Teagen McCutie Pants

Would you believe me if I told you that Teagen is very difficult to photograph? "Tea, act like you are a supermodel..."

"...or maybe not."

"ummmmm...OhhhKaaay"

So after all those shenanigans, here is the girl we all know and love!

As sweet as she looks?

Ummm, sure. We'll go with that.

His Eternal Naughtiness

But whats not to love? This is a face of pure happiness!

And the hat. A steal from Little Miss Matched. Freaking adorable. I am certain that its the last year I can convince him cute stuff is cool. He'll eventually see his reflection and know the truth.
Oh boy...I'm losing him...
But he gave me one more! That head! Its just so,so,so, so ROUND! You cannot resist touching it. You can't. Everyone always puts their hands on his head. Its awesome!

That is one delicious face.

Holiday Recap

The month of December was a true whirlwind. Personally, I was disappointed this year, just because there was so much we missed. My silly little job turned into a very demanding and late night job. Not leaving the time or energy to do much else. And when I was home, Jason was hunting. So, not ideal, but still lovely and memorable.





If I recall, Cookie Day was our first family event of the season. We drove to Mason and met with family to do our traditional sugar cookies. Its a great low key get together, and the only time I get to see my Mom's side of the family in the winter. I cannot lie, I cant find the pics from that day. Hmmmm...





The next weekend, Santa(!) was visiting our Credit Union. This house full of believers had to go visit! And I am happy to announce that no one was afraid! This is a first for us!



The next weekend, we had Christmas with Bob and Joan. I had to work a very long and busy day before we visited, so I was basically worthless. But the kids loved being with their cousins and making a snowman craft with Grandma.





Up next were class parties: Summer's was first...

It s funny how much they tone down parties as the kids get older. They barely had any treats, and did some movement(dancing) and drew on placemats. Summer's teacher is wonderful and sweet. It was a fun peek into her school day.


The next day was Teagen's party. Such a difference! The kids were so adorable and it was nonstop action the entire class! I love that Mrs. C always includes Grady. He even got do do the gift exchange.

Look at this handsome little guy-

(shirt by Rachael. What I dont have a photo of is Jason's matching shirt. CUTE!)

ringing bells. It looks like Teagen does not approve of Grady's technique.

All the different Holiday stations.

And then Mrs. C took the class caroling to some other classrooms. Grady stayed with Daddy in the classroom and I helped set up plates for the little feast, and wouldnt ya guess who shows up....

SANTA!!!!! Grady squealed and ran to him for a big hug. I thought he would be scared, but nope. Asked for robots and batman. He totally enjoyed his private meeting with the BIG GUY before the class walked back in.

Relaxing from the excitement.

Teagen can never remember what she wants to ask Santa for. Usually she say "a barbie". And thats what he brought her;)

Great time. I was so ready for the kids to be out of school. I really like doing projects and had made way more promises than I could keep. But we did do these...

Martha Stewart puppets! These crafts are fantastic because they already have the adhesive on them. No mess!

We did some baking, and some ornament making. On Christmas Eve we visited with Cindy's family. It was an icy drive to and from Montague. So we got home pretty late and put out cookies for Santa. Jason and I still had some serious work to do and we needed to watch A Christmas Story. Its tradition!

We told the kids we would get up at 8 am. at 7 they asked if we would get up. We said 8! So they played in the girls room for an hour and then we got up. It was so funny to listen to them giggle and be silly with excitement. I really was not with it as far as taking a lot of pics, but here are a few...

Teagen got her Rebecca doll...

Love the PJ's? Thanks Aunt Rae!

Not sure what Santa was thinking on this one...its hidden at this point!

Rachael and I decided to exchange hand made gifts only this year. I knew I would make her a papercut, but I needed another idea. So this is what she got. I was so worried, because it either something you this is SO COOL or it just looks like junk. Jason was really worried when I was putting it together. but the finished product is very fun.

Made from book pages! And its huge! I think she liked it.

Christmas day was spent at my Dad's. Nice and relaxing. Especially when there is no work the next day!

Rachael and Gary came over for New Years Eve. The kids played, Rachael tried to teach me to sew and we played a game .

The next day we got into the snow...

And built Muskegon's LARGEST snowman. He is crazy-big. He should make the newspaper:)

Happy 2010! Here's to better blogging!!

Its(finally) Beginning to look...

A lot like December, like it should at this point!
I am not going to complain. I am an adult, and choose to live here, where the weather is certainly 4 different seasons. I like it. I would like it even more if I had no reason to leave my house from December to March.

I started decorating before Thanksgiving, and took a lot of heat for it. The deal is that the little bit I do work, its retail. And um, well, we all know about retail in the weeks after Thanksgiving. I am working a lot. Again, not complaining, lovin the bit of extra cash for Christmas. But that's why I needed to get an early start on decorating. Speaking of an early start, here is a project I worked on this past summer with my Aunt Linda and my Gramma (and Lisa too!) They are a sample of Tim Holtz Christmas tags. Trust me, the photos dont do them justice. They are so detailed and took an enormous amount of time to complete.

Also got to use a ton of products that I had no experience with, like alcohol inks, crackle paint, grunge board and all the fun little accessories that are here, not to mention the beautiful stamps.

I always enjoy crafting with them. Such a super creative bunch! And they spent months collecting and purchasing all the supplies for them. Thank you, Gramma and Linda! I've been dying to hang these. For now they are hanging from the ribbon that I hang Xmas cards on. Beautiful!

And today was our first snow!! Here are the kiddos after picking up Teagen from Preschool.

It was sucker sale day:) Did you know they make banana Tootsie Pops now?

Let the craziness BEGIN!!