Lighting of the Capitol

Yesterday was the Big Jingle Jubilee (say that 3 times fast!) Christmas Parade and Capitol Lighting. The weather started out pretty nice, but quickly turned cold and windy. We watched as much of the parade as we could stand on the street, then piled in Mom's vehicle to watch the rest.

The parade was not that great, but we always enjoy walking around in the capitol when it is decorated for Christmas. It's really pretty. Every year we say that we should dress the kids for a Christmas photo, but that never happens. Most of the photos end up looking like this:

Nathan started basketball again yesterday, so he's still wearing his uniform. And Ashley...well, she's 4...enough said. They were a little more cooperative for individual shots.

We got snow...

This is our official second snow of the season, but our first one big enough to make snow balls!



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A good Christmas tradition gone bad

So for the past three or four years we have had the Christmas tradition of going to the tree farm and cutting our own tree. So we went late this afternoon since the kids were still out for Thanksgiving break.



But we just couldn't find a tree!!! We were looking for a tall,skinny tree to go in the living room in the corner in between the two couches. It was getting dark and the kids were "all done". Micah picked up this pittiful little tree that he found laying on the side of the road and said " can't we just take this one home? It's tall and skinny." (and also see through)



We went inside for hot chocolate while Aaron continued looking for "the perfect tree"



We looked and looked and could not find a tree. So we left... All three kids bawling and I was so mad that I couldn't even talk. We were all so disappointed. As we exited from the interstate Aaron said "Hey doesn't Home Depot have Christmas trees?" I said I think so but tell the kids that we are not sure. ( I could not stand anymore tears of disappointment) So we go in and in under a minute we found the perfect tree!! At least the story has a happy ending.



Thank God for Home Depot!!

So much for Cyber Monday

Since my Black Friday shopping was hindered by a brief illness this weekend, I decided to make up for lost time on Cyber Monday. In my pajamas and armed with my laptop, credit card, and a large cup of coffee, I set off into cyberspace. (Do people even use that word anymore?) I spent much of the cold, wet morning looking for deals online and made zero purchases. I was only looking for a few specific things and was overall unimpressed with the deals. That was disappointing because my Christmas list is still rather long!

I put off the Christmas shopping for another day because I still needed to get groceries and new shoes for Nathan. Hoping to avoid a trip to the mall, we headed for the New Balance store that is about 5 minutes from our house. We got his feet measured (he's up to a 2 ½!!), and he quickly found a pair that he liked. As I was going to pay, I saw a sign near the register that read: "Buy $100 gift card and get $25 gift card free". Since 3/4 of our family could use new tennis shoes, I asked about getting the $100 card and using it today. This guy rudely told me that I could use the $25 card today but the $100 card wasn't good until January. Huh? Isn't that backwards from the way these promotions usually work? Whatever. We had new shoes without a trip to the mall. I made my one purchase of the day - no gift cards or cyber deals involved - and was on my way home.

This one is for you big sis....

So today Racheal is sick so I took her kids to Mom and Dads house. Their neighbor brought their pony down for the kids to ride and I took pictures and am going to attempt to put them on the blog with my iPhone......we will see if it works........







Ashley and Lily waiting thier turn!




Two cowgirls!




Go Vikings! These were mine and Racheals cheer leading costumes when we were little.

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Girls' Day Out / Boys' Day Out

On Wednesday before Thanksgiving Eve dinner, we divided up by gender for a Girls' Day Out/Boys' Day Out. Renee, Amanda, Mandi and I took the girls to see the new Disney movie "Tangled" which we gave mixed reviews. (Sorry, no pics). Jeff, Aaron, Josh, and Jonathan took the boys rock climbing. Other than one injury - Micah, of course - they had a great time!

TGE10 - Random Pics

Photo Shoot

Mom tries to get a yearly picture of all (or at least most) of us together for her Christmas card. This year, we messed around until it was almost dark and then tried to squeeze in a group photo. Jeff had not arrived yet when we started, so we took one without him and one with Jonathan as a stand-in. Jeff literally ran and jumped into the final shot. It's far from perfect, but through the magic of digital photography, everyone has their eyes open and is looking in the general vicinity of the camera.

Take 1:

Take 2:

Take 3: (see above)

Other pics from the photo shoot:

Brandon and Mikayla

Papa and Fisch

The Adams Family

The J. Johnson Family

Dance Party!

Everyone came over to our house on Tuesday night. After some pizza and Wii, the kids begged Jeff to let them have a Freeze Dance Competition. He started this with them a few visits ago, and now it's become a new thing. Jeff is always the DJ, and he really mixes it up with everything from old country classics to Usher. Here are some pics of them all practicing the tango. I'm sure there's a joke in there about coming to Arkansas and dancing with your cousins, but for now, it's cute.

Happy Reunion

Our entire family was home for Thanksgiving this year! We think the last time we were all together was Christmas 2008. I'm not sure though. I'll have to look back at old blog posts to verify that. The Johnson and Stacy families both rolled in on Monday afternoon. They drove a combined 35 hours and 2000+ miles to be here. Impressive, don't you think? And that's just one way!

We all gathered at Mom and Dad's on Monday night for dinner and to make up for lost time. Since all of the boys had recently celebrated their birthdays, we started by exchanging a few belated gifts. Nathan got one of these Star Wars blasters for his birthday, so I bought 3 more for the other boys. It was on! Foam darts were flying everywhere!

The girls immediately got into the dress up clothes. I got them to stop bouncing on the trampoline long enough for a quick pic. Mikayla is so glad that the little girls are both finally big enough to play with.

After dinner, Mom let everyone open their Christmas stockings. It was a fun surprise. Birthdays and Christmas all in the same day!