Christmas Party Time...

Matt and I hosted our annual Christmas party this year. Every year (except last) we have family and friends over. Of course, every year we have yummy food and fun games and prizes. We opted to have a party for the grown-ups only this year. We just don't have enough room for everyone and their children. I actually enjoyed it this way - I wasn't having to worry about spilled juice or choking hazards or Madeline eating too many cookies :) So, anyway, this year we had our annual Christmas quiz. This time we added a challenge of untangling a string of lights. The big winner was Holly. (Gabe and Jason were the runners-up). Unfortunately, I missed several good photo ops. of our games. Anyway, we had a dirty santa gift card exchange too. I really liked the gift being a gift card. It was a lot of fun. I won a gift card to Ross - I can't wait to go there!! Of course, we had ESPN on the t.v. watching Sam Bradford win the Heisman! :) Then we had a UFC fight on. So, the party had a little something for every taste :) I really had a good time and had fun getting a chance to catch up with some old friends!! Here are a few pictures from the party....

Everyone is waiting to see who would win the Heisman...

It is Sam Bradford - Go Sooners!!

Debo and Shelly during the dirty santa gift exchange...

Matt talking to Jason, Rachel and Debo...

Matt won a gift card to GNC...

Holly and Tony enjoying the party food...

Tony, Stu and Crystal catching up...

My little Philip had fun too!

My cousin Christy loved holding Philip during the party.

Melissa getting some food...

A Gingerbread House

I bought a gingerbread house kit for the girls and I to decorate for the first time this year. They were very excited about this project. I wasn't really sure how it would go but it ended up going pretty smoothly. I just bought one of those little kits from Wal-Mart. I wish there would've been a little more variety in the types of candy, but it turned out pretty cute anyway. My one complaint would be that the frosting was very thick and was difficult to pipe onto the pieces neatly. The girls really enjoyed tasting the candy and putting it on the house. Madeline ask when we got to eat it and I just told her that you don't eat them. I couldn't imagine eating that thing - it's as hard as a rock!! :)

Thanksgiving "Party Pics" 2008

Here are some snapshots of our Thanksgiving dinner....

Preparing for Thanksgiving Dinner 2008

We invited my side of the family over for Thanksgiving dinner again this year. I actually really enjoy making Thanksgiving dinner. It's a lot of work, but it's fun for me. This year, we had lunch at Matt's parents house at noon so I got a break from my cooking for a couple of hours. After lunch, it was back home to finish the dinner. This year Matt and I bought a 22 pound turkey!! Yep, it was huge!! It turned out very tasty and wasn't dry at all. So, anyway, I got up early on Thanksgiving and had a little helper named Madeline. I really thought Susanna was going to be more interested in helping me b/c she always wants to watch me cook dinner. But no, Susanna wanted to watch her "shows" so Madeline helped me. She really likes to do whatever she can - especially if it involves pouring, stirring or spreading :) This year's menu included turkey, mashed potatoes, gravy, dressing (this didn't turn out so good), rolls, cranberry sauce, sweet potatoes, corn, green bean casserole, broccoli cheese casserole (Mel made this), and sweet carrots. We had a veggie tray, tortilla rolls and chips and dip too. So, needless to say, there were TONS of leftovers. Oh yeah, I made two pies also - a Turtle Pumpkin Pie (pumpkin pie with caramel and pecans) and a Chocolate Peppermint Pie. We all had a really nice time and plenty to eat.

5 Things I'm Thankful For:
1.) That Matt agreed to have a 3rd baby and now I have my sweet little Philip!
2.) That I have two super cute, adorable, sweet, daughters!
3.) That I'm married to Matthew Kendall. I'm so proud of him and ALL of the work he
has been doing in school these past few years. He's awesome!
4.) That I found a job I enjoy where I can get benefits and only work 16 hours a week!
5.) The memories I have of my mother - One day I'm going to have to make a post just for her. She was a great mother and I'd like to talk more about her sometime.

A Visit to See Santa

On the night before Thanksgiving we took the girls to visit Santa at the Bass Pro Shops. This year they have a Santa Wonderland where kids can visit Santa and have a FREE picture made with him. This was a really nice service - the kids got to talk to Santa and tell him what they wanted and we got 3 pictures, all for free. Susanna was a little nervous and didn't really have much to say. And Madeline was a little shy too. But they all sat on his lap and no one cried! We went on a weeknight and there wasn't anyone in line. The kids got to shoot BB guns at targets (actually, they were lasered) and they saw a really nice train table. The girls really enjoyed looking at the huge fish tank. We really had a nice time and it was definitely something I would recommend to anyone with kids!! It was much better and more exciting than the mall!!

The Start of Our Holidays...

The first thing we did to start our Thanksgiving weekend was for daddy to put up our Christmas lights. We took advantage of a really nice day to do this - no wind or cold temperatures. Daddy had tons of lights to choose from since I bought several strands from the after Christmas clearance at Target last year. We had one less tree this year to decorate since the ice storm last December killed it :) The lights turned out very pretty. I'm going to have to get a picture of the entire cul-de-sac. Every house on our cul-de-sac has lights up - it's so pretty.

Lots of Stuff...

We certainly had an awesome weekend! It was busy and full of F-U-N! We had Thanksgiving and Susanna's birthday and Christmas tree chopping and decorating. We took lots of pictures. BUT, right now I am sick. I have a sore throat and a complete lack of energy. I'm so thankful, though, that this sickness stayed away until all of my work was done this past week. Like I said, we took tons of fun pictures but I am too tired to post them right now. Plus, I'm on Matt's laptop and all of our pictures are on the regular desk computer. Just wanted to say that they are coming, though. Hope everyone had an awesome Thanksgiving!!

We're on Youtube!

MUD DAY
This is the second "mud day" of 2008 but the first one captured on camera.




This is the watermelon we brought home from the Rush Springs Watermelon Festival in 2008.





Madeline wanted to make a salad... watch her do it set to a little hip music.

A Busy Week of Halloween-ing!!

This has been a fun and busy week for myself and the kids! The first activity we had was our annual Playgroup Halloween Party!! The kids had fun playing with their friends and seeing each others costumes. It's amazing how large our playgroup has become. It's so neat to think that most of these kids have grown up together. Then Matt and I took the girls to Haunt the Zoo. We have been taking the girls there every year. Last year we SWORE we would never go back because it was just so crowded. We changed our minds this year and decided to try it one more time. I knew I had to work on Halloween and I wanted to do something fun with the girls in case my schedule was too crazy on Halloween. Anyway, the zoo was so much nicer this year. They expanded the trail to go next to the lake and up by the Aquariums. They had the carousel open. The girls had a lot of fun! My only complaint is that this year they didn't give the girls a coupon for a free Chick-fil-a kids meal like they have always done. The next activity was "Trunk or Treat" at church. The church had this for the community instead of AWANAs. Basically members of the church sit at their car and hand out candy. People had Halloween lights around their cars and decorations. It was a lot of fun and the girls got a TON of candy. Our finaly activity was traditional Trick-or-Treating on Halloween. I had planned to take the girls to a church carnival but ended up being on call for work on Halloween night (I didn't realize.) So, we couldn't go to the carnival. We took the girls to their grandmas for some treats and then we came home and I sat with the baby and handed out candy while Matt took the girls trick-or-treating around our neighborhood. Unfortunately we only had two groups of kids come to our house. I wanted to give out more candy! We live on the end of a cul-de-sac, though, and most of the people on our cul-de-sac keep their lights off. So we don't get many kids on our end. Anyway, we had a great week of Halloween fun!! Since we got so much candy, we'll be happy to share it with you!!

Here is our playgroup!!

Madeline was a fairy and Susanna was a butterfly. If anyone said, "What cute butterflies" the girls were sure to correct them and say that Madeline was a fairy and Susanna was a butterfly! Philip was my cute little fuzzy caterpillar!!

Here are some pictures from Haunt the Zoo...

Here are the girls at the church. The two little girls with Madeline and Susanna are our neighbors, Amaya and Alayja.

Halloween Night.