Ballard Bunch

Well, I missed Friday Favorites, so today it's Saturday Sound Off. I'm sounding off about the Holiday Break: Christmas is over. It was GREAT. Great to see everyone, great food, really great presents. Ours started on the 23rd and continued through the 25th. We are now trying to catch up on sleep and get our house in some semblence of order!!! Major organizing going on here, which I love. One thing I really love about the holidays is how everyone is home. Jason has been off since the 21st, and doesn't have to go back to work until after the 1st. My sister Caitlin is home from OU, and will be home for a couple more weeks. This is one of my favorite things of the holiday season, having everyone home or at least not working as much. Some photos from Christmas '07 On Christmas Eve, we spend the day with my Dad and Grace. We made gingerbread and sugar cookies for Santa this year. I had made the dough the previous day, and we rolled them, cut them out and decorated them. It was...

Merry Christmas from the Ballards Random Christmas favorites: Favorite Christmas song- O, Holy Night; We Three Kings; O, Come All Ye Faithful Favorite kid friendly Christmas Song- Rudolph, the Red-Nosed Reindeer Favorite food to eat at Christmas- Gingerbread, with a big glass of iced cold whole milk Favorite thing we got for the kids- W: Meet The Robinsons figures L: Princess sheets for her bed What I am most looking forward to- seeing Jason's mom open her gift, seeing Jason open his gifts, watching the kids Christmas morning see the plate with half eaten cookies and finally saying, "It's CHRISTMAS DAY!!!" Favorite Christmas presents I have received- my black Kate Spade from Mom- I was so SHOCKED, my sapphire earrings to go with my engagement ring from Jason Favorite Christmas activity this year- making lemon poundcakes with the kids, Christmas at the Stockyards Doing anything differen...

This is the question I get every morning! My poor children. They understand just enough to be excited about Christmas, but not enough to get why it isn't HERE YET. I keep telling them, "It's Christmas Time, not Christmas Day." We have alot of things we do leading up to Christmas and I am trying to keep those things exciting, so they realize it is STILL not Christmas Day. Since my Dad is letting me keep his camera until I get my AWESOME new one for Christmas, I have been able to take pictures of everything we do! I missed having a camera so much... ANYWAY, like I said, there are several things we do leading up to Christmas Eve and Day. We do the house decorations (check), Christmas cards (check), we cook lemon pound cakes for the neighbors (check), we go to the Fort Worth Club for their Christmas brunch (my personal favorite, and check), we decorate my mom's tree with them (tonight), and we drive around looking at Christmas lights (with Peepaw and GG on the 23rd). ...

It is getting closer! While Christmas Eve and Christmas Day is absolutely spectacular, I really enjoy these two weeks or so leading up to it. There is anticipation, excitement, stress, so many things going on! I realized several years ago, how much fun these weeks are, and to enjoy this time as much as I enjoy the 2 days of presents on the 24th and 25th . I love figuring out what to get everybody- it is SO great when you find something that you just know the person is going to love, but it wasn't even on their list, or when you find a good deal! I like knowing some of what my family is getting, but it is fun to be surprised a little, too. We decorated our house the weekend after Thanksgiving. I like to get it up early, so we can enjoy it for a couple of weeks. I really love our tree , with some childhood ornaments that Jason's mom shared with us, lots of Disney ornaments , and ornaments from everywhere we have traveled and everywhere our family has been, as well. While ...

I forgot to put this at the bottom of yesterday's post, when I was talking about the kids shouting "Oklahoma" or "Go Frogs" whenever they see TCU or OU stuff. Had to give some love to my frogs !!! From purple day at ARK School-October '07 Lucy cheering in her TCU outfit This is actually part of a Christmas present for my Granny. She has a picture of me when I was about 3 in a TCU cheer outfit, and my Dad had the great idea of getting an outfit for Lucy and taking her picture. He is going to put them side by side in a frame and give it to Granny for Christmas.

As you know, Color Day at ARK School is my favorite day of the month. Whatever color they are focusing on that month, one day they all wear that color to school. It is fun to dress the kids up anyway, and I love putting together their outfits for these color days . I know, it's silly, but I look forward to it and it makes me happy, so... there you have it! Today was Red Day . There were a couple of ways I could have gone with this: 1)holiday clothing 2)plain red head to toe - yes my children have that much red But, ultimately we chose............ BOOMER SOONER!! Who would have thought??? The kids with Walker's teacher, Colleen. She is a Longhorn for Life !!! I told them to give me a number one sign. They started chanting, "We're Number 1! We're Number 1!" Many thanks to Aunt Caitlin for giving the kids these cute outfits. They recognize the OU symbol everywhere they see it now. "Oklahoma!", they say. As a person who never cared one way or the o...

This week, I made corn tortillas with all the kindergarten classes. Normally, I have each kindergarten class everyday (Monday-Thursday). During "tortilla week", I take one kindergarten a day, so I have time to go through the whole tortilla making (and eating!!) process. This is my second year to teach Spanish to the little guys, and do the tortillas. It is always a favorite activity!! !Muy Delicioso! The masa Masa is what the dough is called. It is corn flour (found at the store), salt and warm water. The masa in the tortilla press A pressed tortilla! On the griddle, almost ready... YUMMY!! The kindergarteners enjoy their tortillas. I brought butter and salsa, I was surprised how many of the kids wanted salsa on their tortillas. I know I don't talk about my job too much, but I really enjoy it. I purposely majored in elementary education, because I didn't think I was "cut-out" for early childhood. It takes a special person to be a teacher, but I believe that ...

Got some cute holiday cartoons in an email, and they made me giggle. And what is more fun than giggling, I ask you??? In these crazy weeks leading up to the holidays, remember to giggle a little! Enjoy, friends!

I always loved doing our Christmas card pictures as a kid. It was usually after Thanksgiving, and it meant the Christmas season was starting. It was sort-of the kick-off to Christmas, if you will. My mom was very creative with what we did and they always turned out really cute. Some of my favorites were my sisters and I at the mall, and we sat down with lots of bags around us and the Christmas mall decorations in the background. Another time, we went to Calloway's and posed in the middle of their Christmas tree display and that was our Christmas card. It didn't always involve us going somewhere and stealing their decorations as our card picture, but I was always proud to have such cute cards with thought out ideas. It embarrassed the heck out of my sisters, but I loved the attention!!! I haven't gotten to that level yet, it is hard enough to get two young ones to look and you and somewhat smile! But, as they get older, I hope to come up with cute ideas and have cards to...

It's December, the best time of the year as far as I'm concerned! One of our favorite things to do with the kids is... TAKE PICTURES WITH SANTA! Our favorite Santa is at Ridgmar Mall. He is always nice and has a great look, and they have a cool area to walk through as you are waiting. Ridgmar Mall 2004 Ridgmar Mall 2005 (yes, this was Lucy's first Christmas , but I didn't think Santa could handle both of them! ) Ridgmar Mall 2006 Christmas at the Stockyards 2007

Today, the kids and I went to "Christmas at the Stockyards". We have never done it before. I get an email once a week from Go City Kids about events happening in our area. This was one of the picks of the week, and it was FREE, so we went! The kids had a blast. There were animals, a Cowboy Santa, and pony rides!! One good thing about getting out of the baby stage and into the toddler/preschool stage, is that you can do more with your kids, and they understand more. It is so fun to take them places and just watch their reactions-and then talk to them about it afterwards. They bring so much joy into my life. We had a great day. Cowgirl Lucy Walker trying to "rope" a chicken!! A second before the picture took, that goat was pretty close. She thought is was funny, though. After I get my new camera for Christmas, I won't miss those moments!!!! Merry Christmas, y'all!! (hooray for no freak-outs this year!)