February Update

The first Friday in February was a busy day for us. It was the Father/Daughter Dance at our elementary school. Kamryn was so excited to go since this is her first year in elementary school. Kylie did a great job curling their hair, too!
It was also the Valentine's Dance at the middle school. So after Chris left with Avery and Kamryn, Madison and two of her friends posed for a few pics before they headed to their dance. Stay tuned..... We are just entering Formal season for the Hartman's! Madison was invited to her first formal, an ROTC dance in March with her boyfriend! She also has the Freshman Formal at her school in April. Kylie has Junior prom at the end of March, and CJ has the senior prom in May. Holy tuxedo, Batman- that's a lot of dances! And if you truly know me, you know that I am loving every minute of this!

How to beat the January BLAHS!!!!!

Usually, right after the Christmas craziness, we don't seem to have any time to unwind because a snow storm is looming, and all of our energy is transferred from the holidays to SNOW. But this year, after the decorations were all put away, and everyone headed back to school and work, I actually found myself a bit in the doldrums. A snow-less January actually makes for a long, dreary month. To help pull me out of my winter doldrums Chris and I decided to take the 3 youngest kids, (CJ and Kylie were at work,) to the Philadelphia Pet EXPO. Ok, I know what your thinking...."Please don't bring another animal into that house." No worries. We played, we had fun, we came home empty handed.

Below is a pic of Madison then Avery holding a cock-a-too. Kamryn was too scared to go near the bird, let alone hold it. Madison did ask us to buy her one, but I stood my ground and said NO.

There was also a petting zoo. Avery and Kamryn went in to pet the various animals. This one is my favorite, the alpaca. What a cool animal. Very docile and affectionate. And their wool is worth a bit of cash. Maybe I could talk Chris into buying me an alpaca farm, or at least just one to roam the back yard.

Kamryn with the baby calf.

The Elmwood Zoo brought one of their tigers. We were able to get fairly close. What a huge, majestic, glad it's behind a BIG cage, animal. No pangs in wanting this creature roaming my back yard.
They also had pony rides at the expo. I was actually surprised that Kamryn got on the pony. She had a lot of fun.
Avery is at the in-between age where she's too young to know that she is too old for a pony ride, and a bit too old for the actual pony ride. Once she got on it, I think she realized it was probably her last pony ride.

Merry Christmas!

Santa was here!

Avery was the first one awake. After she woke everyone up at 6:15am, they all opened up their bedside gifts then all of the kids came into our room to exchange their pollyannas with each other.

Kamryn peeking down the stairs!

First stop, stockings!

The magic of the day!

Last gift to open was a gift for the entire family, XBOX Kinnect.

Daddy building Kamryn's Barbie house.

Kylie and Kamryn playing Barbie's

In the afternoon our company arrived. The Kelly Family, Nana and Poppop, Aunt Jane, Amy, Dave, and Grammy. We all had so much fun.

Kylie and Shauna.

It was such a wonderful Christmas!

Christmas Eve

Here our Madison, Ally, and Kylie on Christmas Eve. This year was a first. CJ and Chelsey both had to work on Christmas Eve and missed a lot of our family get together.

My mom and dad opening up one of their gifts.

Chris and Alan being goofy.

One of my favorite parts of Christmas Eve is when Santa drives through the neighborhood on a fire engine. Of course he always seems to arrive right as we are about to sit down to dinner.

Poppop opening up a lil box of chocolates.

Yeah, Chelsey arrived!

Finally, around 8:30 CJ came home, making our night complete!

Avery's concert

Avery had two concerts this year, one for chorus and one for orchestra. Here she is singing. Unfortunately, the morning of her orchestra concert, she up sick and missed it.

A Hartman Thanksgiving

This year for our annual Hartman Turkey Bowl, we had shirts made up. Thanks to Jill's friend who designs logos and someone Chris knows who does shirts, we all looked fabulous this year!
This is such a great way to start off our 'Hoilday Season.' No one seems to mind the cold or the early morning hour we meet to play.

Daddy and Kamryn on the same team.

Madison and CJ waiting to play.

Avery's turn.

Kylie laughing at one her cousins no doubt.

After the game, we headed home, cleaned up, and had Nana and Poppop over for a visit.

Madi and I.

Our dinner guests arrived

A Visit to st. Nick

Kamyrn has been so excited to see Santa this year. But once again she is too scared to sit on his lap or talk to him. Last year only she and Avery went to see Santa. This year she asked all of her siblings to go with her. (Perhaps she had a little prodding from me to get them to go.) Ironically, it was CJ and Kylie who agreed to go right away. Madison agreed once she found out that her older siblings were going. Avery gave us the hardest time. She is too old to want to sit on Santa's lap, and too young to understand that you're never too old for this. So now the hard part, trying to find a time in our crazy busy schedules to go see Santa. We had a one hour window on Sunday between 6 and 7 pm. Great time to go, NO LINE. As we got closer and closer to Santa, Kamryn got more and more nervous. As we were about to walk up to Santa, she turned around and asked her big brother to hold her. Thank you to my big kids for going with your little sister to see Santa. I will love this pic forever!