Christmas Program

Last night Parker had her last Christmas program at Jacob's!  I can't believe next year she'll be in Kindergarten!  Brecken wanted to be on stage, but I told her next year, we'll come to watch her, and Parker will sit with us in the audience.  Brecken's class did make an appearance on video and she did great!

All the kids from "school" on stage

They sang lots of Christmas songs!

 

Brecken, Madeline and Parker enjoying drinks afterwards!

Madeline and Parker in very similar dresses

The girls got to see Santa afterwards!  They had a great night~

Festivus 2010

Festivus is a tradition that my mom's side of the family started several years ago to get together for the holidays.  We used to always get together every year for as long as I can remember on Christmas day.  Once my brother and I got married, and had kiddos of our own, it became too much to add one more place to be on Christmas day, so we decided to gather together with everyone in between Thanksgiving and Christmas and have dinner and enjoy each others company.  We exchange gifts thru a white elephant exchange and have a great time.  The gathering comes with a "metal pole" for our tree to be in full Sinfeld fashion!  I've never seen the episode in which Festivus is referred to, but that's where the name comes from....For us it's just our Christmas celebration weeks early!

Here's my grandma Winnie.  She has Alzheimer's and it's so hard to see her this way for me.  We brought her out after we had dinner for her to participate in the festivities.  She has no clue who we are anymore..She is just a shell of the person she once was.  She was an amazing person.  She and grandpa were amazing examples of many things.  They had a long loving marriage, were each others best friends, had so much fun together, loved traveling, square dancing, their family and extended family.  Once Grandpa was gone, a piece of her was gone too, and that's when she really progressed in this awful disease. Every once in a while she'll say something like she used to, but for the most part doesn't talk at all.  She did smile so I think she enjoyed being around all of us again!  It just wouldn't be the same without her there.

All of us with Grandma Winnie

Grand kids/spouses, and Great Grand kids (although we're missing one) with Grandma

Before and After

We just finished a bathroom remodel for the upstairs bathroom.  This will be the girls bathroom, and I love how it turned out.  When we moved into this house three years ago, we literally just shut the door on this one.  It's never been used since we moved in it because at some point in the history of the house, the shower leaked and the floor area around the shower had rotted out..it wasn't something we wanted to tackle right away, so we waited..three years to be exact...
Here are the before pictures.

There was nothing special about this bathroom...just the basics

Here's the overall room..toilet, shower stall, vanity

vanity area

shower stall..

And now for the After pictures..

Here's the overall view...nothing is the same in this bathroom..we completely started over..

The new vanity is exactly what I had envisioned and wanted

Here is the view looking to the right from the door/hallway

Here is the view looking straight into the bathroom from the door..the bathroom isn't big by any means, so it was hard to find the best use of space.  I knew I wanted a bathtub/shower combo and where to put the toilet was hard..ultimately this is what we decided..

ahh these lights...I LOVE these lights hanging above the vanity..The ultimate girlie bathroom wouldn't be complete without these lights..they were a must have in my book:)

and here's looking to the left in the bathroom..shower/tub combo!

I love my master bathroom, but this one I almost love more..it's white, clean looking and ultra feminine.  I love the pink walls, and the girlie touches!  I hope the girls enjoy it!  We now have one more item checked off of our list...I'm not sure what the next project will be...another bathroom or laundry room??  Stay tuned~

The Dentist

This morning, we ventured out very early for dentist appointments for 3 out of the 4 of us.  It was Brecken's first time, and Parker's 3rd.  Parker was very excited to tell Mrs. Pat and Dr. Park that she had stopped sucking her thumb, and as her reward she got to paint her toenails!  Yes, we're STILL talking about that..she tells everyone she sees, and who'll listen about her big accomplishment.

I got to tag along since is was the whole group, and therefore, I finally got pictures of them at the dentist!

Brecken did great, and had no worries at all.  No cavities were reported for anyone, except we need to do a better job of flossing..don't we all, I hate to floss!

Brecken checking out what it's all about!

Mrs. Pat works on daddy~

Parker watching cartoons and waiting for her turn....I so didn't have this luxury when I was little...

Brecken's turn.  She did great!

All Smiles!

The kicker for me that I laughed about all the way home..As we were leaving, all with clean teeth, and floride gel on them...they handed out cookies!  I'm serious, they have a tray of cookies for patients to take home once they're done with the appointment..I've never heard of that before!  I guess they are looking for repeat business?!  Crazy!

O Christmas Tree

We finally have our Christmas tree up!  I would have loved to have had the tree last weekend, but that wasn't in the cards..I would have loved to have had the tree up Saturday but that wasn't in the cards either...The girls were acting up on Saturday during dinner, and daddy told them that if they didn't straighten up, that we wouldn't be getting a tree...I wasn't thrilled with that line of communication...obviously we didn't get a tree on Saturday night!  We picked it up Sunday afternoon, and we just put the lights on and decorated it tonight!  

We didn't have a tree last year, so the girls were excited about it this year for sure, and talked about putting the ornaments on the tree all day~

Everyone pitched in with the "easy" non breakable ones..

And then mom took over!  Brecken was a little grumpy tonight, so with a little tickeling, we got her to smile!

Parker enjoyed it too, except for an ornament broke while she was trying to put it on..It was the one that looked like Federal, and when she realized I was a little bummed, she was upset too..but ornaments break and we moved on~

And now we have a a tree! 

A First

Yesterday afternoon we surprised the girls and headed out early for their first KU Basketball game!  When Parker got sick this week, I was so nervous we wouldn't be able to go, but she pulled thru for us, and we hit the road!  (I was prepared just in case we had incident with any of us though!!)

We had amazing seats, and the girls had a great time!  We were kind of close to the Band, and Parker loved listening to and watching them!

There was so much to look at and see at the game..It was a late game (8:00) but we took our chances anyway!

The very first time I went to a game with Chris we had tickets with chair back seats...it was an awesome experience..the following several games, they were way up high in the nosebleed section..I always wanted those seats we had before...at the time I didn't realize how precious those seats are, and how rare it is to get to sit in them!  I'm pretty sure the girls won't either for a long, long time~

The boys in action!  It was a close game the entire time.  UCLA came out to play for sure!

This is at about 9:30ish I would say..the girls are getting tuckered out..

Parker took hold of the camera..this is her view:)

Brecken in front of the Jayhawk after our final potty break!  We headed out with 5 min. left of the game..It was close, but we didn't want to be stuck in the parking garage all night trying to get out of there..it was already going to be late before we got home.  The girls did great, and we had an awesome time.  So glad we were able to share this with them..who knows when we'll have an opportunity for 4 tickets together again!  Chair backs at that..I've been waiting 8-9 years for those again:)