Christmas Tree Farm

One of my favorite Christmas things to do here in West Tennessee is to go to the Christmas tree farm. We go out of town to a little family owned and run farm. They take you by horse drawn cart or tracker pulled cart to where the trees are. You walk around and find your own tree. Then they cut it down and you ride back up the a little cabin for hot cocoa or cider while they shake your tree, bind it up and tie it to your car for you. It's great!

I will try to get some pictures of the girls by the decorated tree in the house. Umma and Babu arrived yesterday so the tree is surrounded by presents now. Kara, David and the boys fly in tomarrow afternoon, we can't wait!

Christmas is coming!!!

Gingerbread House

What could be more fun to pull out of a box than a beautiful gingerbread house!?! We have had so much fun looking at this house... the girls are anxiously waiting for Mom rip off the plastic and let them tear into the candy house. I just can't do it yet though, it's way to cute! Maybe Christmas Eve:)

The house even has Bustrum above the door... how fun!

Thanks Aunt Joy- we love it!!!

We WON!

Last week, Mark called into a local radio station and won us tickets to the Third Day/Jars of Clay Christmas concert. I felt a little bad going because we were going to miss our small group Christmas party. But all the ladies assured me that free concert tickets were a valid excuse. Not to mention that Letha is living with us right now and offered free babysitting. No way we could pass that up.
I love going to concert so I was excited. The bands did not disappoint, it was great!
Mark and I had so much fun! Jars of Clay opened with all Christmas songs, and then Third Day did half Christmas/ half their songs. The best part was at the very end the bands sang together. They did two of my favorites- Love Song for a Savior and Just to Be With You- only the lead singer of the other band sang the other bands song- it was a little medley of the two songs together- very fun!

And no, we are not all caught up yet- we still have getting a gingerbread house from Aunt Joy, getting and decorating the Christmas tree to post... we'll try to get it all in before Christmas.

Of course we have a video...

The big minute!

Christmas Pageant

We made it home in time!!!

The whole week we were gone our big hope was that our flights home would be on time and so that we could make it back in time to see Sahara and Bria dance in their Christmas pageant. Our flights were not only on time... but early. We got back in plenty of time! We got to see our two angels dance!!!

Cookie Time

I have decided that Christmas cookie making is best done with Aunties...

Aunties think that the mess is cute. (Mommy would have kept the mess to a minimum thus squashing all the creativity.)

The girls made a whole bunch of very cute very yummy cookies. And saved a plate special for Mommy and Daddy when we got home!

Back Home

I am way behind... Mark and I spent the last week in Virginia and Letha was here with the girls. It was a very busy week for everyone and lots of pictures need to be posted so I will just start back and work our way to catch up.

On Tuesday the girls sang with their Children's Chorus in the Union Christmas program. Heidi took Tirza for a little girl's night out- ice cream, shopping, back home for popcorn and movies:) So Letha was able to get some pictures and video of the girls singing.

Piano Recital

Sahara did such a good job at her first piano recital! She said that she had a few butterflies in her tummy but mostly it was fun.

Yeah Sahara!!!

Doctor Visit

I had to take the girls to the doctor today for full physicals, we all survived! They got weighed, measured, hearing tests, finger sticks... the whole deal and all three girls did great. No tears even!!
Now they get to look forward to the rest of the day...
Sahara has her last piano practice before her recital on Saturday morning.
Bria has her last kindermusik class.
And both girls get to have a sleepover with their friends, at their friend's grandma's house!
Not to mention that sometime today we have to squeeze in getting ice cream at our favorite place Maggie Moo's with the coupons that nurse gave the girls.

Our Thanksgiving

We had a wonderful Thanksgiving! Our friends had us over for a mystery dinner... Not only did they cook up the whole dinner feast (yes, you heard me right I didn't cook a thing!) but they also shared with us how thankful they are for our friendship. We really have so much to be thankful for!

Notice the shoes on little Sam? Look at little big? That's because they are Sahara's:)

And don't worry we didn't forget about Tirza, oh no we did not! She, in true Tirzy fashion, make her mark on our thanksgiving holiday! Zach and Angie made us a special pumpkin pie- FROM the PUMPKIN, not the can! It was sitting on the table and all of the adults were in the kitchen making our coffee and tea to go with the beautiful pie... When Sahara came and alerted us that Tirza was messing with the pie. Destroying would have been a better word...

.

At least she used the server and not her hands... and yes, we did still eat the whole thing!

Top Tooth

Sahara lost her first top tooth yesterday. I didn't even realize it was very loose yet! She went into the bathroom and came out holding her tooth. Sahara doesn't mess around with loose teeth. (Her friend, Jackson, taught her how to get those teeth out in a hurry!)

Sahara wrote the Tooth Fairy a note that said, "Hey this is Sahara agin. can I have 2 pack's of gum can Bria have something to."

Fairy Violet, Sahara's tooth fairy, is very sweet and brought just that, 2 packs for Sahara and one to share with Bria!

Isn't that grin hilarious!:)

Quotes

Last night as we were sitting down to dinner Bria said, "Mom can I just have some vegetables for dinner?!"

Tirza's new thing to say is, "My Daddy said" or "My Momma says." Yesterday when I got her up from her nap she told me, "My Letha says..."

Little Cinderella

Since last time...

We had another crazy fun weekend... both girls had sleepovers on Friday night. We got to rest and all be home together on Saturday, and Sunday was close to normal:)
Tomarrow afternoon we are headed to Memphis... Mark and I have a meeting and then we are all staying the night at a hotel so we can put Letha on the plane Wednesday morning.
Time is flying by- Thanksgiving is just around the corner and we haven't even gotten to making our next count down!
Which by the way I just counted and it's less than 40 days until more family arrives, from Canada and India!!! Yeah!

Way Behind...

I have been a bad blogger lately... I am way behind in the happenings of the Bustrum family. She for now I'll give highlights and try to keep up better from now on.
1. This weekend we kept our friends 3 kids. We being us and the Smiths, so that means there were 9 kids among us:) 8 girls and 1 boys! The kids were all over the place... some here, some with Allie. Marcie took the big girls for a sleepover Saturday night, she thought she was taking the easy ones but they woke her up at 5:30am on Sunday- haha, I mean sorry about that. We learned that little boys take a whole different energy level than little girls, poor Graham got a little bored at times. But Mark enjoyed Star Wars training, playstation and even worn Graham out one time when he took him to play disk golf. It was a fun, crazy weekend!

2. Tirza told Letha yesterday, "You are ruining my Life!"

3. Mark sent Tirza on a fly catching expedition last night to get her out of the kitchen while we made dinner. She came back in a few minutes later with a fly swatter and a dead fly in her hand. She was saying, "Fly, fly, fly, fly..."

4. Today after car shopping with Letha we got to go to "work" at a micro society school with our friend, Isaac. It is such a neat program the kids all have jobs and go to work, get paid, go shopping. it's great. We got to go today and shop. They went to an insect zoo, got their nails done and bought an American girl magazine. Thanks friends for inviting us!

Okay, I think you are all up to date now...

Halloween

It was perfect weather for Trick or Treating and we had lots of great friends to go with. The big kids went as fast as they could from house to house. Sahara lead the pack with Mark not far behind:) I think she only wiped out one time. Tirza was amazed that all you had to do was say, "trick or treat" and candy was dumped in your bad- how cool is that?! Bria thinks we should let her dress up like a princess everyday...

Time is flying by...

We have been staying busy here, enjoying every minute with Letha. We have been shopping, eating, sorting suitcases and all the things tucked up in the attic. We have made that first fun trip to the grocery store so Letha could get all the things she missed while she was away. Yogurt, pickles, chips, milk, cereal...
The girls are loving the extra attention, lots of games are being played, movies watched, barbies, polly pockets... oh and Letha is teaching the girls Biology:) We have a skeleton that you put together as you learn about the parts of the body, the girls love it. Yes, I did wait for Letha to teach the girls, I know nothing about biology!
I think we about have some Halloween costumes put together... I am sure there will be plenty of pictures taken tomarrow!

Letha's here!

Letha is finally back and we are enjoying every minute with her! She got back on Tuesday night after her flight had a short delay. I took pictures of us waiting for her and then we were so excited when she came out that I forgot about taking pictures:)

Bria carefully watched Mark's cell phone until 4:44 pm, the time her flight was landing.

Sahara helped me take over seats right by where Letha would come out at.

Tirza was a little harder to entertain...

Waiting can make the best of us a little crazy!

So happy to have Letha at home with us!

22 hours

22 hours until Letha lands in Nashville!
She is already started traveling and so far so good. The girls and I will head out tomarrow after lunch to drive to Nashville to pick her up, we can't wait!

Pumpkin Carving

The week after

We are just enjoying a return to normal after the week of parties and pumpkins patches. Don't worry life has not been boring, Mark was sick, we had school and piano lessons and all that. Tirza has been up to her normal gettings into things.

Last week we were keeping the Smith girls so Ronnie and Allie could go to the play at Union. They put Lilly down for a nap in the pack n play in the big girl's room. Tirza snuck in and got into the bed with Lilly, I heard them giggling away. I got Tirza out and put her down for a nap in her room and headed for the grocery store. When I got back I heard the giggling again and Mark asked if I knew how Tirza got into Lilly's room. Well that's a good question, especially since we have one of those doorknob things on the doorknob inside Tirza's room so she can't get out. Turns out she had dismantled the doorknob thingy (she had never done that before and hasn't been able to do it again) quietly went next door into where Lilly was, all the while closing the doors behind her so no passing by adult would suspect anything. Mark caught her sneaking back to her room to get a book, she said Lilly wanted a book!

Groovy Girl Party

Bria's Big Day

Bria's 5th Birthday

Bria's birthday was so fun and exciting that we are exhausted and will have to post the slide show of it all tomarrow after some rest. It was a great day! She got to spend the whole day with her friends, Parker and Chloe. We went to the pumpkin patch, ate lunch together, watched her new movie (Barbie Island Princess), made and decorated cupcakes, opened presents from Auntie Heidi, had pizza, went to mission friends and shared her cupcakes, got ice cream, opened more presents from Auntie Letha and Auntie Kara... Whew! Like I said we are tired and will post all the great pictures tomarrow!

Happy Birthday sweet Cambria Rose!

Bria's Bash #2

Grandma and Grandpa's package arrived today!

Very important, we had to read the letter first...

So Exciting!!!
A brand new, big sized Webkins! Her name is Allie (yes, that our friend's- who is also her teacher 3 days a week-name) Bria loves her and carried her around all day.

Reading her new book.
The very cute and very jealous big sister:) Don't feel bad for her she gets plenty even on her little sister's birthday. She is cute though...