Fashion Show and Christmas Tree-ing

Take a look at what Lauren is sportin' these days...
The Jacket:

She's a HAPPY girl!!

 The Bag:

And here's my girl before her first game.  
See #4 waaaay down there on the field?  That's her!  
She started :)  
And when her team was awarded a penalty kick, her coach let HER take it!!  
And she made it!  She has nerves of steel!

She's having so much fun so far.  They've already played 6 games and she has a tournament the next two weekends before league games start.  Those will be twice a week.  We are overloaded with soccer right now but of course she is loving every minute!


Now, let's bring on the festivities!!
The little ones helped us pick a Christmas tree today and Jake chose a tree just like he chose a pumpkin... very deliberately.


Too skinny:

 Too Fat:

 Too tall:

 Too White:

Just right!

(Notice Sophie's favorite rain boots!  It was warm and sunny, but she HAD to wear her boots!)

 My Favorite Christmas Tree choosers:

Sophie LOVED decorating.  Everything she put on is near the bottom and she periodically just sits on the floor in front of the tree and rearranges all of her ornaments.

Each Christmas we buy the kiddos an ornament that reminds us of something special from the year.  It's a wonderful tradition that Joey's grandmother started for him, so we have ornaments dating back to 1969 on our tree. We even have a little angel that was part of Joey's mobile that hung over his crib.  
When my family moved from Belridge to Shafter we lost all of our childhood ornaments, you know all those painted wooden ones :) so it is extra special to have all of Joey's.
Each of the kids have their first year ornaments of course, but some other great ones are the crowns from when we used to play King and Queen of the bed, Sophie's Starbucks apple juice cup, Lauren's brightly colored VW bug because she loved playing slug bug in the car, Jake's fishing bear for the year he learned to fish, and Sophie's Dora!!!
This year each of the kids got two ornaments. 
We commemorated with a Hershey's bar ornament for Jake, because he can't get enough of S'mores (even cooking them over the stove when necessary).

And a "first year of tackle football" ornament:

Lauren has a Frontier High School varsity soccer ornament and one more that hasn't arrived yet, but I'll show ya' when it gets here!

 And Sophie received an ornament that says, "Little Miss Sunshine" cuz that's exactly what she is to us!  She also has a giant pink personalized cupcake that should be here any day to remind us of her fabulous pink birthday party :).  Again, I'll show you when it arrives!

I absolutely love our tree.  I have several ornaments that came from my mom's tree, and many that she gave to Joey and me, so I love opening up the ornament box every year and feeling a little bit of her.  
And our tree-topping angel was the one that was always on my mom's tree so it is perfect!! 
All in all, it was a beautiful day for Christmas Tree-ing!!