I got an Award - thanks Leslie!

I got an award today from a great blogger friend Leslie (thanks!) She has an adorable family, especially her little Abby - what a doll!!!

The rules of this award:

• You must be a true Christmas lover to receive this award.
• The person to whom you give the award must also be in love with Christmas.
• You must link back to the person who gave you the award.
• You must list 5 things that you love about Christmas. If you can't limit it to 5 things, then keep going till you run out of space! :o)
• Pass the award along to as many people as you like. That can be 1 or 45; it's up to you. But, you must pass it on to at least one person in order to keep the Christmas cheer going!Let your recipients know that you have tagged them by leaving them a comment on their blog.

Five things I love about Christmas:
1. The true meaning of it all - how awesome that a little baby named Jesus could do so much for us, especially when we don't deserve it at all.
2. The time with family and friends.
3. Giving, whether it's time, homemade goodies, or presents - it just makes you feel good.
4. The music.
5. How happy people are, it's contagious this time of year.
6. Christmas lights - they are so pretty!

And the award goes to:
Jenelle at Life In The Woods

Gina at Carter Jay Ryan

Sarah at Belle of the Ball

Barb at A Chelsea Morning

Wordless Wednesday - Caught Ya

Caught in the act - although I think she was actually expressing shock at someone else's orneryness at Grandma 'Lene's on Thanksgiving Day, but I can't be sure - that was a week ago you know. Check out more Wordless Wednesday posts here or here.

Mommy - I really like curly hair

Every since we did Riley's hair in little twisty buns and she ended up with some crazy curls when we took it out - Riley has commented on how she'd "really like to have curly hair because it was fun" When I was at the $1.00 shop on Friday I saw these foam curlers and couldn't resist.
I really wasn't sure how to use them, but I sprayed her down and started wrapping. I couldn't believe how patient she was - really she didn't fuss at all!

So if I did this again, I know now, the hair should only be slightly damp, if you are 3 years old and don't really understand the whole waiting thing to get the curls - and some gel or mousse would have probably been helpful too, but you know, this was a learning experiment.

She waited so patiently while she watched part of a movie and we waited........and waited.........and then turned on the blow dryer for a bit to speed things along.

She was SOOO excited when I told her I thought it would be ok to go ahead and take them out.

Not quite the curls we were hoping for, but not bad for $2.00 investment and our family entertainment for the evening. I'm pretty sure she'd have nothing to do with hot rollers at this point, but maybe I could get a little curling iron and see how that goes :)

PS - Have I told you guys about our dress mode that we're in lately? Every single day (seriously every day, we never skip even one) when we get home, she has to put on a dress. We even take one if we go to grandma's house - because not wearing a dress every single day just isn't an option right now. Well yesterday, Daddy packed a dress and no shoes, whew was he in trouble. Riley had the answer though, "come on mom, we'll just drive home and get them and be right back in a minute." It took a lot of convincing, but she did find a pair of Grandma 'Lene's shoes that fit the bill since Mommy and Daddy said we weren't driving home for "fancy shoes."

Our FIRST Snow!

When we woke up this morning and looked outside - we saw this - the first snow of the winter, yeah!!! Riley was VERY excited and her first question was "Is it Christmas?" Funny how she thinks those two go together already. So we did what any normal parent would do and let Riley play outside in her pajamas before church. Cheese-ing it up for the camera.

Making sure everyone sees she's wearing her snowboots (to actually play in the snow as opposed to wearing them all summer for dress-up as she's used to doing) Fuzzy - but cute, she was SOOOO excited to run and play, even though she kept saying "I'm freezin". She thought the trampoline felt kinda "weird" but loved throwing snowballs just the same. This winter will definitely be the most fun one yet - she's old enough to really play out in the white stuff and have fun.

So Thankful

So thankful today and always for our family and friends!

Wordless Wednesday - Thankful for Kisses From Daddy

Check out more Wordless Wednesday posts here or here.

Riley LOVES Her New Shirt

Steve, which would be "My Steve" if you asked Riley, gave her a new shirt yesterday. It was a softball shirt from this fall and a tad bit big, but Riley was SOOO proud she had to wear it to the basketball scrimmage last night. I'm not really sure how the scrimmage went, Riley was pretty busy so all I really know is there were boys and girls playing, and we stopped to cheer every now and then, and Riley had 3 cookies, but mostly we were playing and Riley was excited to see "Her Steve" and show him her new shirt and sit on his lap :)

Riley and Daddy being ornery I'm sure
Her little model pose - where did she learn this?

Jumping on Mommy & Daddy's bed is a favorite