Painting their finger nails

The girls each received nail polish in their stockings. They were eager to paint their nails on their own so the day after our celebration when Jackson was napping we pulled out the nail polish and I let them at it. It was a bit messy but they loved it!

5 years old

Her nail polish is a light pink and she declared that we needed to go to the store and get a dark pink so it would show up better. 

Cleaning off the old polish. Almost 4 years old.

:)

Waiting for dry nails.

They loved being "big girls" for the day.

Guess whose birthday is today!

33 years ago today my MIL gave me and my world the best gift ever! HH! I thought I'd celebrate him here with some of my favorite pictures of him. I'm sure this will be his most favorite post I've ever written. 

spring 2007 w/Abiah

 After Jackson was born I was explaining to a friend what Jackson's names mean; Kenneth means handsome and Jackson means full of personality. Our friend pointed to HH and said, "That one should have been named Kenneth." I have to say, although he definitely fits his name, his also fits the handsome.

fall 2008 w/ Hazel

fall 2009

Nap time with Amelia winter 2009

summer 2007

summer 2007

2007

2009

2011

2011

2011

2007

2010 with Amelia

2006

2004

30th Birthday Napolean Dynamite style 2009
(L-R: Uncle Rico, Kip, Lafawnduh, Napolean, Deb, Pedro)

2010

2004

2010(ish)

Nap time with Jackson 2011

2010(ish)

HH, I'm so glad you were born! You are the greatest and I love you so much. I love living life with you. Happy Birthday and many, many, many, many, many happy returns of the day!

Jackson's First Hair Cut

Auntie Am came all the way from the Oregon Coast to give Jackson his first hair cut. Thankfully we were able to save most of his curls and just give him a little trim.

The Christmas Pajama Picture

A few days back I posted a picture of the kids in this years Christmas pj's. My sister remembered that I had done this last year which encouraged me to post both pictures together so we can see how The Adorables have grown.

Christmas 2011

Christmas 2012

Let me just say, I thought Jackson was hard to photograph last year! Whew! That kids would NOT sit still this year. Plus we were trying out a new camera we got because the kids broke the spring in the flash on our old camera. I finally handed HH the new camera and went and got 'ol Trusty and just held the dang flash up myself. If anything it got HH interested in ready the manual for the new camera so the next morning he just showed me all the things I need to do to make New Camera work. Maybe I'll let it stay around for a bit longer...

Anyways, The Adorables are cute. And they just seem to be growing inches by the day. I love them so much.

Our Christmas

Like I mentioned the other day, we decided to do "Christmas" with our kids early. Our Christmas Eve began on Friday night with the kids opening their Christmas pajamas.

The nest morning dawned dark and early. We began the day with the traditional cup of cocoa for the kids and the necessary cup of coffee for mom and dad.

The kids wanted to open stocking first. It was crazy! And Jackson took full advantage of his distracted siblings by walking around to all of their piles and digging through to find the goodies he wanted...even though he had his own. The kids consumed more sugar in those few minutes then they are used to getting in one day.

After presents and breakfast Jackson napped and the other kids sat and played with their new toys. The girls got body spray, lip gloss, and nail polish in their stockings. Our house was overwhelmed by an apple/vanilla cloud all day long and the girls lips never lost their shimmer.

Friends and family have been delivering meals all week as I recover and that night a friend brought us a London broil steak dinner with mashed potatoes and veggies. It was the perfect finish to our laid back holiday.

I had lots of plans for our family Christmas celebration. Goodies I wanted to make, a nice dinner I wanted to serve. Activities to lead up to our celebration together. Letting go of those plans and taking advantage of the time we had to spend with HH at home was perfect. The kids have no idea that I didn't do all the things I planned to do. They loved our Christmas. And so did I. It was the perfect day.

And HH and I were wise enough to remind each other that there was going to be a huge lack of sleep/sugar overload crash in the evening so we weren't side swiped by its appearance. Bed time was the perfect cure.

Merry Christmas! And may all your holiday plans be Merry and Bright!