Walker's BIG into Naughty or Nice list this year... in fact he loves to play Santa in the afternoons and make out "THE LIST". It just cracks me up... he made a Naughty list... an inbetween list and then a Nice list. At first he put Mommy, Daddy and Ainsley on the Naughty list and himself, his friend Asher and Mulan on the Nice list. But later decided Ainsley needed to be on all 3 lists... I guess depending on her mood and whether she will play Battle Force 5 with him.

They finalized their letters to Santa and we will go and mail them today. Walker went for the visual letter... wanting to make sure Santa knows exactly what he's talking about. Ainsley went for more the "Wow factor" in her letter.

Yesterday Ainsley's classroom made Gingerbread houses... I love the details she included on hers... a path to her house complete with stones aka red hots and her Christmas wreath on her front door.

Ainsley had her jazz recital Saturday and will have another recital on Monday! I wasn't too sure how the whole hair in a bun and no bangs would turn out but it looked great. Thanks to some super extra hold gel, some hairspray, bobby pins and to top it off... the mother of all hair spray... aqua net!

She looked absolutely beautiful if I do say so myself...

Yikes I can't believe how grown up she looks...

Was so proud of her... she was the only one who knew her dance, she became a leader and got the other girls to follow her. This was her first big stage performance and she loved every moment.

Here's her Jazz group... the one girl on the end also performed in another dance hence the different costume.

Afterwards we headed to Albertson's for some milk and as we were getting into the car Santa appeared in the parking lot... really like out of nowhere. He and Mrs. Claus were handing out peppermints and spreading Christmas joy. Our kids were sure thrilled, for we missed Santa at our usual spot, the festival of trees because Ainsley was sick during that time. They had been working on mailing their letters but to see him in person was so much better. Wish I would have thought to whip out the camera... I was just so dumbfounded and enjoyed the magical moment. All the way home the kiddos were non-stop talking about the experience.

This morning we woke up to the kiddos yelling, "It's a winter wonderland today!" We ended up with about 5 inches... kiddos were glad to go outside and finally play in it.

Tomorrow starts the last week of school... thank goodness! Have most of my projects done, still need to make class room treats, finish teacher gifts and hunt for few more volunteers.

Ainsley had her school Christmas program today... does this look like a lively group or what??

It was actually a program with 2nd, 3rd and 6th graders. Was super proud of her she sang her little heart out, had fun and tried her best not to look at her Momma, while I took pictures (little stinker). Was super glad that she was NOT one of the two kids from her class that was hauled out in the middle of the program. That was the PTA President and Room Parent's children. Ha!

Here they are in singing action... she looks like the only one actually having fun!

Thankfully after a few worried days Ainsley is back on the mend... went to school yesterday and then again today. Good thing too for this week is crazy busy with school Christmas programs and dance recitals.  She got her retake of her school pictures back yesterday... yeah clothes on correctly!! I so love her brightness... she just makes you smile.

Little Bug is still doing fine... he's been quite the helper this year with Christmas decorating... he helped me get out the village pieces... made a red/green paper chain for the tree at school and put all the packages under the tree... can you see the big smiles on his face??

Yesterday at school he made this gingerbread house...

I forgot to post these the other day... saw these big horn sheep right along the road just outside of Anaconda over the Thanksgiving weekend.  We joked about them torturing the hunters for they were hanging out around the hunting check-in area.

We decorated the tree the last couple of nights and I must say that this was the best year yet! There was no fighting over who was going to do what ornament... there were ornaments spread out instead of the usual one branch method... and most importantly there was listening!!! So much more enjoyable for us parents when you're not ready to pull out your hair... and are threatening, "No Christmas Tree this year!"

And today little Miss Pumpkin is home on the couch sick...

Aahh it's Wednesday... and it's December already!! Feeling overwhelmed with all the "stuff" happening in the next 3 weeks so blog post will be sporadic. I think I'm more excited about Christmas break then the kiddos... will be nice to "recharge" for 2 weeks.

Because I cannot post without a picture... here's a fav I got on the way home from Montana on Sunday... it was truly one of the those "oooh and aahh" moments.

Thankful that the Ainsley is NOT looking like this which was the scene last week... on the couch and throwing up.

So thankful to have healthy, happy kids.

Have a wonderful Thanksgiving!

This was Ainsley's school project for "Reflections". The Reflections program is a fun way for kids to express creativity and let them share it with their classmates through photography, visual arts, dance, music or literature. This year Ainsley wanted to enter the photography category. She wanted to do a collage of pictures in the backyard which she took all on her own. Her appropriately named project title is, "Fall Things".

Woke up Saturday to a small amount of SNOW and you can imagine the kiddos response... screaming with delight!

Poor little bug had to head out in his shoes and then later in the day with his sister's too small pink boots... we are still on the hunt for some functionable snow boots... whoever designed this year's boots obviously doesn't have kids... I mean really what kid is going to velcro all 4 straps?? So the mission this week is to find some "normal" boots.

Snow seems to go hand in hand with Christmas lights so we decided to take advantage of the sunny but cold weather yesterday and get our house lights on... Walker cannot wait until he can go on the roof to help Daddy.