Ice Sculptures!

The kids and I made ice sculptures with berries, evergreen and dried hydrangea petals. I added oranges to mine. We need to hang them in the trees outside now that it's super cold!

Bath time!

One cool dude!

Addison LOVES to splash, and laugh, and splash and laugh.

OH! We love this face!

Two happy kiddos in the tub....they FINALLY love the bath! We resorted to showers when they freaked at a younger age....I tried again with the bath minus the bath chair and they love it. I guess the sit up chair freaked them out. Go figure.

Holiday Donations

I gave each of the big kids $25 to give toward a charity of their choice. Reagan chose the Iowa City Animal shelter. She used her money to buy things from the shelter's wish list. We also had some things around the house that I was happy to "give" rid of. The shelter was so please she chose them. One gal gave us a tour and let us meet the animals.

Reagan and Brett are meeting a kitten at the shelter. They had oodles of cats, I couldn't believe how many they had. Naturally the kids fell in love and have been working Scott over for a cat ever since. So far he hasn't budged...shucks. Reagan was happy to learn that kitty's like this one would be eating the food she brought.

They only had a handful of dogs, which is a good thing, I guess! This dog here loves comfy beds so she was going to receive the bed Reagan brought. She was happy to make life it bit easier for him.

Brett took a liking to this dog here. He was super cute. I realize I could never work at one of these shelters or a vet as I would start to bring home more and more animals to love.

Brett wanted to purchase toys for kids so he did just that and donated to Toys for Tots. Reagan found some unopened toys in her bedroom and gave those as well. They both smiled when I reminded them on Christmas morning that they made another child happy by giving them something to open on Christmas day!

I was pleased with this experience for the kids. We'll be doing it again next year!

Reagan's 7th Birthday Party with her friends

The finished product. Rea's seal and Brett's fish are in the front. We chose to glaze and fire so they had to wait to get their final product, but it was worth it....they did pretty good! I had to paint too, couldn't resist! We'll be making regular stops at the cafe for more treasures! Reagan had a great party.

Reagano chose a seal to paint......Sea World a couple weeks earlier must have had an impact on her!

Scott's co worker's girls joined us for some fun too.....so their folks could take in a movie!

Reagan and her school friends painting away at her ceramic cafe Birthday party.

Brett enjoying some pizza at the party!

She couldn't help but sing to herself! Love it!

All of the kiddos....being goofy....couldn't have been all the sugar, could it?

Cranes for Livvy

The school needed volunteers to string 1000 Japanese paper cranes for an elementary student at Rea's school that has cancer. They were constructing a mobile to present to her for luck and good fortune. The kids and I were happy to do our part to brighten her Holiday.

*SNOW*

Yep, I'm training him young! Here's Brett scooping the snow off the back patio! He thought it was fun for about a minute!

Down the slide and into the first snow of the year!

Brett playing in the snow. They were so happy to see the fluffy white all over the place! Me, I wasn't so impressed!

Reagan's buddy Greta came to play in the snow then came in to enjoy some hot chocolate too!

Brett's never to far behind them....whether they like it or not!

Decorating the tree

What is this thing? We let the babies experience the tree as we decorated. They helped take down the ornaments that they believed to be in the wrong spot so we could re hang them!! Ha. We hung the soft non breakable ones down low and they didn't mess with the pretties too much.

Addison's turn!

Daddy and kiddos searching for ornaments to hang.

Brett finding the perfect spot for one of his finds.