Holiday Baking

Last night, Rick made party mix or as he refers to it, "Daddy's Killer Holiday Party Mix." I have to admit, I am not a party mix person but Rick's mix is something special. The smell of butter as it bakes really makes your mouth water. You can imagine what we had for breakfast.
Our Christmases begin tomorrow so we baked our cookies for Santa today. Typically Santa requests Oatmeal Raisin, but this year we decided to make some sugar cookies. Before we could bake today, Delaney informed me that she needed to get on her "cooking outfit" and this is what she came up with. I guess since she didn't have a chef's hat, she made do with her winter hat. Guess, I need to get my kiddos some aprons.

The boys iced a few cookies and then lost interest. But, Delaney stuck around to finish more than her share and also help mom with baking pumpkin cookies.

Serious Living Room Bowling

A week ago, we spent the evening playing Rock Band & Guitar Hero at my brothers. Although Rick is not a video gamer, he was instantly addicted to Rock Band. Therefore by Wednesday of last week, he had purchased his Christmas gift, Rock Band and a Wii Game system. Yesterday, he broke out the Wii and him and the kids have been playing Wii sports. I enjoy Rock Band, but haven't really gotten into playing the games. I'm having more fun watching Rick teach the kids to play. They seem to have picked up some games very easily while others have been more frustrating. While Rick has become frustrated with them at times, all in all he has had way more patience than I would in teaching them. There's also the competitive factor that plays in with even five year olds. Delaney seems to be a natural and Baylor doesn't like that one bit. Then again, the apple doesn't fall far from the tree. Rick was struggling at the beginning of their evening bowling game, and I could tell there was no way he was going to allow three, five year olds beat him. Yep...quality time at the Ward house!

Friendly Bowling

The Big Kid

Strike for Delaney

The Show Must Go On

Yesterday, Delaney performed at Arrow Springs Nursing home. She has been fighting a cold and sore throat for a while and over the past two days it seemed to be getting progressively worse. Friday, she began running a low grade fever, so I took her to Urgent Care where they prescribed her some antibiotics. Even not feeling 100 percent, she insisted on dancing. The pictures were taken before dance and I could tell she was having a little trouble getting into the spirit of things. However, as soon as it was her turn to dance and the music started playing, she found her genuine smile. The girl loves to perform.

School Christmas Party

Although we were extremely sad about the circumstances, Rick and I were glad that both of us were able to attend the kids Christmas party. They were sitting at three different tables and each of them had made gifts for us. We had to make the rounds to each table in visiting with them and accepting our gifts. I can't imagine if we would've had to make the rounds to three different classrooms. God Bless Mrs. Whitehill for taking on triplets.

Making reindeer food

Mrs. Whitehil

Cold Icy Day

The little town of Skiatook was spared the sleet and icy conditions unlike the surrounding areas. Getting out of Skiatook was a hazard but the actual town had minimal slick spots so Skiatook schools were in session on Monday. The kids absolutely insisted on wearing their snow boots to school. They are probably about a half size to small but they've had minimal wear and once again they insisted.

Baylor was insisting on starting a new trend with his hat.

Gagsta Baylor

My snow bunnies

Christmas Gathering Gone Wild

What happens when you place 14 children (13 of them between the ages of 3 and 5) at a table for a two hour dinner? Well, to sum it up... uncontrolled chaos! Our small group, which has actually grown quite large, planned to celebrate the holidays with some ice skating and then pizza at Joe Mama's. However, due to the extreme warm weather they closed the ice rink for the day. Of course which makes this even more ironic is that by the time we had finished dinner the temperature had dropped over twenty degrees and it was sleeting.

As you can imagine, my kids were extremely disappointed but decided to go to dinner and make the best of it. And, well they certainly made the best of it...for them. The kids received their food much earlier than the adults. Once the kids had finished eating, it was extremely hard to keep them in their chairs. Luckily we had the back room reserved which I am sure the staff at Joe Mama's was grateful that our party was out of sight. I have to give our waiter credit. He brought out beads and crayons to help entertain. He even went so far has to bring a large inflatable ball and he began to play with the kids. It didn't take him long to realize the mistake he had made. Holding the prized possession of a ball with almost 13 kids surrounding him and yelling, "me, me,...throw it to me," was quite a site and he fled soon after, realizing he was out numbered. In the end, we enjoyed some delicious pizza and had a great time with our friends when we weren't trying to keep our children in line. Delaney even went so far as to say, "mom we didn't think we were going to have any fun, but we sure did." I am so happy that they have such a great group of christian friends to grow up with.

Vacation crew reunited

Kids Table for 13!

The mommy's... and not pictured, the daddy's

Christmas Parade

It's amazing how much excitement a small town Christmas Parade brings. Although, it was a little confusing with the multiple Santa's. Luckily, the kids figured out that the real Santa was at the end of the parade with Mrs. Claus.