Pants on the ground

Last night Charlie and I watched American Idol and I have had the last audition in my head all day.

Here is the original and below that are some amazingly good and funny remixes of the song.

It just made me smile and laugh so I thought I would share. I will give one warning: If you listen to these they WILL be stuck in your head for the rest of the day!

Christmas and New Years Eve

My favorite time of year has come and gone. It was filled with lots of memories and great family time. The best part was having Charlie home for two weeks and just enjoying being together as a family.

We started with our annual trip to Bronner's to let the kids pick out a new ornament. Each year they get a new one and they have their own tree that they decorate. Abby now has quite a collection of birds, Morgan has Dora, butterflies, and her latest was a ballerina, and Ethan has lots of trains and this year picked a turtle. They love this tradition and so do I.

After shopping we always go to our favorite chicken dinner restaurant. We got our very own room this year and the kids thought that was great.

We also made a stop at our local Santa house. This place is magical even for adults! I love seeing the kids down peeking in every nook and cranny discovering magical Christmas wonder. Santa was great with the kids and got us all excited for the upcoming days.

Sam wanted nothing to do with Santa as you can tell from the picture below but the rest of the kids got their wishes in and had a blast.

We decorated cookies, had lots of late night sleepovers, made and received many yummy neighbor gifts, and watched lots of Christmas movies, and listed to many hours of Christmas music.

The kids left notes for Santa and their usual plate of treats for the big guy and his reindeer, and were pleased to find their note back from Santa the next morning.

This was the before.

And the after!

After the festivities were over we headed to Chicago to visit family. We spent plenty of relaxing days in p.j.'s and played with cousins, aunts and uncles, and grandma and grandpa...and the new puppy Chewy!

The best part of the trip was New Years Eve. I think we have created a new tradition. We went to a church building and played games all night. We played reverse hide and go seek and kick ball and just let the kids go wild and get all their wiggles out.

Reverse hide and go seek or sardines is where one person hides and when you find them you hide with them until the last person finds the entire group squished and trying to be quite and laughing hysterically.

It was a blast. Here are a few shots of us all squished together!

The night ended with a great game of kickball and then it was back to the house for food and games. I think this is the most fun we have ever had on new years eve.

It has been a great few weeks. I was sad to send Charlie and the kids off this morning. I am sad that the tree is down and the decorations are put away. I just love the family time and memories that this time of year bring and I am now looking forward to this summer. Now I just need something to get me through the next 5-6 months!