Merry Christmas

We had such a wonderful Christmas. Not quite the same without family, but with today's technology they were still able to be "here". We got on Skype and my parents, brother, and sister in law all got to watch the girls open presents! Of course I got all emotional as we were opening up the last of our gifts and saying our goodbyes. My Mom made us this super cute Christmas scrapbook! The only thing is, I didn't take a single picture!!! Derek got me a new video camera so I just videotaped the whole time. They will send me pictures from their Christmas and I'll just take some of the girls playing with all of their new toys. And they have ALOT of new toys. They are so spoiled! After they played with most of their toys we went up to the toy room and started sorting through things they would be willing to part with. They just have way too much! They picked out four things........now I just need to convince them to get rid of a couple of their bigger toys (spring horse and easel maybe?)

Anyway, we're grateful for all of our family and friends. We love and miss all of you. Hope you all had a blessed Christmas and we wish you all the best for the upcoming year.

Christmas Eve dinner @ Cheesecake Factory (yum!) located at the North Star Mall --famous for world's largest boots

Avery and her FurReal Frenzies. The rabbit's laugh sounds just like hers!

Allie and her very own laptop

Baking

This year I went a little overboard on the baking.We had a lot of people to make goodies for though!
Sugar cookies, Oatmeal cookies with red and green m&ms, coconut cookies, chocolate chip cookies, chocolate peanut butter fudge, peppermint fudge, and chocolate pretzels.

I also made these yummy chocolate covered pretzels for my class! They must have been a hit because I ran into one of the Mom's the next day and she said her daughter talked nonstop about them.

Now, this doesn't have anything to do with Christmas baking.........but I've come to realize that the girls really love helping out in the kitchen. Honestly, at their age most of the time it's a pain to have them "help".......but when you have the extra time and/or gear something towards their help then it's fun for everyone. The girls and I made pizza bites the other night........

I didn't get a picture of the finished product, but they looked good. They must have tasted good too because we made 20 pizza bites and every one was eaten!

LIGHTS

I'm so glad we had help with putting lights up this year. Our house is so tall and the roof is so steep in a lot of places. You definitely need at least two people to do it........don't know what we're going to do next year!

These aren't the best quality........

Nativity

{I'm trying to get caught up........hence the frequent posts}
Sunday night we acted out the Nativity and sang Christmas songs for Family Home Evening.

Joseph, Mary & Baby Jesus

I think this baby doll will now always be known as baby Jesus!

Sweet Mary and a cute little shepherd

Avery had 3 parts: Shepherd

 
Angel

One of the Three Wisemen

More Christmas Themed Activities

Walk along the RiverWalk

Walk around Neighborhood looking at lights (that's our house in the background)

"bundled" up - the nights actually do get a little chilly. We've had some nights where it's been right around 32*

We had just got back inside from our walk and started getting pj's on when we heard a loud siren/honking and some Christmas music. We walked outside and this is what we saw!

It was SANTA!!

Hi, Santa

We also went to the Old Town Helotes Christmas Parade. There weren't many floats, but it was still fun. The girls enjoyed seeing Santa for about the 5th or 6th time! :) I couldn't stop laughing at this! We are going to do a float in the parade next year. We already have it all planned out.....should be fun!

Gingerbread Houses

This year we decided to split our gingerbread house making into 2 nights. One for the adults....while the kids were in bed and another just for the kids.

The Girls -- Building the Alamo

The Boys -- Constructing the Eiffel Tower

Derek's BIL, Dan, made this sugar "glue" that was awesome! Nice and solid.

 

 

 

Closer look at our decorated Alamo

Now on to the kids night.......
We started out with a dinner of hot dogs, fries, and a veggie tray.

Frisbee Golf

This is just weird........playing frisbee golf in December wearing t-shirts! It's going to take me a while to get use to this. The other day Allie asked, "Mom, when is it going to snow?"  We definitely don't miss the cold, but it sure is fun to play in the snow.
Anyway, back to frisbee golf. We discovered this course not too long ago. It's actually right down the road from our house. It's only a 9 hole course and super small but hey, it's free and something to do. We actually headed over there with TAKK after our church Christmas party. It was such a beautiful day!

Bunk Beds

We've been wanting to get bunk beds for the girls........and we did find some cheap ones on craigslist a couple months ago. Thanks to Kevin & Tami's help we were able to get them sanded and stained within a few days! They look SO good! I'm pretty sure the girls love them too. The first night Avery got out of bed 3 times and after that she did great. The past few weeks she's been getting up in the middle of the night saying she has to go potty, but other than that she will stay in bed. Allie really enjoys being on the top bunk.

One Thing After Another

This post is probably going to be super boring for most. It's more for my records and journaling....no pictures.
So, Friday it was just me, Allie, Avery and Kaiya here. As soon as Tami headed to work Avery said she needed to go potty. Well, when one little has to go there is no doubt the other one has to go. So off Avery and Kaiya go running to the bathroom and immediately slam the door closed and locked it. I stood there listening for a bit and they seemed fine. Then I heard the water to the sink turn on........and never go off. So, I knocked on the door and asked them to unlock it........nothing. I knocked again, asked to unlock the door again and Avery was like, "What?" This went on and on.......I was getting angrier and angrier. Finally Avery was able to get the door unlocked (this was a first for her) after at least 5 minutes of me asking them to open the door. Both girls got a good timeout after that!
Not too long after that I started getting ready for the day. All of a sudden I hear a loud thud. I run out into the hallway and the pack and play had been knocked over. Allie said the girls were climbing on it. I didn't want anyone to get hurt and they had been saying they wanted to eat so I figured I'd take them down for a snack. I got out a granola bar for them to share (it was close to lunchtime and I didn't want them to fill up on it). I sat them at the table with their snack and took Allie upstairs to get her ready for school. When Allie and I came down the kitchen floor was just puddles of water! I hadn't realized there were 3 or 4 cups of water on the table......they grabbed every on of them and dumped them.
After I got that mess cleaned up I started packing Allie's lunch. I had the little ones go to the living room to play while I did this. All of a sudden I hear a computer shutting down. I run out into the living room and the girls were playing over behind the chair and must have pushed a button or stepped on the laptop over there.
Finally it's time to take Allie to school. Everyone was great in the car. Once we got back home I fixed them lunch and they were great until the very end. That is when they decided to start throwing their forks and food on the floor. After that I was just ready to get them in bed for naps! I cleaned them off and had them go look for their blankets while I cleaned up the mess on the floor. After I got that cleaned up I figured I'd hurry up and try to tackle their dishes and a few that were in the sink to get the dishwasher started. While I was doing that my phone rang. I picked it up and it was Tami........she was saying she was leaving work and asked how Kaiya was for me........it was then that I realized they still weren't back down with their blankets!!
I walked out of the kitchen and turned the corner and they were playing in the toilet! Water was all over the bathroom floor, Kaiya was soaked, and Avery had pulled the whole kiddie toilet seat and holder off the wall and was putting it in the toilet.
I hurried to clean them up....AGAIN.....and put them right in bed!
Luckily, I was able to get a break from kids that night. Derek and I went to his work Christmas party. I wasn't exactly thrilled to be going. I'm not one who likes to socialize a whole lot, especially to people I don't know.......and when you're husband is one of the bosses I feel like I have to talk a lot and make a good impression. I don't know if I did make a good impression, but I did have a good night.......it could only get better right!?
It actually got a lot better. We saw the new Chronicles of Narnia (opening night).....although it wasn't all that great, I wouldn't recommend it, the message at the end is good though. We had a decent dinner during the movie and popcorn as well. Derek and I were the first to arrive at the party so we both got a card for free burritos at Freebirds........and there was a raffle drawing and my ticket was the first drawn (87 people there and 6 tickets drawn). I scored a $25 gift card to Regal Cinemas and a $25 gift card to a restaurant (Chili's, Maggianos, On the Border).
Turned out to be a good day!

Santa & Mrs. Claus

Place: Helotes City Hall
Occasion: City Tree Lighting (it was the cutest little thing)

 

Santa came in on a wagon off of Bandera Rd. I tried to get Allie up as high as I could so she could see him

 

Getting a good look at the jolly couple

                                 Avery liked them better from afar!

                       Calmed down a bit when Dad and Mom were near

What did Allie ask for?  Ariel dress up outfit........her first visit to Santa this year she asked for a pillow pet.........and a few days later Avery found them in our closet and went and gave it to her!