Elizabeth's First Christmas Show

Elizabeth's preschool had a Christmas show and she was allowed to invite her family. Both sets of grandparents came, Jessica and her kids, Zach and Amelia, and Tom. She definitely had the biggest crowd there!
Her class walking in. I think she was pretty excited to see us all there.

(the words say There's Elizabeth. Doing the actions to the song)

We thought that was so funny - the whole time she was so serious - she did not crack a smile.

The parents were all over the floor, taking pictures.

This is Elizabeth directly after the show. They sang 3 songs - Go Tell it on the Mountain, Happy Birthday Jesus, and We Wish You a Merry Christmas.

The kids all posed for a group shot.

We went back to the school later in the afternoon to have the Christmas party. The kids had Little Debbie cakes with candles in them for Jesus's birthday party.

E with a few of her friends.

The teacher was nice enough to give Ben a cake, too!

Afterwards they played games and Elizabeth was so sweet with Ben. She took him everywhere with her and was showing him how to play everything. At home she's not normally so helpful with him :) so it was fun to see her protective of him at her school.

This little boy really likes Elizabeth. He always wants to give her hugs and I think we are going to get together to play over the Christmas break.

I was very proud that she got up in front of all the parents with no stage fright - and we really appreciated everyone coming to watch her!

Christmas Tea at Grandma's House

Tom's sister, Nancy, was nice enough to offer to babysit for us during the holidays so we could do some shopping or go out to eat. We haven't ever really done any shopping just the two of us for the kids so it was a lot of fun. She was also nice enough to bring the kids their Christmas presents a little early. (smart idea because when we open with Tom's family there are so many people giving gifts that they all kind of get mixed together. The kids haven't stopped playing with the gifts she gave them!) Here is Elizabeth with her "grow her own tree" and an animal hospital thing. Ben got dinosaurs! Just what he wanted.

This is the tree by the time we got home from dinner. You put magic water in the bottom (it comes in the kit) and the green things grow. I thought they were crystals or something, but they are soft. Sharon - science teacher - any ideas on what they are? The tree started with just branches, no green.

This was this morning after breakfast and I think this is as big as it's going to get. It said it lasts a few days. Pretty neat, huh?

My mom had a Christmas tea for Elizabeth and the boys. They invited Elliott, Berkley, and our cousins Drew and Josh. Unforunately the boys were sick and couldn't make it. Here's the beautiful table.My mom had 2 activities planned for the kids. They played Christmas bingo with marshmallows. Cooper was so funny cramming the marshmallows into his mouth as fast as possible.Elizabeth is showing off the art project that they made - a cute Santa.

We tried to get some pictures of all the kids together - we were pretty successful!Cooper and Ben chowing down at the tea.

Elizabeth's favorite part of the party is that she can pour the "tea" (it was snowman punch) for all her friends in the real teapot. The tea party was very special because my mom had out all her real Christmas china for the kids.

Elizabeth, Elliott, and Berkley all got these cute boxes with a Santa necklace inside. I think Elizabeth was feeling very grown up with her real necklace on.

The best friends with their necklaces on.

I love this picture of Berkley! She really wanted to eat her sister's candy necklace :)
Thank you, Grandma, for a really fun morning!

These are the rest of the photos from the day.Saying goodbye.

Me and the kids.

E and Jackson.

The 4 cousins.

That evening Tom and I went to a play with some people Tom works with and the kids stayed the night with my parents. They had a really fun evening at a carnival, then came home and watched a movie. Ben fell asleep during the movie and was then up at 6:45 am. We came home in the afternoon after going to Lowes kids day and all sorts of other stuff and of course both kids didn't nap. I finally put on a show so they could relax and here's Ben watching the show :) I think he was a little tired after all the fun and excitement from the last 2 days.

Mama's Holiday Wish List Meme

I found a contest that said you had to answer the following questions and post them on your blog to win ....and one of the things to win was a cricut. So I thought it was worth a try. Then I went to the post (on the TodaysMama link below) and they are giving away a bike, a cricut, and tons of other things and you have until tomorrow to enter so if you want to enter do it fast!


Mama’s Holiday Wish List Meme
TodaysMama and Provo Craft are giving away a sleighful of gifts this holiday season and to enter I’m sharing this meme with you.
1. What 5 items are on your holiday wish list this year?
I don't really want much - I'm sure I'll have a ton of things I will want after we move! So, I always want crafting stuff, new running shoes are always on my list (not that I run much but I don't buy them very frequently so it always seems like I need them), a cricut would be awesome, and I can't really think of anything else so I'll say clothes and perfume. Sorry so boring!
2. What is your favorite handmade gift you have received?
My sister drew a picture of our first house we bought - it was so cute and hung in our kitchen.
3. What handmade gift have you always wanted to tackle?
I've seen so many I want to try! I love the idea of making the kids seasonal pillowcases so I might try that next.
4. What was the best Christmas gift you received as a child?
I remember really wanting a cabbage patch doll one year and was so excited when I got one.
5. What items are on your kid’s wish list this year?
The only thing Ben wants is dinosaurs (easy one!)
Elizabeth was pretty easy - she wanted a castle and tape (she loves to use my tape and really wanted some of her own.) Since we don't have TVo in our apartment she started seeing some commercials, which she has never seen in her life, and now has a million toys that she wants. I told her her Santa letter was already in the mail! (all the toys have already been bought!)
6. What is your favorite holiday food?
I love anything dessert - cookies and bars. The peanut butter cookies with the kiss in the middle I always associate with Christmas.
7. What will you be hand-crafting for the holidays?
I just crocheted hats for all the kids. A lot of the hand-crafting has stopped in the apartment!
8. What is your favorite holiday movie?
I love Charlie Brown's Christmas and I can't think of the name but the one with the boy who really wants the BB gun - so funny!
9. Favorite holiday song?
I love so many of the songs - I have been listening to the Christmas station as soon as Thanksgiving was over. I can't really think of a favorite.
10. Favorite holiday pastime?
I have a lot of favorites. Driving to see lights, attending Christmas Eve service and having the candlelight Silent Night at the end of the service, baking cookies with the kids, sitting on Santa's lap...I could go on and on!

I hope you enter to win...the prizes look like so much fun!

Christmas at the Gaylord

Merry Christmas from Texas!

We went to visit the Gaylord with my mom, Jessica, and the kids. We did the same thing last here - check it out here if you want! Last year we did Ice, the awesome exhibit made entirely of ice. This year we decided to skip it - it was very cool but we figured we saw it once and it's kind of expensive. Plus, Jackson couldn't go in so we decided just to enjoy the decorations around the Gaylord instead.
Ben and Cooper took it into their own hands to take a little tour together, pointing out all the sites, and holding their own little conversation (adorable to listen to!)

This is the gingerbread house made entirely out of edible products. (I'm sure the inside structure is made from wood or something but everything we could see was edible)

The train exhibit - we had to stand here for quite a while!

Elizabeth posing by the gingerbread house (I caught her licking her fingers after this...don't even want to think how many kids touched the candy and then licked their fingers! Yuck!)

Poor kids - they were very pictured out by the time we were done, but they did a very good job.

A picture of both kids with a real smile - a miracle!!!

Cooper and Jackson - Jackson was so good while we were there. He was very content to just look around and then he finally fell asleep.

The 4 kiddos.

This was right when we got here and I guess we thought we wouldn't get Jackson in another group photo?! It's cute anyway!

And we were very happy, no one fell in the water! Whoo hoo!

It was so beautiful and we were excited to finally get to show the kids lots of holiday decorations. It's been so cold in TX recently that we really haven't gone outside too much to actually look at decorations! These were beautiful and it's a great tradition for us to have.

"Grand" Plans

So I had 2 ideas in the past couple of days that just didn't work out as planned. I don't know if any of you are like this but I saw some things in a magazine, thought it looked cute and easy, and we tried it. Our "grand" plans. This is a game that looked cute I thought. The kids took crepe paper and wrapped it around one another and were supposed to be a Christmas tree.
Turns out, not so much. But they had fun so I guess that's what matters most.
The crepe paper kept ripping because they weren't good at unwinding it quickly. It was pretty funny, actually.

At the end they mostly just played with the piles of crepe paper all over the floor :)!

Ok, I just had to show you our kitchen. It is so tiny! I end up using the oven as counter space, which is probably not the safest thing in the world to do. Do you like our "office" on the right hand side of the oven? That's where I am sitting now typing this. Of course our wireless doesn't work here either.

This was our second "grand" plan. I know I have made these with my mom (or something similar) when I was younger and it took only about 3 ingredients so I thought they would be good to try. An aside - I have always had issues making rice krispie treats. They are so sticky! I have such a hard time even getting them in the pan. These are basically rice krispie treats but substitute corn flakes.

So, I'll tell you how to make them so they will be fabulous - like ours were!

(This is the rest of our counter space, which also doubles as the rest of our office/bill paying space. It's wonderful ;)
First, run out of green food coloring so you have to try to mix up your own with blue and yellow. Do a really bad job so you end up with a disgusting/unappetizing color.

Spray your hands with Pam (it's what the directions say!) and still get all the cereal stuck all over, flying all over your kitchen space. Just get stickiness all over!

Give up trying to form wreaths and just let the kids blob it all together and throw sprinkles on it to make it more fun for the kids.

For good measure have your sick boy cough all over the pan full of "cookies". Yum Yum!

The finished product!

(The grossest part is I ate some!

It actually wasn't too bad!)

I hope everything you try this season works out well!