Happy Birthday Jesus!

One of the GREATEST treasures on earth is our family, both immediate and extended. We were blessed to have a birthday party for Jesus with some of my mom's side of the family. Nancy made a cake for the kids to decorate....so much fun!!

Laney taking her turn with the sprinkles....there were very few left for the rest of the kids by the time she finished.
Carson finally getting a turn...

And then on to the littlest ones ~ Ava and Seth getting their hands messy!!!

And....the finished product. I'm not sure if any of the adults had a piece, but I can guarantee that the kids enjoyed it!

Wasn't That a Mighty Day?

Delaney's first school program was December 12th. The K4 and halfday K5 class sang two songs ~ Wasn't That a Mighty Day and We Wish You a Merry Christmas. Here she is before the program with 2 of her friends, Abby and Maggie.

She was in the shadows of a very poorly lit stage....huge bummer for her first program!!

We had gone to Target to buy her black dress shoes that morning. She told me they fit great in the store, but she couldn't leave them alone that night. She shuffled across the stage bending over to fix them multiple times before making it to her place and by the time she got into the hall she had already taken them off!!!

Kevin (grandpa Bub) had planned to come help Matt with a project on Saturday, so when Matt told him about her program he came up Friday evening to go see her sing. I love the picture below!! Matt had been reading the Wizard of Oz to the kids at bedtime, so they cuddled up on grandpa for that night's chapter.

* sidenote: We finished the Wizard of Oz on December 30th, so for New Years Eve we watched the movie...very fun!! The kids weren't scared at all. We had a GREAT discussion at breakfast this morning about all of the differences between the book and the movie. I am looking for our next reading/movie adventure...if you have any suggestions please make a comment!!!!

You know those really cute cards....

well, the process wasn't quite as cute!! Enjoy your trip through our morning photo shoot....I can enjoy it now that it's over. The progression is HILARIOUS!!!

O Christmas Tree

Something about putting up a tree creates a kind of thrill and excitement that is unexplainable. This year Matt and I sat back and let the kids do the honors. I promise I only moved 10 ornaments when it was all over :-)

Trying to stand still for a picture....they REALLY wanted to dance around the living room to the Christmas CDs we'd just turned on!!

starting 2009 by finishing 2008

Our annual tradition, which was started before children, is to go downtown the day after Thanksgiving for the Christmas Tree Lighting festivities. It used to be that Matt and I would fight the crowd to get WONDERFUL South Bend Chocolate Company hot chocolate, but after Delaney's first trip with us, we decided crowds were over-rated with children and we'd just go to Starbucks on the way home. This year we changed it up a bit and decided to just make hot chocolate when we got home....much more relaxing!

We started our evening at The Old Spaghetti Factory. Then we walked over to the circle where we snagged front row seats for Santa's arrival via the back of a Chevy truck...kinda funny!! The kids enjoyed the music and holiday craziness and we enjoyed the family time.

Snow White and her ferocious red dragon

I am biased, she is gorgeous!

Carson was checking out her makeup.

Isn't that a ferocious looking dragon? That is exactly what he wanted to be ~ a scary red dragon. I thought it would help him with his fear of things dressed up, not so much!!!

I love this picture.

Oh the crazy candy sorting that happened when we got home!!!

Fall Fun Fest

Our church hosted a Fall Fun Fest. This is our first fall at the church and WOW ~ this event was much more elaborate than I thought it would be.

There was face painting ~ a fire truck putting out a fire for Car and a glittery dolphin for Laney

Laney rode a pony when she went to the pumpkin patch with Aunt Shannon and Uncle Aaron, so she was totally an old pro at this!!

Laugh if you must, but this picture brings tears to my eyes! There was a cake walk game (a circle of numbers on the floor, you walk around them until the music stops, they pick a number from a hat and the person standing on that number wins). Carson played this game for over 10 minutes trying to have his number called. The ladies running the game offered him candy twice if he wanted to quit, but he was determined to win...I think this picture says so much ~ the hands, the face ~ I felt so bad for him, yet I admired his "stick with it" attitude. He's such an example to me sometimes!!!

And, of course, before we could leave, there had to be a football toss!! Look at that arm :-)

Bits and Pieces of the last few weeks

I love this picture! I bought the kids Word of Life Quiet Time books for this year because our church doesn't send home anything for them to do during the week (we were spoiled at our last church!). We try to do this every morning after breakfast. This is Carson HARD at work...I love his face, oh the concentration!

If you know me well you know I hate nothing more than spiders. We have this beautiful spider that has decided to call our backyard home. Unfortunately this picture doesn't really do justice to her intricate web and the food she's wrapping up. She currently has moved to the swingset and has quite the egg sack hanging with her...yikes, babies!

We attended Franklin College's homecoming this year. The kids had a great time seeing where we used to live, eat, go to classes, and hang out. They were pretty bored during the game, even with a mini football and pompom to play with. So, we headed to the park behind Matt's fraternity house for a while to get some wiggles out. It was a fun day!

The Colts had a Monday night football game last week and Car desperately wanted to watch it with Matt. So, he took a bath and curled up in the chair to take it all in...I don't think he even made it to kick off!! I offered to go put him in bed and Matt questioned what it was hurting for him to just stay there...I guess we ALL miss those sweet cuddles that are so quickly disappearing from our everyday routine :-(

Okay, this is totally hilarious and wrong all at the same time. Carson has decided that when Delaney is home during naptime (Monday and Friday b/c she doesn't have school) that he doesn't have to nap either. So, the other day I told them that as long as they were being quiet I didn't care if they were playing in her room. I went to check on them and found this!! If her hair wasn't over her shoulder I don't know that you could tell them apart...I laughed so hard I almost cried.

A day at the park

Indiana weather is bizarre and when you think you should be freezing and staying inside, we're out running like wildmen in the park...here are my wildman and wildwoman!!

My cookie obsession pays off...

Sometimes, while working late in the evening, I have a NEED for chocolate chip cookies, not Chips Ahoy, I mean straight out of the oven chocolate chip cookies. The other night, last Tuesday night to be exact, I had one of those cravings (no, I am NOT pregnant). Wednesday morning as we heard the trash truck approaching, I thought...I have fresh cookies. I darted into the kitchen, grabbed the ziploc bag with the cards in it (yes, I'd saved it for a day like this), and filled it up with cookies. We went out and (I feel like I should be able to insert a drum roll here)...it was OUR crew!!! They seemed excited and the kids were thrilled!

We love trash day....

Carson has always had an obsession with the trashmen, I can't say I blame him, I remember watching them collect my trash from an early age. We stand outside in our jammies and watch them get our trash. We have our "normal" guys and then the "mean" guys ~ the ones that throw our trash can around! Our normal guys have come to appreciate our cheerleading style of watching them. They begin to honk the horn 5 houses down and wave the entire time, kind of like it's a parade.

One of our "normal" guys has gone out of his way to develop a "friendship" with Carson. He brings the trashcans up to the garage and is always waving bye from 5 houses down. Well, a few weeks ago he brought the trashcans up to the garage and gave both of the kids $1. We decided to use the money to buy chocolate chips and make them cookies. We had a great Tuesday making cookies and cards for them. As you can guess, the next day was the "mean" crew. I put the cookies in the freezer, explained 15 times why we didn't give them to the other guys, and we waited....for an entire week, only to miss the trashmen b/c we had to take Delaney to school. At that point, we had to eat the cookies to heal our broken hearts!! I was left with some cute cards too b/c they said, "Injoy your cookies."

Game time

The competitive spirit runs thick in the Dillard genes (and possibly in their spouses too). Shannon and Aaron came over for a visit when we returned from FL and the visit turned into a Don't Break the Ice competition...notice who has the hammers...is it the child that the game belongs to? NO, it's the adult males...how does that happen?