Christmas 2010 and Snow!

I video everything on Christmas morning and never take pictures! I wish I would have learned my lesson last year, but I am glad that I got some sweet video footage from Christmas morning....which included impromptu and heartfelt hugs between Beckett and Helen when they opened their gifts that they had specially picked for each other. Priceless! So when I looked at the pics on my camera from Christmas, the only one I have is taken at Nana and Papa's house with all of the cousins. The rest of my Christmas memories are on the Flip video camera! After our morning of opening gifts at home, we headed over to Nana and Papa's house for breakfast and fun with family. N and P always make a big (late) breakfast for everyone and then we enjoy opening gifts and playing with new toys with all of the cousins. Josh, Kathy and the kids were able to be with us this Christmas (afer a scary and slippery drive to N and P's house!) It was fun having everyone together this year!

It snowed off and on all day on Christmas and then again the day after Christmas. We were not able to get out of our neighborhood to go to church, so we had an early morning sledding appointment with our neighbors, the Guldans! Here is a picture of Sean and Matt getting the kids ready to sled down the street in front of the Guldan's house.

 Beckett and Carson on their sled.......

 Turner, Helen and Will on their sled......

 Will enjoyed being pulled along in the sled!

 Helen pulling her sled after a trip down the street!

 Beckett, Helen and Will feeling pretty cold and wet, but still posing for a picture!

 The whole family got in on the sledding action and Matt had us pose with props to remember our sledding adventures!

We enjoyed having Sean home for the long weekend which included Monday and just resting and taking it easy. Grankaki and Granbob were able to come over on Monday to celebrate Christmas with us. Their travel plans were delayed by a day due to the snowy conditions, but we enjoyed some time with them on Monday and Tuesday. As soon all the Christmas celebrations were over, Helen began asking how long until Tuesday night! The reason? These sweet girls promised Helen a "sleep over" at their house. The King sisters are good friends of ours and have been talking with Helen about a sleep over for many months. We "booked it" right before Christmas, and Helen has been so excited about it. I took this picture yesterday afternoon when they came to pick her up.

 

I picked her up late this morning and she has not stopped talking about all the fun that she had! She had a fantabulous time at her first official girls sleep over! (Of course she has stayed with cousins and grandparents, but this was the first friend sleep over.) Thanks to the King sisters (and their mom and dad) for the wonderful hospitality and giving Helen such a fun night to remember!

Looking forward to this coming long weekend with Sean home, celebrating the end of 2010 and anticipating the new year and all the new adventures it holds!

Christmas Eve 2010

After the annual picture on the hearth by their stockings...the children are nestled all snug in their beds with visions of sugar plums dancing in their heads! Wishing you all a Merry Christmas!

Santa Visit 2010

Every year we go to see Santa at Sean's company Christmas party. They do a great job and the pictures are FREE which I love! Santa is always so great with the kids! There are many kids who want to see Santa, so they have a "policy" it seems, that says if a kid begins to show the least bit of fear or trepidation when it comes to sitting with Santa, then they invite the whole family to have their picture made with him. It isn't really an "invitation".....they make you sit down with your child so that there are no tears. As a result, we do not have any pictures of our children sitting with Santa as they scream their heads off! We had the family Santa pictures when Helen was one and two years old because she was totally freaked out by Santa. We did not set out to have a family picture made with the big man this year, but it seems that in the last year Will has developed a healthy fear of Santa and wasn't about to get anywhere near him. So, I give you the Harper family Santa picture for 2010!

Merry Christmas!



Helen's First Ballet Recital!

This time last Friday, we were getting ready to watch our sweet 5 year old ballerina perform in her first ballet recital! I am very sad that I do not have ANY pictures of her in her costume!! I have purchased a CD that will have individual pictures of Helen, but right now I do not have any! I really appreciate that her teacher is very economical and that we borrow the costumes rather than buy them, but I never had my camera with me when she had it on and when I did have my camera, they had already helped her undress from her costume! Anyway, she had a blast and I don't think she stopped smiling ALL night! It was a wonderful performance....so honoring to our Creator and each dance truly shared the message of Christmas so beautifully! All of my pictures show the smile that was plastered on her face the entire evening! This first picture is after the recital was over and she received her flowers!

Posing for more pictures with that big smile!

Lillie was there to watch Helen!

Abigail and Kaelyn with Helen after the recital. Abigail was in two dances and the drama. Helen loves these girls!

Nana, Jill, Connor and Lillie came to see Helen. Papa was there, too....just not in the picture.

Helen and her friend Sophie posing with their flowers! Sophie is in Helen's class every Monday afternoon.

Helen with her biggest fans and supporters...Mom, Dad, Beckett and Will!

Granbob, Grankaki and Auntie Mame traveled a long way to come see Helen's ballet debut! So glad they could all be here with us!

When we got home, we celebrated with ice cream and opened Christmas presents from Auntie Mame since we will not be with her this Christmas!

Helen received a new pink "peace sign" lap quilt that Auntie Mame made for her! She is loving it!

One last picture of our ballerina posing in front of our Christmas tree!

She is already talking about the Spring recital! Such fun!

Free = $30.00 Shipping and Handling?

So, things are not always what they seem. Free is never totally free. I'm not a big Shutterfly fan right now. Yes, I know. I was singing their praises in the last post. That was my shameless attempt at trying to receive 50 free Christmas cards! However, upon receipt of my promotional code and at least an hour of time spent designing the card, I went to "check-out" of the site and do what I needed to do to get my free cards. Not possible. They are not nearly as easy to work with as I had imagined. I was surprised to find out that you cannot pick up your cards locally. "Snapfish" will let you download your creation and have it ready in a matter of hours at a local business. My Shutterfly cards would have to be shipped to me! If ordered yesterday, they could not guarantee that I would receive them before Christmas unless I paid at least $30 in shipping and handling. Free? I think not. Convenient? Not at all. Cute card? Yes.....but just not worth the hastle. After I gave up, I went to Walgreens.com and within 15 minutes had a new (smaller) card that is still lovely, found a coupon for 25% off my total and it will be ready to be picked up today!

You live and learn......

Shutterfly my Sweetie Pies!

One of my most favorite things about the Christmas season is receiving picture Christmas cards from family and friends from far and near! I even save the cards from the previous year until I receive the new card so I can look at how much the kiddos have grown and changed over the past year! Maybe that is unusual.....but that is just me! I also enjoy looking back at the picture cards that I have created of my children each Christmas and recalling the fun that we had making the pictures! This year, I'm trying something new! Shutterfly is offering 50 FREE cards to bloggers this year and I'm going to use them to help me create my cards! Here is an example of one of their cute cards!

I like this one because I could put an individual picture of each of my three sweeties and then one of all three together. There are many choices to choose from and the possiblities are endless!

You can look at all of their Christmas photo card selections here: http://www.shutterfly.com/cards-stationery/christmas-photo-cards.

I use Shutterfly to create photobooks and they do such a great job! I'll never scrapbook again! If you want to see an example of a Shutterfly photbook, here is the link: http://www.shutterfly.com/photo-books! 

I might even create a calendar for myself this year. I'm always looking for the perfect calendar....what better calendar could their be than one with my own "shutterfly sweetie pies" smiling back at me? Check out their calendar selection here: http://www.shutterfly.com/calendars/desk-calendars. They would make great gifts, too!

No doubt that one night in the very near future, I'll pull a very late-nighter and address all my Shutterfly Christmas cards to share Christmas greetings with you all! Blesssings!

Thanks Shutterfly!



Cousins

I am finally getting around to looking through tons of pictures that were taken of my three sweeties with their four cousins! This photo session took place well over a month ago! Not an easy task to get seven kiddos to all look and smile at the same time...but I think this was my favorite out of the hundred or so pics! Surprisingly, this was one of the last pictures that was taken that afternoon. They always have fun when they are together and this day was no exception!

Although Will hardly smiled in any of the group pictures, he was caught with a sneaky looking smile in one of the pics!

My three were the last to have their pictures made and they were OVER. IT.

I love that Beckett is giving the, "just get this over with please" smirk.

Helen is giving the obligatory "cheese" smile because she was SO ready to break free and run over to play with the rest of the cousins.

And Will? Well, his expression just makes me laugh. If that isn't a "what you talkin' bout' Willis?" look, then I don't know what is!!

Needless to say there were no Christmas card shots of my kiddos made on this day! But it was lots of fun and we got some great pictures of these sweet cousins who love being together! Thanks to Ennette for taking the pictures and being so patient!

Girl's Day Out

When Helen started ballet classes back in August, I promised her that I would take her to see "The Nutcracker" at Christmas time. So this morning we went to a local community college to see a production of this Christmas ballet and it was wonderful! I have seen this ballet many times, but never through the eyes of my daughter and that was so special! She has been counting down the days and was awake at 5:45 this morning ready to go! Here is a picture of us before we left. She wanted to take her own Nutcracker with her to the ballet!

Helen posed with a life size Nutcracker in the lobby!

I couldn't take any pictures during the performance because I am always afraid that I haven't set my flash correctly, so I took this one after it was over. The entire cast (is that what you call the performers in a ballet?) came on stage at the end and the director took questions from the audience which was all school age kids. This part was really fun too! At the end of the question time, Helen got to talk with one of the ballerinas and she was thrilled!

We went to Cracker Barrell after the ballet and had a yummy lunch! As I mentioned earlier, Helen was up at 5:45 this morning, so she was wiped out by the time we headed home! Such a sweet sleeping ballerina! She has her first Christmas ballet recital next Friday, so check back for that report!