Christmas Eve Festivities

The kids Christmas Eve

Gross

Merry lost another tooth, that makes 7.

Because it was around 80 degrees we took the canoe for a float around the lake.

A herd of ducks has migrated to the lake for the winter. Adam yelled "quack, quack" during the entire trip. So much for taking duck pictures.

The kids opened their Christmas PJs.

Seriously loving this hairstyle.

Who knew PJ's could be so exciting.

Adam tore one little piece off at a time. I think it took like 10 minutes to open one gift.

Cookies for Santa.

The kids acted out the Nativity. Mary(Merry) looks like she ate something orange previous to the performance.

Joseph and Mary.

Wiseman/ Angel.

The shepherd was too fast to have his picture taken.
We tracked Santa on Norad and then climbed in bed.

Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas

The beginning of December

We started December Texas style by making tamales.

Our Christmas tree. We went to a you cut place this year. Brian took the kids to see the animals while I picked the Christmas tree. Any who we ended up with a 15 foot Christmas tree. So if you are wondering why the top part is not decorated, I will just say we do not have a ladder yet.

Brian and I attended Brian's work party. Okay this picture was really from Dan's wedding but we wore the same thing so it will have to do.

Santa visited the elementary school and brought us cookies.

Adam preferred to keep an eye on that jolly old elf from across the room.

Christmas crafting.

More Christmas crafting.

Adam has discovered that Grace is not the boss. Grace's feelings are very hurt.

Brian's work party for the kids had pony rides. Adam loved riding the "tow" or cow and kept saying moo the whole time.

Grace on the pony named Feather Baby. Her rolling horse at home now has the same name.

Merry ran and got on a pony before I could get a good picture. Oh well. Jacob opted for the bounce houses instead.

We had a toysfortots party and made gingerbread houses. Adam found them so this is what they look like now. Only the one towards the back of the counter survived.

Grace was a cow in her preschool's nativity play. I am not sure why she is so sad.

The young acting guild.

Looking forward to napping sometime over the next couple of weeks.

Visiting a billion family members

During our visit to Utah we were able to see all our immediate family.

Brian's family

Beth's family

>Merry and her cousin Sophie

How they really act. I retouched Merry's scab in the first picture. Adam whacked her with a toy school bus.

Me-good job Brian on the photo.
Our family plus Papa. For the record I did brush my girl's hair, this is just how they look after about 5 minutes of playing with their cousins.

Yet another family photo. Yes I am a bad dentist mom and still let Adam use a pacifier, I really like to sleep. He has been my only user so far.

Finally- the reason I do not live in Utah- icicles on leaves are just wrong.

Detoxing from a long trip

We spent the last weekish in Utah visiting family and attending brother Dan's wedding.

Dan and Lexie, we are still not sure how Dan talked her into marrying him.

Any who I have about 1000 pictures to wade through this week, along with making my Christmas card. (Edit to post-just ordered Christmas cards.)

Here are a few pictures to get you started. So it turns out family pictures are just as hard when someone else is taking the pictures

What am I doing here?

And the crazies. Merry tied herself the fanciest scarf knot ever. It only took 30 minutes to detangle her.

Halloween

After saying that he "had already been everything that was awesome," Jacob finally decided on a knight. I guess this is a demonstration of a knightish move.

Merry requested a pink and turquoise butterfly this year along with green eye shadow.

Grace loves owls. Why? I really have no idea, I am not really a bird fan myself.

She trick or treated at 4 houses but then was so worried that she might not find me in the dark she climbed in the stroller for the rest of the night.

Adam dressed as a tiger because that is the costume we had in the dress-up box that fit him.

Jacob giving everyone a pep talk.

As we are no longer subdivisionites, we went to some friends house for hotdogs and trick or treating. Here is the treat seeking troop.

P.S. I always think I am going to make every costume. In the end I made half of 2 costumes. That sort of counts as a whole costume, I think.

Octoberish stuff

Here are all the fun activities of October smashed into 1 post.

Merry went on her first field trip. When one receives a mini pumpkin, one must always try and balance it on one's head. Rule of fall #27.

Merry and the mini pumpkin holders.

Grace after a fall festival at the elementary school. She requested a pink pumpkin painted on her face. The pretty yellow flowers are in bloom by the lake. Maybe I will attempt one more set of family pictures. The rest of the festival was undocumented because I really didn't want to lug my camera around.

This face pretty much sums up Grace's attitude this month.

Hmm. I sure have a lot of pictures of Grace. Any who, if you are looking for a good Halloween read for children try "The Blue Nose Witch" by Margaret Embry. It is out of print but you can still find it on Amazon or in some libraries. Side note, it was written by my Grandmother for my Mother. The dedication is to "Merry who owned the original Brockett." My Merry was named for my Mother, that is why the weird spelling.

We also went and rode the Halloween train. Our driver looks so excited.

The trains were mini and towed cars with benches to sit on.

We went through a Halloween decorated forest. The kid's favorite part was a man dressed like a giant chicken that jumped out and said "Cheese- Chicken Man."

Adam sporting a butt-part after the train ride.