The Nutcracker & Santa

As an early Christmas gift for Madison, I took her to see The Nutcracker here in Boise. We got all dressed up to go. Madison was SOOOO excited, she could hardly wait to see the ballerinas! Before the show started we browsed through some of the fun things they had for sale. She found this cute little ballerina mouse ornament. She said it was Angelina Ballerina, who she adores! Madison sat through the entire 2 hour performance on the edge of her seat. She loved every bit of it. I must admit that it was a spectacular show, the sugar plum princess was an amazing dancer and left us all breathless! During the short intermission Madison got out of her seat and did a few twirls! This girl just might be a real ballerina some day, we'll just have to wait and see!

So after the show was over, we walked out to the car (amidst a snow storm) and found that I had lost my keys. Arrrgh!! So we walked all the way back and I asked an employee about my keys. Luckily some kind person had found them and turned them in. When I bent down to button up Madison's coat, I set my keys down on the floor and forgot to pick them up! After finding my keys, the crowd of people leaving had pretty much died down. Madison ran over to look at all the Nutcracker things they were selling. I felt pretty bad that she had to walk out to the car and back, in the snow, with her church shoes on, so I caved in and bought her the nutcracker she had picked out. Lucky girl! What a "magical" (as Madison said) time we had!

Last week we took the kids to the mall to run a few errands. We thought if the kids were feeling up to it we'd stop by and see Santa. Now let me back up and say that in years past Madison has been very terrified of getting anywhere near Santa. I don't really blame her though! But this year she'd been telling us that she wasn't going to be shy with Santa and that she wanted to sit on his lap. And that she did!! We couldn't believe it. When it was our turn to see him, she walked right up to him and sat down with him. Quinn, on the other hand, held tight onto me and didn't want down. But then he warmed up and sat with him too. He wouldn't look at Santa, which was pretty funny. So we took our limit of 2 pictures with our own camera!

So here we've got the kids looking at the camera, but not Santa! Come on Santa! You'd think he'd have this down after how many pictures???

Christmas Kids

The kids were looking pretty festive in their church clothes on Sunday, so we stuck them in front of the tree and snapped a few quick pictures.

If I Could Turn Back Time

The other day I was looking at pictures we have of our family from over the years. I love looking back at them, it brings back so many good memories. I was looking at pictures of Madison (who is now 4 years old) from when she was Quinn's current age (20 months). I don't remember her having such a round little face! Time sure does fly by because now I have a hard time remembering what she was like as a toddler. Now I know why my Mom can't remember when I got my first tooth! (Remember when I asked you that Mom?)

Thanksgiving 2008

We packed up the car and made the trip to Grace, Idaho for Thanksgiving this year. We spent the holiday with Hal's family. We were able to see almost all of his siblings and their families. We had a yummy spread of food and enjoyed the good company of family. Grandma Bennett gave all the grandkids Christmas pajamas and a Christmas book. We tried rounding up all the grandkids in their new pjs for a photo. It was a bit of a zoo! But somehow we were able to snap this photo of Quinn giving Madison a sweet little kiss.

Thankful for...

For family home evening during the month of November we made a paper turkey and feathers. On one of the feathers our family wrote down things we are thankful for. Then we mailed a feather to grandparents, aunts, uncles and cousins and asked if they would write down on their feather what they are thankful for. Then Madison anxiously waited for the mail to come each day in hopes that she'd be sent a feather to add to the turkey. It was a lot of fun and maybe we'll make that a family tradition of ours.