun's. Actually is some ways it is nice I usually get all of the shopping done then just decide later which is for Christmas and which is for birthdays. Kaylee's Birthday is in January so I usually get her birthday presents at the same time.

Happy Birthday Brianne.

Brianne was superstar of the week last week in Kindergarten. Her teacher asked me to come and share some special things about Brianne and read her favorite story. I brought pictures to help me show some of the things Brianne likes to do. I also brought a picture of her as a brand new baby, and told about how Brianne was suppose to be born in January, but decided to come 3 1/2 weeks early. We got to bring her home from the hospital on Christmas Eve, just in time for Christmas. She was our extra special Christmas present that year. I teared up when I was telling the kids this, and almost couldn't read the story I brought. Brianne continues to be our special Christmas present every year. We are lucky to have her in our family.

Brianne on her Birthday in the Hospital. This is the picture I shared with her class.

We had Friends Birthday party on Saturday. You might recognize the horse pinata from last year. Only last year it was painted purple and disguised as a unicorn. This year Brianne wanted a Christmas/Birthday party, so the horse got turned into a reindeer.

I thought this was a super cute picture of Brianne. The cake however was a disaster. Half of it didn't come out of the pan and I didn't have time to start over so I attempted to glue it back together with frosting. I was laughing so hard that tears started coming out of my eyes. Brianne wanted to know what was so funny. Luckily she didn't seem to notice that her cake was lopsided. And once the sprinkles and candy canes were on it, it didn't look so bad.

Brianne ready to hit the pinata.

All the kids going for the candy.

Brianne on her birthday. She decided to have donuts instead of a cake. After opening her presents (she got a razor scooter, new snow pants, pajamas with feet, and a jewelry box), we went to Kangaroo zoo.

Happy Birthday Shaun !!!

Shaun probably will wonder why I chose this picture to share. But I thought it was so cute of him and Sydnie. Sydnie really loves her daddy, and it shows in this picture. We are so lucky to have Shaun in our family. He is a great daddy and a hard working husband. We are so grateful for all he does for us. We love you. Happy Birthday Shaun.

Sledding with the Jacksons

It has been so nice to get a little snow and have the weather turn a little warmer. I was getting tired of the single digit temperatures we had last week. Nancy and her family came for the weekend and just in time it snowed several inches overnight and we had a perfect day of sledding on Saturday. We are so lucky to have a sledding hill just up the street from our house. It is big enough to get a good ride, but not so big that the little kids can't make it up by themselves. Even Sydnie dared to go down by herself this year, although one of us would have to run down the hill after her and carry her back up.

Hayden and Kaylee ready to have Nancy push them down the hill.

Brianne and Sydnie getting ready to go down on the tube. Brianne was a die hard. She would sled down walk up the hill and go right back down again. She must have gone down the hill at least 20 times.

After awhile everyone got tired of going up and down the hill and we stopped to make a snow fort.

Nancy snapped a few shots for our Christmas card. I decided to post it here just in case I don't manage to get cards mailed to everyone this year. They turned out good, but I was disappointed in the quality of the prints I got from Sam's club this year. It wasn't the photo. I checked the resolution on my computer. So it must have been something weird with the uploading or printing process. I am going to send them out anyway. Oh well at least I tried.

Later that night we made apples we made around 80 apples it was quite the production line. I think that is the most we have ever made at one time.

Reflections contest 2009. Beauty is...

The schools in Utah participate in the national PTA art competition called reflections. Each year the kids are given a theme to model their artwork around. This years theme was Beauty is....
Both Kaylee and Brianne did very well. They both won first place in three dimensional art for their school and got to go on to the district level for judging. They also won second place in the category of visual arts with their paintings of peacocks. They were in different age categories Brianne competed in age K-2nd and Kaylee was in the 3rd-5th grade group.
Then we were excited for Kaylee when we found out she had also won with her three dimensional art on the district level. She now gets to have her artwork judged on the regional level.
We are so proud of our two little artist. We have been blessed with two great artists in our family, and Sydnie is sure to be a third, she is already watching her sisters and working on her scribbles. But with two artist as parents they can't hardly help it.


Brianne and Kaylee posing with their trophies for the three dimensional art, they also won medals for their pictures.


Kaylee posing for the newspaper, with her plaque she won for her three dimensional art on the district level.


The girls with their winning artwork, and awards. Click on the picture to get a better view. They both won second place for their peacock paintings, on the school level. Brianne won first place for her hummingbird sculpture on the school level, and Kaylee won first place for her swan sculpture on both the school level and district level. Good luck to Kaylee! Keep your fingers crossed that she will win on the regional level.