A Christmas Minute

New princess clothes, and accessories for Ellie. I realize we didn't take very many pictures of Christmas morning- so this is it.
My little shepard girl- she was a fabulous shepard if I do say so myself. She was really excited about her roll, and carried her "big stick" with her everywhere. Luckily, no one was hurt by all of her excitement, but there were a few close calls.
Jensen and Levi are three months apart. I think the most exciting part of Christmas was the anticipation of Levi openening his present from Jensen. He had that transformer close by him for days leading up to Christmas Eve. Jensen also gave him some superman bath toys. Jensen got a superman pillow, and superman game.


Jammies for all the grandkids! Every year grandma hand sews jammies for all. This really is remarkable because she has over 20 grandkids. The red and green are my personal favorite becuase they are monogrammed. Since they are usually a touch big, they last for a couple years and Jensen has Spiderman and Nemo that he can still squeeze into. The tractor Jammies had to go to storage(he was an infant and quite frankly it was cutting of his circulation. Love you. John

I looked out the window....

and what did I see? Popcorn popping on the apricot tree. We made some huge batches of popcorn balls. John and Jensen were chasing each other around the house fighting over this gigantic popcorn ball. Daddy insisted that he get the biggest.
After popping the corn, making the sticky, it was time to form the balls. Ellie of course bursts into song singing "I can take an armful (BIG BITE) and make a treat, a popcorn ball that would smell so sweet, BIG BITE) it wasn't really so, but it seemed to me... (COUGH, CHOKE)...OK you know the rest. She consumed a lot of popcorn that night.
In the end, Jensen got the big one! Notice the gloves on his hands. He cracks me up because he is such a creature of doing things exactaly the way he sees it done. We made popcorn balls awhile back, and I decided to wear gloves. Now, it is mandatory to wear gloves! We took baskets of popcorn balls to some families in our ward. Jensen dropped the basket on the doorstep, rang the doorbell, and ran back to the truck really fast. I have to admit- he is a natural. It's never too early to train your kids how to door bell ditch!!

ZOO Lights

Last Weekend we went to Zoo lights. Every year Point Defiance Zoo puts on a light show around Christmas time. We have never gone before, but we really enjoyed it! My aunt Lani sent us tickets- THANKS LAN!
Here is my goofball.... being goofy! They really loved Zoo lights, I think we will try and make it a tradition. There were some fun and entertaining light displays, behind Jense you can see Narrows Bridge. I didn't even notice the breaklights and headlights until John pointed it out. We walked around the entire zoo, rode the carosel, and drank some hot cocoa. Ellie really had a fantastic time because she LOVES Christmas lights! She screams "pretty lights mom" at every house with Christmas lights. She will continue screaming until I give her some kind of response. It is always a real treat when we drive past a house with a santa or reindeer on the lawn. I guess it's time to start collection lawn decorations. It is so difficult to store stuff like that.... BAA Humbug!

Closet Sleeper

The other night daddy came home late and went in to give Ellie a kiss. He came back in our room and asked, "where's my Eddie?" My heart literally jumped out of my chest!! When I was putting her to bed she kept talking about getting on the roof. She showed me a scrape on her foot and told me it was from the roof. Flashes of her climbing out on the roof were racing through my brain as I ran into her room. As crazy as this sounds, Jensen climbed out of his window twice this summer- that's another post ;-) When her room was empty, I of course checked the closet first, and there she was, sound asleep. Good thing she chose the storage side of her closet with bags of clothes to sleep on. It's so fun to have these little people in our lives doing cute things like falling asleep in their closets.

Notes for Nana

Ok, so I have a couple... I am very behind in my blogging, and today is catch up day.

Jensen comes into our room every morning for a good morning snuggle. I was returning back to bed for my snuggle when he said, "mom, you caught my eye." John and I looked at eachother and lauged, it was hilarious.

The other day Jensen locked his fingers together and said, "Hey dad... Look! I can make a tractor tire with my hands."

Ellie is always saying really cute things too. She ran into the room and showed me her belly and said, "mom, I have a baby in my tummy."

Christmas Tree

As we started pulling out all of our Christmas decorations, Ellie found her Santa Dress from last year. She changed into her dress, and found matching stockings. It was highly entertaining to watch her walk around in stockings. I don't think that Christmas morning can compare to the excitement of decorating for it.

Jensen loved putting the star on the tree, he felt very important. I told him that putting the star on the Christmas tree was a very special job. He did a great job- Daddy of course fixed it when he wasn't looking.

The majority of the ornaments are at the bottom of the tree. Some branches have two or three each. We just sat back and let the kids go for it this year.

1st Piano Recital

Jensen had his first piano recital last week. This is his teacher, and she is fabulous. This class is literally the highlight of my week. From the time we walk in to when we leave- I have a huge smile on my face. I can't help it; she is so animated and entertaining for the kids. Jensen is of course all about his teacher, and loves to practice his songs. He looks forward to seeing his friend Ruby too. For the recital he played the family, and 3 black cats. He has been practicing hot "CROST" buns, and almost has it down. For the Christmas program he played the drum while she played little drummer boy. One of the best things about this class is that Ellie gets to participate. She doesn't have a private lesson, but she gets a turn to do everything else. I am sold... as long as I live here, my children will attend her preschool!!

Tree Farm and Santa Train

Daddy took the kids to the tree farm to pick out our Christmas tree. Every year it is a tradition to go pick out the tree and have lunch at Taco Bell (his mom's favorite) and then go to Point Defiance and ride the Santa Train. I was unfortunately teaching at the YMCA, and missed out. Jensen might have been wearing his own coat had I been there. I love the tree the picked out... that post coming up.
Ellie cuting down the tree.
Waiting for the train

Ellie came home excited about her candy cane that Santa gave her. Jensen was too cold, and didn't emerge from the blankets to recieve his candy cane.

Naughty or Nice

I love Christmas time!! Who doesn't??? Pictures with Santa is always on the list of things to do, along with drinking hot cocoa. I am not really a hot cocoa drinker, but I try and expose my kids to cocoa at least during the holidays so they don't miss out on that holiday tradition. Last year I can remember coaching Jensen on what to tell Santa he wanted for Christmas. This year he was on his own. When santa asked him what he wanted he proudly announced, "trucks!" This was news to me, I think he was throwing that out there because he hadn't thought about it yet. The only toy he has ever asked me for out of the blue was a Barbie Jeep power wheels. He saw it on a commercial and said, "Mom, I would like to have one of those." This was suprising because he has a Hummer and a John Deer in the shed... how different could the Barbie one be? Ellie of course wants more dollies. What she really needs is a cradle, she has been using a garbage can.... luckily it is a spare that we don't use! She has plenty baby carriers, but apparently she needs something a little more sturdy.
The wonderful thing about going to see santa so early (before Thanksgiving) is the fact that no one else is around! The kids spent as much time as they wanted with Santa- and kept going back to visit with him.
We have been playing "Santa and the people" for weeks now. Santa pushes his sleigh (A Tonka dump truck) and Rudolph crawls in front of it with his shiny nose, and brings presents to the "people." I usually end up being the "people,"because I am willing to lay there pretending to be sleeping. They stuff stockings full of random toys from the toy box and then go wait by the door, and yell.. "it's time to wake up." The kids get really into it, and somehow it doesn't loose its magic after playing it non stop. I try to maintain my enthusiasm after receiving the same toys over and over. "Yea, another Bob the builder tractor... just what I wanted!!!"

My Latest Purchase

I try to remain unaffected by the latest and greatest, but I LOVE the ShelfReliance. I first saw it over a year ago, and after thinking about it for a year, we broke down and purchased one. My handy husband put it all together and now it is fully functional. I love it because it rotates my food storage, and I have freed up a ton of space on the shelves of my garage. Every costco trip I always pick up one box of something for food storage. It just piles up in my garage, and I never remember I have it. Now, I just load it in and start using it- So fabulous. If you love it too, and want to buy one find some people to buy with you. The more people you have, the better deal you get. Oh, and it has fun little magnets. You can check out all of their products at shelfreliance.com. Happy Food Storaging!

Two Bite Birthday

I was not feeling great on John's b-day so I asked him to bring home a treat that we could sing to him with. When he got home and I was hunting through the groceries, I figured he forgot. It was mostly for the kids anyway, but I wanted him to have a little something on his actual b-day. When I asked him where it was, he proudly presented the smallest serving of ice cream I have ever seen. I gave him the, "clearly you misunderstood your task" look, while trying not to laugh. I could have whipped something up, but again- did feel so hot. Jensen and Ellie had been carrying the candles around all day waiting for daddy to get home, so we couldn't disappoint them.

Here is a pic of his fancy b-day dessert. The good news is, we each got exactly ONE bite.

Friends

While in Utah I was able to get together with my friends from high school. This is our second year getting together; hopefully we can keep up the tradition. I can't believe that we all have two kids each, some three and some working on their fourth!! WOAH moma! If you missed us this year, I will try harder to get a hold of everyone earlier next year. These girls are fantastic- it was so fun to catch up. I am so proud of where I grew up- Once a wasp, always a wasp!! Yes, that was our mascot. I recognize that it is an insect..... hey we were the best ok!