Haircuts with Diane

 The girls needed hair cuts...really bad and picture day was coming soon.  We met Diane S. uring Labor Day and shared that she would love to give the girls some new do's.

 Natale get all finished up.

 Miss Blue eyes with her cute bob.

 Avery's turn. 

Getting her hair washed=BEST PART!!

The Girls with Diane.

and of course with suckers!

Thank you to Diane for a Great experience and I am looking forward to MY TURN!! ;)

Look for Styling by Diane@ Mane Street Salon on Facebook

A weeks stay in Leavenworth...

My Mom received a Wonderful prize at her school for Staff Appreciation week.  A week's stay in Leavenworth at a private home with all the amenities.  All we needed to bring was SUN wear, money for shopping and excursions and the food to feed us. On Tuesday 7/19, We (the girls and I, my sister, my nieces and my Mom) headed East on Highway 2 for a family getaway.  We arrived at lunchtime and explored the house and planned our week's adventures around the weather of course!! On Wednesday we headed to the public pool for the open swim. The park had a great kiddie area and the girls had lots of FUN. Krissy and I took them to the deep end and showed off with hand stands and flips in the water. Danielle and Avery had fun jumping off the side to us. Since our summer has been plagued with not so HOT weather, we planned around the weather and headed to Wenachtee for a movie on Thursday. We saw Cars 2 and ran into an old Jobie friend there with her family....xoxo Karla!! Its such a small world sometimes!! ;) After the movie we headed home for some much needed quiet time and the arrival of Henry and Joe.  On Friday we headed into town and played a round of 18 hole putt putt, had lunch at Uncle Uli's Pub...yum yum and went through all the cute shops Leavenworth has to offer.  We bought a few things and headed home for a BBQ dinner and then headed back for ice cream cones and a walk down by the river. 

Krissy, Avery and Danielle enjoying the lake and their floaties

Avery and Natale enjoying the beach

 Saturday was going to be HOT!!  When I was younger, some friends and I camped at Lake Wenachtee and jet skied on the lake.  I knew that was where we needed to be on a VERY HOT day.  The lake was beautiful surrounded my forest cover mountains and a pair of seahawks (ospreys) flew through the sky so majestically.  We and a lot of other people had the same idea.  It was really crowded by lunchtime.  We packed a picnic for us and hauled the sand toys to the beach.  Auntie remember that she packed an inner tube for campout that never got unpacked so we got a big floatie to play with.  We headed out when the girls started complaining of hunger and we were out of food.  And did some of us get crispy!!  We had leftovers for dinner and started cleaning up  to head home. :(


The putt putt golfers....Mom beat me (the girls weren't scored)




Avery and Danielle climbing a art sculpture

 Yesterday,we got up, packed up and headed to the Waffle house for breakfast.  It was a great end to a GREAT week.  The girls had fun playing together and got along pretty well.  They giggled and entertained each other so well.  Isabelle especially loves having the girls around her to play with....she is crawling after them everywhere they go.  SO CUTE!  My Mom, Krissy and I played cards in the evening and just chatted about life.  It was a wonderful, bonding vacation with my family!! Thank you, MOM!!

Avery turns 6 years old

Hungry Hungry Hippos!!

We got the game for Christmas and the girls LOVE IT!!

GO, GO, GO....

Only drawback.....very LOUD game.

Leaving cookies for Santa

After a bath and putting on matching nighties, the girls marched down stairs to prepare for Santa's arrival.

We set out a variety of cookies and milk for the Big GUY in Red. The girls have been watching lots of Holiday movies this season and had heard one of the Santa's say that green peppers were the reindeer's favorite. So we changed it up and sliced some green peppers for the herd.

We all headed upstairs to read some Christmas stories and the girls fell fast asleep....

Santa Claus with the Family

Mama, Auntie, Uncle and GG took the girls to Bellis Fair Mall to visit Santa. My pictures were better than the one we paid for....Santa looks the best in it!! :)
Here are those pictures I took....which one it the best?? Natale is Crying in ALL of them. Danielle wasn't happy in one of them and then shows some smiles....Izzy is just too CUTE to care and Avery is glowing and showing off her missing tooth.....CLASSIC Santa pictures...priceless!!!

Santa asked each of the bigger girls what they wanted for Christmas and handed them coloring books. Avery told Santa, Natale wanted a Jessie doll, but when Santa gave the girls their coloring Natale decided to let go of my leg and nodded to Santa she wanted a pillow pet. Then Natale tells me walking out the exit..."He's a NICE guy" Pretty dramatic 10 minutes for Natale though. We ALL waved bye, bye to Santa and headed over to the theater to see the movie "Tangled"

Decorating our Christmas Tree

.....And its UP

Once the tree is up and in its stand Mama takes over...

This year I changed it up a little. I've always had colored twinkle lights on my tree, but this year Joe asked for clear so I did for a change, but wrapped the trunk of the tree with color lights. I wanted it to pop. It looks OKAY!! :)

I also have a weird way of decorating the tree. Once the lights are wrapped around most of the branches and ready for ornaments I TURN OFF the lights. We hang ornaments on a plain, not light tree. Why you ask?? Well I think its easier to place ornaments. You can see where the missing spots are and where there is too much clutter. I think it goes pretty quick & easy following this process.

We laid the tree skirt after we water our pretty tree.

The girls started hanging ornaments.

Mama pulling ornaments out and sorting them by kid friendly vs NO TOUCH piles.

As you can see my little ladies were VERY big helpers and loved every minute of it. They would talk about there ornaments sorta tell a story about it. Really cute. Mama would find her special ones and share those stories too. The girls are so fascinated about past holidays and seeing all the ornaments, decorations, and pictures. We have a very precocious Kindergartner in the house this year and a little sister not far behind.

Natale being sweet putting on a princess bulb on the tree.

Avery placing a cute snowman bulb. She was so delicate and respectful of our special ornaments. I've shared with the girls that most of the special ones are theirs....so be gentle so we can have them for many more Christmases.
Also something new, I added tinsel this year. I had 3 packages of them and thought what the heck. It looks really pretty as LONG AS THE TREE is LITE. The tinsel makes the tree have extra sparkle and its a really pretty tree....lite up!! Everything is up and looking great. Mama even put some lights up outside to give some of the neighbors a run for their money. I'll try to get a good picture of the outside lights to show off.

All done........yipeeeee!!

Now I need to go wrap and/or buy some gifts for under the tree. Right now Patton is LOVING the coziness of the tree too. :) Merry Christmas