toothless dancer

macie has lost 3 teeth in the last week!  yet, she still looked beautiful for her dance recital this weekend!  she did a great job and told me she is sad that it is over.  she loves dancing and especially loves recital time.

crood's caveman cookout

our little man turns 3 tomorrow.  we celebrated yesterday by having a "crood's" party... brax's movie obsession for the past few months.  blake smoked pork, ribs and turkey legs and i made some caveman sides including deviled eggs, smashed potatoes, stuffed mushrooms, coconut macaroons and watermelon.  if you haven't seen "the crood's" you should watch it... after seeing it about 100 times i still like it and think it's a super cute movie!  thank you to all our friends and family who helped us celebrate... it made for a fun 3rd birthday party for our big guy!

she's seven!

our baby girl turned seven today.  she had a great day!  and, please, let this be the last frozen themed event that i throw!!!

on the polar express

santa left tickets to the polar express for us in our stockings this year.  so today we took the magical ride to the north pole.  the kids were in awe the entire time.  after having hot chocolate and cookies, getting their tickets punched with the words "love" and "hope" and meeting santa, they each got to hear a story about which reindeer their bell come from.  macie's bell was from the sweetest reindeer of all, prancer.  and brax's bell was from the fastest of all the reindeer, comet.  it was the first time either of them had been on a train ride... or to the north pole!

gingerbread 2015

another year of gingerbread houses is in the books.  we added one more house this year and let brax decorate.  he had the most fun picking out his candy at the candy store and then eating more candy than what he was putting on his house.  chichi and blake struggled a little this year.  chichi had some structural issues and by the time she got her house to stay together i think she was too worn out to put much heart into decorating it.  blake got in a little over his head with the lighthouse and ended up only decorating the front side before he pooped out.  macie is becoming quite the gingerbread house decorator and did a great job designing, shopping for candy, and decorating her house this year.