Gingerbread Houses

We decorated gingerbread houses at my parents' house with the Crabtree's.

Jackson was pretty creative and made a football field.

Doug and Coleman worked together on theirs.

Everyone's finished houses.

Coleman's and Jackson's

Kenzie's, Alli's, Ashlee's

Jordan's, mine, Kimber's, Konrad and Cam's

Close up of Jordan's.  He really tested the strength of Ashlee's frosting glue :)

Sam's

Dance Recital, Ice Skating, and Piano Recital

December 17th was a busy day for us. 

We had to be in Seattle by 9:30 for the kids' dance recital. 

Kenzie loves performing!

Jackson is the blond one in front and Jordan is the blond one in back.

Kenzie's ballet dance. They were the last ones to perform.

Taking a  bow.

Jordan, Kenzie, and Jackson

It was this boy's half birthday! He's very happy to be 5 and a half!

After eating lunch we went ice skating.

Kenzie getting on by herself. I skated this year with Mackenzie most of the time. She told me she wanted to take a break and I went to the side to take pictures. But when I looked at her again she was getting back on. She did really well by herself.

This was Coleman's first time skating so much. I think he skated once before with me a year or two ago, but he didn't last very long. He loved it this time, until his last lap around which was with me and I only let him hold one of my hands instead of 2 the entire way around. 

Next we had the kids' piano recital. Colie doesn't take lessons, he just wanted to be in the picture. The kids all did great!

After the first recital, they did a second performance at the memory loss section of the retirement center. They always do their recitals the retirement center, but usually just in the cafeteria. Jackson and Jordan played Frosty the Snowman as a duet. It was great to see them work together on it :) They each had their own song too. Jackson played My House in the cafeteria recital and C.C. Rider Blues in the memory loss center. Jordan played Holly Jolly Christmas. 

Kenzie played Rudolph. She was so excited to play it!

Homeschool

For co-op this month we learned about how a few countries celebrate Christmas. We did England, China, and France. 

For China we made paper lanterns.

For France we colored shoes and put paper treats in them. We also had a party out last day and ate pizza and treats.

Kenzie and Coleman

Kenzie and Coleman love playing with each other. 

When Coleman is having a lot of fun with someone he wants to sit really close to them for meals :)

And he wanted the Rudolph plate like Kenzie too.

Volleyball Champions!!!

My volleyball team won the championship again this year! We had the best record and won the championship game!

My mom, me, Melissa, Ashlee, Jenni, Anne

Blast from the Past

I found these pictures to put on the front and back covers of my blog books plus one I sent to Michelle of Mackenzie and Natalie. The kids were so tiny!

Kenzie's Pictures

Kenzie took a few pictures.

The horse she can see from her room. She was so excited about this house when we first moved it.

Kenzie loves hanging pictures in her room.

Kenzie loves playing animal jam on the computer. She would rather do that than watch movies lately. She printed this picture and colored it of her animal. 

Oh Christmas Tree

We went to Coates tree farm to get our tree again. We went the day it snowed and we were a bit worried that the roads would be to slick to drive on, but they were clear by noon.

Kenzie and Colie were excited to ride.

Our tree.

Kenzie helped cut it down.

Jackson did too. Jordan was too cold and didn't want to do it.

We also got a fake tree this year and put it in the basement. We decorated it before the real one.

Jackson put the star on the fake tree. Doug had to help at the end to make it stay on.

We decorated the real tree the next day.

We had to buy a new tree topper for this tree. Jordan put it on on Christmas Eve. Now that we have 2, we can have 2 kids put one up each year. The kids are excited to be able to do it every other year instead of every 4 years :)

Jackson wanted a picture with the tree. Kenzie wanted to be in the picture too.