Family Christmas Part 1

On Saturday we celebrated Christmas with my family in Montgomery.  It was a fun time opening gifts and eating dinner together:

 My mom made a t-shirt quilt for Robert:

 and made a quilt for Michelle:

 After dinner we went to a house that had tons of Christmas lights:

 We also gave Dad his birthday present from all of us.  Dad is a Christmas Eve baby.  We all gave him a scrapbook because he wants to put his family tree stuff together.

Polar Express Week

This was the girls last week of school before Christmas Break.  Everyone had their parties at school and of course a pajama day to watch Polar Express and drink hot chocolate : )  On Tuesday we went to ChikFila with some friends for their Polar Express night.   You got a ticket at the ticket booth and then listened to the Polar Express story in a decorated area of the restaurant:

 

Then we went outside to ride the Polar Express train, and then got a bell and hot chocolate:

 

 Wednesday was Abigail's last day so she had her PJ day:

 Emily had her Grinch party at school on Wednesday and came home with Cindy Lou Who hair:

 Thursday was Emily's last day of school and she had her PJ day:

 It was so nice not to jump out of the bed running this morning!

Christmas cookies

On Saturday the girls made and decorated Christmas cookies:

 

 

Abigail enjoyed licking the icing more than actually decorating the cookies:

 Emily's Christmas angel:

Lately Abigail has wanted to carry around A LOT of stuffed animals.  All last week she wanted these in the morning when she got up . . .

 We all had to help carry them all downstairs when we came down for breakfast:

 

 She wanted all of them in the car with her on the way to school and then wanted them in bed at night.  After several days of this I think she has finally decided that she doesn't need this many animals with her all the time . . . whew! 

Also last week the girls enjoyed cutting fabric.  Emily has a fabric scrap box that she likes to play with.  They pulled it all out and got chairs next to each other and had fun making a big ol' mess : )

 I also got some workbooks from Emily's teacher to cut out all the sheets and sort them for her.  Emily wanted to help and had fun with that this afternoon:

This week we are looking forward to school parties and pajama days and then school break!!!

Abigail's Christmas Program

Abigail had her Christmas program yesterday at her school.  The 2 year old class dressed up as angels.  Here they are coming in get on stage:

 Singing their songs:

 After the concert everyone sang Happy Birthday to Jesus and then we all ate some cake.  Abigail couldn't tear her eyes away from her cake long enough to get a picture : )

She had been practicing her songs at home all last week and it was the sweetest thing to watch.  She sang "Here I am to Worship" and "Away in a Manger" complete with hand motions.  So sweet to watch.  Yesterday during the concert she mainly waved at me and picked at her head band and looked around the room : )

Christmas Party

Our church had a Christmas Party and potluck dinner last night.  We were packed in to our worship center.

 The girls got to see Santa last night.  I wish I had my camera when Abigail saw him walking around during dinner.  I had my hands full with our plates and she saw him in the crowd and ran right up to him and gave him a big squeeze around the neck.  It was so sweet!

 Emily worked on a list for Santa complete with cut out pictures out of a toy catalog.  Santa read it to make sure he knew exactly what she was asking for:

 This weekend I had to take Emily to the doctor.  She woke us up Friday night crying that she couldn't hear and that her ear hurt.  Sure enough she has an ear infection.  She took it easy on Saturday and Sunday and even napped for 3 hours on Saturday.  She is feeling much better now that she has taken several rounds of antibiotics.  Before the ear infection knocked her down, I took her to Old Navy Friday night to look for a coat.  Her other coat has a busted zipper so I wanted something she could zip up herself.  I got this coat for $8!!!!  I was so excited!

Abigail's new favorite place to be is behind the couch cushions.  She gets several of her stuffed animals and hangs out:

 These are the dresses I made the girls.  I asked to take a picture of them Friday when Emily got off the bus.  This is how they wanted to pose:

 We had a relaxing weekend.  Emily wasn't feeling 100% but for the most part she was fine and we enjoyed taking it easy.

Crazy in December

We have been extra busy which comes with this time of year.  It took us several days to get used to our normal schedule of school each day.  The weather has been nice so we enjoyed several days outside playing with the neighborhood kids.

I was able to finish these dresses for the girls:

 

Last Friday Emily's school had a daddy/daughter dance and Joe and Emily had a fun time:

  

After the dance I helped Joe clean out his car because we traded it in for a van!  I didn't think we would ever get one but a great deal came up for us so we took it.  Joe drove this car for over 10 years.  He was a little sad to see it go:

 

We got our van on Saturday:

 On Sunday I broke down and got the girls an elf.  They named her Hannah.  I didn't want the pressure that an elf brings to the house what with the hiding and mischief, but Emily talked about their elf at school so I decided to quit being a fuddy duddy about it : )

 Hannah has been a fun elf so far and has enjoyed playing with the girls toys:

 Monday the weather was so beautiful that we met several friends for ice cream and the park.  They had so much fun being together again:

 

Abigail and Harper were in class together last year and we met them at the pool several times this summer, so they were excited to see each other again:

 Emily helped me mail Christmas cards this week.  This weekend we plan on making some Christmas yummies together.