Christmas Recap 2012

So, I've let the blog slide lately and now I'm overwhelmed with all the things I need to write about and remember to post.  I thought I'd start with a quick recap of the fun times we had this December and some favorite moments, and then maybe I'll get around to catching up on some other posts.

My friends and I kicked off the season with our second annual "Favorite Things" party.  It started as a Christmas craft day a few years ago, but then we all had a gaggle of kids and decided it would be more fun and less stressful to just give each other gifts!

We followed that up with a cookie decorating party with our kiddos.  It was a blast!  Huston and Arden had so much fun icing and decorating their cookies (and licking the icing off the knife and dipping it back into the communal icing bowl multiple times, and licking the icing off their fingers, and eating multiple cookies right before dinner time).  I mean, what's not to love about that? 

As with last year, I loved dressing Arden in her little Christmas outfits every day.  I just adored this Santa dress, that she only wore once.  Unfortunately, I only got this goofy looking picture of her in it!

Once on Christmas break, the kids and I had our own cookie decorating day and this time they got to help with rolling out the dough and baking them before we iced.  They had more fun than I would have ever imagined and it was worth the giant mess in my kitchen!  

We did Christmas at my parents' house the Sunday before Christmas day.  Huston and Arden LOVE playing with their cousins.  Arden was most excited about her four new Olivia books (she literally shrieked when she opened them) and Huston was over-the-moon for his new Ghost Rider action figure.  It's a post for another day how he came to love a dude with a flaming skull head...

We had a great time at the Christmas Eve service at church.  The kids were very well behaved and I get choked up every year singing Christmas songs while I look at their sweet faces.  

Christmas morning at our house!  Santa came and the kids were so excited!

I take the worst Christmas pictures, but here are a few with the blinding flash on (as you can tell by the kids covering their eyes in the picture above!)

Huston got more action figures (Wolverine, Silver Surfer, Dr. Strange, and Iron Man), a remote control truck from Santa, Citi Blocks (which he has yet to play with), and several other things.  Arden was probably most excited to unwrap two more Olivia books, including a new one we had never read, and a Leap Frog Tag Reader, which she has been loving.  

After unwrapping presents and having breakfast, we headed to Mimi and Grandpa's house.  The kids unwrapped even MORE presents, we had a great time hanging out with everyone (including my parents), and we even got to see it SNOW ON CHRISTMAS!  It was pretty magical.

A few favorite things in December:

Our annual tradition of unwrapping a Christmas book every night until Christmas.  Daddy read the books this year and the kids had fun taking turns unwrapping them every night.

Although I don't have a picture of it, probably my favorite thing we did this year was our Advent Devotional.  It was our second year to do it, after Ashlee and I hosted the ornament exchange last November.  I think the kids got much more out of it this year, and I loved that it was simple and quick to do.  Every night after dinner we'd sit by the tree, have the kids remember some of the previous ornaments we had done, and then tackle our lesson for that night.  Arden learned that God is "eterrrrnal" and Huston cracked us up by guessing that the Alpha and Omega ornament meant that God is "E-Terminator!"

How could I not mention Huston singing at his school Christmas program?  I mean, it brought me to tears and was just the  sweetest moment!  Here are the kids on the day of the program outside the school:

I loved listening to David Crowder's "Oh for Joy" album over and over with the kids.  Huston would play air guitar and request that we listen to his favorite song, "Angels we have heard on high" over and over.  I loved how Arden sang, "Angels we have heard on high, sweetly singing o'er the flames."  

Hanging up our Christmas cards is always one of my favorite things about the season.  This year I hung a few up on glittery tree branches that the kids made for me when they spent the night at Mimi's house.

I will remember Arden playing with our nativity set and recounting the story this way,

"You're going to have a baby!" said the angel.

"No way!" said Mary, "Am I?"

"Yes! You're really going to have a baby here!"

I loved all the lazy days we've had at home with Daddy, playing with Christmas toys, having a roaring fire one day, and just being together.  I am trying to treasure all these precious memories while the kids are small and everything is so special and amazing through their eyes.  

I hope you and your family had a wonderful Christmas, too!

He Sang!!!

Huston sang at his Christmas program today!  And I cried.  I was so proud.  Words cannot encompass the emotions I felt seeing him up there.

So, even though I know few people will want to watch these videos all the way through - here they are.  Excuse my shaky videography.  In my defense, I was tending to my students, trying to film, and trying to look at Huston directly, instead of through the camera.  Enjoy!

Feliz Navidad

Joy to the World

Rudolph

Jingle Bells

Happy 3rd Birthday, Arden!

My baby turned 3 on the 15th and we celebrated her birthday with friends and family last weekend with a book themed party.  I couldn't think of a more appropriate theme for my book-loving girl!

Here she is in her birthday outfit, scored super cheap at Gymboree by Grandma.

I set up a little library in our front living room, complete with books, stuffed animals, glasses, and other reading props.  No one really used it, but I liked it anyway.  :)

I made some bunting by cutting up old Golden Books I found at Goodwill for fifty cents.  You should have seen Arden's face when she saw me cut out the first triangle.  She burst into tears and cried, "MY BOOK!!!" She was so offended that I had cut a precious book!

Cork board decorated in honor of the birthday girl:

Party favors were "bookworms."  Ha!  I kill myself!

Clarke made a great video with pictures of Arden throughout the year.  The video slide show set to music is probably my favorite birthday tradition for the kids.  It started way back on Huston's first birthday because CVS had a deal for a free video made from their Kodak machines in store.  After doing them at CVS for a couple of years, Clarke took over creating them with imovie on our mac.  The kids always love looking at their pictures, and it's so fun to show them to our friends and family!

Watching the picture show:

I wanted my mom to make a pink ruffled cake for Arden and it turned out so cute!  And tasted just as good!

Arden loved opening her presents, and got so many things just perfect for her!  Clarke and I got her a Kidkraft play kitchen, and she got lots of play food for her kitchen, two stuffed dogs in little carrying cases, a princess dress up set, a Hello kitty doll, a coloring book, some story books, and several other things.  She was a pretty happy girl!

The requisite family birthday picture (which required probably 55 attempts):

Happy birthday, sweet girl!

A robot and a princess

We had a great Halloween yesterday!  It happened to fall on a school day for us, so we started the day with pictures outside on the playground before school.  Arden was Belle from Beauty and the Beast (costume courtesy of our awesome neighbors and their awesome hand-me-downs).  Huston was a robot.  He wore gray thermal underwear and a "circuit board" that we made out of cardboard, duct tape, some components from a smashed cell phone and video game, and a few light sticks.  Lots of people guessed he was a computer, which I didn't think of until after they mentioned it, but I guess he kind of did.  The only thing I cared about was that he was happy and excited about his costume.  He made sure to tell me several times that he didn't want anything on his head, and I was happy to comply. I probably could have made him look more robot-like, but I wanted him to like it. 

Are these the most fake smiles you've ever seen?  Not to mention, Arden's skirt is hiked up awkwardly in the front.

My little princess:

Me and the kiddos before school in my classroom:

My class (and Arden's class) trick or treating in the hallway at school:

Arden was enamored with the little portrait of Belle on her dress.  She kept showing it to me and here she is showing it to one of her little friends.  She kept saying, "Look!  It's a picture of me when I was wearing this dress!"

Huston's class had a sweet little party that I popped into for awhile while my class was taking a nap.  That's one of his teachers, Mrs. Baxley, dressed as the Queen of Hearts while they were waiting for their party to start.

My happy robot:

After school, we went by the hospital to visit Clarke's granny who has been there for the last few days. I think seeing the kids in their costumes brightened her day, and they sure had fun visiting her, too.  Then I took them to Chick Fil A for free kids meals and we came home for a bit before trick or treating.  I wanted to get better pictures of them in their costumes, but I waited until it was too dark, so this is all I could manage:

The kids were ecstatic to go trick or treating.  Huston was shouting the most enthusiastic "Trick or Treats!" you ever heard, and they were positively gleeful every time they got candy in their buckets.  Huston said, "This is the best trick or treating!" and Arden said, "I can't wait to taste these!"

Although their little feet were trip-trapping right along at first, we walked kind of a long ways so Huston could go by his teacher's house (Mrs. Baxley, from the picture above, who happens to live in our neighborhood).  It turned out to be a pretty long walk, though, and by the end they were dragging and asking for water.  We ended up carrying them back home (which, come to think of it, must be why my back hurts today!).  They ate an obligatory piece of candy (or two) and happily went to bed.

I was telling Clarke that even though going out trick or treating isn't something I really relish doing, it was so fun to see how happy and excited they were about it, and it made it totally worth it.

Winner!

Just a quick note to say the winner of the Tiny Prints giveaway (as drawn from a hat by my two year old) is Ashlee!  Your promo code will be emailed directly to you.  :)  Congrats!

Pumpkin Pictures

Thursday morning I was having a not very good morning.  I was rushed trying to get out the door for Bible study, Huston was whining about everything, and when I tried to dump dinner in the crock pot on my way out, I realized I was missing some ingredients and had to abort that plan.

However, I had the kids dressed in some cute fall clothes, and I decided to stop outside the mall at a little pumpkin patch stand to take their pictures.  Something about getting pictures of my kids with pumpkins just makes my heart happy.  My morning was so much better after I got these sweet shots.