Christmas Program

Winston is still young enough for me to call it a Christmas Promgram and it not be "wrong" so I'm going to do it. For their program they showed us their skills they have learned in gymnastics, which they are learning things you don't normally do until 6 years of age at 3-4 years old. They are doing very well according to their gymnastics instructors, then they sang Silent Night along with the sign language they learned to it, Jingle Bells, and We Wish You a Merry Christmas. Lastly, they all recieved certificates of achievement and were so proud of themselves. It was a full house there watching so the videos have lots of background noise on them as well. I think everyone brought their extended, extended family to it (brothers of half brother, your uncles mom, etc-lol), but it was nice to see the kids put on a good show like they did.

Christmas Cookie Extravaganza

We went all out and made tons of cookies this year. I think I will gain 5 pounds just from them...they are so yummy! I made the BEST peanut butter cookies I have ever had in my life (and yes I'll post the recipe at the end). Winston is such a big helper and always wants to be a part of everything, not to mention he is so particular when we're decorating. It took like 4 hours to bake and decorate sugar cookies!! Oh well, it was fun.here's a picture of us making the cookies together. Our matching aprons say Holiday Hugs and Christmas Kisses. TOO CUTE!!

Peanut Butter Cookies

1c. peanut butter (JIF Natural makes them so yummy!)

1c sugar

1 egg

Mix all ingredients, drop by teaspoonful onto greased cookie sheet, flatten with a fork and sprinkle with sugar or sprinkles. Bake at 350 for 6 minutes

The Season for Giving

We had such a busy season of giving this year! The Mamas Group adopted a family from the YWCA here, the family was a mom and her 2 year old son is all. So basically with a group of 20+ women they scored pretty big. I think they got everything on their list and MORE! My mamas group is such a wonderful giving group of women and I am so happy they all pulled through to make it happen for this family! The picture attached on here is how many gifts we ended up with when I went and played Santa delivering them. I hope this helps them out in life and they are able to pay it forward in the future to someone else. Then we adopted a 3 year old boy off the St.Vincent tree at Winston's school as well. He wound up with some clothes and a few cars to play with. Winston's school gave their books from the month of December to some less fortunate kids in our community as well, the wrote little notes inside the books and sent them off to the kids. It has been really cute to see Winston understand the concept of giving to people in need this year! He wants to buy things at the store for kids who can't afford them now, so precious!

Snowman Making

On Tuesday it was finally warm enough to set foot outside to play in the snow (I'm not complaining, I know I live in MT). Winston really wanted to make a snowman. Of course I haven't made once since probably middle school, so it was an experience for both of us. His head would fall off his body, so I'd push harder and then the body would break. UGH, like I said an adventure! We finally got it made and used a hat and scarf from the garage, got sticks from the side of the house, used rocks we had inside for the face and buttons, a baby carrot for the nose, and koolaid to make the red smile! Winston wanted a broom, but I wasn't bringing my only broom outside in the snow so I told him maybe next time we can get a broom for him. He loved his snowman and sang "Frosty the Snowman" while we made it. Of course the song is a mixture of "Frosty the Snowman" and "Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer" but it's cute to listen to. By the next day, it was warm enough he was down to just his bottom part and by Friday he was gone completely! Winston didn't understand why he was melting into the ground and wants to make another one next time it snows. He doesn't think the next one will melt into the ground, because we will make it special! Oh well, that was our Tuesday afternoon fun, thought we'd share with you!

Holidays in Swing

Last night we had our Mamas Group Christmas Party here at the house and it was a blast as always with these girls. We had lots of yummy food, exchanged ornaments (in which I threatened to put mine down my pants to keep if from being stole!), and then we had fun opening door prize for everyone. We each put in $10 for the door prizes then I go out shopping in search of the deals of the century to make the gifts as awesome as possible, they ranged anywhere from $3-25 but you'd never know I only spent $3 total on any of the gifts we had. A few people brought great little gifts to share with everyone as well. I am so happy to have such a wonderful group of women to have fun and grow with both at our moms night out events and playgroups with our children. They are like family to me and for that I am thankful! With all that said, I'm definitely feeling in the Holiday Spirit now and can't wait to spread the joy of the holiday season to everyone else! HAPPY HOLIDAY SEASON EVERYONE!

These are the cute snowman cheese ball and plates I made for the fun Christmas party. I just love em'!

Polar Plunge/Anniversary 2009

Okay, as promised I am uploading pictures from our Polar Plunge! Paul and I raised $270 and the event raised over $23,000 for the Montana Special Olympics. We had a blast doing it too. My team consisted of 6 of us [Charli, Tori, Carrie, Sarah VT, Lauren(who wasn't here to jump), and myself], we raised $905. We wore tutus made by Carrie, shirts that say "Imma Frigid Mama", specially made earrings, and some fancy leggings. The water was WAY colder this year than it was last year though, so quite a shock when we hit it. We were the 3rd team to go and the hottub didn't feel very warm when we got in ! Paul's team was John, Claude, and himself all from Cable Technology, they raised $530. They wore their swim trunks and flowery swimsuit tops, along with Christmas hats. They were the last team to jump and said the hottub was luke warm by the time they got in. Overall we had a great time though. Paul and I walked around the stroll afterwards with John and his family and Claude, then went out for dinner and drinks at Boston's. It was a fun and simple 5th wedding anniversary and we wouldn't have done it any other way. THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU to all of you who supported us. You rock and we love you all.