Saturday, April 6, 2013

December 2012

 In no particular order,
her is how we spent our last month of 2012!


 Decorating cookies with Mrs. Claus 
( the kids refused to get a picture with her, go figure )




 Playing in the igloo made of milk jugs!

 SANTA!!!
Madi has never been afraid of this jolly old fellow,
but clearly Rae's face says it all.
Poor girl!


 We saw this ginormous reindeer on our way 
out from decorating cookies. 
Rae wanted to see him,
but as we got closer she changed her mind.
Madi on the other hand was asking me where Mrs. Claus
parked the sleigh and all the other reindeer.
I told her that this particular reindeer was just a costume.
Madi - "So there is a real HUMAN in there?"
Me - "Yup!"
Madi - "What are they thinking? It isn't Halloween anymore!"
You are the best my sweet Madi moo :)

A week before Christmas the doorbell rang one night after dinner.
As we opened the door, there sat a huge red sack
with a singing/dancing reindeer on top!

The first thought that ran through Trevor's mind was,
"Oh man, someone thinks we are destitute!"
Hahaha:)
I had my suspicions, and sent the girls out to see
if they could find SANTA.
Sure enough,
by the front of the garage popped out 
Nana and Papa Mooney!!

 We knew they were pretty sad that we were going to be spending
our Christmas break just us in Kansas. So of course they had to pack
up Christmas and bring it to us! It sure was good to see family again
and the girls LOVED spending time with them before Christmas.
 And this is how our family pictures usually turn out :)

 These two make up the WEIRDEST games
and can hardly breathe because they are laughing so hard!
 Yahoo!
It actually snowed
and lasted for more than a day!!
 We had the Cook traditional gingerbread house making
with a bunch of our friends.
Weird to not have family,
but was so much fun!

Here is Madison telling one of her amazing
stories to our next door neighbors.
She's pretty descriptive in her story telling:)


This year I decided to just let Madi go to town,
and boy she is quite the little creative thing!
She seriously did her whole house ALL by herself.

 Here is the crowd!
We sent the kiddos downstairs after decorating houses
to watch the Christmas chipmunk movie
while we did white elephant gifts.
 It was such a blast!
We have great friends here,
we have been SO blessed.
 Zach (mr. construction) did an awesome house.
This picture doesn't even show half of it!
 Jeff and Heidi did the tower from 
Lord of the Rings!
( This was their first time doing gingerbread houses
AND white elephant gifts!! )
Sunday dresses....
church is at 9am.
AND Trevor is already gone so I don't get help.
These were the best pictures I could get of them
before their hair and clothes got dirty and messed up:)

She REFUSED to put the cup down.
But it was super sweet they held hands!


Playing hide and seek in the dark with Dadday!
We made cookies ( of course ) for santa.
This particular picture made me laugh and think of my little brother Dave.
He always sticks his tongue out while concentrating....
and I guess Raelee does too:)
Some friends in our ward (Madi adores their 5 girls)
invited us over on Christmas Eve for dinner and then
all the kids helped do the Nativity.
Madi was Mary and she rode on Marissa!
Trevor was the shepherd.
Raelee represented the animals!
She was more comfy on the bench by Mckenna.
(don't you LOVE that wall!!)

In Kinville boys were the wisemen....they did fabulous!
When we got home from our party
the girls found a note and some new friends 
from a secret elf.
He wanted them to have someone to snuggle with while they waited
for Santa to come!
They seriously NEVER sleep without their buddies!
We put the final touches on the cookies....
well, Rae ate and Madi worked:)

By tradition,
they opened up some new jammies 
from Grandma and Grandpa Cook.



All ready for bed!!!
Santa surely didn't miss us,
and the girls were pleased!
I luckily finished making Rae's stocking just in time
so she could have a matching one this year!


Happy good morning face to you!
Madi was so nervous Santa forgot her bike,
but it was just hiding in the kitchen:)

We popped popcorn and drove around looking at all the Christmas lights

Testing out the new wheels!
I love Rae's grin in this one:)
I've been very impressed with Madi.
She has fallen a few times,
and even with tears she says she doesn't
want to stop and gets right back up on the bike!
I'm glad she doesn't give up too easily!!

At the end of the month Madi had
a dentist appointment!
She did a lot better this time,
but her mouth is still to small to do x-rays!
Maybe next time.

We ended our year wonderfully 
and we are so excited to see what the new year brings!!