because you shouldn't be punished just because you're not on facebook...

Best. Video. Ever

You're welcome.

an eye for design

Apparently, Jackson does not appreciate how long it is taking me to decide how to decorate this ledge during our living room remodel and has taken matters into his own hands...

i can't wait to see the dvd because as great as these are, they just don't do it justice...

Ainsley's preschool Christmas program.

Seriously, you guys. Go Tell It On The Mountain never sounded so good. All kinds of awesome.

Christmastime, but cheer...

Or is it, "Christmastime butt cheer?" Because that's how Jackson sings the song and honestly, knowing Jackson it would be the latter. In any event, Christmastime IS here and I'm still trying to figure out how that happened. Because really? We just got home from Disneyworld!

We headed up to the mountains a few weekends ago to get our Christmas tree. Remember last year? Super fun trip...picture perfect snow...everybody cold but got a great tree? Well, this year was even better! Mostly because Doug's parents were able to join us, but also because the trip provided us with one heck of a story that, thankfully, we can already laugh about.

We checked the weather the night before we left and saw that it was supposed to start snowing in the afternoon. We were a little bummed because we thought we'd miss it, as we were going up pretty early in the morning. Now, there are really only two times a year I actually wish for snow...the day we get our Christmas tree and Christmas Eve. So imagine our excitement when we arrived at the tree farm at 10am and the first flakes were already starting to fall!

It took awhile, but we were finally able to find our perfect tree...

(Sidenote: If one of your children dresses for a cold and possibly snowy day on the mountains in skinny jeans, footie socks and tennis shoes, you should make sure she wears something different, despite her eye rolls and protests that she will be fine. Because she won't. And while you might get some satisfaction in saying, "I told you so!" it won't be worth it if her crying threatens to ruin Christmas trees for you.)

This is a picture of our view out of the front windshield as we were about to leave...

And this is a picture of my happy husband just moments before...

...we slid off the mountain road into a ditch! Through a series of very fortunate events, no one was injured, there was no damage to the car, and a very nice man on a tractor was able to pull us out of the ditch so we didn't have to wait several hours (or pay) for a tow. All's well that ends well! And our tree is beautiful...

Happy Holidays!

disneyworld - a slideshow

yo ho, yo ho, a pirate's life for them

One of the coolest things we did during our DisneyWorld vacation was take Jack and Emily to The Pirates League on Halloween night for pirate makeovers.

Jackson getting his pirate tattoo.

Emily getting her nails painted. (If I have one complaint, it would be that there is only one package for girls...The Empress Package. Emily really wanted a scar painted on her cheek, but that package was only for boys. She did have a choice in colors for nail polish and lip gloss though, and she chose the black polish and the darker lip gloss (both of which she got to keep), so she was happy.)

The beginning of Jackson's transformation.

The finished product!

In addition to the make-up and tattoos, they also received swords, pirate teeth and a gold medallion from Captain Jack Sparrow's personal stash. They had a great time and got quite a few compliments on their costumes the rest of the evening at the Halloween party.

But have you ever tried to remove make-up from the face of a half-asleep six-year-old at one o'clock in the morning?

The morning after.

disney jeopardy

"Because they look like Mickey's underpants!"

What is, "Why did Jackson choose these mouse ears?"