Merry Christmas!!

Merry Christmas! I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas celebrating the birth of Jesus. We did!

Wow, it's been a busy few weeks. Are you ready for some picture overload?? I suppose I'll start with the kids' Christmas parties a few weeks ago.

Austin got to decorate a gingerbread house in his class.

Here he is with his teacher... Austin adores her. I've heard he's accidentally called her mom a couple of times. The girls also accidentally call me their teachers' names sometimes also. I wonder if most kids do this, or just mine?

Cole wasn't lacking for any attention among the second graders - obviously. He was a hit. Almost attention overload for a baby. It's almost as if I brought a puppy to the classroom.

Moving onto Abby's class - they had a book exchange.

"Hmmm... this doesn't look like a princess."

And onto Emily's class. All the kids got reindeer antlers and Rudolph noses. Super cute.

Sugar, sugar everywhere... At one point Abby was eating globs of icing by itself. Yeah - it was a rough night.

More icing. Sigh.

Before Emily's book exchange. It's the "first" present of the season. How exciting!

Here they are making our annual Christmas cookies. Technically, this is after we put the cookies in the oven - so they were free to lick the bowl. Just so you know - there were several hand-washing sessions throughout the entire process.

This is from last year and I know I've put it on here a few times, but I never get tired of looking at it. It cracks me up! Think I will pose them like this next year...

Here are the "favorites" that we saved for Santa.

What you can't hear in the background is Cole screaming. Poor baby was horribly sick all week. He's been sick for weeks and finally about yesterday he started feeling better.

The kids at the Christmas Eve service. Katie and I took the older kids - unfortunately James had to stay home with a sick Cole.

We played a few games of Christmas Eve pictionary. Is it a clown? Maybe baby Jesus because of the cross (and the tie-in to the obvious holiday we're celebrating)?

Nope it's an owl. Oops not really, because she thought she was supposed to draw an elf. So I guess it's one of Santa's elves.

Leaving some food out for the reindeer.

Holy cow look at those presents! The girls love their new dollhouse.

Silly Bandz! How does Santa know this stuff?


A dictionary to help feed his Scrabble addiction.

"It's a pillow. It's a pet. It's a pillow pet." Oh my gosh if I have to hear that jingle anymore I think they might just disappear. Those clever marketers...

Here's little Cole for maybe 30 minutes of the day that he was NOT crying.

He was more interested in "tasting" the packages. Mmm this is a good one.


Princess Jasmine...

My mom, dad, and sister were all over for Christmas and we had a great day. Katie was with us for about a week - it's always funny having her over.

We headed to It'z a few days ago. It's a pizza place with lots and lots of games. Kind of like Vegas for kids.

I think Emily might be regretting her decision to get into the mini roller coaster.

Queen of the cookies!

Aunt Katie and Austin having fun with bumper cars.

"Are you my mother?"

"Whatchoo talkin' bout Aunt Katie?"

Even more Silly Bandz!

Well I think that's about all for now. Happy New Year!

Dear Santa

Dear Santa,

I have been so good. How is the reindeer and Mrs. Clause? I hope there doing good. Christmas is my favorite holiday because I put cheerios in the yard for the reindeer and opening presents. I hope you are not going to be tired and lose flying power. When you come into our house you are going to eat great cookies and drink exalent milk because I love you. I hope you will love our Christmas tree. I hope you are not cold in the north pole because it's in the negative deigrese and you would freeze up. And I also can't wait for mom to take my pictures with you. I would like for Christmas a top 100 greatest players book, a fugigi ball, a spongebob wii, a super mario bros wii, a walter payton card, and a children's dictionary. Merry Christmas Santa.

Love,
Austin



Dear Santa,

I have been very good. I will like a barbie castle and a pony and a fairy.

Love,
Abby

(Emily's letter got sent to the North Pole before these two, but it pretty much said the same thing... except she was "super" instead of "good")

Arm in arm

Austin singing and Abby being silly.

Fruits and veggies

Some information for you just in case you didn't know.

Abby loves to make videos... and talk... ALL the time :)

Blitzen

Sometimes it's hard to get into the reindeer spirit

until your family starts singing Rudolph as loud as they possibly can

and until you have a black reindeer nose.



Antlers courtesy of Emily's class at her Christmas party yesterday. I've noted next time I take pictures with them to take the tag off first. :)

All I want for Christmas is...

my one front tooth!

Thankfully there's no co-pay for this entry.

We've had a busy few weeks. Full of germs. I am so sick of germs.

Austin was one of three 2nd graders (out of 170 at his school) selected for the district's UIL competition in creative writing. He was so excited to attend, but as of yesterday we weren't too sure if he'd be able to. Poor boy has been a mess the last week - including some asthma issues, a staph infection (mrsa), and a nasty stomach bug. Thankfully yesterday afternoon he started feeling better and was able to go. His school got 1st place overall. We're so proud of all the kids! Yeah!!

After the competition, we celebrated with some ice cream.


Then Santa and Mrs. Claus came to our neighborhood. Austin didn't want to go because he just knew it was an impostor Santa.


This was just a few seconds before Cole realized who was actually holding him and started screaming bloody murder.

Mrs. Claus read them a story about her hubby. She was terrific!

Last week we surprised the girls at lunch. They eat a very early lunch at 10:30 and the only thing open was Sonic.

I put a note in their lunches thinking I successfully tricked them. I did Emily for sure, she came in the cafeteria, sat down, and was visibly upset there was no lunch. Her teacher then read the note and she came and found us. She was so excited.

Abby came in the cafeteria without a lunchbox and immediately found us. Her teacher later told me she totally flipped out in class because she had nothing in her lunchbox. Should have known Abby checks first thing at school what her lunch is for the day (even though I told her she had a sandwich and fruit that morning). No getting anything by that one.

This is the best picture I got from Austin's 2nd grade Christmas performance. Obviously we didn't have the best seats but I did catch his shaking his hiney to Santa Clause rock. Hilarious. And, by the way, this wasn't a performance at a retirement home... I must have gotten behind all of the grandparents.

Now as I close this I'm off to call the doctor again because it appears Cole is allergic to the antibiotic he is on. And by allergic, I mean that I've just been informed about a new rash and exploding diaper that is "all over" the place. Can't wait to see that one. Does it ever end??