Dad's House

December 23

For the past couple of years, after Grandma Cole's house, we go over to my dad's house and he gives the girls the gifts from him. This year dad got a Wii for Christmas. We played bowling. It was a lot of fun and made Mana want one.

"Playing Wii"

Grandma Dell's House

December 24

Ever since I was little I always went to my Grandma's house for Christmas Eve. Now that my sister and I have kids and I live out of town, we go for lunch. That way we can get the kids in bed for Santa to come. Mana is so blessed to have three Great Grandparents still living. Brian's grandmother passed on the 22nd this year. It was really hard.

My grandmother is a wonderful cook. We had dressing, fried okra, cream corn, macaroni and cheese, green beans, pound cake and banana pudding. All my favorites!! No one cooks like my grandmother!!

I gave my nieces a zhu zhu pet. My grandmother's dog had a lot of fun chasing it around everywhere.

Pictures from Grandma's.....

"The kids opening presents"
"Gidget and the Zhu Zhu Pet""Grandma and the kids"
"Playing In a Pickle"

Grandparents

December 23

Every December 23, we go to my Grandma
and Grandpa's for Christmas.
Here are some pictures...

"My Aunt Bec and cousin Tripp""All the kids with the Great Grandparents"
Aunt Bec gave the girls all a necklace
with their names on them.
All three girls have names that you can not
find written on anything.
Had to have them special made.
Cousins: Cole, Tripp and my niece

Children's Church Christmas Play

December 20

Here are some pictures from the Christmas play at church...

Mana was Inn Keeper #3 and Child #1

School Christmas Party

December 17

Every year the whole school sings carols in the lunch room. The kids all have a great time singing the Twelve Days of Christmas as loud as they can. Each grade tries to out do the other. After the caroling, each grade has their Christmas party. This year the kids in Mana's class got to bring games from home to play. They played twister, battleship and pictionaryman.

Pictures of the day...

"One of Mana's friends""Mana Claus""Gift Giving"

Snow

I know I am behind on the blog, so the next couple of posts will be to catch up.
Here are some of the snow pictures from earlier....

A Talented Gymnast

At the beginning of December, I finally got to see my niece in one of her gymnastic competitions. It was also her last one for the level she was in. She has now moved up a level and will start back into competitions in March. She has that special "it" factor that is needed in gymnastics. She has the cutest way of flipping those little hands around when she is performing. All I have to say is that she is one talented little girlie!!

Here is a picture from her competition...

New Family Portrait

The week before Christmas, I set the photography lights up and took a new family portrait. The last time we had one taken was when Mana was one. I still have that one on my living room wall. It will soon be replaced with the new one. Mana and I had one taken at church, but Brian was out of town and therefor was not in it. It was a chore to set up the camera with the timer and to run back and forth into the picture area. We finally got a decent one on the last shot. Then I still changed a few things in photoshop. I just can't help myself. So here is our newest official family portrait.....

A Wonderful Family!!

I had the pleasure of taking a friend of mine's family portraits on Friday! I went to their house and set up lights and everything. They have three beautiful children. Here are a few of my favorites from the session...

Fall Festival 09

We had a great time at our church's Fall Festival!!

There were tons of people there.
Here are a few of the characters that came....

Some Editing!!

I finally got the church newsletter proof to Jamie!!! Yeah!! I struggled with this one a lot! Once I get started on it, it is not bad to work on. Just sometimes, I can not get started. I do not even want to open the file, much less do any work on it. An ideal Builder newsletter month would be that I have all information provided to me before the deadline and I am ready by their deadline just to pop the articles and information in and then one day to get the proof out. That would be the greatest month ever!!! Just one month like that would be nice!!!

Anyway, since I got the proof out, I now can get some editing done. I have had several photo shoots here lately. I will work on one or two pictures for a break and then go back to working on the newsletter. Here are some of Abby and Samantha that I have worked on lately.

Pictures of the day.....

"Abby"
Love her Vintage Style"Samantha"

A Wonderful Day!!

We had a very busy and wonderful day!! The whole family went to church this morning!!! Afterwards, we went to a staff luncheon. Mr. Galloway and others did the cooking and it was delicious!! We had shrimp cocktail, apricot chicken with rice, string beans, and brownies with ice cream. They had the fellowship hall decorated really pretty! It was great! Thank you to all that helped with the staff luncheon!! We then went to the church wide softball game. This was our second one since I have been to the church. It is always a lot of fun!! Came home and let Bella out, ate supper and straight back to church for Bible study. Wonderful class!! Then finally home! Now I have to start back on the Builder newsletter for a proof tomorrow!!!

Pictures of today....

"Mana" "Brian about to hit""Mana giving her Daddy a High Five""Debbie in the outfield""At the Softball Game""The Whole Group"