Must Be Santa!

 This year Joelle saw Santa at Bass Pro Shop!!  She was pretty bashful and didn't speak to him, but I was just glad that she got on his lap and smiled for the picture!!

 

 

The Bass Pro Shop had quite the setup as you can see!!  After we got Joelle's picture taken, we went to the Fish Company and had lunch.  We got to see Uncle David and visit with him for a bit. 



Fa la la la la....

 

 

This year I got a little crafty with my Christmas décor!  These trees were made out of tomato cages and lights!!  They turned out so well.

 

 

 This is my bulb wreath!

 

 

This is the Christmas card holder that I made.  Pinterest is my new best friend as you can see:) 





 

Ahh, red lights.  The outside décor is in honor of Grandpa Niekamp.  His favorite holiday was Christmas and he always decorated his outside with red lights.  This was BEFORE they had strings of red and he would buy lights and paint them!!  His house was always the essence of Christmas for me.  The tree was decorated with glass ornaments and there was a train track that ran around the base.  The front door had the best jingle bells to announce when anyone entered the house.  I remember when I was younger and our family would go to Ohio for the holiday, we would enter the house and my dad would always say, "Ho, ho, ho, Merry Christmas" as we entered the house.  My grandpa also always had a 3 tiered glass candy dish on the kitchen table with the best candies!!  This year my grandpa passed away after Thanksgiving and my family tried to do it up in a way that he would have liked!



 

I also made all these wreaths, not that they were very difficult as it is just garland, but they did turn out nice.  

 

Thank goodness the kids still like to help put the ornaments on the tree!!  It would be a big job if I had to do it all myself.  

Thanksgiving Pratt Style

 

 This year was the first time that David and Megan were coming with us to a Pratt Thanksgiving.  We loaded up the truck and packed everyone in for the long ride!  And a long ride it was!

 

 There is nothing better than spending time with family over the holidays.  We missed Thanksgiving last year and I was reminded how much I missed it!  When you have such a large family and live far apart, you really cherish the times you do have together. 



 

Steve and his brother Chris look more alike the older they get!! 



 

This is just a small amount of the food that was there!!  There was more in the kitchen and a entire dessert table that was full as well.  Steve's mom really does up the meats and my sister in law Myra covers just about everything else!

 

The kids enjoyed the food and the time with family!!  We were so thankful that they were able to join us this year. 

 

Tooth Fairy Time!!

We were at one of Megan's basketballs games and Joelle turns to me with a tooth in her hand and a little blood in her mouth and says, "my tooth is bleeding."  She was scared and a little nervous because she didn't know what was going on.  We didn't know her tooth was loose.  She literally pulled it out with her tongue!!  Once I explained that it was a good thing and that she lost her baby tooth so her big girl tooth could come in, she thought it was pretty cool.  And when I told her about the tooth fairy, she was excited!!  I guess it is only fitting that she should loose her first tooth this way.  When she was 4 months old she cut her first 2 teeth and we had no idea they were coming in and now she looses a tooth and we had no idea it was loose!!

Time for a Fire......

and some s'mores!

Trick or Treat!

 

Princess Joelle is ready to get out there and get some candy!!

 



We went trick or treating with Julie and Marissa.  The little girls were so excited to be able to go together.



They goofed around a lot!! 

 



 

By the end of our travels everyone had a bag that was too heavy to carry!  It will take Joelle months to get through all her candy.  

My Selfless Girl!

 

So Joelle had a soccer game this last Saturday and it was sort of the same thing the whole game.  When Joelle is in she scores.  She is determined and always goes after the ball to take it away.  At the end of this video you see Joelle giving her friend Hayden a chance to score.  Hayden and Joelle go to school together at Perry and it made me so proud of my girl!!