Christmas morning

I am not good at taking pictures during Christmas or birthdays. I just get caught up in the action and forget to take pictures. I suppose that's o.k. These are the only "happy boy" pictures I got. Parker is holding the video camera that Santa brought that didn't work. Luckily, Target sells the same stuff that Santa makes in his workshop!

GO ILLINI!!!

Travis was able to get really good tickets to an Illinois basketball game so we went as a family. It is the first time I have ever been to the Assembly Hall to see Illinois play. I've seen them elsewhere, but not here. We thought Parker and Jack would be pretty excited, but not so much. They enjoyed themselves, but they weren't really as into it as we had hoped. I was just sad that I never got to see the Chief perform at halftime. We came home and found his last performance on YouTube and they very much enjoyed watching that. By the way, these pictures are so lousy because we took them with the new camcorder/camera/MP3 player thing-a-majig that Santa brought Parker. I think it actually takes better quality pictures, we just don't know how to use it effectively yet!
Is it a spaceship? NO! Travis and Parker heading to the Assembly Hall.
My guys.
A self portrait.
A shot of the action.
Center court.

Christmas Eve

Decorating cookies for Santa.
Parker making cookies.
Jack making cookies.
Our happy little family.
Two very handsome Christmas boys.
Parker, Jack, Mamaw and Buddy.
Jack with the Batmobile which goes with the Bat Cave.
Parker with a nerf gun that is so big he can hardly lift it.
Jack beating up Buddy with the new boxing gloves.

Birthdays

I think I say this every year, but I so love our church's Christmas Eve Candlelight service. It is so moving at the end when the lights are dimmed and there is only candle glow and we sing "Silent Night." Love it. I looked over at Parker and I could see the candle flickering in his eyes and I nearly started crying. I look at my own children and I am reminded that with Christmas, God gave us the greatest of gifts--His own Son.

And a few days ago we celebrated another birthday--Stella turned 3!!! Hard to believe that the little 5 pounder we met 3 years ago turned into this 30 pound ball of crazy. She is such a little nut. She is such a little stinker--and so funny and charming. And that hair! We all adore this funny little girl!

My heart grew three sizes when I saw this tree!

Oh my gosh.....I LOVE THIS TREE!!!! Check it out!
THE WHOVILLE CHRISTMAS TREE
This is just the cutest thing...I'm all about whimsical Christmas trees.

Thank Goodness

A few months ago the Mt. Zion school district was looking into changing to a "balanced calendar" school year. For those of you who aren't familiar with that term, it's sort of year-round school. For us, it would have been an Aug. 1st start date, 9 weeks on, 2 weeks off throughout the year and then school would be over at the end of May. Then 2 months of summer vacation.
Right now, a day and a half into our 2 week Christmas vacation, I am so unbelievably grateful that they decided not to proceed with the balanced calendar. My kids have not stopped arguing since yesterday morning. I think they left their Christmas spirit at school. I can't imagine having to deal with this every 9 weeks!!! (I don't mind summer because I can send them outside and then at least I can't hear their arguing quite as well.)

A Christmas miracle and some cuteness

This is the first time Jack has ever sat on Santa's lap. When his name was called, he popped right up and climbed on. It was probably the lure of that big box Santa had. At our preschool, each child's parent brings a $5.00 gift for their own child and drops it off in the office and then Santa makes a "surprise" appearance and pulls out all the gifts. Then they all wait patiently until everyone has their gift and they all open them together. Seriously, the are very patient. Of course, they are in the presence of Santa so who is going to throw a fit!? Anyway, Jack's gift was a nutcracker. The Christmasy kind that looks like a Santa. Much to the surprise of the other moms, he loved it. He loves those things! Strange kid. And, many of the other kids thought it was pretty darn cool too. Last night Parker was giving Jack the lowdown on how the Christmas party works at the co-op. He was there for 3 years, after all, so he knows the routine pretty darn well. It is supposed to be a surprise when Santa shows up but Jack definitely knew what was coming. I don't think he clued all the other kids in though.

These are the gift bags I made for Parker's class. They turned out so darn cute that I just had to share. The parents hooked these kids up! They had a ton of goodies! They were also a big help at the party. Lucky me! I should also mention that even though our children are certainly spoiled, they did decorate gift bags for residents of a local nursing home and loaded those down with tons of candy, pens, pencils, notepads, lotions, tissue--you name anything that a nursing home resident would want (other than their youth, of course) and we did our best to provide it. Five of the classes did this and we made 150 bags. Cool, huh? Hopefully next year we can expand this to do another nursing home.
I made a few different kinds of cake balls and packaged them up for our neighbors and friends. Can you tell I'm loving the red/lime green combo for Christmas this year?
And these two little elves delivered them. They were so excited to go out on a snowy night by themselves. (I watched from the door!) It was totally their idea to wear the hats! LOVE it!
I just noticed the handprint on the window and that it looks like Parker is carrying a purse. That is Indiana Jones' pouch for those of you who are not familiar with the finer details of those movies.

Advent

I made these Advent Calendars for Parker and Jack's teachers. The muffin tin idea I saw online and the images are right out of the Pottery Barn catalog. Well, as nearly as I could tell when looking at something that small. In each cup, you place a little piece of candy or an activity note--like "make Christmas cookies." I love how this turned out and I think their teacher did too. Oh, by the way, aside from my time, my total investment was probably about $5.00. I say that because sometimes people get a little weird about teacher gift giving.

Jack's Christmas program

These are pictures from Jack's Christmas program. This year, he was a very willing participant. What a relief!

Bella, Mrs. Niebrugge and Jack
Bella and Jack
A big thank you to Bella's mom, Joni, for taking these great pictures!

Gingerbread House, Books and the Cruelty of Nature

My mom was not a girl scout but she is always prepared. She brought the annual gingerbread in a box kit to Tracy's last weekend so the boys could do their thing. Stella wanted no part of touching all that sweet stuff but Jakey kept coming back for more of those gross little jelly candy things.


Did you remember to wrap up your Christmas books this year? I gathered up all our Christmas/snow/winter books and had 25. However, I need 50 so that both boys can open a book each night. I'm in no mood for an argument by the time it's time to read books before bed!
We also visited the African plains last weekend and saw raw nature at it's finest. A team of lions taking down an innocent victim. Nature is cruel. Just like little boys like it.
Really we were just at Cabela's at St. Louis Mills which my kids like a lot better than the zoo. Even if all the animals are dead. Well, some of the fish are still alive--that is until a bigger fish gets them. We have been lucky enough to see that at Cabela's too. Like I said, nature is cruel and pretty interesting too.

Cousins

Awwww....snuggling while they watch TV.
I don't think there is a future Beethoven in this group. YIPES! Be glad I didn't record their "music". Thank goodness this is a player piano so we do actually get to hear it make beautiful music!


Parker was sick on Monday and never got out of bed. I can't remember when that has happened. He was still kind of puny on Tuesday but recovered enough by noon to fight with Jack. That's when I knew he was over his sickness. Back to the usual.

I have to add that Jack's hair was cut after these pictures were taken and I'm taking Parker tonight to have his cut. They HATE to get their hair cut. Why??? What is the big deal? It's not like it hurts or something. Parker is the absolute worst. You would think that a child who got his first real haircut at 5 weeks old, would be accustomed to having haircuts. What a pain!!!

Tracy's Trees

I took some pics of Tracy's beautiful Christmas trees.

The monster! The new 12 footer
At night.
The butterfly tree inspired by the one in the Pottery Barn catalogue..
The cute-as-a-button play room tree..

LIGHTS!!!

We visited Tracy in St. Louis this weekend and we all went HERE. Tracy and Ryan had spotted this place from Hwy 44 right by Six Flags and wondered what in the world it was. A little internet research found SANTA'S MAGICAL KINGDOM! I have been to several Christmas light extravanganza's in my time including what I thought was the biggest and best in East Peoria but this one puts it to shame. Oh my GOSH! I have never seen so many lights and props. All of us enjoyed it but probably little Jakey loved it the most, "Priddy Lights" was his mantra. Stella was asleep when we entered and we woke her up and she looked around, said, "Oh, Wow!" and went right back to sleep. (She woke up again so she didn't miss much.)
So, if you find yourself near Eureka, MO and want something fun to do and don't mind paying $17.00 for a half hour of entertainment, I highly recommend Santa's Magical Kingdom!

Countdown

This is the advent calendar I made a few years ago. I made a new one this year that I can't post yet because I plan to give them as gifts. But, I love it! There are a bunch of cute ideas over at the Crafty Crow for different kinds of advent calendars.



*****EDITED*****
I had to add that I did NOT come up with this idea on my own. I saw something very similar in a magazine a few years ago and tweaked it a little to make my own! I don't want anyone thinking I am this clever all on my own! :-)

Thanksgiving 2008

I came to Great Grandma's loaded with crafty ideas I got from the Crafty Crow blog. I had 3 projects and they blew through them in about 15 minutes. Oh well, it kept them busy for a little while anyway!







Mykaela
Madison
Brock
Landon