The Ballard Bunch

After showing Shantell recent posts with video of Tatum, she wanted to shoot a movie of her own. Here she is, in all her glory. :)

I was able to get some video on my digital camera throughout the day, but the color isn't so good and it wouldn't be that visable posted for you all - sorry!

We were so happy to celebrate with family and friends and certainly miss all of you that we couldn't spend time with this holiday season. We hope that we can catch up in person sometime soon!

Bring on the new year!!!!

lots of love,

The Ballards

p.s. Here is a cute picture of Hayden and Pappa Glenn on Christmas Eve.

Here's a great clip of Tatum singing a song she's made up. She's already such a little performer - she's constantly singing and dancing for me all day long.

Just an explanation of why she's on the counter and has such a beautiful hairstyle: I was finishing up making bows for the girls' Christmas presents (to go with the outfits they are getting) and she wanted to help. Before she could help, she had to put on her bow (her favorite way to wear it as of late) and climbed up on the counter via the barstool.

Ladies and gentlemen, put your hands together for Tatum Gayle Ballard...

Last night we had a get-together with some friends to celebrate Christmas. Beau's kept in touch with quite a few of his friends from high school and I've subsequently become friends with their wives. We had a great time playing a white elephant gift exchange and then a couple heated rounds of "The Newlywed Game".

Oh, and the kids had fun, too!

Here's a picture of (left to right): Kaden, Brianna, Hayden (being held up in the background by Beau), Jadi, Tatum, Sadie & Samson (holding Tatum's baby doll). Not pictured are Addison and McCord - they were with their mammas. (Apologies to the moms ahead of time if I've misspelled any of the kids' names!)

This is how the girls looked after I went grocery shopping last night and left them home with dad for an hour.



Props for Beau for getting them to sleep - just curious how he got them to sleep in those positions! :)

Yesterday was the annual Grow Family Christmas party. We had a great time seeing family (Beau's Dad's side) that we hadn't seen in awhile. And enjoyed a visit from a special visitor - just in from the North Pole. Well, correction, some of us enjoyed the visit. Check out the pictures to see how it all went down...


Here is Hayden, sweet as can be, calm and peaceful in Santa's lap. She got some soft blocks to play with and is already enjoying them a lot at home.



Here is Shantell, the vetran of the group, posing obedientely for the camera. She got a Polly Pocket toy. Shanna and I had been at the store buying their gifts for this party and asked her which one "Tatum" would like. She picked this particular one and when she opened it said, "Hey! This is the same one Tatum is going to get!" I think I may have to buy one to keep the illusion of Santa alive one more year. :)



Here is Braeden, so excited to go open his gift that I barely got the chance to snap a picture. He got one of those fly wheel toys, which he and Uncle Beau enjoyed for quite awhile that afternoon. Beau loves Braeden's gifts the best - I should just start buying him toys and call it good.



Here's little Kehl, sweet as can be with his little man shirt and adorbale little nose (it's my favorite thing!). He got some baby cars to play with his big brother. I'm sure his dad will play along, too!



Here is Jakelle, a little confused by it all, but still in good spirits sitting on the lap of a man she doesn't know. :) She got the movie "Cars" - a good start to her own movie collection (her mom and dad have quite the selection already)!



And then it was time for the most questionable of reactions. Would she or wouldn't she? All started well when Santa walked in the room - we sang Jingle Bells and she said "Santa!" when he walked in. But she wouldn't get close enough for me to even take a picture of them together.



Oh well, maybe next year. She did, however, totally enjoy her new "puppy" - we got her a little stuffed lap dog that comes in a carrying purse and has a leash, feeding bowl and magnetic bone. She's been wanting a dog, but this might be the closest she gets for awhile.

I think I'll forego the trip to see Santa at the mall this year...

Here's our littlest snow-bunny nice and cozy in her hat, mittens and bundle me. She didn't wake up once - she had a great time!

This is Tatum at the start of our adventure. She didn't last long in the stroller, but did a good job at staying with the group. She loved the elves - I think it's because they were almost her size!

Here are all the kids at one of the displays. The more kids you gather, the harder it is to get them to all look at the camera, forget smiling at the same time! Can you tell which ones are kids and which are elves? :)

We snuck Shantell, Braeden and Tatum past the ropes to get a cute picture near this mini-house. Shantell was very concerned that we were breaking the rules and Tatum was obsessive about finding a seat on the stairs before we could actually take the pic.

This is an attempt to get a picture of the three cousins, but Braeden is pulling a serious "Travis" in this one.

Here is one of the cute displays, minus our kids.

At the end of our visit, this mom wised up and had the kids all do something fun together for the picture - seems a group challenge is the way to get them to cooperate. Arms up!!!

(I'd considered trying to get them to pose like lil' rappers, since the sign says "Will Wrap for Candy" - but you can imagine how difficult that might have been with this crowd!)

Yep, those are mine (with a heel)...and she can run around the house in them. A true girly-girl. She might be a nudist-at-heart, but her feet are always well accessorized!

Every kid's favorite treat!

I love how a house feels at Christmas. Something about the smell of a fresh tree that makes a home just feel a little more cozy.


...now, if I can just coax Beau into putting up the lights outside...

If I can figure out how to make this work, the video below is Tatum displaying some of her favorite things to say. There are lots more, but she wasn't super cooperative today - I'll take what I can get! :)

Love that face! :) Hayden is constantly smiling - even while on her tummy (which she hates, by the way). I've lucked out with such a wonderful baby with a sweet disposition.

p.s. Her eye is red from a cold - she tends to rub her eyes a lot when they are watery and it's created a dry spot near the corner, poor thing.

Nope, apparently I can't do it.

Today, after a lovely baby blessing and luncheon at Shanna's house, I couldn't quite handle the last three stairs going down to the basement. I slipped, tried to catch myself on the railing and ended up dislocating my shoulder. Ouch!

Now, the challenge is being a mamma with one functioning arm. Updates soon!

:) loves, me

Thinking of poor Beau out there plowing all night and thought I'd post some of my favorites of just us. He's such a great husband and dad and we are so grateful for all of his hard work and long hours.

Enjoy!

I've got everything up besides our tree and outside lights. It feels good to have everything out and in it's place - there is something about Christmas decorations that make a home feel a little more home-y. And I'm not talking Snoop Dogg, yo. :)

This may be boring for most of you, but this is a great venue for me to post pictures of boring things that moms like to see when they are far away. So, please bear with me. Mom, Cheryl - these are for you so you can get a feel of what Christmas is like in our new home!

Lots of loves from us to you.

This is on our front door. Last month it was turkeys, this month it's stockings. I'm still bugged that my "s" is slightly higher than the rest. Those of you that know me know that I'll probably fix that before too long. But here's what it is as of now. What will next month be? Ooooooooo.....the suspense. :)

This is on the inside of our front door. I found this great double wreath hanger so on the front I can hang our welcome sign and on this side I can have a wreath for Christmas. This red matches our living room so well, I'm sometimes tempted to leave it up all year long!

This is a nothing craft - all I did was "modge podge" paper to the front of wooden letters. Kind of an experimental craft that I started last year and had to refine this week. I think it turned out pretty darn cute, if you ask me! Now, if Tatum would stop trying to knock them off of the TV!

Shanna and I made these last night. Another easy, pre-cut wooden craft. But he sure adds a little to the living room. I can't tell you how much I love the $8 hand sanders we found last week. They really do save quite a bit of time when doing things like this!

This is the other project from yesterday. I'm especially excited about how these candy canes turned out because they were a beast to paint. We ended up trimming the edges with black magic marker to make them look cleaner and when we sanded them down, it acutally gave it a cuter look. Tate's been realitively kind to these, surprising considering how close they are to her level. I wonder how she'll do with the ornaments on the tree?

This year I actually have somewhere to hang our stockings! The banister that sits behind our big couch is the perfect place. I found a new stocking for Beau (it's got a cowboy feel to it) so now we all have full sized stockings for Santa to fill!

We made these last year at Shanna's Super Saturday (that sounds like an event when her name's attached to it like that). They make for a great centerpiece on the table that I'm still totally in love with two weeks later. I want my barstools to arrive, though!

As is the tradition of Day After Thanksgiving shopping (we had so much fun this year - pulled the classic all-nighter with the girls!), so is pulling out the Christmas decorations the day after the big feast. Keeping with that tradition, a new look for the blog. I know we didn't keep the fall theme long, but we started late. Anyway, enjoy. Thanks for visiting!

When you have a baby with so much hair, you really don't put hats on them too often. I found this darling hat that I had purchased for Hayden before she was born, but had never put on her as of yet. I have to admit, as much as I love her fun head of hair, she looked pretty darn cute with a hat on, too. She was so good and kept it on most of the day.

Here are a couple of pictures, one of her cracking up and flashing that contagious grin. As you can tell in the pictures, we're still having the barf problem and wear bibs 24/7. This one ended up in the wash pretty soon after the pictures were taken.