Christmas Tree

Outside Jobs

Mike & Livia put up Christmas lights this year. They did a great job! As you can see they were very safe. They were tied together and then tied to a tree on the other side, plus Mike was spotting Livia. Safety first! :)

This picture is way crooked, but you can see how high they really were!

Finished product! (The middle lights go blue and white)

Another project we had this fall was of course lots and lots of raking! The leaves wouldn't all fall at once this year, and then we kept getting little teases of snow. So I would hurry outside to rake thinking winter was coming. Boy, was I wrong! It's cold now, but it hasn't snowed in a while. Oh well. After 3 different Saturday's of raking we finally got most of the yard cleaned up. (I mean dirt) :)

Our "dump truck" loaded full of just leaves, twigs, apples, and crap!

Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving started with the annual Turkey Bowl, which was fun for Mike, except that he broke his finger! So he gets to wear a finger splint for 4-6 months! I started a turkey trot and ran a 5k. It was a beautiful day.

Here's our yummy Thanksgiving spread!

Of course, we were going through all the black Friday ads, making our shopping lists, (and wish lists for the kids!) :)

Brooklyn can smile on demand now for the camera! :) We raise 'em right! ha ha

Dad was on Tyler duty a lot. He made the perfect napping bed for him! And you can see where Mike spent the afternoon! :)

We didn't waste much time, we made sure my parents tree was up and decorated!

It was a party, most ornaments were right in the middle though, where all the kids could easily reach. It was cute.

Here's a few random family pics:

Brooky loved the piano. It was cute watching her play. Livia and Sydney even learned a few Christmas songs over the weekend. Tara taught Sydney how to play "Deck the Halls" They are still playing them at home on our keyboard.

Brooklyn should be wrapped around Mike's pinky in this picture. It would be more accurate! :) ha ha! Mike loves his little girls.

Tara and I dyed our hair. This is our before and after pics. I went a little blonder and I talked Tara into going auburn!

Mike took the girls out shooting at David's house. Tamara even shot some of the skeet!

And, of course, on Saturday we made our traditional Christmas candy. It was fun. It took 5 hours, but we made nougats, peanut butter balls, mounds, almond roca, peanut brittle, & chocolate covered pretzels. We made quite a bit, for only 10 bucks a piece at the end.

Sydney helped for a little bit until she couldn't contain herself anymore! She had to lick her fingers (& hands and arms) clean! :)

Poor Livia got sick while we were there, so she watched a lot of movies! Poor girl!

Brooklyn loves stairs, so I taught her how to go up and down them, so she would go down and play with the kids until she was bored and then came back up to see us adults. It was scary, but pretty cute to watch her.

Of course, Karaoke! And not just ANY karaoke, Christmas karaoke! We all took turns humiliating ourselves in front of everyone. It was funny!

Snow / Mopping

We had our first snow and the girls were so excited they begged if they could go out and shovel the driveway. I almost said no, since it was 8:30 at night on a school night! But better they do it then me, right?! So, I "let" them! :) They did a pretty good job.

They wanted to sled but I wouldn't let them get on the yard since it was a very wet snow it would have been very muddy, (I know, mean mom) so they were sledding on our little driveway slant with garbage can lids! Proud moments! :)

I asked Livia to mop the floor, and apparently we were out of swiffers, because I came to check on her and she was "mopping" with dishrags on her feet! Crazy kid. I called her Cinderella all night! :)

Brooky giving our mean kitty a kiss!