Sleepover

After the Nutcracker, Abby and Madi spent the night. There wasn't much to the "sleepover" since we didn't even get home until almost 11 pm. But, the girls still had a great time. We got home, got into all our warm pajamas, brushed our teeth and got into bed. Now, we did have about a five minute period where the kids jumped on the trundle bed. :) Then, Hailey and Abby went straight to bed. Madi and Hannah took a little longer. They were not bad by any means. They wanted to play hide and seek in the dark with the flashlight. They shut the bedroom door so that we didnt know what was going on. I caught on pretty quick :) I went in and talked to them and they laid down. 5 minutes later, Hailey comes to our room to go potty. When I took her back to her room, Madi was crashed out. So, we had all the kids down by about 11:30. Yah!! I ended up staying up until 1 watching a show that I wanted to watch. Then I crashed. We got up about 7:50 and got everyone ready for church. It was a pretty easy morning. Shane went and got the girls donuts for breakfast. Yummy!!! Then we headed out the door. After church, Abby went home with her parents and Madi went to eat lunch with us. Then we took her home. We stayed at the Weavers house for about 45 minutes. The kids played in the front yard with Rachel and Sophie. They climbed trees and played in the leaves. What a great sleepover.

My friend, Becky (abby's mom), offered to babysit Hayden and to even keep him over night. Isnt that awesome? So, we gained two kids, but lost one of our own :) It actually made the night alot easier. We switched back kids after church. Thank you Becky!!!!! Your the best!

Gingerbread House Party

My friend Cari invited the girls and I to her 2nd Annual Gingerbread house making party. She had, I think,15 kids there. It was alot of fun. The girls loved decorating their houses, and they didn't even need any help. I kept trying to help them as I love decorating gingerbread houses, but they both kept telling me "I can do it, mommy!" . They really did a great job. After decorating the houses, all the kids went outside and played on Barts great tree house, and in the backyard. We are blessed to have Mrs. Cari and Lauren as our friends. Thank you for inviting us. We had a GREAT time!

Keller Holly Days

Tonight, despite the COLD weather, we took the kids to Keller's Holly Days. It was a lot of fun. The kids got to see Santa Clause and tell him what they wanted for Christmas. Hannah really wanted to sing him a song, but it was too busy and they didnt have a whole lot of time. After waiting 30 minutes in that line, we walked over to the snow tubing and waited in line for another 30 minutes. I took the girls over to get hot chocolate (which was NOT even warm ) while Shane saved our place in line. By the time we got back it was almost our turn. The girls decided they didnt need us to go with them, so they got their tubes and walked up the stairs by themselves. Hailey slid down smiling the whole time. Hannah got a little scared when she reached the top. She thought she would fall out of the tube when she went down. So, we had to go up and get her. I dont blame her. That can be scary to look down from the top and feel like you would just topple out. I was proud that she was so brave to even go up there by herself. After snow tubing, we went and made a few crafts and wrote santa a letter. Then we decided it was time to go. Hayden was tired and coughing and it was REALLY cold. So, we came home and got everyone ready for bed, read the christmas Curious george book and then tucked everyone in. I just found out that my In-laws and little sister in law went too and we missed them. :( Sorry guys! I know everyone would have loved to see you. I hope you had a good time and stayed warm!

I think now Shane and I are gonna watch a movie. Good night!

Look who got her ears pierced....

Hannah has been wanting to have her ears pierced for a long time now. She wants to wear pretty earrings. I wasn't quite sure if she was ready or not since she had them pierced when she was a baby, and we ended up losing a back to one about 1 1/2 years later, and the hole immediately grew over. It was very disappointing as she looked so cute. Today (Thursday), I needed to do some shopping, so I told Hannah if she would be patient and help me out then after we got everything done then she could get her ears pierced. She was super excited, and she was on her BEST behavior ever. So, I kept my promise and we got them pierced. She picked out pretty pink flower earrings. (of course)

She sat really still in the chair (she didn't even want to sit in my lap), let the lady wash her ear, make a mark with the marker but as soon as she got the piercing gun out and clicked it on her ear, she almost jumped out of her seat. She was not expecting that at all. She started crying and didn't want the other earring in. But, once she realized it didn't even hurt anymore, she calmed down and let her do the other ear. She didn't like it, but she didn't jump or cry this time. She was so happy when it was all done and LOVED her new earrings, and her green lollipop. She is such a brave little girl.

Two more things....

I forgot two things about our trip to Arkansas.

First of all, if you are ever in the Fayettville/Springdale area, you have to stop in at the AQ Chicken House. Yes, the name sounds like a local, falling apart restaurant, but it is absolutely AMAZING!!! The food is so GOOD (yummy!). It has been around since 1947, and many presidents have eaten there, and have used them for catering. You must try it out.

Secondly, we did do many more things the last night of our trip, although I dont have any pictures to show of it. We stopped in at walmart to print off some pictures, so I could delete them from my camera (so I could take MANY more), and I end up leaving my CF card there. Unfortunetly I didnt realize it until it was too late. We finally found out where I left it and picked it up at 8:40 that night. They lady made shane tell her what pictures were on the card. Even though there was like 800, she went through the entire card to prove it was really his. I am sure he was in half of the first 20. Hey, atleast I got my card and didnt lose all the pictures that were on it. I was so worried. I LOVE my pictures and hate when I lose them.

Springdale, Arkansas

Shane goes up to Arkansas about every other month on business, and the last time he went he came home telling us how beautiful it was. We decided that we were going to take a family weekend vacation up there after Thanksgiving. So, friday morning, we loaded up and headed toward Arkansas. It was a nice drive. It wasn't quite as beautiful as it was a month earlier as the leaves were falling off and turning dark brown, but it was still nice. It was raining on us the first 2 hours and when it stopped the girls enjoyed getting to see the rainbow in the sky. We stopped at a Dairy Queen in Oklahoma for lunch (shane and I remember liking the steak fingers), and it didnt live up to our memories. We were a little dissapointed. Hannah didnt eat at all, and Hayden only ate 2 fries and 1 1/2 of my steak fingers. Our dinner made up for the dissapointment though. On our trip we ended up stopping about4 times between lunch, potty breaks, and shane having to buy a cd at walmart. It wasnt too bad, but it definately made our 5 hour drive a little longer. Everyone was glad to finally arrive in Springdale.

Fayettville Downtown Holiday Lights

Hannah was not happy about her hot chocolate. I'm not sure why either. Hailey on the otherhand wouldnt put hers down.

Friday night we went to Fayettvilles Holiday Lights in downtown. It was beautiful. The whole downtown was lit up and decorated for the holidays. They had carriage rides, pony rides, camel rides, hot chocolate and snacks, and all kinds of entertainment. The girls chose to ride the horses (thank goodness because it would have cost us $40 to go on the carriage ride), and we got a cup of hot chocolate and walked around downtown and looked at all the lights. It was freezing cold, and the kids were not dressed for the weather. Note - Hailey in daddy's jacket, and Hannah wrapped in a blanket. We stayed as long as we could handle and then headed back to the hotel to get warm. We didn't want the kids to get sick the first day of vacation. We knew we had two more days left of fun!!!