New school pictures

Okay, so these pictures are about 2 months old and it isn't the beginning of the school year but, I don't purchase the pictures from the school, I get the ones I can control how the kids look.  I just forgot to post these when we got them taken, I was too consumed with picking a family picture.  They are however, the current photos of the kids for this school year.  I didn't post any of Lindsay since she already had her senior pictures taken.
Makenna - 15 sophomore

Emily - 12  7th grade

 Alison - 8  3rd grade

Baylie - 6  1st grade

Jace - 5  pre school

Here is one of all 6 of them -

All of the pictures turned out so cute and it was hard choosing which pose to put on my wall.  I can't believe how quickly my babies are growing up - where does the time go?

SURPRISE!

The Tuesday before my birthday, I had plans to have lunch with 3 friends at our favorite Mexican restaurant.  When I got there, I was in for a huge surprise.  Two of my good friends had worked together to get about 20 of my friends together to surprise me for my 40th birthday.  As you can see as I'm walking in the restaurant, I was clueless as to what was going on! (A HUGE thank you to Brooke, my camera happy friend for all these pictures!)

 I'm still in shock, looking at everyone at this point.  I couldn't figure out how some of them knew each other and how a few little groups of friends became all one big group of friends - for this celebration anyway.

Nicole Hall, one of the ring leaders, made this sign and went to the restaurant early to decorate the place!  She got me all dressed up in this get up as I entered the restaurant. Can you see one blinking red thing at my left ear?  Yep, she had blinking red chili pepper earrings and all!

You can't see everyone in this picture or the next but I was so grateful for each one of these ladies for coming and making my day a bright one!  I definitely have the best friends ever!

Nicole even got my favorite cold stone ice cream cake -complete with all 40 candles!

 Chris and the girls knew about this surprise for several days beforehand.  Chris call the school and got Lindsay and Kenna released from school to come eat lunch with me - don't they look cute with their mustaches??

Deb Weldert, Tracy Hanks, me and Brooke  (my camera loving friend)

My cake!

All the candles are lit.....

One BIG breath...........

And, BLOOOOOOOW!

Kara was in town and happened to be near so I had her come on over!  (I was so glad, Nicole tried to text her but accidentally texted her home phone so she didn't get the information about the surprise)

Chris stopped in to get Jace

There were GAG GIFTS GALORE!!  This jar says "40 sucks" and was full of 40 suckers

A hot flash fanner

Even a homemade bra! Nicole sewed tube socks to the cups of this bra and added candies in the bottom to weigh it down - it's seriously hilarious! (That's Nicole sitting to the right of me, Angie Lords is on my left)

Like I said, gag gifts galore!! Here is a small sampling of some of the items I received

This was such a fun surprise, you can see why I say I have the best friends!  I can't believe they were able to pull it off without me having any knowledge of any of it!  I'm not one that's usually surprised but I really had no clue and it was one of the best days ever!  Thanks ladies..... it was great, just remember what could happen when you turn 40 - you know what they say about paybacks!

Looks like we were good this year!

When we woke up Christmas morning, we all realized that we had indeed been good this year.  Santa had not only found us, but was very generous!

Since Christmas was on a Sunday this year, we let the kids go through their stockings and see what Santa had brought before we headed to church.  Here are Jace and Emily checking things out.

Baylie found a kitty webkinz in the top of her stocking and was happy about it!

Jace just beginning to 'dig'' into his stocking - he's sitting in front of the 'Hot Wheels Wall Tracks' Santa brought him

Lindsay was super thrilled with her new MacBook Pro Santa brought her!

After church, we came home (the kids put their jammies back on) and started unwrapping the gifts that were under the tree...... Jace

Kenna and Emily with Jace looking on

Lindsay with Baylie and Ali watching her

me (it was a new tripod for my camera)

Chris

Ali, showing off her new webkinz - a walrus she named Wille

After all the presents were opened....... we had a bunch of smiles and a big mess of paper and boxes!

Each of the kids always gets a new outfit and this year I found Jace the best shirt.  It has a guitar on the front that he can REALLY PLAY!  He absolutely loves it, but I think I'm already tired of it!

This picture is a bit out of order but here is Makenna with her gift from Santa.  It's a big high heel shoe chair! 

We had a great Christmas, we love this time of year we have to celebrate the birth of our Savior and be grateful for His sacrifice for each of us.  It was wonderful to have Christmas fall on a Sunday and the kids were really good about not opening gifts until after church.  We are truly blessed and this time of year definitely reminds us of the blessings we have and to be more grateful each day for them.

Christmas Eve jammies

It's no secret anymore what the kids will open on Christmas Eve, but I still love how excited they are to get new jammies. They talk about it for days before hand wondering what theirs will be. It's a fun tradition for them and one that I love! Here I am passing out the jammies to each of the kids. Chris is normally the one on Christmas Day to pass out the gifts but I know which ones are the Christmas Eve jammies so that's my job. It does help that I wrap them in the same paper and don't reuse that paper on any other of the gifts.

Here they are, waiting for the unveiling!

One, two, three..... OPEN

I love how excited Ali is for her 'peace sign' jammies! Kenna looks thrilled as well. I wish I had a good picture of Jace, he absolutely LOVED his!

And, pose! Even Bella wanted in the picture!

I'm not into the 'matchy, matchy' jammies at Christmas and I don't even like them to look like they're Christmas jammies, I want them to be something they can wear year round. I try really hard to find some that represent the kids' personalities or something they will just love, like Jace with his airplane ones, or Ali's peace signs. I think they were all super happy with their new jammies!

Christmas Recital

This post is a little out of order, the girls had their Christmas piano recital last Thursday the 15th but I didn't get the pictures downloaded that evening. This year, Jeni Cutts, their piano teacher has 19 students so the recital lasted longer than in the past but it was great. She has several talented students and it's always nice to hear Christmas music being played on the piano. Here is Ali, she played 'O Christmas Tree'

Emily played a medley of Christmas songs, including 'O Come All Ye Faithful, Silent Night and Hark the Harold Angels Sing'

Lindsay and Kenna played a duet of 'Carol of the Bells'. Lindsay also did a solo piece called 'Tarantella' it's not a Christmas song but she worked super hard on it at the beginning of the year and had it memorized so her teacher wanted her to be able to perform it.

A big sigh of relief after the recitals are over, each of my girls get so nervous when they have to play in front of others. I keep telling them that's it's good for them and one day it will subside and will become easier. Here they are with Jeni, their teacher and a wonderful friend of mine!

They all did an amazing job and I am so proud of them for continuing on in taking piano lessons. I know it's not always easy and there are times when it's down right frustrating but they push through and I can surely see the progress each of them is making in developing this great talent. I love hearing each of them play!

Pre school Christmas program

Jace's pre school had a little Christmas program for parents today. His class is really small, only 6 kids, but they worked hard to learn the songs and sang their little hearts out. Earlier this morning, Jace was telling me he didn't want to go (I think he was nervous and remembering last years program at the nursing home). Being the mom that I am, I drug him there and handed him off to Mrs. Natalie crying. When I returned for the the program, I wasn't sure how he would do but he did fantastic, he was the loudest singer and was a ham for my camera! Here he is, notice he's sitting between the only 2 girls in the class :)

Singing 'Jingle Bells'The class also told the Christmas story with Mrs. Natalie. She would read the book and let them fill in words to the story, it was so cute!

After the program, Mrs. Natalie had gifts for each of them to take home. She told us that it was up to us whether we had them wait to open them on Christmas or let them when we got home.

We absolutely adore Mrs. Natalie!Well, there was no way Jace was waiting to open his present and he was thrilled to find it was a paint and poster set and he jumped right in and started painting. Thank you Mrs. Natalie!!

Jace is really enjoying having Mrs. Natalie again for preschool this year and like I said earlier, we adore her! He's had a harder time this year without his friends from last year in his class and there is at least 1 day a week that I hand him off crying but he always ends up having a great time. Mrs. Natalie does a great job with the kids and this program was just that. We look forward to many more fun things she has planned this school year!