Christmas Trees

Mom has several Christmas trees. This year as I was dodging my cookie baking jobs I decided to walk around the house and post pics of her trees. THis first phot is on the Mr. and Mrs. Clause mom made a LONG time ago. When we were little they always sat on the China cabinet. We'd always get in trouble for playing with the tiny packages and toys in Santa's sack! This is one of my favorite decorations fo mom's (may not be the cutest but it has many memories attached to it!)

We'll start with the Gingerbread tree. Moms kitchen upstairs is decorated completly with gingerbread men. So of course this particular tree is covered with different gingerbread ornaments.

The downstairs kitchen is decorated in old Coca Cola theme. So this tree is covered in only Coca Cola ornaments and items related.

This tree is the first thing you see coming down the stairs to the basement. THis is moms "memory tree" Basically it has all our old ornamnets from when we were kids and it has our handmade ornaments on it also. It's a hodge podge of items and it's our favorite tree! It reminds me of being a kid!

Lastly, this is the fancy blue and silver tree in living room upstairs. Its very pretty when it the lights are on!

I'll post my trees later!

Annual Cookie Making

This past Sunday was the Sisters annual cookie making day. (and what a LONG day it is!) Here are a few pics from the day. We start with making cookies, then break for lunch, this year we each brought something to add to a salad bar, then we bake again, eventually we break and open our handmade gifts. I'll have to go home and take pics of all my gifts. WE have some very talentd ladies in the family. The rule is to spend $5 or less and the gift needs to be homemade. Of course, everyone tries to outdo each other and meke some really unique gift. (not me, I took the easy way! I made cake pedestal plates--I glued a clear glass plate on top of a candlestick holder!! Super EASY and quick too! I'll post a pic later!
Here are me and stac posing for a pic, not sure who Stac is looking at??

Sara and Diane setting up for lunch.


Sarah making her fudge. It turned out really good!!

Sara putting more cookies onto the pool table. Ridiculous how many cookies we make!

Sandi and me (don't I look happy to be in the picture!!)

Santa

Nancy has a direct line to Santa. So she invited the big guy over for a short visit. The kiddos thought it was amazing!! It was very nice of Nancy to include my lil sis and Matti to join in the fun (Lydia and Matti go to the same sitter).
This is Matti and Izzy on Santa's knee. Matti's not sure what to think!

Izzy had a list a mile long of what she wanted from Santa. Santa did a great job of explaining that sometimes he likes to give surprizes so kids shouldn't be disappointed that they didn't get what they asked for. (I'm sure it was over their heads but it was nice!)

Lydia and Izzy sharing Santa's lap.

Santa started his visit by sitting there doing tricks and talking to the kids which really helped them warm up to him before sitting on his lap. Most of his jokes were over the heads of the little ones, but he was pretty entertaining for all age groups.

Here's Izzy and G'ma waiting for Santa to arrive. Izzy was sooo excited.

Cookie Making

Izzy and I decided to make cookies last Saturday. Yes I cheated and bought pre made dough!! This blogger crap is putting my photos all out of order. Not sure how to fix that! Anyhoo here she is my lil' Betty Crocker! (just be happy she is dressed this time--normally she is naked when she cooks!!!) No I don't know where she gets that from!!!



This rolling pin used to be my grandmothers. Mom gave it to me, and eventually I'll give it to Iz.

Night of 1,000 Stars

Here are some of my pics from the Night of 1,000 Stars. We always get there super early so Aaron can start holding a spot in line to see Santa. This year were were like the tenth in line. This year is was FREEZING! (actually it has been worse) Of course, my camera quit by the time we got in to see Santa (I was P.O.ed pretty bad!!) So unfortunately no pics of Santa.
THis is a pic of the horse and carriage that Santa and Mrs. Claus arrive on. Very cool!

This is Izzy waiting in for Santa. You can sort of make out the cabin in the background where Santa will sit. (it's nice and cozy with a fireplace!)

Sorry here's a sideways pic of Izzy and her dad while waiting in line.

While we were waiting in line Izzy and I decided to go for a walk. We bumped into this scary female Santa handing out coupons. Izzy was a little scared at first (for good reason!!) LOL but it turns out this is my only photo of a Santa for the night!! LOL.

More Pics

I'm sure everyone is sick of looking at our family pics. But I have to show off my one and only Izzy!! All the shots that Christy took were fabulous!

10 Little Indians

Here's Gma and Gpa with their 10 little indians. (that's all the grandkids!) We also so had the entire group pic taken in front of these burning bushes, it was cute but the rocks were my favorite!!


LOL--I just went and looked at all my posts. Check out my dad's face. He looks exactly the same in all of them!! P.S. that IS his happy face!!! LOL

The Whole Gang!

Here is the entire Miederhoff gang!
Starting in the upper left hand corner is my oldest brother John with his girlfriend Sarah and his son J.T. (John Thomas the 4th) Next is my sister Sandi and her crew. Next to Johnny is my oldest neice Sara, Justin, that's Jared one of the twins peeking thru, then Scott (my bro-in-law) followed by Jordyn the other twin, then Sandi right above dad is Sandi's other two daughters Shana and Sam (Samantha) Yup count them that's 6 kiddos!! Okay then theres, my clan, above us is Stacey (my wonderful twin) right below us is my older brother Shawn and his wife Diane and their adorable son Tommy. Last but not least Jayna the baby sister holding lil' Matti and on the other side of mom and pop is Jay's hubby Chris. Yup that's all of us. We had this taken for mom for Xmas. We haven't had a decent pic in a long time. I think this might be a new tradition for our clan! Don't we look good!!

Mom and Dad

We had the "Miederhoff" family portraits taken in October, so I just wanted to share some of the great pics. These were taken by Kristy Watson check out her website She was fantastic!! www.simplybeautifulphotography.net



I think this is one of the best pics I've seen of my parents (and yes that's the way dad always looks!!!!!!) :)

Blog Slacker

Okay I've been blog slacking so here are a bunch of posts to play catch up for a while!! Enjoy!

Thanksgiving Random Pics

Ping Pong is huge at family gatherings. Here my brother Shawn and my neice Samantha are playing against our nephew Justin and our brother-in-law Chris. Can't remember who won - I just remember they were loud!! :)

Here's a pic of me and my favorite aunt Jeanne. We were teaching her to play golf the card game--she ended up kicking our butts!! She is an amazing women. She has been battling breast cancer. I just love her!

Aaron and Tommy where hiding here on the steps. God only knows what these two were talking about!!

The boys were 'fishing' in the playroom. They were cracking me up. That's whats great about kids. They had no idea how to play the game so they just made up their own rules!! This garage sale find kept them entertained for a LONG time!! Good job G'ma!!

Her are the girls they took all the chairs and tried to play musical chairs. Only they didn't know how to play so they just played school. The play room at g'ma's is a wonderful thing. Those kiddos run straight for that room to see what new toys G'ma has stocked in there!! It's great for us parents b/c we can enjoy grown up time while they are enjoying cousin time!! Mom really put a lot of thought in designing her home it makes the holidays and family gatherings so nice because of her careful planning. Thanks mom!

Random Thanksgiving Pics

Here's the siblings hanging around the bar (imagine that!!)

Sandy taking a tequila shot (not sure what that was all about--except that she did work that day??)

Here's the never ending banquet table that takes up the whole length of the basement!!! But hey, at least we all fit and can eat together right??

We were playing cards and looked over at Izzy who was entertaining herself with some veggies and ranch dressing--We all had a pretty good laugh at her!

For Thanksgiving she wanted her hair curly (of course) so I put it in pigtails and put her cute little turkey hairbows in (I made those ya know!!) She was pretty stinkin' cute, if I do say so myself!!

Shirley Temple!

Jayna watched Izzy one afternoon--when I picked her up Izzy had a head full of curls. She was absolutely adorable---so of course, I had to take pics!!




The picture do not do her justice. She really was beautiful!!

Farming

I took some pics of Aaron and Izzy in the field. Aaron spent most of the Fall helping Roy Cope in Truxton get his crops out. One Sunday he decided to take Izzy. She had sooooo much fun! I think he's gonna make a farmer out of her yet!!!

After visiting Izzy and Aaron I decided to visit the inlaws. Dennis needed some pics fo the restored tractor to enter it in a contest. (unfortunately it did not win) Anyhoo--here's a good pic of the tractor.

Can u believe in 30 years I never once rode in a tractor while Aaron was harvesting. The three of us sat in the tractor for a good hour. (sorry I'm not into farming as much as them--I was way past bored after an hour!!!)


I thought they looked so cute before they left. Love Izzy's purple bibs don't you???

Babysitting Matti

This is what happens when I'm left alone with baby!!! We have a photo shoot!!

Isn't she adorable??

This was her Thanksgiving outfit and stuffed turkey! So stinkin' cute!!!

I have this same photo with izzy when she was about 3 months old (except that it's all her stuffed animals!)