Gingerbread Houses and Snow Globes!

One of the things I love about this time of year is all the fun parties!! Mom, Tara and I spent the afternoon yesterday planning the next few weeks and I am not joking when I tell you we have something planned almost every single night (including Shane's birthday on the 11th!!)!! One may get stressed out at that notion, but I get totally giddy!!

Shane and I hosted a Christmas party here Sunday night for our Sunday night group from Church. I cannot tell you how much we love our group and are so thankful to be great friends with such awesome people!! We have 11 adults and 10 kids, quite the group! Claire and Owen love it and have made such great friends with all the cute kids! Claire is one of the only girls, but Owen is in company of many rowdy, but fun boys. So we had everyone over, we catered in some yummy lasagna from Carino's, and had a great time!! I also picked up two gingerbread houses for the kids to decorate! We had a gingerbread house for the girls to decorate and then one for the boys, it was hilarious! Below are some pictures of the kids working on their masterpieces. We laughed so hard at the difference in the two houses...

Getting started - the girls...

Cutie pie - Maddie!The boys!Jennifer and CaidenOwen getting involved...helping.......then eating...=)Claire being very precise =)Cute Gavin and Clayton...and Owen eating gumballs as fast he can shove them in his cheeks =) Emmy helping the girls =)
Claire working on her gingerbread man...Shane trying to help the boys...the roof was caving in...the boys were not as gentle as the girls =) Cute Maddie and Emmy!Claire and Rylee - Claire LOVES Rylee!! Rylee is 8 and such a great little girl!! Claire thinks she is the coolest girl EVER!! Shane really trying to help the boys...Owen standing on the table??? Yes, that is Super Glue =)Finally - the finished product - THE BOYS HOUSE...
The GIRL'S HOUSE...

We had such a great time Sunday!! The Lord has blessed our family with this group and I thank Him everyday for it!! We love yall!!!!

Lastly, Claire has decided to start her very first collection this year, Snow Globes! She loves the movie Santa Clause 3, and if you have seen it, you know that Snow Globes play a big part in it. She has 3 now and is soooooo proud of them. Sidenote - Owen wanted to have one too. We bought him 2 very little ones and he managed to bust them both...his movie would be "Dennis the Menace Christmas" =). Claire also made snow globes this weekend (from a great little kit from Hobby Lobby) that she is giving as gifts to some of her favorite ladies in the family. Here she is with her masterpieces and then a picture of her collection.

One more thing - Brittney has been posting these insanely cute pictures of her too precious girls dressed in pjs. So I have bought the kids a bunch of new pajamas lately and they were too cute in them. So I thought I would copy B and get a shot of them....only this is what I got...
I am thinking this is not the Christmas card picture =)...Merry Christmas yall!!!