Donnie Hart, a.k.a., Clark Griswald

Donnie LOVES Christmas. He's the jolliest guy I know this time of year! He makes a huge deal out of our outside decor and is very meticulous in his planning and execution of his decorating. Every strand is labeled and correlates with a location on the map he drew up of our roof. He knows where every strand goes, and makes sure that every light bulb is in proper working condition and free of scratches. I jokingly call him Clark Griswald, but he DOES put a ton of enthusiasm into our Christmas decorations and gifts. He does his very best to make Christmas a special event for our girls, and they are SO PROUD of their house because of his hard work! You are an awesome Daddy, Don!
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Sydni loves our Frosty the Snowman blowup lawn decoration. She cheers for him every night when we turn him on! Donnie, checking the bulbs. Mr. O.C.D married Mrs. ADHD...what did Paula Abdul say, opposites attract? They sometimes annoy the tar out of each other, too! ;) Frosty is a pretty cool dude. (har, har, har!)Yes, it is November and very cool outside, but I don't believe in making my children wear shoes. I also encouraged Makenzi to turn on the water hose and "wash da dirt off her feet" in forty degree weather. I think that pneumonia builds character. Oh, and no, I don't have third kid that I keep hidden in the basement. We don't have a basement. Anywhoo, this is our neighbor's kid that lives across the street. Makenzi is our budding photographer. She wanted to take a picture of me, and I wanted everyone to check out my new hair color. It's mocha with wheat blond highlights. FYI. The house looks way cooler than this. Drive by sometime and check out Donnie's hard work. We are the only house on the block with our lights up....I'm sure our neighbors think we are swell. ;)
You can't see it very well, but we have a projector that splashes up a jolly picture of Santa onto our garage. Not overkill at all!

Sidewalk Art

We draw a lot at our house, and the best place to flex our artistic muscles is on the pavement. Sidewalk chalk is awesome, and we go through a lot around here! I never know what I'm going to find in the driveway after the girls have broken out the chalk, and their recent drawings were camera worthy. Not necessarily for the quality of the drawings, but because their explanations of what they drew were so dadgum funny! Have a good look before you read the explanations:

Makenzi's drawing, and I quote, of "Santa on his tippy-toes."

I made the mistake of poking out my belly the other day (which I can poke WAY out there after carrying two big-headed babies), and told Sydni I had a "food baby in there". She never let that comment go, and decided to capture my food-babyness in chalk. Even though Aunt Layci thinks she drew me with one huge boob (thanks, Layc), this is actually "Mommy with a food baby." Nice.

See Any Resemblance?

I don't think I'm going out on a limb here by saying that Makenzi looks like her Daddy, but if you weren't seeing the resemblance before, check out the picture above. Hmmm....any similarities? I couldn't resist snapping a picture of this moment, especially because they make the exact same face when they sleep and I needed proof for Don! I'm always telling him, "at least you know exactly what you would look like as a girl." I'm hoping he'll let me try for a boy so I can see if I will have a male version of myself, but no dice. I'll keep thinking of other reasons, though! ;)

Sydni's Thanksgiving Play

Singing her little heart out! Nana would be so proud of those pipes!
My little pilgrim.

The turkeys have met their maker...dun, dun, dah! Super cute!
Sutton, Addison and Sydni. Two turkeys and a pilgrim!

Syd-o and Daddy

Best Buds

Awesome Pictures by Aunt Layci!

Here are just a few shots of the girls and their cousins that my sister Layci took this weekend. If you need a great photographer, she's your gal! Even though it was a bit stressful, she was able to get a great picture of all EIGHT of my mother's grandchildren! Talk about mass chaos! If you want to look at more of her photography, announcements, invitations, and artistic projects, go to http://www.sweetchiccreations.com/ ...she is amazing!

Weekend in White Deer

If you haven't checked out my sister Layci's website (http://www.sweetchiccreations.com), you need to do so ASAP! Not only is she insanely creative with her artistic projects and invitations, but she has been dabbling in photography recently. Like everything she does that has an artistic element, Layci is a natural. We decided to "hire" her to shoot a grandkid pic for our mother, and here are the pictures I took during our photo shoot in White Deer. I will post her pictures as soon as she finishes the editing process. Mom picked a great spot for the pics and I'm sure they will turn out AMAZING! Stay tuned for the finished product, but until then, check out a few of the behind-the-scenes shots I took with my little camera!

Taking pics while Layci gets her camera ready.

See Alyx? She decided to cry for no apparent reason during the middle of the photo shoot, and Layci is doing her be

Moments before Brenner went chin-first into the stone bench and scraped up his face!

I'm not sure why they always put each other in headlocks when they pose, but oh, well!

Being "sassy", as they called it!

While Layci took pictures of the boys, I distracted the girls and took pics with my camera.

My sweet girl!

She is such a silly girl!

Singing me a song....

My beautiful nieces, Alee and Alyx.

Kienan and Sydni - they love each other so much!

Playing in the leaves in between Layci's posed pictures she was taking...it was fun picking leaves out of everyone's hair! Good grief!

This pose didn't quite work out like we had hoped...everyone ended up squished and ANGRY! Nice idea, Aunt Hayli! LOL!

Angel kisses galore!

The fashion model!

Playing at the WD park.

Most of this equipment is the same stuff I played on 20 something years ago...

Ballerina Moves You've Never Seen...Makki Style!

Here is a very short video of Makenzi messing around after her lesson. Apparently the ballet shoes automatically turn you into a ballerina. We need LOADS of practice in this arena of dance. We are not what one might call "graceful". The poor gals are as clutzy as their Momma!

So...We Think We Can Dance....MAYBE.

Granny Deb signed the girlies up for combo classes at Talent Plus, and today was our first day to don the leotards and tights! Everyone knows what wicked moves their Mommy has, so it should be interesting to see how well our two little divas take to dancing classes! It's in their genes, so they should be able to pull it off just fine! The classes at Talent Plus seem tailor-made for our girls because they are broken down into three twenty minute sessions. Twenty minutes of tap (boo-ya!), twenty minutes of ballet (eh.), and twenty minutes of gymnastics (whooo-doggy!). Perfect for kids who might have a little bit of ADHD...again, coming from their Mommy. Today turned out to be positive experience, so I'm pretty sure we are going back next week for more tap, ballet and tumbling. Check out our cutie-pie outfits (also from Granny D) below:

Always kissin' on each other!
Sydni has zero baby fat after conquering the flu bug a few weeks ago. Skinny butt!

The Doodle.

Notice the super-cool sparkles in our tights.

Waiting for class to begin. Mommy is a troll and wouldn't let them put on their tap shoes until right before class. Tap shoes are made by the devil.

Makki shows us a few of her new ballerina moves! Mommy wasn't allowed in class, so this is all you get, people!