2015 Blue Jeans Week 52

Lots and lots of pictures in this post.  Last week was a great one!  I officially am the mother of an 18 year old.  Crazy!  When did that happen?  We had some great friends visit before Christmas and then had a wonderful Christmas Eve and a very relaxed Christmas day.  Love it!  Take a look at our week...

Ben and I actually do play the piano but with 4 kids who also play, it is a rare thing to get the piano unoccupied.  We have an easy Christmas duet book we like to play from when we have a minute or two.  

Had some great friends come and visit for a day earlier last week.  It was fun to see them and visit.

And this amazing girl is now 18.  This is her before picture on her birthday.  As one of her gifts I got her an appointment to get her hair cut.

And this is the after--so cute!  Love the layers.  She looks so much more grown up!

And her birthday cake was really just 5 different kinds of ice cream.  Yum!  

Early during the day on Christmas Eve my kids practicing their music for our Christmas Eve night.  Love it how the music fills the house!

The kids enjoying the food Christmas Eve

And the kids' song became extra special because our friends brought their violins and we actually had an orchestra play for us on Christmas Eve!  Awesome!!!

Our Nativity re-enactment on Christmas--the Angel telling the shepards about the baby.

And the wise men coming to see the Christ child.

The kids on Christmas Eve with their new PJ's.

Christmas morning!!!

Mr J's favorite present :)

Sibling gifts are always a big deal!  They are so excited to have each other open the gifts they got for them!

Miss A favorite gift--getting ready for the college thing--laptop here we come

Miss E excited about her mini basketball hoop to put in her room.

And Miss O loving her new headphones.

but probably Miss O's favorite gift was her new (to her) car!  A 1992 Oldsmobile 98 with 88,000 miles on it.  Pretty awesome :)  She loves it!

So we must have been good because Santa found us and left us some good stuff!  But we so enjoyed the season and being with family and just relaxing!  So grateful to have this next week off too!  

Hope you had a wonderful Christmas and have a very Happy New Year!

2015 Daily December 25

Signing off on my daily December today.  Wishing you all a very Merry Christmas

from our family to yours!

2015 Daily December 24--Christmas card

2015 Daily December 23--an adult

I am officially the mother of an 18 year-old adult.  Gulp.  When did that happen?

Sure love this amazing girl of mine, and all she has become.  So excited to see what the future holds for her because I know it will be good.  I am so grateful to a Heavenly Father who trusted her to us and had her bless our lives each and every day these last 18 years.  Sure love you Miss A!

2015 Daily December 22--Week 51

So, so glad this last week is over!  So glad break has started!  So looking forward to Christmas!  But before we get there, take a look at our last week of crazy. . .

I think all of us are just so tired!  Miss E fell asleep really early by the Christmas tree tonight.  One tired out girl.

Gingerbread cookies are a must at Christmas, and I found time to fit them in this week.  So yum!  I use Mel's Kitchen Cafe recipe here.

Ben got our outside Christmas lights up, and they look awesome!  You can see a part of our huge tree in the living room window.

Had a fun experience to go Christmas shopping with the high school marching band.

This whole group invaded Wal-mart at 8 a.m. Wednesday morning.  They had saved their money from marching in parades in the fall to buy Christmas presents for 10 lucky kids.  I went around with Miss O's group to buy for a little girl.  It was a neat experience.

Our 4th and final school Christmas program of the season--middle school band and jazz band.  Miss E in up there playing the trombone in her amazing jazz band.

Enjoying our tradition of reading a Christmas story each night--Miss O reading with Mr J looking at the pictures.

And we finally hit the weekend!  Yeah!  The kids needed to wind down and enjoy some relaxing time and played some games.

Hope you have a blessed and wonderful Christmas!  Thanks for visiting!

2015 Daily December 21--A Christmas gift

This made me cry.  Love the spirit of giving there is at Christmas!

2015 Daily December 20--a favorite book

Love this book that my sister-in-law gave us a few years ago.  We are going to try and read it this week to really remember the reason for the season.  Now that school is out, and we have a break from basketball I am looking forward to more sleep and more family time reading around the tree!