My husband - the magician

Merry Christmas!

Dave, Becca, and Charlotte stayed with us for almost a week over Christmas and we were able to celebrate Christmas with them. Christmas morning the kids woke up to 114 gifts. Yes - 114. Maybe we went a little overboard. Or...maybe not. Next year let's add 831 more (as long as the tags say "Gina").  We played a game where each person would draw a number to see which gift would be opened next. Sarah had searched through all gifts until she found one that looked like the monster high build-a-monster kit she wanted. 

It was number 105. She fixated on number 105. She held number 105 and even said "I love you 105". Every time a different number was chosen she made a pouty face. Finally, Charlotte picked 105. After that, she and Charlotte were best buds.

Jenna and Sarah with 114 gifts

It turns out Erik is a magician with lots of tricks up his sleeve. He knew I really wanted this pan. When I opened it I was excited because obviously I love pans! Anyway on the front cover was a piece of paper saying I could be selected as a winner. Becca read the note and Erik said, sure you could win a vegetable peeler but some people win ipads or something like that. I opened the box and there was a brand new phone in it. The phone had a message saying "Congratulations you are a winner!"

I don't know about you, but when I see something that says "I could be a winner" to me that means "I am not a winner". However, fate seemed to smile in my direction and I won a phone!   Erik went along with it until he finally gave it away that he bought me a phone and tricked me. I know...magician.

Happy 6th birthday Sarah

 We celebrated Sarah's birthday on her actual birthday with another caramel cake. I think this will be my last attempt at making caramel frosting. The cake was delicious. The frosting looked weird and was way too sweet. Sorry Sarah - no more caramel frosting for you.

Jenna, Sarah, Charlotte, and Matthew

My new phone

 We loved having Dave, Becca, and Charlotte here. We played tons of games together and even had a hot chocolate taste test.
The hot chocolate ranked as follows:

1. Jenis
2. Panera
3. Starbucks
4. Mean Bean

Mean Bean is a local coffee shop. I made my hot chocolate for them and Becca actually voted it #2. That is high praise considering Jenis hot chocolate is $4.50 and mine is... cheaper.

The kids also played really well together and Charlotte seemed to want to potty train since Matthew has been doing a great job on the potty. On Christmas day he had no accidents. That is my Christmas present!

The four kids left our house in such a state of disarray that I'm hiring Carson. Like now.

Mrs. Shannon

Sarah's teacher made this cute sweatshirt using decorations from the dollar store. I thought it was cute and creative. The lights actually lit up!