Christmas Eve 2008

Hope everyone is still enjoying their Holiday!! I've finally got a minute to sit down and do my Christmas post :-) We haven't been extremely busy but I've been enjoying the time off.

This Christmas was SO MUCH FUN!  The kids are at such a fun age and are loving every minute of every thing! Hailey is so interested in all things Santa and Jack was always humming a Christmas song.  They love looking for lights on houses and giving money to the bell ringers :-) We hung everything we could on the Christmas tree...if it had a hook or string it could go up there!

Here are some pictures from last Sunday when they wore their Christmas outfits to church. Grandma and Papa picked them out and I thought they were very cute.

You can tell Jack was NOT ready for his close up!  He was upset about the fact that we did not have any more green apples...only red ones.  He wanted a green one before church and could not get over it. After pictures he decided a red one would be fine. Poor guy! But he still looks cute to me.

My two little munchkin's!

On Christmas Eve I decided to make sugar cookies.  Santa needed something homemade...I'm sure he would have loved Oreo's but this was lots of fun.  I haven't let the kids decorate cookies like this yet so it was new to us. I remember loving to do this with my mom when I was little so I was hoping they would too.

Hailey had a blast. She helped me cut out the shapes, and stuck with the decorating (all four dozen) till the end!  Jack on the other hand...decorated about two and hit the road...so quick I couldn't even get a picture of him!

She loved giving everything eyes.

Here are some of our masterpieces!  They were very yummy too!! p.s. Jack's are the green candycane and the green ornament with the candycane on it! He likes green!!

After church that night we went by Grandma and Papa's house to spend some time.  They each got a special gift to open early.  Plus their new pajama's from me and Darren.

Grandma and Papa got Hailey a Princess ornament!

And Jack got a Christmas Thomas the Train ornament!

Plus they got these silly wiggly guys!!  They loved them :-)

Then we ran home to feed the Santa's reindeer with our special reindeer food that we made at Hailey's school. They sprinkled it in the front yard and on the walkway.

As you can see Hailey was very meticulous about how she placed each morsel, Jack on the other hand...just dumped the whole bag in one spot!! :-) 'Get 'er done!'

Then we went inside and they picked out some cookies to put on Santa's plate.... and then we read 'The night before Christmas' and hit the bed! Santa was getting close...we checked online!

Stay tuned...Christmas Day next post!

Movie review by a 3yr.old

This was so cute! I saw it on Yahoo! this morning and had to share it. I'm not a HUGE StarWars fan, but I've seen all the movies...this is exactly how I would explain them if I had to :-)

StarWars explained by a 3yr. old!!

Gingerbread houses...take 2!

 

Before I load my Christmas pictures I'm determined to catch up with last week!  I just don't want to leave out this stuff... (this is like our family journal!)

Jack had Gingerbread House making at his preschool on Tuesday of last week. We helped them stick their graham crackers to their milk cartons with icing to get started.... They were going to decorate the next day......

Well... the ants had another idea!! They had a feast that night and probably went into sugar shock!  So on Wednesday we had to start from scratch.  Take 2!!  Since we didn't have time for the icing to dry...we came up with a great plan!  Hot glued the crackers to the carton, then they decorated to their heart's content :-)

Jack love licking the icing off his candy, eating some candy....I had to remind him to put them on the house :-)

They all turned out so cute but we made sure to send them home that day....No supper for the ants that night!!  We just kindly told all the parents that these houses weren't completely edible :-)

Thursday was FULL of preschool fun!!  We started the day with Snacks with Santa at Jack's school.  They had a little program that included dance and tumbling this year. It was so cute. This video is of Jack doing his summersault. (He's the one in the red vest)

After that they did a little singing! Jack didn't do too much... I guess he was intimidated by the crowd.  He usually sings all day long. They used little jingle bells for their accompaniment.

Here's a clip from Jingle Bells... he does real good ringing the bell :-)

After the program the kids got to make different crafts.  He picked this one first.  I have NO idea why?!?  Could it be the GREEN icing with candy?!?

Don't you love my tree...the ornaments taste fabulous!!  

Then Santa and Mrs. Claus came in to read us a story and give everyone a really sweet book about a baby polar bear. 

Then we rushed off to Hailey's school to have Christmas Lunch with her!  Let me tell you just how good this food was!!  I was thinking like school lunch, but no... it was amazing! My mom and Darren joined us but I was so busy eating I totally forgot to take pictures.  We took Hailey out of school early and had a fun afternoon.  We made these popsicle stick Christmas trees and decorated them with all kids of sparkly things!!

Saturday was a Princess birthday party for Hailey's friend Holly!  She turned 4 and it was so much fun!!  Hailey was all decked out and we even stopped at Target before the party to get some last minute things...like the gift!  She kept saying, Mom they think I'm a REAL princess!!

The party was awesome!!  First they did a little karaoke on a stage that was built right into the living room (just for the party...it isn't always there!) 

Then they all sat down for a tea party.  Teddy grahams and sweet tea!! Holly got to serve it herself, she did great! They all went around and talked about their day and what all they had done.  

After lunch and cake they played some games....

Place the crown on Dora's head (there were other stuffed animals and they would mix them up) It was a really cute idea over pin the tail on the whatever.

Next was a snowman piñata!!   He was very sturdy and eventually had to just be torn open!

Snowman loot was individually bagged and labeled with each girls name....remember this was a princess party...no rough-housing or squabbling for candy allowed!!

Okay... I'm almost done... just one more night of fun then this post is over :-)

Monday night was a party hosted by one of the kid's in Hailey's preschool class. It was at her house and all the class was invited to come and see a REAL Santa and exchange gifts.  We all brought goodies and had a really good time.  Even Hailey's teacher came!! Me and her sat in the corner and ate chips and dip :-)

Here are my kiddos with Santa!  Hailey truly believes this was the real deal!! Later that night my dad told her she better be good because Santa is watching...she said, No he's not...he just left the party and is in a car right now...he's not at the North Pole yet!

Santa gave out all his presents.

Jack got an awesome Superman Monster Truck!!

And Hailey got a sweet baby doll and pony set!!

After the party I took the kids down a street that we found last year and loved their lights.  Almost every house puts up lights and I mean a lot of lights. I tried my best to take some pictures but it's hard to drive and shoot at the same time :-)

Before heading home we stopped and 'Aunti' Joyce's and 'Uncle' Tom's house to give them our homemade cocoa.  They live next door to Grandma and Papa and go to church with us.  They are basically like another set of grandparents to the kids... and pretty much all the kids at church feel that way about them :-)

Hailey and Jack had fun looking at all their Christmas decorations.  I of course was a wreck because they wanted to touch everything and at the same time Tom is telling us how that tree is over 40yrs. old and his step-mom made it... okay kids...time to go.  :-)  We don't want to be the ones to break anything! Who us?!?! Never!!

Next post will be all about our Christmas!  And hopefully not as long :-) Hope you are all enjoying your Holiday weekend!!

A little Christmas Cheer!

This was our entertainment last night after they got into their new pajamas while we were at Grandma and Papa's house. Thought I would share some of the silliness :-)

We're Baking Today!

Santa's probably really busy right now... so we are going to do our best to make him some really yummy cookies today!! We don't want to disappoint him when he arrives at our house tonight! We've also got some reindeer food ready to sprinkle outside.

I'll be sure to take lots of pictures (when my hands aren't covered in flour or icing)!

Keep scrolling down...I posted late last night :-)

The Presents Are All Wrapped... now I can blog!

Last Monday was our Church's annual nursing home Christmas party.  We 'adopt' all the residents and bring them gifts.   We sing carols and make cookies and punch.  Our church has been doing this at the same nursing home for at least 30+ years. Probably closer to 40.  This year was one of our best turn out's (as far as our members go) that we've had in a long time.  It was wonderful seeing all the little kids there to sing and pass out the gifts to the residents.  Of course Santa made his debut and everyone was a little surprised this year!  It wasn't 'Papa Santa' it was ' Bubba Santa!!'  He did such a great job!!

Here is Jack going to hand out one of the gifts. Some of the people weren't able to come to the party room so you had to go to their room.  Darren helped him find his person.  He was such a big boy.

Here is Hailey waiting in line with the other kids to get her a gift to hand out.  She was so excited about this!

 

 

 

 

 

Then everyone got to have some one on one time with 'Bubba Santa' and get their picture taken.  This was the evening when we heard both of them ask for things that they had never even mentioned before!!  And ever since then they have stayed true to those requests!!  Why do they wait till the last minute?!?  Luckily Santa was able to pull through!!  Geesh! And He thought he was done!

 

Winter Wonderland

Last Tuesday night was Hailey's Winter Wonderland at her elementary school.  This is a totally FREE event that they have every year.  It was so much fun and the kids loved it!!  They had different activities set up all over the school for you to do through out the night.  We started out in the cafeteria decorating cookies and drinking hot chocolate.

 

Here is Jack making his silly face with Grandma while they make their cookies.

 

 

Hailey had a great time making her cookie too.

 

 

Jack is STILL working on the icing for his cookie....come on...lets move on the the sprinkles!!

 

 

 

Hailey decided not to wait on Jack anymore and just go ahead and eat her cookie :-)

 

 

Finally Jack has joined us down at the sprinkle side of the table... Hailey is done with her cookie so now she is just eating sprinkles off the paper table covering :-) Jack is working on spoonfull #1 of sprinkles...

 

 

 

 

 

 

Now...don't even ask how many spoonfulls this is!!  I just promise there is a cookie somewhere under there!!

 

So next we moved on to making paper chains to countdown to Christmas Eve.  This was also a big hit and was super easy for my kids to do.  Some of the other crafty activities were made for older kids.  Here Jack is telling Grandma to stop touching!!  He can do it!! And Hailey is showing off her completed chain...which as of today is done!!

Next was a stop to make some Candy Cane reindeer.  They are now sweetly hanging on our Christmas tree!  We stopped at a few more places to make an ornament or two... It was such a great night.....

Last stop before heading to the van was a quick snapshot of the family...minus Daddy...he was at SWAT practice.  We missed him. Maybe next year he can come with us!!

 

Okay...well  I've gotten a little bit caught up but it is almost 2am and Hailey has a doctor's apt. in the morning!! I have to get to bed!! I'll post the rest later.

Hope everyone has a great Christmas Eve!!