And Then She was 5!

Where has the time gone?
Mackenna is 5!!

She is our energetic, silly, fun-loving, boisterous, spirited little girl and it's fun watching her grow into herself.
She loves life and loves others.
And, she has quite the imagination.
I love listening to her play, using her pretend voices and acting out stories with her dolls.

I surprised her with a Barbie cake and she loved it!
She had asked for a Dora cake, but I went with the other since she plays with her Barbies every day.

It was fun to have some family here this year to help celebrate!
Usually, it's just us, so the girls were excited.
My parents and Travis' mom all came.
We had a great time together!

Valentine's Day

Mackenna's party at school was fun!  The kids all made valentine holders at home, so it was fun to see their creations.  We decided to cover a shoebox with blue fabric (her favorite color) and pink pom pom trim and then she put stickers all over the top.   

 Mackenna and her friend both had curls today!

 

Mackenna always loves going to Addison's party too!

 

It has become our Valentine's tradition (I think this is our 3rd or 4th year) to have a homemade heart-shaped pizza, candle light family dinner together.

Christmas 2013

Another Christmas has come and gone!
This year was fun.
The girls are at that perfect age...
still tons of excitement, but old enough to understand.

After reading in the Christmas eve service, Addison really wanted to read the Christmas story on Christmas morning.

And then they opened their gifts.

After breakfast, we left and drove to the farm for Christmas with Travis' family.
Most of my pictures turned out blurry, so this was the best I had.

Two days after Christmas, we celebrated with my family at my brother Grant's house.
Aaron and his family drove down from South Dakota and spent several days with us.

While we were there, the kids went sledding!
Thankfully, we were able to borrow some snow clothes.

We had a great time with our families!

Christmas Eve

At church on Christmas Eve, Addison was super excited to be a reader during the lighting of the advent candle.

She read Luke 2:1-20!

Twenty verses takes awhile, but she did great!

The girls enjoyed singing out of their hymnals!

Candles and children always make me nervous!

And Candy shared a special story with all the children.

Christmas Parties

Last day of school today!
The beginning of Christmas break...yippee!!!
We're excited to sleep in, spend time together, see extended family, celebrate Christ's birthday and eat some good food!

Both girls had parties today at school.

 Santa and Mrs. Claus visited Mackenna's class!

 

At the elementary school every year, the whole school gathers to sing carols together in the afternoon before the class parties.
It's a lot of fun to watch and the kids really enjoy it too.

 The 2nd grade teachers! Addison's teacher is in the middle.

Painting

The girls and I enjoyed painting today.
There's a new painting place in town where you paint through a project together.
Addison loved it!
We painted a Christmas ornament.

 Here's all of our finished paintings!

We'll definitely have to go back again sometime!

Pre-K Christmas Singing

This morning, Mackenna's Pre-K class sang at the apartments at the nursing home.  Several of the ladies there are ones we try to visit often, so Mackenna enjoyed singing for all of them.

 Both of the girls love Mrs. Thelma!

And here's some video for the grandparents!

 And one more...

 

Family Pictures

We had professional pictures done a few weeks ago.  First time, other than church directory pictures, that we've had a professional take our pictures.  I just love how they turned out and will cherish them forever.  I'm sure I'll look back at them when I'm older and wish the girls were little again!

 I crack up when I look at Travis in the picture above!