Perfect timing!

My friend Suzanne and I are always in sync, our brains think alike and we often joke that we must share a brain.

Getting my money's worth!

Sky is always asking me for my spare change, Brooke always want's a coin in her pocket and Jett has a Transformer wallet that has some dollar bills in it from Grandma.  These kids already love money.  In Sky's book order there was a set of books I ordered that explained the coins... pennies, nickels, dimes and quarters.  I can see I'm getting my money's worth already.  She has read about all of them and has told me facts that even I didn't know!

Please mom!

She was so funny... she got in her stocking and got her first choice of candy and I watched her walk towards me.  I had my camera in hand just waiting for the question.  When I asked her what she had, she got down on her little knees and so sweetly asked, "Please mom?"  How could I say no, even though I know this had to be piece number 10 or 11 for the day.  Oh well, it's Christmas right?

The love came from near and far...

And they're off...

Christmas morning... it begins with the stockings!

Christmas Eve excitement!

My Three Kings...

It being Christmas Eve-Eve... I took my kids up to my parents house so I could get some shopping done.  When I went to get them, it was dinner time and neither my mom or I wanted to fix anything.  We decided to drive down the hill and eat at Burger King.  They LOVE to get the king hats and wore them even after getting jammies on for the night!

And the story goes...

that my friend Suzanne is the only reason these stockings hang today!

My kids have never had Christmas stockings.  I have never found any I LOVED and I've always been hesitant to buy some not knowing how many kids we'd have in the end.  I considered making some this year, but just didn't get around to it.  So... after telling Suzanne that Santa left my kids candy in a bowl every year, it became her mission to help me find ones I liked and then get them.  A friend of Suzanne's gave her a cute stocking and found out it had been purchased at Sam's Club.  I'm not a member so I kinda wrote it off as an option.  It was Monday when she told me.  Had I been smart, I would have gone over to Sam's Club that night and bought them.  Instead it turned into this...

  Tuesday morning Suzanne called me (remember the day that it snowed TONS) and asked me if I had gone over and got them.  Of course my response was no and I listed my reasons.  She didn't like that and decided that if I wasn't going to get them, she was.  I couldn't let her do this on her own so I promised to meet her over at Sams.  I threw my kids in the car (in their PJ's) and met her there.  It was a scary drive over having already started to dump snow.  We met up, only to find out there were none left.  I ran in (while she sat outside with our kids in the car) with the stocking she had gotten and asked them to call the other Sams Clubs and see if they had any.  They called and Murray had some.  I had only a bit before my daughter was out of school, so I ran to get her while Suzanne ran to the Murray location.  It was a tough drive in the snow and kinda scary.  I couldn't believe I was out driving in it for one (cause I freak when I have to drive in snow) and two that my friend was dragging her kids around in their PJ's to help me get stockings.  Crazy!!!  After getting my daughter I met up with her at the Murray Sams.  She had gone in and found they had three left.  THREE!  She was holding them for me but the kicker was that neither of us had a membership and they weren't giving out one day passes for the holidays.  Grrr... So, I asked a lady that was parked next to me if I could borrow her card to buy these stockings that my friend was inside holding for me.  She said yes.  So we switched... Suzanne ran out, I ran in (with this stranger) to buy them.  We got to the front of the line and I swiped my card.  "We don't take American Express."  That's all I had on me.  So with a call to Suzanne who was sitting with the kids outside in the snowy parking lot, we switched again.  She ran into pay, while I ran outside to sit with the kids.
Ta-Da!  Here they hang... three little, DANG CUTE stockings!

I'm sorry to make you look at chewed food...

but my daughter leaves me little notes all over my house.  This one caught me by surprise.  Can you tell?  It says, "I love you."

I'm a little crazy after my girls slumber party and NO sleep!

Just learned...

how to make these!

Who loves Christmas parties?

Who needs Pandora?

That's more like it...

Candy jar.

Obedient Children!

This deserves to be the post for the day!  This WAS my day.  It was suddenly all about this.  It may not be ME being creative, but my little girl was so incredibly creative that I have to post this!
While I was on the phone, she came over and asked me, "Mom, what do you want for Christmas."  Slightly bugged that I was being interruped on the phone, I said somewhat sarcastically, "obedient children!"  With a bit of an eye roll, but not a word she walked away.  Minutes later I was handed this piece of paper.  What could I say?  I gushed all day about this paper.  I shared the story with my friend on the phone, I called up dad and told him the story.  I shared it that night at dinner.  I loved how she took my not so nice answer and turned it into something wonderful!

Sunday dinner!

It's all about the cookie!

Able to survive my Friday!

Too cold! 12 degrees really? Come on!

Mama's helper!

There's a story that goes with this and today there are two pictures to tell it.  I had my camera out tonight without a single thought of what my picture for the day was going to be.  Brooke saw me and said just out of the blue, "Wanna take a picture of my hat?"  How could I say no?  So I said, "Sure, let's do it.  She ran up to the kitchen moved a kitchen chair into place and climbed up onto it.  CLICK!  That was perfect, the image of her looking at the Christmas Tree.  She turned around after hearing me take the picture and said, "No, not like that!"  She took her hat and started doing funny things with it and posing in hilarious ways.  I kept clicking as I laughed.  The second one says it all!  She's cute, funny and helped me out for today!

Snow Cone

Me!

Decorating...

All I want for Christmas...

Lights on...

Brownies, I love you!

Christmas Cards

Without revealing everything about them, just know I'm excited to have them to send this year.  Last year, I'm not sure what happened.  I didn't send out cards nor did I get out decorations.  We were lucky to have a tree with lights on it.  So, I'm a little giddy about this.  Glad to have jumped back on the Christmas train and send out cards!

Goodmorning toofless!