Christmas Fun!

since I have been working full time, I have had a hard time feeling the Christmas spirt. Usually at this point in the holiday my shopping is done, my christmas cards are done, and we have done a lot of christmas related activities. I was feeling a little behind since none of that had been done. So with half a day off of work, I tried to make the most of it!! Ali had a skit at school that all the kids had a speaking part and I was so relieved to find out I was able to get off early to make it to it. It was a short little play but well worth going to see. The second I walked in the door and saw Alis face, I knew I was so glad not to miss it!! It was called the gingerbread caper and Alis' line was "I have an idea, Lets make a whole bunch of gingerbread kids, and then he won't be lonely anymore!" She did wonderful and I was so glad to see her personality shine a little!!

After her play we headed to the mall to meet up with all her cousins to see santa. We were lucky to have the majority of the family there, even sunny and pappa came. Brittany even came with her brand new little girl Paige!! We had a great time and the Santa was so Great with the kids!!

Then we saw the train the goes through the whole mall and of course it was a must with all the kids. Pappa rode up front and was hollering Merry Christmas to everyone, it was a lot of fun and Cam loved that it puffed smoke- the Train was awesome!!


When we got home after the mall, we planned to decorate gingerbread houses. We do it every year just because!! My brother and Camille came over and we had a good time decorating our houses. The only down side to the evening was Camille is a culinary school graduate with her degree specialized in dessert type foods and she is AWESOME with a frosting bag!! While mine was gooshing from all sides, hers was perfectly clean and amazing- I just had to remember I had two awesome helpers that make things look Kid beautiful!! It was fun and they are ALWAYS fun to hang out with!

Cam took this picture of Bud and camille and I have to side note that whenever uncle bud comes over he tries to confuse Cam and he tells him that whatever Cam is playing with is something different. Example- Cam is holding a firetruck, so Bud says IS that a transformer- Cam gets so mad!! Yesterday he tried to convince Cam that a frog wasn't a frog but a dinosaur or something dumb, and Cam got so mad he hit him-- Well deserved, but so funny!!


the end product!! We bought it at Walmart so I am sure there are a million replicas of this same house- maybe one year I will create my own but until then, this is perfect!!

Paige Erin (Nicole) Helm is Here!!!!

I simply had to steal this photo from my sisters blog because she looks like a little angel, and I love her so much. It is amazing how you can truly just love your little nieces and nephews and they have a special place in your heart-- well mine do anyway!! I am so lucky to be bestfriends with all of my sisters, and i just love them so much, and with each new addition to our family I get so excited.
Last Wednesday I woke up and phoned to see how Brittany was doing and her husband told me they were waiting to get her water broke. I got off the phone and exclaimed,"This is just like christmas but better!!!"
I was so excited all day and the day seemed so long as we waited for the good news.....Paige Erin Helm made it saftely here!!! at 2:51pm-It was wonderful news!!

I have been so excited about her from the get go because my sweet sister has 3 boys and this is her first girl, so we are all just ecstatic!!

So naturally I had to set out to find the perfect outfit for my new niece. As I found what I thought was perfect and left the store, I get the text that she is 8 lbs 10 oz.!! Holy Cow!! I glance at the Christmas outfit to see the size read 5-8 lbs. -- No good- She is way past that!!! What a chunky monkey!!

We decided to give her some time to recover and the whole family planned to go see her at 5:30-We couldn't wait much longer than that. So I leave work and am heading to go to the hospital. As I am leaving I send a quick text to make sure that it would be okay. I quickly get a text back from Steve her husband saying that she just started hemorhhaging and the doctors were trying to get it under control, so not right now. I quickly contact my family and siblings and relay the message of what was going on. I decided to stop and kill some time at Target because I really wanted to see them SOON!! I waited to hear word and waited some more, and the news that came was so scary. My brother in law told me that she just started feeling sick and then all of a sudden she started hemorrhaging and didn't stop. The nurses rushed in brittany said all she remembers was it was like a scene in ER where there are nurses rushing everywhere and stabbing her with needles, and pushing on her belly to help with clotting and it was CRAZY. After all was said and done she lost over 2 LITERS of blood. HOW FREAKING SCARY!!! We all mentioned that is why the hospital is the best place to have a baby. She was doing better and they were not sure exactly the cause other than her uterus hadn't fully contracted and there was clotting which is scary- so luckily everything went well and she is okay. We weren't allowed to go see her that night so we all had to wait till the next day!!


Ali and Cam were so excited to see thier new cousin. Cam kept saying "Paige, Paige, my cousin, noahs sister is at the hospital!!" It is exciting for everyone!!

I had to force Ali to hold her, she didn't like how much I was drooling over paige- she is used to all that love and affection headed her way- but finally she broke down and really liked the sweek Paige!!

I am so glad I am already her favorite Aunt. Her real name is Paige Nicole(after me) but Brittany had to pretend it is Erin so my other sisters don't get mad-- I am so glad she has my name sake in there!!!!

Brittany is a trooper for even letting me take any pictures, she had quite the day and was still smiling and wonderful, amazing, and is such a great mom. Paige is one lucky girl!!

Love the Snow

Just had to capture the fun in the snow!! I love the snow a lot, as long as I am not driving in it. I could spend all day outside building stuff with my kids. We need a hill in our yard we decided so we could build fast sledding runs. Growing up my mom used to spend all day building the greatest snow ramps of all time. As kids it was one of our favorite parts of winter. I remember getting in our "laundry baskets" and sliding down what always seemed like the greatest slides of all time. My mom got major brownie points for being the coolest mom ever. I hope my kids remember the times we play in the snow together, they are some of my favorite.