Madi turns 5!

Good morning birthday girl! I can not believe she's 5! I'm having a bit of a hard time with it too since she is our last one. It also didn't help that I had to fill out Kindergarten pre registration forms 2 days before. I've had 5 awesome years at home with her and the last 2 have been just me and my girl. It's just going to be so hard to let her go but I know she is going to have so much fun and do so good in school.

 My kids get to pick what they want me to make them for their birthday dinner so we had fettuchini alfredo with garlic bread. Then it was time to open presents.

 She had been wanting her own Jessie doll for quite some time now and she thought she would get one for Christmas but I waited till her birthday. She fell in love!

 Every girl needs a tiara for her birthday!

 Snow girl gets a glittery #5 added to her.

 So excited and bashful, I love it!

Madi fell fast asleep (snoring) with Jessie in front of the tv. She was birthday exhausted.

Making a snow girl cake with my girl

Madi and I have been talking about a snow man cake for the last 3 years and this was the year. I made the cakes, frosted them, then Madi and I went at it in bringing life to this snow girl. First the eyes,

 then the nose,

 then the smile and scarf

 finally the buttons, arms and a bow so we would know it was a snow girl.

This cake was super easy to make and so much fun to do with my girl.

Happy New Year and look what happens when you give kids a cry baby.....

 The very first pics of the very first day of 2011 are ones that crack me up! I told my kids to "go a head and try a cry baby, they are yummy". Well, to me they are yummy and I eat the things with out the crazy sour face or anything else. Well, my kiddos aren't used to that kind of intensity and I knew it would be a moment to capture with the camera. Madi was up first and I just LOVE this picture.  

 Next Dakotah, LOVE this face too!

 Colby was last and he was thinking he could pull it off..... mister hot stuff, well he.....

 had the funniest look cause the sourness made his eyes twitch and then....

 it hit him BIG time. HA, LOVE it!

Thanks to my kiddos for being such good sports for mommy! What fun!

Christmas morning

Christmas morning came and it came with a punch for me. I woke up so sick and really didn't even want to open presents. My kiddos on the other hand were raring to go. They first woke to their new bean bags from Baz and that was exciting enough but the crazy full tree was still calling.

 So, dad handed out gifts and everyone dug into their piles of goodies.

 Dakotah has not let go of his new blanket momma made him, I love how much he loves the things I make him.

 Now for the big one for miss Madi, yep all of December she has been telling me she just knows shes getting a guitar. I would ask her what made her think that and she was just bound and determined.

 It was so fun to watch her watching as dad opened the box for her. She even at one point covered her eyes and claimed that she couldn't stand to watch. It was so stinkin cute!

 Sure enough she got her guitar and the excitement in this picture just gives me chills still. Look at her hands and how she was jumping. I love it!

 Aunt Sweets sent these silly eye glass straws and the kids had a blast with them although they made a mess.



Playing in the snow

Finally enough snow to play in and the kiddos were out in it. They were trying so hard to make a snow man, but this was NOT snow man snow, not wet enough!

 Miss Madi got cold fast and so she came in and decided she wanted hot cocoa and to play with her new Barbie.

She's so cute and looks so much like I did when I was her age.

A new tradition hopefully

This year I had the four younger ones draw names for a gift exchange. Having such a big family we have to put a limit on the gifting part of Christmas so we don't buy gifts for the kids from each other. This year they had some extra money for their good grades and wanted to buy gifts. Well, they all pitched in to give Madi some money so she could be a part of it too. I gave them a spending limit and then they picked names. After that they gave me what their idea was of what they wanted to buy. Well, the night before Colby was leaving for Arizona I let them have their own Christmas gift exchange. It was cute and fun and they all loved what they bought for each other. 

 Madi really had been wanting the Barbie from Toy Story 3 and flipped when she got it.

 Colby was excited to have something crafty to do now. He also bought me a cute wreath and his dad a new fleece hat that he told me he could imagine dad acting goofy in when he wore it. Well, the first thing Rodney did when he put it on was......

act goofy! It brought a huge smile to Colby's face. Such a thoughtful, loving and sweet little boy I've been blessed with!

Now that they know, I can post about it ;)!

Back in October I was roaming around blog land and stumbled on this fun little thing to do, "Booing". Well, I put together 2 little ghost buckets with yummy treats, bundled up my boys, explained to them what they had to do and off we drove to our targeted houses. Silently in the dark of the evening my boys and their dad got out of the van and walked down an alley and snuck to their targeted houses, dropped the treats on the door step, knocked on the door and ran for their lives. From a block away I could see my boys running off in the dark back towards dad. I went and picked them up and then we went home and laughed so hard about it. They had a blast as did I. Weeeelllll, the Christmas season came along and I found "Elfing"....."oh boooys, want to go elfing?" They were big eyed and so excited. This time it would be a bit more tricky, there was slippery snow on the ground. Back at it we went and they got it done with only one falling on their bum. I love doing such fun stuff with my kiddos and this one is definitely going to become a tradition. They never got caught however the targets figured it out. The kids don't know and I don't plan on telling them cause they get to much excitement out of thinking they are super sneaky booing elves.



Decorating the tree

As is tradition in our house hold, mom pulled out the tree the day after Thanks Giving only to find that only maybe 1/4 of it actually lite up. What a bummer! Well, there was no new tree in the budget and not real sure there will be even next year so I went into my lights box in hopes that I actually had lights. Sure enough I had plenty of strands to make it work. I went at it stringing lights on the tree (not something I would consider on my list of fun things to do) and when I was done the tree looked so much better. After that the kids had at it. It is so much fun to sit back across the room and watch my 5 little ones decorate it up. It's also hard not to walk by the tree later and move things around but I'm getting better at letting it go. One day I will have to decorate it myself then I can have things where ever I want, until then let them have at it.



All done and they did a great job working together!