Gingerbread House

We seriously have the sweetest friends. Unfortunately, due to a stupid flat tire, Makenna and I weren't able to drive to an amazing lil guy's fourth birthday party. We were super sad to miss his party and were bummed that we wouldn't get to celebrate his special day by making gingerbread houses with all of the other kiddos. :*(

Here's where the sweetest friends part comes, though....Laurina (birthday boy's mommy) brought over our very own house (and all the fixings) to decorate! Thank you so much!!!

Makenna "helped" quite a bit, IF, you consider taking off all of the candy pieces and eating them one by one helping ;) After she had her fair share of treats, she did end up getting into the decorating part. She especially enjoyed putting on the windows. Every time she looks at her house now, she yells "Pretty windows!"

Oh, Christmas Tree, Oh, Christmas Tree...

3 tree farms, lots of tears, lots of smiles, and waayyy too much money later...we finally have our Christmas tree!

After convincing Mike that we NEEDED a real tree this year, we headed out to get one. First stop--Honey U-Cut Farm. First off the placed smelled sooooo bad. Not sure why, but we think it might have been the fields with rotting pumpkins near by. That didn't help make for a pleasant experience. There were many trees to choose from, but they were all a little too short and skinny. Makenna was not impressed either. So we left.

The second farm was off Orting hwy. It looked great, but they didn't take debit (and I didn't think to bring my purse with cash/checks). On to the next farm...So we drove further down the road to the Snow Shoe Tree Farm. My family has gotten our trees from here for many years. It really does have the nicest trees, but they are more expensive then most places.

After three hours of looking for a tree, Mike was done, and told me not to look at the price tags anymore, and just pick the one I wanted. :) Our tree is perfect! Now hopefully I can convince him to get a real tree again next year after all this...

Santa Photo

Well, it just isn't Christmas without the "torture your kid by putting her on Santa's lap" pictures! ;)

We pretty much knew that Makenna would be terrified and cry when she saw Santa, so we asked if he could hide for a few minutes while we took some pictures of Makenna in her pretty dress. All was good, until mean mommy pried little Makenna's gripped hands from my arm and dropped her onto Santa's lap. Mike thought I was the meanest mommy ever....Makenna, however, thinks I'm the BEST mommy in the world because I was the one who rescued her OFF Santa's lap (and opened her candy cane for her)!

::Getting comfortable/warmed up::

::Happy Girl::

::Uh Oh! Is that Santa....?::

::HEEELLLLPPPP!!!!:

And just because it amazes me how much she has grown in a year....Santa Pic 2009

The Countdown is ON!

Makenna's Advent Calendar arrived promptly on December 1st! So exciting! She loves it! She put all of the (re-usable) stickers on the bottom section and then she put on the first tree ornament for the first day of December.

The countdown is super special this year, because, not only are there only 24 days until Christmas, but there are also only 24 more days left until we head to Hawaii with the Shore family!!!