School holiday parties

Last Friday the boys had their school Christmas parties.  Ethan's was up first with treats and a book exchange.  His buddy Kyle is moving, so he wanted his picture taken with him.

They read Twas the Night Before Christmas and passed the books any time the word "the" was read.

Crazy class picture

Next up was Austin's party!

 

Austin and his buddy Jarret had fun decorating cookies, listening to a story, making candy canes with beads and making a Santa picture with stickers. We had a great time and it was the perfect way to celebrate being out of school for two weeks!

another reason I love Buddy

This morning we found Buddy had toilet papered the bathroom! 

Lauren was so excited for Buddy to report back to Santa that she sat on potty, that she actually went TT in it for the first time ever!  She has been using it all day and so far so good!  The potty training has begun and she is expecting a big present from Santa this year.  Cross your fingers for us!

Baa!

Today Lauren had her preschool Christmas program.  The 2 year olds dressed up as sheep and sang "Shaggy, Smelly Sheep".  They were so cute! 

Lauren was a cute little sheep!

Here's a short little clip of her song. There is a point in song where the kids are supposed to stomp their feet and Lauren certainly followed directions.

We were so proud of our big girl! 

new traditions

I love my Willow Tree nativity scene and this year my dad made me a creche for it! I love it! I'm excited to collect more of the figurines that go with it.

We started a fun new tradition and every day the kids get a treat from the Lego Pirate Advent Calendar.  Instead of using the Lego box, we use my traditional advent calendar.  I couldn't resist the cute Lego pirate minifigures!

Buddy has been being a little more mischievous every day. 

He is so much fun and the kids love waking up early every morning to search for him.  Now if we could just have them not wake up at 5 am, things would be even better!

Pre Christmas party

This weekend we met up with our good friends for dinner and fun.  Four couples, nine kids!  As usual, I only took pictures of the kids.  Lauren loved playing with Selma's doll house and stuffed animals. 

Max LOVED Lauren and was all about kissing her.  Lauren was less than enthused.

Erica brought over all the goodies to make gingerbread houses.

We were all impressed with Austin's symetrical house.

Ethan and Luke

 

We had a great time and are so grateful for such great friends!

I couldn't help it...

Holiday fun

My dear friend Ellen won a wine tasting for Water to Wine at a silent auction and few months ago, and Thursday we cashed it in. The wine was fabulous and we had the best time sipping 10 different wines and muching on yummy snacks to soak it up.

After the wine tasting, we headed over to Bartlett's for dinner and a gift exchange.

Being the civilized women that we are, we didn't even steal each other's gifts during the exchange.

Erica made Jennifer this cute wreath and luckily no one else had the heart to steal it from her!

It was a really fun night and only one thing was missing...

Buddy the Elf

On December 1st, this little guy showed up on our Christmas tree!  We had seen the Elf on the Shelf movie, so the kids were super excited to have an elf of their own.  After we read the book Elf on the Shelf, we were ready to give him his magic and named him Buddy. 

The next morning, the kids found Buddy riding the chicken on top of the fridge.  Lauren kept saying "I cannot believe that crazy elf is riding the chicken!".  It was so funny!

Buddy flies home every night to report to Santa how the kids are behaving.  Every morning, he sneaks back in and hides in a new spot to watch over Ethan, Austin and Lauren. He definitely is a little mischievous elf!

The day after Buddy played with my antique sewing machine, he hid in the bird cage.  The boys decided he locked himself in "jail" and made sure we left the door open so he could get out.

Buddy loves syrup!

We have had a lot of fun with Buddy and we are excited to see where he shows up next!

December Market Days

Friday we loaded up the camper and headed to Wimberley for our last Market Days of the year.  We were pretty bummed when it was rainy, but it turned out to be a great day.  The kids had fun hanging with Gege and Granddaddy, munching on kettle corn and splashing in puddles.

Saturday Eric and Kristi made their last payment to James and Uncle Larry and are now proud owners of The Wooden Oar Kettle Corn!  Woo hoo!  We are so excited!

That night we went out for pizza to celebrate Leon's 65th birthday and retirement.  We are so happy for you Leon!  Happy Birthday!

All I want for Christmas is my two front teeth

Ethan lost his tooth today!  He was so excited and sang "All I want for Christmas is my two front teeth" all day long!  Tonight we put it in the Tooth Fairy Box Eric used when he was little and tucked it under his pillow. 

We can't wait to see what the Tooth Fairy puts under his pillow tonight!

decking the halls

Last week we baked cookies and listened to Christmas music as we put up our tree.  The kids were great helpers!

The kids wore their Santa hats when we put up the tree just like they do every year.

Since my mom was at Disney World last week, my dad came over to spend some time with us.

A couple days later we put up the Christmas ornaments.

We are all ready for Christmas now!

Guess who...

has two loose front teeth just in time for Christmas?

This will be the last year our big boy has all his teeth in our Christmas card picture!  We are pretty excited about the Tooth Fairy visiting our house for the first time!