girls day at ceramica

what better way to spend the last day of the year than at ceramica with my favorite girls? we reserved the back room and invited lots of friends.  i had flower, river and kassidee.  kristen also came as well as patti and her two girls.  it was a fun day. 
river decided to paint a miniature owl cookie jar like my big one so she'd have one for her kitchen!  i love that she wants to be just like me!

kassidee painted a small owl and a fairy.

flower finally painted the hello kitty jewelry box she's had her eye on for months!

since we were a group we got 20% off our purchases.  i finally bought this big tree i've wanted all season!  little lights go in it.  my mom had painted a smaller version when i was young and i always loved it.  i can't wait till it's done but it will likely take me a few visits!

patti did a plate, and her daughters did a horse and an owl mug.

kristen made the cutest coasters!  they look like the peanuts gang. 

thanks for coming to play with us ladies!

that evening the girls spent the night at sandee's so kg and i could have a date.  it's been too long and he doesn't have new year's eve off very often.  i was so excited!  we went to see lincoln, then went to outback steakhouse for dinner, and then back to see jack reacher.  that was an awesome show!  it was over at 11:45 p.m. so then we went to john and lisa's to ring in the new year.  we stayed there till about 1:30 a.m. chatting before coming home and watching some of our shows.  i think we finally went to sleep at 4 am.  it was so awesome to be able to sleep in the next day together! 
that afternoon we met sandee, her kids and our girls at the theater to treat them to a movie for watching the girls.  we watched parental guidance.  hilarious! 
i'm grateful for all the movie cards we received for christmas.  they made those 2 days free for us and full of fun!  it was a very fun way to ring in the new year and i'm very optimistic about this year.  our favorite number is 13 so we've been looking forward to this year for a long time!  cheers.

playing in the snow

the were so excited to be able to put on their snow gear and go play in the snow!  first time this season.  they played in the empty fountain on the property and had a ball.  they were outside for over an hour.  i love that they have each other to play together! 

christmas with kristen

kristen and i finally got together on the 29th to celebrate christmas. first we went to asiago's. yum! then she came over and we had our gift exchange. the girls were so excited that she was over so they could show off their new kitchen.  she was so kind and got the girls some gifts too.  they had so much fun with these streamers!  she also gave them a ton of fun and yummy chapsticks!  reminded me of when we were young and my mom would give us the avon flavored chapsticks.  so good!  we'd lick our lips and reapply all day long.

she gave me this cute owl key chain,

and fun owl towels.

kristen and i got a kick out this typo on the packaging of the adorable owl soap dispenser and it's also kind of dirty.  we had kg hold it up later.  hehe!

i love the red glasses!

she also gave me this amazing picture!  she knows me so well.  i love this type of art and it goes so well with my black apple prints!  so cute!

thank you so much, kristen!  merry christmas.  i sure love you!

christmas

so here is the amazing kitchen!  i love it and they are going to love it!  it's also filled with dishes.

river's stocking and santa stuff on the left, flower's on the right.

a jamba juice water bottle and game.

an ellen water bottle and game.

my stash.  a king sized electirc blanket!  an ellen thermos, microwave cover, and pantry organizer.

kg's stash.  knife and pancake pen.

i had this blanket made of one of my favorite photos of the day amanda passed away.  the girls were racing and i wanted them to associate her passing with a happy memory, so they think of her, they can also smile.

when the girls woke up i wanted to get a couple of photos of them in front of the tree with the natural light of the morning so kg covered their main gift with a blanket.  i also wanted to capture their faces when they saw the awesomeness!
they are just so cute!

i told kg to drop the blanket and the next few photos shows their excitement!  they absolutely loved it!  that was their main santa gift.

then we went through our stockings.  kg got a really cool spider!

that thing is creepy and fast!

then we started opening our gifts, taking turns one at a time.

the girls gave me this cool retro stool

kg got him and the girls light sabers.  i'm kind of jealous!

flower gave river this necklace shirt.

river gave flower some new earrings.

kg's big gift from me was a year membership to a cheese club.  he will get amazing gourmet cheese every other month starting in january until november.  i didn't want to just have him open a piece of paper so a couple of weeks prior i had him pick some delicious cheese at whole foods and told him he had to wait till christmas to eat it.  christmas eve i wrapped up the cheese with the paper announcing the cheese club.  we are excited to get the first batch!

this face is because she is so excited for kg to open the gift she picked out clear back in november!  i can't believe how happy she was with her purchase!

a jamba juice hat.  and he looks so cute in it!  she gets excited every time he wears it!

my parents and sandee stopped by.  they gave the girls some barbies, and kg and i got some movie tickets.  i can't believe i didn't get any photos of them!

after they left we continued.  thank you lisa for the game!

this is from kris and so hilarious!

and we love these!  now the girls can help with the dishes and have the water super hot and it doesn't burn them!  thanks kris!

the girls main gift from us was tablets!  kg got a great deal and they were stoked!

i was also completely shocked that he got me one too!  that will be so nice for travel.

that afternoon we went to kg's parents to have a gift exchange with them and his brothers before going to his grandparents for dinner.
ryan had our family and spoiled us with games!

after that we stopped at one last house of the season to see their lights.  it was completely worth.  amazing!  and the empty field across the street made for easy viewing.

river gave us this for christmas.  she made it at preschool.

i got several of my prints put on canvas for christmas and got them hung that day.  i love them!

this one is mother's day 2009 at the train depot.

flower on a swing at a beach in seaside, oregon;  river at the idaho falls temple.

flower at the seattle mall just after getting her ears pierced!;  river on a swing at a beach in seaside, oregon

river at maggie moons ice cream in seattle(one of my favorite of her because it's hard to get a genuine smile out of her!

i already had the one on the left of flower at sleeping beauty and the one on the right is the girls enjoying their first time in the snow in tamarack!

i already had these hanging up: river grasping her ice cream in mccall for the 4th of july 2011, and disneyland 2011!

i already had these hanging up: the girls on valentine's day 2010;  universal studios 2011!

a butterfly in seattle;  flower at the idaho falls temple

a butterfly in seattle;  beautiful amanda!

i already had these two hanging as well:  flower got this love earth on earth day one year and the other is river at the train depot in 2010.

i love my girls and love seeing them every on canvas when i lay on their room!
We had such a wonderful christmas and were spoiled as usual.  thank you to everyone who made it so wonderful!  it was so nice having so much time with kg this year, too.