Zoe's beard party!

Yes that does sound quite ridiculous. Our sweet 5 year old girl planned out a beard party. Let's back track and explain how this came to be. Her infatuation for beards began when Derek's sister Kim started dating her boyfriend. Zoe calls him Beardie. Then on top of that the kids were involved in a white elephant exchange at Christmastime with my family. The gift Zoe ended up with was a bunch of different colored fake beards.

She loved it! And she was immediately planning a Beard party. She even asked Aunt Laurel to make beard cookies and a cake. I think we all thought she'd forget about it and this party would never happen. That was not the case. In fact quite the opposite occurred she wouldn't stop talking about her beard party. So we planned a date and got to work thinking about what to do.

The office was used for pictures.  You are seeing a sneak peek of the new color.

Derek found pictures of Disney Princesses with Beards and also Batman with a mustache. 

We played a "name that beard/mustache" game. That was pretty fun. Kim won with the most correct with 26 out of 30. 

 Whats a party without cake and cookies? Laurel did such a great job. Zoe was thrilled.

Everyone pitched in and brought something. 

Kim cut out all the fun props for picture taking. She did an excellent job.

As these pictures show this party was a lot of fun. Thank you Zoe for planning such a fun party! 

My new job!

 

As the kids have gotten a little older and need me a little less I have felt like I needed something for myself. Something to keep me busy and my mind engaged. My sister brought up joining her and getting my real estate license. It didn't take long for me decide to do it. November was a very busy month. It was so much work and extremely rewarding to start school and finish my testing and get my license in one months time. I could not have done it without Derek's support and the help of Kim and my mom watching the kids while I was at school all day.

 

 

I'm so happy I did it! Its been fun working with my sister and I look forward to this new year.

 

The day after Christmas

I was totally disappointed when they chose to wear the ASU shirts yesterday over their cute clothes. So I made them take a picture this morning.

 

 

They are having so much fun playing together with all their new toys.

 

For the first time ever I really want to take down all the Christmas decorations now. I love them up but I really want to get organized and I feel like this is holding me back. I remember when I was a kid and how disappointed I was when the Christmas decorations got put away right after Christmas. I'm trying to hold out until next week for the kids. My OCD might over power me though.

Christmas 2013

The kids did not wake up until almost 7 am! We couldn't believe they slept in on Christmas Day.

When Chase opened this present he said, "I've been waiting for this set for years!"

As soon as the presents were open she went upstairs to get her Jeep and get them hooked up.

 

After breakfast and getting dressed Derek's parents  and Kim came over.

 

 

Somehow I missed taking pictures of Derek with some tools he got.
overall we had  a great Christmas. My parents have been sick for nearly a week so we weren't able to spend Christmas with them. The plan is to have a Christmas dinner this coming Sunday when my younger brother comes in town.