4th grade basketball

Landon's team was named the "Blasts" this year. He had so much fun playing basketball with his friends. It was really fun for us to watch as well. He really got into it this year and was way more aggressive with the ball on both offense and defense. I think he came out with bruises a couple of times after diving after a ball.

Good times....

One of the best parts about Christmas vacation is that we get to hang out with family that we don't get to see very often.
Melanie and Shelby at the bead table. Yes, we took over my mother's dining room and made bracelets, necklaces, and watches galore for two days. It was crazy!

Who needs a whole bunch of new Christmas presents when you can go for a ride in a laundry basket? :0) Mackenzee and Paige were being super silly together.

Talon got this new wicked awesome electric drum set that Riley was super excited about. The kids had a lot of fun trying out the different sounds and making up songs. Mackenzee was the dancing entertainment....

Christmas 2009

Santa came!!!!

Melanie, Paige, and Savanna

Landon and Talon

Christmas Jammies 2009

Christmas Eve 2009

Landon and Mackenzee with Great Grandma Lippert

Grandma Burnham, Mackenzee, Landon, and Grandpa Burnham

Mackenzee and Jordan Mae

Jeremy

Haylee and Breanna

Landon in his Christmas Eve pajamas

Mackenzee and Great Grandma Lippert

Jeremy and Uncle Jeff

Gage and Uncle Steve

Alyssa and Mackenzee. Alyssa made this Dora blanket for Mackenzee.

Landon opening up his Christmas jammies...

Kenzee opening up her Christmas jammies

Mackenzee's Christmas dress

We have a tradition that the kids get to open up one present on Christmas Eve. Mackenzee picked the present the Landon got for her, which was a 'Princess and the Frog' doll set. She was super excited.

Landon picked the box that had the latest installment of the 'Diary of a Wimpy Kid' book series. He was so excited and had the book read within 24 hours. :0)

Mackenzee decided this year that Jaysen really needed a Bronco snuggie and a football for Christmas. I'm not sure how she came up with this, but she was SURE that this was going to be the BEST present EVER. :0)

Christmas Eve 2009 was spent with the Burnham family in Jerome. As usual we ate good food, played Bingo, and did Christmas jammies for the kids. Jaysen was the big money winner in the "right, left" card passing game, too. This year was also a first for Landon as he has always been gone on the years we have spent with the Burnham's. So, this was his first official Burnham Christmas Eve.

Annual Christmas Candy Making Day!

This year I told myself I was going to take it easy and only do a few simple things for my Christmas candy.....{yeah right!}

peppermint bark and marshmallow chocolate fudge....

peanut butter cups and the ever so famous peanut butter ritz cracker sandwiches covered in milk chocolate...

lots of chocolate covered pretzels too....and not pictured are the Moose Munch popcorn mix, hot chocolate stirring spoons, and Red Velvet Whoopie Pies. {Can you hear my thighs getting bigger?}

I have done this annual Christmas Candy making day for almost 10 years. I think I started doing it the year that Landon turned 1 year old. I haven't missed a year since. There was one year where I had to do it solo, but the rest of the years I was able to do it with family or friends. I have never had the same group two years in a row though. I love the new recipe ideas that people bring with them each year and it is so much fun to spend the day with such fun people. I wish I had taken more pictures this year, but I'm pretty sure my hands were coated in chocolate for about 7 hours straight. I did get this cute picture just before the chocolating began.....

This is Mackenzee and Hannah after they frosted a few cookies. We were waiting for the rest of the group to get to my house and the girls were dying to "help" in the kitchen. Don't you just love how they decided that the frosting was just better straight out of the jar? I caught them double dipping their knives in the frosting container. Can you say sugar high?

Thanks so much Ellen and Montay for your ideas and for your willingness to get crazy in the kitchen with me. I hope the mounds of chocolate you took home made it worth it! :0) See you next year!

My Pablo Picasso's

I thought it would be fun and super cute for the kids to create their own artwork to hang on their bedroom walls. So, I went out and bought some canvases and paint and let them get creative. I told them they could paint whatever they wanted...
Landon painted a picture of Spiderman swinging through the sky...

Mackenzee went a bit more abstract with hers :0)

They had so much fun and it was fun to watch them do it. I think their favorite part was when I hung the pictures on their bedroom walls. :0)