santa's sleigh

granny bought these ginger bread kits and the girls had a blast putting them together with granny and aunt kate (ok- sayla had fun eating icing while everyone else put them together...)

(side note- drew took this pic...look at him getting artsy with the camera!)

I have been loving dipping the walls of the sleighs in my coffee...am I the only one who actually likes gingerbread?

loving the spoils

the girls LOVE these little chairs they got for Christmas...and I love watching them sit there looking so adorable.

merry merry christmas

I hope you had a wonderful christmas filled with cute kids, snow, family, food and lots of laughter...and the peace and grace of the Savior that was given to us on this day! merry christmas!

this christmas

things I love about this Christmas:
*I love it that Keadryn keeps telling people we are celbrating jesus' birthday!

*I love seeing the girls excitement over the tree, the gifts, the lights, the music (here we are looking at lights in the neighborhood)

*I love that even though it was 80 degrees yesterday, it is a snowy-winter-wonderland today...and that we will have a white christmas in dallas:

*I love these matching christmas pj's:

* I love being with drew's family:

traditions

Someone asked me the other day if we have any traditions during the holidays...ummm- yes is what I said because we have so many that I love:

• decorating the tree to a mix of Amy Grant, Christmas on the Beach ( I think my dad got this one at a gas station, and I can't find it online anywhere-haha!) and Harry Connick Jr. -ludwig family
• Celebrating St. Nicks Day dec. 6th (in germany they do it with shoes, but we do it with our stockings. pictured above)-remke family
  
• making the yearly Christmas ornament-I  have one on my tree for every year since the 5th grade! -just me...so I guess our little-remke family
• driving around looking at Christmas lights! -ludwig family
• getting pajamas on Christmas eve. -ludwig family
• going to the movies on Christmas eve (my parents started this to pass time on the torturous day before Christmas with 4 little kids...and we do it every year- I can't wait till the girls are old enough)-ludwig family
  
• Read the story of the birth of Christ before going to bed on Christmas eve. -ludwig family
• Open presents from youngest to oldest. -remke family
• Eat crepes Christmas morning. -our little-remke family

Things I plan to add this year:

• having each girl pick out a toy for toy for tots (when we move back to the M.E. we will have them get a present for one of their friends and share the Christmas story with them)
  
• read the prophecies about the messiah and story of the birth of Jesus throughout December
• bake a birthday cake for Jesus on the 23rd or 24th

what are your favorite traditions? Any I am seriously missing out on? I am always up for adding new ones!

according to sitemeter...

there are an average of 58 views on this blog a day and I had 86 views yesterday- so why is it that I only get 1-3 comments? phooey- you blog stalkers- phooey.

I'll leave you with a sweet picture of my not-so-little babies helping me cook- when did they get so big?! ( I love sweet sayla gracie on her tiptoes trying to reach something)

cousin addie

The girls cousin addie (and her mom and dad, of course) came to visit this weekend and it was so fun to be around this little sweetie. She is so content and smiley and I just love her! She didn't know what to think about the craziness that is our life, but it was fun for everyone. Unfortunately, little addie got whatever cold our girls have had since thanksgiving, so hopefully she will be better soon. we love our addie!

attempt #1 at a picture of all three of them:

 aaand attempt #2:

and a sweet one of the little ones chilaxin:

thanksgiving

I know, I know- it has been too long since the last post. We had a great Thanksgiving in Denver! Here are the highlights:

Rockband party-
you may recognize my costume from harryween, one of my friends said "woah, hermione went punk rock" but Drew and I went as characters from School of Rock. He was Jack Black and I was one of the back up singers. Kirst was a rap video girl and Adam was a rapper. good times (the kids ended up hanging out with Lita and Papa, but bruke looked fab in his mini rapper costume!)

 Yummy food! you have to try this recipe

 Photo shoots! I love going to Denver because I get to do photo shoots! It is SO fun to get to practice.

the lovely wagner family:

sweet baby reese:

my aunt and cousins:

and, of course, the gentrys:

we also (finally!) got a family pic:

and a sweet one of the cousins:

happy thanksgiving everyone!

happy birthday kirsty!

Kirst you are:

my favorite person to craft with
my sounding box
my friend I call about one little thing and get off the phone with an hour later
my inspiration to love people
my voice of wisdom
my constant assurance that I am loved
my reminder that God is in control and that He is worth pursuing.
my evidence of grace
my encouragement to be a good mom
my best brainstorming buddy
my motivation to save money
my supporter
my bff

I am so thankful for you. Hope your day is fabulous...and full of free chick-fil-a!

last day

Hi guys! there has been TONS of response for the free cards! I just wanted to remind you that if you are planning on ordering you cards and getting the free prints, I will need your photos by sunday at the very latest so that I can make your card, send you a proof and get it to the printer by their deadline of November 30th.

There are tons of you that have said you are ordering them, and I would hate for you to miss out!


If you miss the free 100 deal, you can still order your card design through kojodesigns (even into the new year) and I will be sure to let you know of the best places online to score deals on your cards and envelopes!

heros and princesses

Max's 4th birthday party was a blast! "Heros and Princesses" was the theme so everyone got to dress up! (Max was Bumblebee, the transformer- but he took his Helmet off a couple minutes into the party)

We are those weird parents that interpret everything to be international- so Kead was an Indian Princess (a married one- many people pointed out- because of the dot)

we actually got this outfit in Oman- but TONS of Indians live there and so there is TONS of fun Indian stuff in the stores.

Sayla rocked the Moroccan dress. Also- the head tilt is her new pose for the camera. too cute:

I mean, who doesn't love a party with Batgirl and sweet Ella princess:

and I LOVE this one of the kids waiting to do the pinata. It was A LOT of fun, even for the little kids! ( I wish you could hear Ella getting all the kids to scream in unison- so funny!)


Happy Birthday, Max- we love you and hope it was as fun for you as it was for us!

how I love the fall

One bonus of living in lubbock is that we have a very drawn out autumn. As I am sure you remember, it is my favorite season, so I love seeing the leaves gradually change from yellow to orange and then from orange to deep red and slowly fall off the trees. We are at the end of fall, so we trekked down to a park that actually has trees (the down side to living in lubbock is the lack of trees...) and took some pics of the beautiful leaves. I know once the girls are old enough to remember we won't be living somewhere that they get to experience fall every year, so I will be able to show them these pictures and tell them how great God is to create such a beautiful season.

aaand, one of keadryn tackling sayla "cause she was gonna go in the water!" of course I grabbed for my camera instead of pulling kead off of sayla. that's what all moms do: