Visit from Santa

Ok so I had a lot of pictures for this post, so they are REALLY out of order, so bear with me! First of all this was the same day as Morgan's birthday party and the day for another BIG surprise!

I had bought mini gingerbread houses for the kids to decorate. This year they each had their very own to decorate however they wish!

What a day to get in the Christmas spirit! As soon as we got home from Morgan's party it started snowing! And we're talking the biggest, fluffiest flakes we have ever seen. We kept asking Morgan if she wished for snow. She said it was her Great Grandpa Rynearson's gift to her, after all snow is made in heaven!

McKenna's mini masterpiece!

The masterpiece in progress!

Morgan's A-frame house getting all frosted for the winter!

TA DAH!!!

Yep I let Connor handle the icing bag!! He did pretty good, with a few licks in between!

AND NOW FOR OUR SURPRISE!!! A knock on the door and look who was there...

Santa came to check in and make sure the kids were behaving.

He even brought presents and candy canes!

MERRY CHRISTMAS FROM SANTA AND THE RYNEARSON KIDS!

Back Up to...November, McKenna's 11th Birthday!

We had McKenna's birthday at Primo's Pizza again this year! She and a bunch of her girl friends enjoyed pizza and some games!

What do you get an 11 year old? LOTS of gift cards!!

Ended the day with a sleepover with her friend Delaney!

Morgan Turns 6!!

First some photos from Morgan's ACTUAL birthday, which fell on Wednesday this year. And it just so happened to be on the same day as her nutrition appointment, no weight gain, but Morgan is really understanding the importance of all the different kinds of food.

First a present from McKenna!

This chocolate pyramid was AWESOME!! The kitchen at the hospital made it for her and we took it home! Morgan shared some bites and it was YUMMY, she's not big on sweets but she really enjoyed this cake! It looks just like the food pyramid!

Super excited about the new jammies from Grammie and Grandpa Ken!!

Mom and Dad are encouraging her to become quite the little reader!

Come Saturday, it was PARTY time!!!! Unfortunately Eric was sick and so was his mom so the party was left to McKenna and I to handle! OH MY GOSH!!!

Sweet little birthday princess!

Morgan and her friends, Brielle and Julia!

Check out the gifts!!

Zhu zhu pets are the in thing!

And finish it off with a Rapunzel wig!!!

Morgan's Christmas Party, Kindergarten Style

I went to Morgan's Christmas party despite the fact I had no voice! So I wasn't able to help at the tables, but I managed to go around with Morgan and help her. She always looked so serious when making her 5 ornaments!

First a candy cane ornament! It's amazing what projects come from pipe cleaners and beads! Gotta love Kindergarten!!!

Mrs. Martin explaining the candy cane mouse needs eyes and a nose!!

All 24 kids present and accounted for!!!

Finally snack time, which consisted of Christmas cookies, apple juice, veggies (which I never saw end up on Morgan's plate) and fresh french fries! Yep, the fries were a first for Mrs. Martin, it just so happens one of the kids' dad owns a restaurant and timed the drop off just right!! The kids LOVED the fries!

Just checking out some of Morgan's work!

Finding the perfect tree...

The first weekend in December we headed up the freeway to the Mt. Emily Summit road. There's a sno-park there and at the end of the park, where the snowmobile trails are, there are LOTS of great trees. We had good luck finding our tree in this area last year. Ok as you can see the pictures are uploaded backwards AGAIN!!

Here are the kids showing off the PERFECT tree!!!

We sent Eric down to cut, the snow was a good 2 ft. deep!!!

I stayed up on the road with the kids and took some fun pics! It was a beautiful day!

There has to be some sledding involved!

HAPPY TREE HUNTING!!!

Christmas Parade of Lights

We typically go and watch the annual Christmas Lights Parade to ring in the holiday season. This year we had snow on the ground and it snowed ALL day. It stopped just as we got downtown. With the kids all bundled in snow pants, etc. we waited for the parade to start. Talk about short and sweet...the parade which normally ends with Santa, started with Santa followed by two truck pulling trailers with holiday inflatables. We walked down to Max Square to watch them light the big Christmas tree and then a quick hello to Santa and we were home by 5:30!!

The pictures uploaded backwards...

Connor was not too sure about Santa!!!

The tree has been lit!!

Watching the "parade."

Santa arrives on the old fire truck.

Throwing snowballs as we wait!

Carving Pumpkins

Carving pumpkins this year was interesting, Connor dug right in and didn't want ANY help! Unfortunately he was only getting one seed at a time on his scoop. And his pumpkin was so little Eric couldn't get his hand in to help! We managed and I carved a good ol' fashion jack o'lantern face. The girls insisted on carving a more detailed pumpkin.

This picture came out blurry but I just LOVED his expression!!


McKenna carved her own pumpkin again this year, a pumpkin carved into a pumpkin!

Morgan made the attempt to carve her own, with Dad's help of course. By this time of the night, Connor and I were sitting in the recliner watching Charlie Brown's Great Pumpkin.

Morgan's Kindergarten Halloween Party

It was so nice being able to go to Morgan's class for their Halloween party. I am still amazed at how many are there! At the start of school there were 29 kids, but now there are 25 and 2 were missing on this particular day!

They had 3 games to play, bean bag toss!
Pass the pumpkin...Morgan was the first one to win a prize. Did I mention we supplied the prizes for the games and ALL the kids! We had Halloween activity books, pencils and M&Ms.

And of course candy corn Bingo!!

All 4 classes met in the gym after their costume parade and sang songs!

Here's party of the 4-class song, the other song had her facing away from me!

McKenna's Fall Portraits

Finally an opportunity to take McKenna out for some fall pics! We lucked out and since the little ones weren't with us, we were able to get some shots down by the water. I even put on a little eyeliner, mascara, blush and lipstick!

These are my favorites!!!