My New Sunbeam

Gracie started Primary back in January. She's gotten so big!! It's so weird to have two kids in Primary now and only one in nursery. We've had a hard time getting Grace to go to Primary, because it is so different from nursery and she definately takes after me-she is my shy child. She's started to get used to it though and has lots of fun in Primary. Our Primary has so few children that they have been combining some of the classes together. Gwen and Grace's classes are combined, so that makes it a bit easier for Grace, because she has Gwen there to help her. We are so excited for her and so proud of our little Gracie!!


Of course Gwen wanted her picture taken as well. Gwen is in the CTR 4 class now...and is still the oldest in the class, having already turned 5. Gwen loves Primary and all her friends and gets so excited about it, but has been having some problems listening and sitting down and staying in her class. So we've been trying to work on that, but overall she is just so excited to go to church every week and have fun with her friends.

Georgia likes getting her picture taken just as much as her big sisters do. Georgia is still in Primary, and will be for a while. Because her birthday is so early in the year, she will be spending the next two years in nursery. She loves nursery though, and has so much fun in there, that I don't think she'll notice or care. She looks forward to nursery every week and loves playing with her friends!!

They all love Primary so much and I am so grateful for the Primary Program and for all the leaders and teachers that strive so hard to teach my kids and help them to learn and grow in the gospel. We love Primary!!

Christmas Day

Besides hanging around and playing the Wii and various other games all of us got for Christmas, we went back to Robbie's Nana's house to tell her thank you for all our gifts, especially the hand knitted blankets she made the girls.

Gwen loves playing with her Daddy...they were having a tickle fight at Nana Jane's.



Grace just likes to snuggle with her Daddy and give lots of hugs and kisses...and occasionally have a tickle fight too.



Georgia and I were busy playing on the other side of the room while the other two girls were playing with their Daddy and Great Nana Jane's cat toys. She laid on the floor, and I would gently put my foot on her stomach and tickle her with my foot. She kept saying again...over and over.



Later on the girls were having so much fun with each other that we caught a rare moment...them giving each other a hug and laughing.

Georgia was busy hanging out with Grandma Congdon and Zoie and trying to give Zoie hugs.

All three of the girls had a lot of fun playing with Aunt Hillary by rolling their bouncy balls back and forth with her.

To get the girls hair all curly for church, I started using these new curlers that really make their hair a lot more managable and curled in ringlets compared to the old curlers. Gwen loves having her hair curly...we were snuggling together before they went to bed.

The day after Christmas we went back to my parents and opened more presents. Georgia got a little backpack with an owl on it from my parents, another tag book from us, an animal sound game from my Grandpa and Grandma Sessions, a church book from my parents, and this stuffed bear from my Grandpa and Grandma McCauley.

Grace got a little backpack with a monkey on it and a church book from my parents, a leapster game from us, barbie cloths from my Grandpa and Grandma Sessions, and these two stuffed animals from my Grandpa and Grandma McCauley-a skunk and a parakeet.

Gwen got a little backpack with a mouse on it and a church book from my parents, a leapster game from us, barbie cloths from my Grandpa and Grandma Sessions, and these two stuffed animals from my Grandpa and Grandma McCauley-a rooster and an anteater.

We all had such a wonderful holiday season, spent with almost all our family. We are so grateful for all we have...thank you all who helped make the season so special for us!!

Christmas Morning

The girls were so excited for Christmas morning, but especially to see what Santa had brought them. Gwen got the Sleeping Beauty version of the game Pretty Pretty Princess.

Grace got a 4-in-1 game set. There was a Princess game, a Tinkerbell game, a Mickey Mouse Clubhouse game, and a Cars game, all in one box.

Georgia got a Tangled dress up kit. Gwen and Grace had gotten dress up kits (princess and tinkerbell) last year from Grandma Congdon, so this was the perfect thing for Santa to bring Georgia as she was getting tired of trying to get her sisters to share with her.

The girls couldn't wait to get out of the bedroom and go see what Santa brought and to open presents. Gwen is all about making faces at the camera now.

Grace was jumping around on the mattresses she was so excited.

Grandma Congdon grabbed Georgia to help her out since Daddy was busy setting up the video camera and Mommy was busy trying to take pictures of all the chaos.

Georgia was so thrilled with her dress up stuff-she wore it all morning long and didn't want to tak it off.

I think Grace had more fun going through her stocking than she did playing her new game. She loved getting fruit in her stocking-she really loves oranges.

Gwen just kept digging and digging, making sure that she got everything out, before she started to really look at what she got.

Georgia's big present this year was a tag junior reader from Rob and I. She had so much fun with it and we quickly read through every book we got her to go with it. She still loves sitting with it and reading books and calls the carrying case her little "ba-pack."

Grace's big present from us this year was a Leapster Explorer. Her older cousins got a dsi and a psp for their birthdays this past year, and the girls are always wanting to play on them, so we thought Leapsters would be a good compromise. Grace also got the games Toy Story 3 and Tangled to play on her Leapster.

Gwen also got a Leapster Explorer. I have a hard time getting her off of it, but they are awesome. The games they make for these really help teach them about spelling, math, writing, science, solving problems, and things like that. Gwen got the games Up and Princess and the Frog to play on it.

The girls got some other things besides stuff to do with their Leapfrog stuff-hand knitted blankets for each girl from Robbie's Nana, Pillow Pets from Grandma Congdon, new books, a huge thing of crayons, a new board game, baby dolls and baby doll stuff, movies, and a few other small things. We only opened gifts from Rob's side of the family, and waited to open gifts from my side of the family until we went to my parents house the day after Christmas. The girls had so much fun with their new stuff though and Robbie did as well. I finally caved this year and for Christmas we got ourselves (Rob and I) a Wii. I don't think Rob stopped playing Super Mario or Donkey Kong most of the time that we were there. I finally got a cricut-hooray!! It was a great Christmas.

Christmas Eve

As I mentioned in my previous post, we spent Christmas this year with Robbie's family. His brother and sister in law came up with their daughter, and it was the first time in the 6 years that we've been married that we've spend Christmas Eve with his family. We've spent Christmas Day and the day after with them a couple of years, but never Christmas Eve, so it was nice to get that opportunity to spend that time with them.

We drove down to his parents on the 23rd, and the girls were so excited when we got down there. Obviously because it was Christmas time, but mainly because it was a long drive (2 hours, and halfway through Grace got car sick and threw up all over herself...yum). It was nice to get out of the car and start spending time with everyone. Georgia was excited to see Grandma Congdon.




We went to visit Robbie's Nana and his aunt (who was visiting his Nana) on Christmas Eve, and his aunt was nice enough to give each one of the girls a Fairy Tale coloring book, a new box of crayons for each girl, and a pencil case for each girl to put their new crayons in, and they had so much fun coloring in those new books!!



Georgia wanted to help out her new cousin Zoie by giving her binkie to her. Georgia loves binkies, so it was nice to see her give the binkie to her cousin instead of steal it for herself.



One of the traditions that we do every year that the girls absolutely love is making sugar cookies. I made the dough for them and Rob and I helped them cut the cookies out. They had so much fun doing it too.

Georgia had enough of her hair being pulled back at this point and had ripped her pig tails out...sadness. She really loved helping her daddy cut out cookies though.

When it came time to decorating the cookies, Rob's mom was really smart and gave the girls some of her old t shirts to wear over their clothes so that they wouldn't get their clothes all dirty with icing and sprinkles. The girls love decorating cookies, but I think they like eating the cookies, icing and sprinkles as they decorate just as much as decorating the cookies.

Georgia had fun decorating the cookies as well, but liked taste testing too. Daddy had to help her out a little.

A tradition that Rob's family has always done is open one present on Christmas Eve, which is usually Christmas pjs that they can then put on and wear to bed. We have done this tradition for the past 2 or 3 years with the girls. I think we have just as much fun finding cute Christmas pjs for them as they have opening and wearing them.

Earlier in the day we got all the girls together for a picture with their cousin Zoie. This is one of the best pictures that I've had of the girls in a long time, because they are all looking at the camera and smiling. What a bunch of pretty Congdon girls!!

Christmas Finally-Decorating The Tree & Christmas Sunday Outfits

Yes, I am finally updating the blog with pictures from Christmas. Pathetic, huh? Anyways, I'm starting with pictures from decorating the Christmas tree and their Christmas dresses. Hopefully by the end of the week I'll have photos up from Christmas Eve & Day.

This year we spent most of Christmas with Rob's family. However, we did get to decorate the tree with my family. The girls loved decorating the tree. They had lots of fun putting things up, even if they were all in the same place. Gwen did an awesome job trying to space the ornaments out, but Grace had a bit of a hard time with that. Georgia didn't even really care too much...she just wanted to play with the ornaments that she was given to put on the tree. They all had a lot of fun that night.

We had a real tree, and Georgia didn't like the feel of it very much. Maybe that's why she played with the ornaments instead of putting them on the tree.



Grace loved this ornament. It's Mickey Mouse, and she had such a fun time finding a place for it on the tree.



Gwen loved putting ornaments up on the tree. She would find a spot, declare it perfect for that specific ornament, put it up and then go running for another ornament.



I decided that since we weren't going to be here the Sunday following Christmas, I wanted the girls to have a chance to wear their Christmas dresses to church up here as well. So the Sunday before Christmas I curled Gwen and Grace's hair, got all three girls dressed up, and took some nice (or what I hoped would be nice) pictures of them.

Gwen has a hard time keeping her eyes open for pictures, and this is the best one we got of her.



Gracie takes great pictures...she loves to sit and smile for us.

Georgia even sat still long enough to get a pretty good picture of her as well.

They may fight a lot, but these three girls sure love each other and love goofing around with each other and making one another laugh. They're such sweet hearts (most of the time).

My three beautiful little girls all dressed up.

I don't know if they were more excited for the white sweater dresses, or the red and white snowflake tights that they got to wear. I loved the pointsetta flower hairbows that they wore, and how great their hair turned out. These little girls are such a blessing in my life, and I am so glad that they call me their mama. I love them so much-such wonderful little girls!!

Farewell Sweet Honey

Honey was one of the best dogs in the world. Seriously. She had such an awesome, fun and sweet personality for a dog. She loved to run, to play all types of games with us, and cuddle with us as we took naps on the floor or watched a movie. She would smile (literally) when one of us would come home, but especially for my mom and dad when they would walk in the door. She was so sweet and gentle with our little ones when we brought them home, even in her old age. We all have so many good memories of Honey, and we all loved her so much. She was truly another sister to us. We got her as a puppy, and spent the last 15 years with her. It's hard to let go, and it's weird to not have her around any more. Honey, we know you are in a better place, and that you are pain free and able to run again, but we love you and miss you. You were a wonderful dog...one of the best. I don't think any of us will ever find a dog that can compare to how special and sweet you were nor will we ever find a dog to take your place in our hearts. Farewell Honey-we sure loved you!!

Gwen's Birthday Pictures

Gwen had a wonderful birthday as well. We ended up getting a huge snow storm that day, so my brother Jake and I took the girls out to play in the snow. I had taken them out the previous Saturday, and had made a snowman with them, so that's what they wanted to do again. The snow didn't want to cooperate though, so my brother and I decided to build a snow cave on our back porch (which ended up being a snow tunnel cause the girls didn't like not being able to sit up in there). We shoveled all the snow from the porch into one corner, and my brother dug the tunnel out. Gwen loves playing in the snow, and she had so much fun.

After we had her birthday dinner of Bowtie Pasta, we did cake (which is further down) and then presents. Gwen of course got her dollar bill in her card from her Great Grandpa and Grandma Sessions, which she was so excited about.



Their present to her was the movie Hercules, which Gwen absolutely loves and has been bugging us to get it for a long time.



Gigi and Pappy got her the coolest game. We had seen commercials on TV for it around Christmas time, and Gwen had been asking for it, but by the time her birthday rolled around, we had forgotten about it. Gigi and Pappy picked out the perfect game for her!!



Grace and Georgia got her a preschool puzzle. It's the very hungry caterpillar puzzle, and Gwen was really excited. She loves this book, and was so happy to get a puzzle that goes along with the book. She and Georgia both got other presents as well, both from Rob and I and from their aunts, uncles, cousins and grandparents.

Gwen's birthday theme was Princess and the Frog. Gwen is having a birthday party with her Primary friends in two weeks, and this is what she decided on. So I made her cake to look like Princess and the Frog since at her party she is going to have cupcakes that look like frogs. She loved her cake.

It did turn out pretty good. I used vanilla frosting and made three colors...blue, green and purple. Used the blue for the water, then added green in different places to make little spots of land, like a swamp. Then I used some sparkly green decorating gel to make the lily pads, and used some white edible dust to make the water look two toned. I covered a round caramel candy with the purple icing, and cut up a strawberry airhead to make the lily pad flowers and the flower petals around the purple candy. I also used edible green flakes to make the grass look like grass. I ended up having to use actual toys on Gwen's cake because they don't make a Tiana candle or a Princess and the Frog candle, so we used a miniture toy Tiana, Prince Naveen in frog form, and Gwen even wanted Ray the Firefly on her cake, so he's right next to Tiana. Gwen had an awesome birthday. Thanks to all who sent her things and called her and made her birthday so special!!