Christmas Caroling...

The fun of getting out the Christmas decorations.

 Theses kiddos come up with this all on their own. 

Aren't they just they just top-of-the-line fashion coordinators!

Complete with reading from their mini Bibles.

Work Christmas Gathering

Here are my co-workers from the Willmar Diabetes Center. 

We did an early Christmas gathering this year and this is the majority of us.  Three are missing from the picture.  This year we went out to eat at a restaurant and then did a cookie exchange. It was so much fun. I highly recommend a cookie exchange instead of a gift exchange. I went with 4 dozen of one kind of goodie and come home with 7 different kinds. 

It is a pleasure to work with such a great group.

Gracie's first dance recital

Gracie is in dance this year. It is her first year of dance. The last two years she was in ice skating, but since the program didn't have a teacher this year we needed to point Gracie's skills in a different direction and what little girl doesn't like Dance?

Certainly not mine. She LOVES dance. Every Thursday we get home from school, work, daycare, rush to eat supper and off Redwood Dance Studio for dance lessons from 5:55pm to 6:25pm.

Look at my Sweetheart? She has quite the posses! She is so cute. We curled her hair up complete with the pink bow.

The winter recital was: the WINTER WONDERLAND showcase.

All the girls danced to Christmas music. Gracie's group danced to Rock'n Around the Christmas Tree.

 She had quite the audience as Grandma Betty and Grandpa Joe came as well as Grandma Myra and Great Aunt Claudia. Then of course Mommy and Daddy and the 2 brothers.

I was amazed at how much Jared liked it. He loved the music and was so engaged in the bright outfits and moving girls on stage.  Zach liked it too and when the instructor announced for the preschoolers to come up, he would have gone if I would have let him.  He wanted to dance too!

Cousin Makayla is in Dance too, so Gracie was so excited to see her preform and to get a picture taken with her.

Here is my Star  and proud brother Zachy!

Thanksgiving fun

Thanksgiving weekend was spent at the Malecek house.  The Malecek family is growing (we are getting some step cousins officially added!) so more cousins are around to play with. These kids spent pretty much 3 entire days together playing.

 Auntie Jana provided a fun craft project finger painting leaves on trees.

 Not sure what exactly this game was, but I think it is a spin off of 'dodge ball'... the inside-the-house version.

Even Jared was trying to play along.

 He is getting just oh so cute!

 Then their is my crazy Indian and Pilgrim folks...

 They are dancing and having a good time, as I sure they did on the first Thanksgiving.

Playing Puppy

Gracie and Jared... playing puppy on a leash.

I just love it when they get along and are having fun together. 

Such a delight to watch.

My Princess Gracie. Gosh she is cute.

Thought I would throw in this random picture of Gracie and Zacy with their hats. Gosh they love these hats. Grandma Myra did pretty good with Christmas presents last year!

Dolly stroller

I love it also when my Zachy gets a long with his little brother too. 

This was quite the ride and Jared just loved it. They did this all on their own. I had no part in it!!

Brushing Teeth

I just love my kiddos.

I love it when they all get along and do such cute things, such as get in sleeper PJ's and stand by the sink and brush their teeth. They can be so adorable.

They just love these PJ's. Jared loooves to brush his teeth. He thinks he is King of the toothbrush and loves it even more when he gets to do with his sister and brother.

The kids thought it was cool that they could see me in the mirror, so I thought I would get myself in the picture too!

Dancing Jared

This Jared is just too cute. He has really gotten in to dancing. He dances to the music on his toys and dances to the music on the TV.  He knows where the music comes from and then points the remote at the TV... he is a smart little guy and oh so adorable.

Try Hockey For Free

The Redwood Area Hockey Association hosted a "Try Hockey For Free" day, so we thought we would try it out for Gracie and Zach. 

I did not realize the kids would be in full uniform, but they put everything on - pads, helmets, gloves, you name it!  They could barely move. 

Amazingly Gracie did pretty good and I think she enjoyed herself.  

Zachy struggled a little, but he gave it a good effort. I was real proud of him.

I think she looks so tough.

My little hockey team.

Silly Zach trying to cover his face.

A Mom with her four girls.

We had the second Annual Sohre Girls Night Out.  Just my Mom and my Sisters.

Last year (1st annual girls night out) I missed out as they scheduled it just a few days after I had given birth to my Jared... therefore I wasn't quite ready for a girls night out... anyways this year, no newborn baby, so I was ready to participate.

We had a lovely evening. Just the grown-up girls, no hubbies, no kiddos, no dogs... just girls... all in our 30's (except the Mom, of course... but one could say she looks like she is in her 30's... wink, wink!)

The evening started with a little wine at Shelly's house, and shortly after the adventure started as some wine went in the bellies, other wine went in the face (wink, wink... Miss Christy!)

We felt it appropriate to do some photos. Jesse (Shelly's husband) was the photographer. He did a pretty good job.  We all got to pick a different pose. This above photo was Christy's pick for a pose. I guess we were suppose to stick out our chest and our butts?  Not to sure about the potential for our modeling careers... but we had fun.

Mom's pick for a pose was the photo above with us on the floor with our chins in our hands. Aren't we cute?

Then I thought we should do some individual shots with the leading lady of the group. 

So here is Me, Miss Terri Jo, #3 daughter and my Momma.

She is the one that carried all of us in her womb and then raised us and then sent us off thinking she was finally free of worrying and taking care of us, but oh no, we still make her worry about us and she still keeps taking care of us (and our husbands and our kids and our dogs...).  She is a wonderful, wonderful lady. I got lucky, having this lady as my Mom!!!

#4 daughter: Miss Shelly Ann and our Momma.

#2 daughter: Miss Christine Margaret and our Momma.

and the firstborn: Miss Wendy Marie with our Momma.

The night continued with a very nice Dinner at a restaurant in Mankato, I think it was called Kabobs.

Then we headed to a play at MSU. It was called Cactus Flower. It was really good. It made us all laugh.

Then the best part of the night was going to Baker's Square after the play and having pie... and decaf coffee. I thought that was sooo funny.  Here we are all middle-aged adults (did I really call us middle-aged??? Oh, no... I think I might still be considered a young adult... but some of us are almost 40!!!)  anyways here we are, all sitting around this table yapping away eating pie and sipping coffee.  It was a treasure of a moment. Having us 5 together, alone, in adult conversation, is a rare moment. It was a good moment. 

I am patiently awaiting for the next outing. 

Love you Mom.  

Love you Sisters.

I thank God He blessed me with all of you everyday!

Karaoke by G & Z

Here is the next contestants on American Idol!!!

Singing Twinkle Twinkle Little Star, by Gracelyn and Zachariah

A Princess, Spiderman, and A Frog

Here is my crew for Halloween this year.

Aren't they a cute group?

This year instead of trick-or-treating we went to a Halloween Party hosted by one of the local churches in Redwood Falls. 

First it was face painting.

Then it was games, games, and more games...

The hit of the night was the karaoke machine.

I'll post the video a in another post. They wanted to keep going back and ended up singing 3 songs!

They just loved it and they were oh so cute!

Then we did some decorating of cookies... and of course eating them too!

The night was a blast. I think we will do the party again next year.