Christmas is here!

Can't believe how quickly it came this year! Our tree looked pretty for the first 24 hours after putting it up. After that cats and children have messed with it multiple times and the ornaments are all bunched together *LOL* We decided this year to donate gifts to the Angel Tree ministry at our church in place of giving tons of gifts to our own kiddos. They are already blessed with so much and they really enjoyed picking out things for other kids who may not have as much. I picked kids who were roughly the same age as them so that they could each pick out a toy and outfit. It was really a fun thing to do with them.
My kid's favorite thing to play with each year is the Little People Nativity (thanks Auntie Amanda). As soon as it comes out of the box they play with it. This year the nativity characters even played on some of the Littlest Pet Shop houses *LOL* I usually end up rearranging all the characters on a daily basis and try to keep them all together. We always joke because every year we seem to misplace Baby Jesus and then find him a few months after Christmas. How could we possibly misplace the star of the show?!
I think it's God's reminder to us to keep Christ at the center year round.Here are a few more pics of a couple of my favorite ornaments. Both were on our tree growing up and one was given to me the year I was born. Hope that everyone has a very Merry Christmas!

Good times with Little Miss B

Need to blog about something positive about 4 year olds...I could probably fill pages and pages with all of the struggles we are having with our lovely 4 year old, but I will post some silly pictures instead to make me feel better.

Brooklyn HATES having her picture taken...I take that back...Brooklyn HATES having her picture taken when I am behind the camera. Give anyone else a camera and her precious little smile comes out. But whenever Mom tries she gets mad.

The other morning we decided to play with the camera. I needed to get out the camera for fun reasons rather than just using it for business. Brooklyn decided that she would rather take the pictures than be in them. So we took turns and had some fun...

Happy thanksgiving...

So much to be thankful for this year!!

Halloween...a month late!

Been so busy with other people's photo sessions that I haven't had a minute to update our family blog. But better late than never! Here are all of our little trick-o-treaters. Melanie requested to be a bat this year...

And of course Little Sis wanted to be the same thing.

And Brandon was Indiana Jones...mostly because he wanted a whip *LOL*

Soccer

Another season of soccer has come and gone. Mom is glad to have our Saturdays open up for a few months, but we'll miss this great group of girls!

Fall

Just some recent pictures of some of our fall adventures

Mommy Brag

Melanie got a Student of the Month Award this morning! I am so proud of how well she always does in school. Her teacher awarded her this for,

"her overall outstanding behavior and work ethics. Melanie makes sure she is always listening and ready for the next assignment. By doing so, she has earned 100% on almost all of her sasignments and tests this year. Melanie doesn't stop there though because she also loves to help others understand their work too. Thanks you Melanie for your great attitude in school."

Wondering where this "great attitude" is at home some days *LOL* but overall so proud of who Miss Melanie Grace is becoming :o) This is when Melanie first saw me and was probably wondering why I was there. She didn't know that she was getting an award.

School Picture time

Trying out a new location for headshot pictures...getting ready for ya Uncle Jim ;o) and I decided that the kiddos needed some updated school pics. I'm tired of waiting for the ones that the school took, and my kids usually have goofy faces in those anyway. So Brooklyn was the first willing Watson. I didn't think our session was going to go well because I kept getting these faces...



and finally got this

Then Brandon stepped up to bat

and Melanie insisted that her picture was taken with these star stickers on her face.

Luckily she let me take a few more without the stickers

and after some MAJOR candy bribery I even got this one

So excited about the one of all three! I think the last picture I have of all three smiling was when Brooklyn was one. Now I just need to get these printed out and make my rounds to the fam ;o) If I knew that all three kids were going to be so cooperative, I definitely would have changed them in to better coordinating outfits and maybe styled their hair...but I'm sure if I had done all of that none of them would have smiled at all *LOL*

Disneyland

This year we decided to head to Disneyland for Brandon and Brooklyn's birthdays. We headed in to Anaheim on Saturday and went to dinner at Rain Forest Cafe. We also got to check out the lego store and walk around downtown disney while we waited! Then we headed back to the hotel to watch fireworks. The next morning we woke up early and headed back over to Disneyland! We met Nona at the gates and headed in. Since Auntie April's Baby Girls wanted to be able to attend future Disneyland trips with Nona and Brando, they decided that this would also be their birthday!! Nona left to welcome them in to the world and we stayed at Disneyland with Grammy and Grandpa to finish off Brandon and Brooklyn's birthday celebration. Here are some of my favorite pics from the day :o)

Birthday Buddies

These two little guys (not so little anymore) were born on the same exact day in 2003! They met in preschool a few years ago and have been best buds ever since! We met up with them the other night to celebrate the boy's birthdays. It was a fun...and crazy time ;o) These boys just get so silly when they are together! Thanks for a great night friends!