Christmas 09

We started off on Christmas Eve with cleaning. Ha. I had wanted to get IN Olivia's room and clean OUT stuff (by myself...you know why). So, Brian took the kids out to the stores while I stayed to clean. It worked out great...but I didn't want to stop when it was time. I cleaned out everything I could think of: behind the dresser, in the closet, under her bed, all of her drawers and shelves... I thought it looked SO good.

Then, we went to my mom's house for our Christmas Eve gathering. We started off with finger foods as we opened gifts. This Christmas was special because my Mamaw was in town for it.







After we opened gifts, we ate our ham dinner and watched the Christmas Story on TV.

When we got home, the kids put on their pajamas and we started opening our gifts. Liv was SO excited about her Justice perfume, and Bella was THRILLED to get the camera she'd been asking for.









Here's a pic of an earring holder I made for Bella. I was quite proud of it.



The girls got Santa's cookies and milk together before going outside and putting out the reindeer food on the lawn.

While little dreamers slept, Santa came! Olivia got a Nintendo DS with some games and accessories, and Bella got a scooter with a Barbie helmet/knee and elbow pad set.







Then we went to my mom's house for our traditional cheese biscuits. Later in the afternoon, we met my mom and Mamaw for Chinese. Then Brian and I took the girls to see Alvin and the Chipmunks, the Squeakquel. It was actually pretty cute. Bella even sat through the whole movie--surprise, surprise!


I love this picture of Bella and Cooper playing Christmas Day. It reminds me of a picture of Emily with our cousin Stephen when they were young...dressing up as the Rich Lady.

Recent pictures

I took these pictures of my girls the early part of November, but didn't want to post them because I was making an album for my mother-in-law for Christmas...and didn't want to ruin the surprise. :)









Don't they look SOOO big?? sigh...

Annual Christmas Light Excursion

The kids had been asking when we would go look at lights with snacks? I knew what they were talking about...a tradition we started last year. We decided that the best time to go would be Sunday evening the 20th after dance practice at 5:45. We didn't take snacks though because we stopped to eat at CiCi's before venturing out.

We hit North Little Rock this year (planning on seeing different parts of central Arkansas each year for variety). This one was declared the winner by a vote.

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas!

Every year, I like to take a picture of our Christmas tree... I search for the best ornaments for the kids each year, and thought it would be a good idea to show those and write why I chose them. :)




For Olivia, she got a Charlie Brown ornament from us. She is NUTS about the Charlie Brown specials on CBS each holiday. For Bella, she got a Tinkerbell ornament. Ever since Ms. Judy at the JFK Learning Center told us Belle reminds her of Tinkerbell--we now think of her each time anything Tink is around. (She certainly ACTS like Tink! Ha!)

Christmas with my dad and Yvonne

My dad drove in on Tuesday evening the 15th. We all met Emily and Justin (with Cooper of course) at Texas Roadhouse for dinner. I talked to my dad about picking up Bella from school early on Wednesday so she could go with him to the airport to get Yvonne. He said that was fine with him, and Bella was thrilled!



For dinner on Wednesday, Dad wanted to take us to Bruno's. It is Emily and Justin's favorite place to eat--and Dad wanted to get a gift certificate for them without them knowing. It all worked out since we got to the restaurant before they did. Brian and I had never been to Bruno's Little Italy, but we were quite impressed! The bread was incredible, and the food was so fresh. While we were eating, a beautiful Santa walked in. He had a walking stick, a small white furry hat, and a velvet bag with chocolate coins in it for the children. When he came to our table, I am not sure who was more in awe--the kids or ME! I tried to get a good picture of him with my phone. I had never seen a non-traditional-looking Santa before. It was amazing!





The next night, Olivia's solo practice was canceled, so we went to Santo Coyote for dinner. Afterward, we all went to see the Sherwood Enchanted Forest light exhibit. Yvonne had asked to go through it, and we hadn't been in a few years. Then we went to take them to see the "blow up guy" (the house from last year that was covered in inflatables). He was sitting outside in a Santa suite giving out candy canes to the children. Olivia gave us the line of the night, when Bella got a candy cane, but she didn't (she was in the 3rd row seat, and he didn't see her). She said in her sweetest voice, "Excuse me, Santa. I don't think you can see that there is a little girl back here." We all busted up laughing! Needless to say, she got a candy cane.

The plan was to do our "Christmas" with Dad and Yvonne on Friday evening after Liv got out of dance (I would pull her out of technique so she could get out sooner). We ate at Whole Hog Cafe before I went to get her. Then we opened our gifts from each other.

A few highlights: Olivia got the bathrobe she'd been dying to receive (and has worn it every night since). The kids got matching pj's with frogs on them--adorable! Brian got all kinds of accessories for his GPS. I got a griddle and a new rolling cart for my studio equipment--just what I'd asked for! We all got things from Thailand when Yvonne was there earlier in the year--very cool! Bella got golf clubs and a butterfly kit (which she insists needs to grow the butterflies inside right NOW--she doesn't understand that December is NOT a great time for butterflies). And now, we are the proud owners of...Super Mario Bros for our Wii!!!! We all play it all of the time! Brian is SO addicted to it which is hilarious because he has never been a big video game guy.

The next morning, I had a photoshoot, and my dad was preparing to leave to head out to Dallas. Yvonne's plane wasn't leaving until later that afternoon, so it gave her and the girls a perfect time to work on the ginger bread house she had brought. Olivia had been wanting to do one, so she was SO excited about doing it!







After my shoot, I picked up the girls and met Yvonne at the mall. She and Emily had been there earlier in the day shopping for Cooper, and she also wanted to get the girls Christmas dresses. We found adorable dresses at Penney's. Not so much "Christmas" dresses, but that was even better so they can wear them more often. They are both the same shade of dark pink, but Liv's looks more like a cocktail or dance dress, while Bella's has a preppy school-girl look to it. They are so excited about those dresses (and the new shoes too). I'll have to take some pictures of them in them and send to Yvonne.



After leaving the mall, we met Brian at McAlister's for lunch. Then Brian took Olivia to a Christmas party at Bayley's house, and Bella and I took Yvonne to the airport. She was hoping that she could get on an earlier flight because it looked like her connecting flight in Denver was going to be canceled because of the snow storms. As it turned out, she was able to make all of her original flights with no problem.

We were so glad they were here, and we had so much fun even though it was a fast trip. What a great way to start off Christmas vacation!

Crazy weekend!

The first weekend in December was just about the craziest I'd had in a long time! Brian had been asked to go on a men's retreat with a group from church to work on the Men's Fraternity program. He was the only one to have gone through all three years of the program, so he was excited to get to go. I was glad for him, but honestly, I was a little nervous about being all alone with the girls with all of the things that needed to be done.

After school, I picked up Liv and had her at dance as usual. After practice that evening, we went to eat with a few of the moms and kids at McDonald's. Then it was off to bed for everyone. In the morning, I took the girls to my mom's house. I had a photoshoot in Alexander at 10:30. Bella had been invited to a birthday party at 10:30, but I knew we just couldn't swing it. Then, I had to leave my client's house and make it to my mom's house by 12:00 so I could take Liv BACK to dance for an extra practice at 12:30 (gotta LOVE this time of year...), and get to my house by 12:30 so I could be there when Mr. Gardner got there to fix our heater (oh yeah, did I mention our heater had gone out downstairs too?) When we left there I had to go take Liv out of dance early to take her to Barnes and Nobles because her Spanish/Sign Language club was performing at the school book fair...then take her back to dance until 2:45.




Well, our heater was fixed, but in a few hours, it stopped running again... Great. Mr. Gardner came back out and said a fuse had blown. He replaced it, but said that more than likely it would go out again because there was more going on than just a fuse...super great. He asked that we get a carbon monoxide detector just so he wouldn't worry about us (and it made me feel a lot better since Brian was gone).

When we got home and plugged in the detector, of course, the heater had gone out for the last time. We just plugged in the electric heater for Liv's room and got ready for bed.

Talk about a long day! Oh well, at least the girls had been really good... So far...

The next morning, we had been planning to go to late service because Brian would be back in town to meet us there. I didn't really know when the kids woke up. One of them came up and asked about breakfast. I was half asleep and told her to have some cereal or a waffle. The next thing I remember is Bella coming in and saying that she had spilled cereal on the carpet. A little voice in my half-awake head said, "WHY was cereal even ON the carpet?!", but apparently I was too tired for that part to register. I just told her to have Liv clean it up with a towel.

I SHOULD have gotten up then to do it myself.

The very next thing I knew, Bella was upstairs telling me that she had gotten paint on her hands. I opened my eyes and saw orange paint on her fingers and immediately KNEW we had a problem! I ran downstairs to see the cereal STILL on the carpet, literally 1 foot from where Olivia sat, trying to play Rock Band. On the dining room table was an orange outline where they had painted a wooden puzzle with acrylic paint (a lovely gift from Bella's teachers at Halloween). The paint had been smeared on the bar, as well as the bathroom door, handle, and lightswitch. Olivia said that Bella had told her I said she could paint...so she let her. I had NEVER been so angry at them. They had ruined the table cloth I was planning on using for a work Christmas party that following Tuesday and a cream colored sweater that Bella had on. I told them to get to their rooms and started cleaning up. I called Brian and told him we would NOT be making it for late service. Kids weren't dressed, I hadn't had a shower, and I was still cleaning up paint. Luckily, he came in and picked them up (after getting them dressed and looking presentable) so I could get a shower in peace. I was never so glad to see him! It had been such a crazy weekend!

Thanksgiving

This year, we went to Emily's for Thanksgiving. We had the usual turkey and dressing (one of our favorites!) and pumpkin cheese cake (thanks to Auntie!). Then we had squash casserole, my sweet green beans, rolls, corn casserole...oh I'm getting hungry just writing it all down!

After eating, the kids played outside in the playhouse and on the swingset. Toby got to come out and play some...but that freaked out Bella quite a bit so she hung out on top of Coopy's playhouse!




It was a pretty relaxing day, and I was thankful for that!

I love these pics of Bella and Cooper. They were SO adorable!




more pics to come...

Bella's Birthday Party

Bella had her 4th birthday party at Skate World in Jacksonville. She had invited everyone from her class at school, and a huge number of kids (mostly older) from dance. Unfortunately, extra Saturday dance practices kept a number of the older kids from being able to come, but that didn't keep us from having fun!

Since Bella is not a big cake-eater, I wasn't sure what to do for a birthday cake. I hunted for ideas for months, and finally decided on putting cake inside of ice cream cones (in retro-colored cones, of course) and scooping ice cream on top. It was real easy to do, and everyone seemed to really like it. I had found paper goods with a disco ball on them back in the summer and held onto them for the party. It was perfect!

Cooper looked so adorable trying to roller skate. However, even pushing a trainer (made out of PVC pipe and wheels), it was a little too difficult for him to do alone. He wanted to run in his skates.

Belle had a great time, and so did we.