Christmas Tea

Maddy wanted to have her buddies and their new dolls over for a tea party while our house was still decorated for Christmas. It was quite fun with all the girls and dolls in their festive best. Afterwards, the big girls stayed for a slumber party. Joel and I got quite a kick out of listening to their funny conversations, but about 2am the fun was over for this Mom. I told the girls, "SERIOUSLY! You NEED to go to sleep NOW!" (In a nice, fun mom voice, of course!) In the morning we made waffles and delivered all the girls back to their homes.

I am so thankful that Maddy has good friends...and that I am good friends with their moms! I can't tell you how many times a week us moms (and a few others too) email back and forth about pick up from school, transportation to this practice and that game, and watching kids for appts, etc. We joke that it "takes a playgroup to raise a child."







Watching High School Musical 1...and 2!


Everytime a song came on, they'd all get up and dance and sing at the top of their lungs.

It's pretty fun to be a mom.

Christmas Day

I've been putting off doing our blog of Christmas Day. We had a lovely day and I took SO many pictures and we did SO much that it is a little overwhelming!

This year a rare thing occurred for the holidays. Nearly my entire family (mom's side) from Idaho joined us for Christmas! It is no easy feat to get them all over here, between the bad roads, the hustle and bustle this time of year, and both of my grandparents being in their 80s, we usually just greet each other over the phone. It was such a blessing to have them here for a few days. And then, on Christmas Day, we were lucky enough to have Joel's family join us as well. It was really special to have everyone here, under our roof for a big dinner and lots of visiting, laughing, and sharing. Our kids were funny, sweet, and good, and we loved sharing them with so many people who love them.

The 'cherry on top' was when we looked out the window midway through the morning and it was snowing big fat flakes. That NEVER happens in Oregon on Christmas Day- NEVER! It didn't stick around, which was fine with us since the Gibsons had to drive home that night and the Neeley Clan left on the 26th.

Snow!

Here are a few highlights from our special day...


Christmas Morning Tradition...waiting on the steps.



Carter loves his shopping cart from Santa.


Garrett and his new bike



Maddy's not one to waste good ribbon!



Papa is giving Maddy a little advice.


Bissy has a great surprised look, doesn't she?


Garrett was such a happy boy!


"Thank You, Big Grandma!"


The whold crew at dinner- our house.


Sissy was thrilled to get "Kit" from Santa...and matching pjs!


Keeping with tradition, all the "Neeley Girls" had matching pjs. My mom even got them for Sissy and cut them down for her. She was thrilled! Garrett called the pj day, "P'Neeley Day!" He told everyone, "It's a pajama party, and I'm invited too, even though I don't have the pajamas."



After dinner the whole crowd gathered in the living room for some Wii action.


Even Grammy did Wii Bowling! Yahoo!


Our kids finally got to open their last presents after 9pm. It was a long day!

Carter: 21 months...

...going on 10 years.

I was chatting with my mom about Carter this morning- how it seemed for the longest time that he was a baby. He started out so small compared to the other 2, he walked so much later than them, plus he's been so laid back as he gets carted around to soccer, ballet, gymnastics, school, etc and always stayed in the stroller. But then, all of the sudden he just seemed SO big and old. He does a pretty good job of keeping up with his siblings and despite the fact that he doesn't talk much, he can always get his point across.

Take yesterday for example. Joel and I were talking in the kitchen last evening. Carter marches in- obviously a man on a mission. He flips the lever on the dishwasher, throws the door open, climbs up on it, pulls out the top rack, gets a sippy cup and lid, hops down, marches over to the fridge, throws sippy on the water dispenser, looks Joel in the eye, and yells, "ICE!" (Which sounds like "EYE!") Everything was done with such confidence, and such attitude.

Here's a couple of shots of him with his new shopping cart from Santa. I think he did 25 laps in a row with this thing yesterday. Notice the contraband on the bottom rack- wet wipes he swiped before they got confiscated. (Sorry for the cruddy pics, it has been SO gray in the PACNW the past couple of days, I have to use my flash all the time.)

YoYO!

The past several weeks I have been working (here and there) on this garland for my staircase. I love how it turned out! I bought some lime green fabric too, but never had time to sew it, so these are all just pinned on- in hopes that it will be a little more lime-y next year.

3 Little Angels

My mother has a tradition of putting my kids in Christmas poses for her Christmas card. Some of the characters of years past include, Mary, an Angel, Joseph, a sheep, etc. This year she chose a choir of angels. I'll never know how she got them all to go along with the wearing of cardboard wings and staying in one place for LOTS of pictures.

And then on Christmas Eve, she recreated the scene! We didn't go to church, so the kids put on a 'program' for us all- in full costumes.







Carter knew how to play along with The Bigs.


Sweet Sissy singing her heart out.


This could be a metaphor for...well, something.

Garrett's Big Days

Garrett's "Winter Fun" Party for preschool took place last week at the Sherwood Ice Arena. I was a little nervous about it since he sometimes gets easily frustrated, but he did great- I was SO proud of him! His long legs and arms never did stop flailing!






They had a big snow pile in the middle for the kids. That was a HIT, especially with Garrett.


In the middle of the party, the kids had hot cocoa and a cookie. After that, Garrett was done. He said he'd rather go to Target than continue skating. I agreed.




Also, last week was Garrett's "Winter Performance" for gymnastics. (Never mind that we just started gymnastics back up this month.) He was pretty excited about the whole thing.

Garrett and Grayson- best of buddies.





Carter and Maddy watching. Carter kept scooting in, closer to the action.




And the final touch...a ribbon routine to the Nutcracker Theme. Of course!

You'll Have to Just Imagine This One

Today I got this email from Madeline's teacher...

Zelma is going to play her violin today…she asked me if it was “OK for Diana and Maddy to dance while I played?”

So, this morning we will have quite the performance!

And a while later...

Well, after the performance in our room, the girls were so inspired to head down the hall for a “tour”. I am not sure who the manager was, but they managed to take their performance up and down the halls of Columbus. Imagine…Zelma with her violin case, Maddy, Alyssa and Diana carrying music stand, music and they were all smiles…heading down the hall. Zelma plays a very impressive violin, during Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star the girls sing backup, then the other songs, Diana does a tap-Scottish-jig with some clapping involved, Maddy does some major ballet moves and Alyssa does some graceful balancing…they represent the best of interpretive dance!

So far I know they have performed for 2^nd grade, the office staff, Music teacher, 2 kinder classes and there might just be more… J

This is for the Denney Family…

Zelma said, “Mrs. Lomas, I am done playing but Diana feels like dancing some more. Can I play another song?”

Mrs. Lomas replied, “Of course!”

I wish I had a hidden video camera; these girls were imaginative, responsible, creative and resourceful. I am almost sure they would not have done as well if they had been filmed. So all in all, it has been a wonderful morning with many smiles.

I have to add that the rest of the class was speechless, all eyes and only boys had questions for them at the end.

You know the commercial:

Violin: $100 and lessons

Ballet classes: $200

Performance: priceless!

Happy Holidays!

I wish we could have witnessed that, but I am so thankful that Sissy has a teacher willing to share with of us how she enjoys our girl.

EIGHT YEARS!

Eight years ago today....











Happy Anniversary, Joel. I love you so much. Thank you for being my partner on this crazy journey. Thank you for laughing with me every day. Thank you for being an amazing Daddy to our babes. I feel so lucky to have you. Haven't the past 8 years been nuts? Here's to hoping the next 8 are a little more relaxed. (Yeah, right.)

Don't Tell Them It's a Pet Bed.

We needed something for our reading area in the playroom. We found the perfect thing at Costco yesterday...a big, cute, comfy, cozy...PET BED. The downside? The kids all smell like cedar chips. Ooops!

Playgroup ParTAY!

We've been in a playgroup since Maddy was about 15 months. When it started it was just 6 moms and our 6 sweet, perfect, calm children. That was over 6 years ago. Those 6 years have held a lot of changes for the playgroup families- a few have moved away, there have been divorces, remarriages, a couple of 'new' members (who don't seem new at all now), and many, many, many more births. There are 7 families who have been active the past several years, and between us there are 17 kids. Yes, 17. So playgroups are a lot more crazy and much less frequent than they used to be. (Although us moms never miss our Mom's Night Out at least once a month!)

Anyhow, tonight we held a Playgroup Christmas Party. We even invited our men to join us for pizza after the gift exchange and cookie decorating frenzy.









Yes, it was nuts. But we are so blessed to have good friends, and that our kids have such good friends. It was fun to have a full house bursting with laughing, happy, red cheeked kids. What could be better?

This was the first time Carter and Abby really played together. They had a blast in this tent (Maddy's princess tent turned sideways) for a LONG time! It was hard to get a good picture, but their little cheeks were bright red!