LOTS of pictures

I'm so upset because all of the pictures I took at James' family Christmas, Christmas Eve, and Christmas morning of Madison and Gage opening presents all got deleted at Madison's slumber party by one of the girls on accident. I got a new camera Christmas morning so all these pictures were taken with my new camera and I gave my old one to Madison. The above picture is my test picture using my new camera and it was the only picture I got of Madison in her matching PJ's..all 3 kids got PJ's that looked alike on Christmas Eve.

Below picture is Christmas afternoon after Autumn finally woke up and was ready to open her presents.

The only toys she was interested in was her DVD's and glitter ball. She likes holding her ball between her eyes or under her chin or rolling it on her face. This picture was taken after Autumn was done with presents...this does not even include the earlier mess that Madison and Gage made...I cleaned it all and then Autumn messed it up all over again. It took me some time to put together the house thing in the picture and what does Autumn want to play with? the door stop behind the Christmas tree...go figure I spent over $200 on her and she only wanted her $1 tree glitter ball and the door stop to play with.

Now skipping to our visit to Odessa. We arrived Sunday evening and Monday afternoon my BFF Tanya came by to visit us and below is her ADORABLE daughter, Kynsie. Monday evening we opened presents from grandparents and great-grandparents. Dean and Gage with their Star Wars swords(or light sabers if you want to be correct)..Madison peeking her head in the picture as well. Madison and her zebra snuggie Autumn enjoying her stocking stuffer....close up ofcourse This is my favorite part of the holidays....GAMES...we would try to get a few in each night and stayed up too late...this night we were playing Clue. Not sure what happened to my Tuesday night family gathering pics I thought I posted....my aunts, uncles, and cousins from my mom's side all came over for our Christmas gathering...we had a good time.

Wednesday evening we had Christmas with Grandma Roxane and Grandpa Mike (that is my ex-mother & father-in-law (Madison's dads mother). I'm so blessed to still have an awesome relationship with her. I had asked her if we could also do birthday cake for Madison that night and since Roxane always has to do above and beyond with everything she does...she suggested a slumber party with Madison's Midland friends and cousins. I was super excited to suprise Madison with this mini-party. I called one of my friends I've known since kindergarten to decorate Madison's cake (the kind she's always wanted) and she did an awesome job.

Thanks Kristy! Top of the cakeThanks to the Chesnut's as well for opening their home to us all while they were out of town. We always appreciate their generousity. Here are the girls roasting their weenies...later they made smores. The pool has a heater but it was NOT warm enough yet for swimming but the girls didn't care and went anyways....they didn't last very long. They also had a chocolate fountain We decided to come up with a scavenger hunt for them to go on...it was fun! These are the goody bags I got for the girls which ended up becoming the scavenger hunt prizes...because... ...these are the goody bags Grandma Roxane got with goodies inside along with Zebra pillows, Zebra mugs, and even had ordered Zebra snuggies (which got delivered a week AFTER the party) Told you things don't stay toned down with her. ;) Girls hung out in the dance studio above the garage...this is their silly picture. Grandpa Mike and Madison...he was the only boy allowedNana, Madison, and Grandma Roxane....2 great grandmothers who stayed all night to caperone the partyMe and my SIL being silly Oh, and we had banana splits and hot chocolate Much thanks to Grandma Roxane for throwing Madison an awesome 12th birthday party!!!

Skipping ahead to back home after the holidays and now it was my turn to throw a slumber party for Madison's friends here....I told her it was going to be a no-fuss, easy party because I was so worn out from our holiday trips.

Here's Madison with some of her close friends...I was just going to buy 12 cupcakes for her party but the store had none ready when I went in and since I waited until the last minute to get any...I made my own...they tasted good but the decorating was awful. ;)Presents!!!I realized I only took pictures of presents and nothing else during the party...I was busy entertaining and taking care of both Gage and Autumn since we had no nursing and James was working so I have a good excuse for slacking in the picture area. We had 7 girls stay the night, I put together another scavenger hunt for this party, we made cotton candy, decorated cookies, made snow cones, and played Sardines (kind of like hide-&-seek in the dark). I then sent the girls upstairs to entertain themselves and be quiet around midnight..the noise finally stopped around 1:30am. ;)

On Sunday we were blessed with SNOW!!! So, we (Madison, Gage, Layla, and I) bundled up and went out to play.

Madison posing for a picture Gage and I having a snowball fight. Layla LOVED the snow and would run all over and she loved jumping up and catching snowballs in her mouth. She had a little too much fun though and ended up tearing her ACL ligament and now has to have surgery. :( My poor puppy!

The snowman Gage and I made

And this is what daddy did while we were in the cold playing...all snuggled in the warm house...I even made him hot chocolate when I came in...shouldn't he of had that all ready for me?...I think so! He's so spoiled and does not even know it! He did take care of Autumn so I could make great memories with my son. ;)