Its always fun when Grandma comes..when Grandma comes...hooray!

I had to quote that cheesy line of that primary song..I just had to :) As I mentioned in a previous post, my Mom was able to come and visit us towards the end of December(my Dad came for a lil bit too! Poor guy was really sick though:( But we were glad to be able to see him. And he came bearing gifts so he was kinda important-haha:) While she was here we did lots of things, but here are pics of some of the highlights..girls dessert date at Dimples Cupcake Factory(YUM!)..snowball fight with the remaining snow in the backyard...a trip to Rainforest Cafe and the Gaylord Texan to see the neat Christmas decor/lights. We also had a second Christmas with the Christmas gifts they brought from them and my sister, Tara. My kids are LUCKY! What a blessing to have grandparents/family on both sides that care about my kids so much and are such a presence in their lives. I love the relationships they share!!!

Dimples! Its a funny name for a shop. Not sure which dimples they are referring to...

Snowball fight!! My Mom shows no mercy. She made them all cry at some point. Jk. :) No one was harmed in the making of this snowball fight...

Getting wild at the Rainforest Cafe

This pictures is the BEST. I'm not sure who looks funnier. Okay, my Mom wins. 

This is a tradition of my Mom's. She always HAS to buy this ridiculously expensive dessert there called the Volcano. Its yummy but dang, they charge too much for it. But I ain't payin, so it doesn't matter to me! Haha. Thanks Mom for always spoiling my kids! :) They love you.

My Mom had never been to the Gaylord so we decided to visit there too. And I made her stand in front of the ginormous tree for a picture of course.

 Santa's boots. I never pictured Santa this big, but I guess he is. 

 Ella was cold?

Gift opening..the kids got some cute stuff!! I just love Ammon's facial expression here. He loves his new slippers! They all loved everything.

Wesley: 5 month old cutie

I'm 5 months old now! (okay, these were taken on the 13th) I love my toes...my mommy is my fave....and milk(okay, maybe this is why she's my fave:). I also love giggling at my brother and sisters. They crack me up. And when my Daddy comes home, I love to give him the biggest eyebrow raising smiles because I'm so excited to see him. I like to roll over lots and lots and grab anything I can reach. My disposition is the sweetest. I'm happy even when I'm not feeling good! Ear infections and viruses got me this month, both ears! :( But I was a trooper. I'm super tough. Here are some pics of sweet little me in my warmest winter jammies...

 And I'm even cute with little crusties. Mom couldn't get them...hahaha. I'm a fighter. :)

The new ride

On New Years's Eve, Joey and I decided to take the plunge and buy a new ride(new to us anyways...) We've heard you can get the best deals on the last day of the year and that was our goal: a great deal(and we got it!) The Expedition had over 100,000 miles on it..was acting funny..eight years old...and the battery was about dead(Okay, it was dead! We made it there fine but when the guy looked at it to figure out trade-in value, he had to jump start it! Hahahaha. But it was mostly because of the snow/cold and the fact we hadn't started it in awhile...thats what we said...:)We decided we needed something bigger and we opted for a Suburban. After hours at this stupid dealership that we will never go back to(Oh, I have stories...), we drove away with a beautiful silver suburban that Ella has named Steve. :) And we got a great price and a decent trade. I had a price in my head I wanted to pay for that car..and no car salesman was able to get me to pay more. Not a penny more. Not even the manager. Hahaha. Losers. ;) I figured if they wanted to sell it badly enough on New Years Eve, they wouldn't let us walk. And they didn't. As we were walking out, they called us back in and gave us what we wanted. Booyah. I love my new ride!! Its a 2011 and it has leather interior(a must for me with the kids and spills!) And we have so much more space. I have to give a special shout out to my Mom who was here visiting. She watched the kids that day for us to carshop..and for us to make the purchase. It took longer than expected and we got home so late! We couldn't have done it(and stayed sane) without my mom! I can't imagine being in that dealership with all five kids in tow...so thanks Mom! We love you!

Look at us...aren't we cute? 

I hope Steve is ready to see the world....

Hair Stylz

During Christmas Break, I had to think of things to keep the kids occupied so as to not cause myself to go crazy...oh, and to make these little people happy too:) One day I told the girls we would have a "hairstyle day". We watched youtube videos and learned how to do a few new things with hair. Then I practiced on them and we did "model" pics :) I'm not great at doing their hair. Aubrey was born with a VERY tender head(okay, I'll admit I have a very tender head too...) so she would barely let me touch it when she was little...and has a hard time now even. And its so thick(but gorgeous!) that its hard to work with. And then Ella and Cali's hair took so long to grow(but once their hair started to grow, wow, they have amazing curls!) so I never had much to work with. And now these days, when everyone is older and has lovely hair to work with, its just hard for me to have the time to do these elaborate creations I see other moms doing. You'd think with three daughters, I'd be a pro. Nope. I'm not. So I made a goal this year to learn some new things and so far, so good. I'm better at french braiding now and I've sent the girls to school a few times with some rad hairstyles! And I've even curled Aubrey's hair a few times. Go me. But its definitely not a common occurrence. Because with three girls..that's a heck of a lotta time to put into each little head of hair in the mornings before school. And when the baby wants to be nursed and Ammon wants breakfast and I'm trying to get everyone out the door for school, half the time, we headband it:) I don't see how people do it so much! Anyways, here are some pics of our day of hair. . .

Braid headband

 Hair "bow"

 Waterfall braid that I did later that evening. My first attempt. Not perfect. But still very pretty!

And I've never been great at french braiding(like this year is the first time I've finished one on someones head without it falling apart-haha-this just isn't a strength for me people! Whats weird though is that I can french braid my own hair just fine. I'm whack.) So anyways, this is a miracle for me that I can finally kinda do one. This is a picture from a few days later. I did a french braid ponytail for Ella's basketball game one Saturday morning. I told her it was a lucky braid. And sure enough it was. She made her first basket of the season that game! :)

Finger Lights

Joey had Ella as his person to buy a gift for when we drew names for our Christmas Eve family gift exchange. He found these rad little thingies called Finger Lights and the kids have been having a lot of fun with them! And Joey has had fun taking really neat photos with them. . .(that Merry Christmas picture from the last post was thanks to these little gems)

This is Ella writing her name in cursive...

Aubrey trying to draw a holly berry in honor of the best Mom in the world. Okay, she didn't say that last part. I added that. :)

And the rest are just crazy stuff and I don't know who is in each picture doing what. But they look really cool! I'm glad Joey knows how to work a camera.

Our Christmas Snow

Joey and I found out a couple of days before Christmas that there was the possibility of snow on Christmas Eve. A lot of times that changes..so we didn't get our hopes up...and we didn't tell the kids(we didn't want their little hopes dashed!) We live in North Texas so snow isn't common. We get it maybe once a year on average. Some years, none, some years we've gotten it several times. So, we never know what we'll get. Christmas Eve came and went with nothing. Then Christmas morning, something magical happened...flurries..and then those flurries turned to glistening white snowflakes. Before long our house was completely enveloped in white. It was so peaceful and beautiful to look out the window and watch. There was this moment that day where I remember looking out the window while we ate our Christmas dinner and just feeling like, right now life is perfect. Nothing beats this. Spending Christmas in our new dream home with snow falling outside..couldn't have asked for a more wonderful Christmas!

Enjoy the pictures...the night pics are from actual Christmas day. We waited until the evening to go out because the snow had stopped falling finally(while it was falling it was super windy and wet!) ...and then the daytime pics are from the next day when we really got to enjoy playing in it in the sunshine. Joey had the day off which was extra fun. Ammon was hilarious. I don't think I have ever seen the boy so happy. He just kept laughing..and laughing..and laughing and falling over. Which made all of us laugh. Funny kid. Natural born snowboarder? :) He definitely loves the snow. And Wesley saw his very first snow too. Just sorta stared at it :) Oh and the girls helped Joey build a snowfort and had snowball fights(none of which ended in tears which was a miracle:) The fort turned out really cool. They spent hours covering the little wooden playhouse we have in snow. Good work yall! This was definitely a Christmas we'll never forget!

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