Christmas Programs and Dances

On Tuesday I volunteered at Emily's school to help in the Winter Wonderland store.  This is a chance for the kids to shop for Christmas gifts for their family and friends.  I had a fun time helping the kids pick out gifts.  On Wednesday Emily's class went to the store and she came straight home to her room to proudly wrap everyone's gifts and put them under the tree.

I also went to Abigail's Christmas program on Wednesday.  Abigail's class dressed up like cows and sang songs to baby Jesus:

 After the program we went to the gym to have birthday cake:

 Abigail with her teachers Mrs. Amy and Mrs. Marcy:

Tonight Joe and Emily went to the Daddy Daughter dance at school.  Joe took her to dinner to her favorite Chicken place and then the dance.  Emily wanted to wear her "sparkly" dress to the dance:

Abigail and I went Christmas shopping for her sister and then met Alexa and Harper for dinner:

December Happenings

December is such a busy month that I didn't sign the girls up for dance or gymnastics.  We spent time hanging out this week before all the Christmas activities started taking hold.  The girls have gotten into fights from time to time because Emily likes to play the leader and Abigail likes to do things just to get at her sister . . . so when they take little moments like this to read a book together I run and grab my camera to remember these moments:

We also had a couple of play dates with neighborhood friends.  Emily has been cracking me up with her clothes choices when it's December!  But I try to let her have a little freedom in her clothes choice department:

I spent several evenings wrapping Christmas presents.  When I finally finished and had most of my closet back to myself, I happily paid Emily $1 to straighten out all my shoes.  She and I speak the same love language when it comes to organizing things so she thought getting a $1 for something she loves to do was a win for her!

She happily organized all of my shoes and had them all neatly in rows for me in no time!

We were also informed today by Emily's teacher that she will not be giving any homework for the last 2 weeks before the break.  I can tell she is a mom too!  Thanks Mrs. Jackson!

Auburn Game and Decorating for Christmas!

We got back into town on Thursday night.  Joe dropped me off at Target and I went Black Friday shopping with Alexa and Scott.  I've always been too scared to go because of the crazies but Alexa assured me that going to this particular Target would be very organized.  I actually enjoyed myself and no one picked a fight with me : )  After the crazy died down we went to Wal-Mart to see if there was anything left for the picking.  I got several movies and gifts to the girls from Grandma.  It was a successful night indeed!  I even bought myself a $50 printer.

While Joe worked on Friday the girls and I decorated the Christmas tree.  I got them a new ornament to put on the tree:

Abigail got Pinkie Pie and Emily got Ariel.

The girls even put up a stocking for "Mr. Shug".  They found a Christmas dog in the decorations and decided that he would be Shug:

This picture was taken a couple of weeks later but I wanted to document our tree:

On Saturday we watched the Auburn-Alabama game.  This game will go down in the record books!  Auburn won with 1 second on the clock when Chris Davis returned a 100+ yards from a failed Alabama field goal!

The fans stormed the stadium after the game:

We had fun watching it at home.  Joe told the girls that if Auburn won he would run thru the cul de sac with no shirt on.  So after the win we told him to get running.  This is the best shot I could get in the dark:

On Sunday we decked out in Auburn head to toe for church:

I also ordered this shirt for Joe as a Christmas gift:

Sunday afternoon for the first time EVER, Joe put up Christmas lights. The girls were SUPER excited:

 I think they turned out rather nice.  I told the girls there were only 2 people in the whole wide world that their dad would put Christmas lights up for so they should feel super special:

Thanksgiving Week

On the week before school was out for Thanksgiving, Emily's school had a Thanksgiving Feast:

 Then on Saturday we went to Montgomery to celebrate Thanksgiving with my family.  Abigail got a belated birthday present from Aunt Chelle and cousins:

We enjoyed a wonderful meal together and then decked out in Auburn gear for church on Sunday:

Michelle and I and the kids stayed the rest of the week while the hubbies went home to work.  I worked in the mornings and then we spent the afternoons shopping for Christmas!  It was so nice to spend this extra time with my mom and sister since this has become a rare occassion.

We also took the kids to the mall one afternoon and they got their picture taken with Santa! 

Abigail also wanted to ride the carousel:

I met Joe back in Auburn on Wednesday night to celebrate Thanksgiving with his family.  Aunt Leslie let the girls help her in the kitchen.  She is a brave woman:

 

On Thursday we ate a delicious meal and enjoyed having the whole family together (minus Vann since he was working):

And the girls officially fell in love with Shug (Leslie's dog):

 Emily even took a short nap with Shug on the bed:

Fun Run

On Friday Emily had her Fun Run at school.  I helped mark laps on the kids backs as they went around.  On Saturday and Sunday my back was hurting pretty good from having to lean over for an hour marking shirts!

The kids were troopers because at the start of the run it was drizzling outside.  They had a good time:

We also enjoyed a lazy Saturday morning of sleeping in and the girls hanging out with us:

 And a bit of randomness.  Abigail continues to enjoy playing with Harper while Emily and Hayden take gymnastics.  Abigail wore these glasses the entire time Thursday.  Too funny!

Veteran's Breakfast and New Playground

Friday night we helped decorate Emily's school cafeteria for the Veteran's Day Breakfast they would have on Monday.  The kids enjoyed eating dinner together, helping decorate, and playing with each other:

 

They even discovered that someone had left the microphone on up on stage so most of their evening was spent singing songs to us while we worked : )

Our neighborhood also FINALLY put a decent playground in.  We have enjoyed breaking it in with friends a few times: