Saturday, December 31, 2011

A December to Remember

Well, I must say I have been much more absent from this blog then I had hoped to be at this point but, as you will see, we have been quite busy this month, not to mention our sweet little Allye who requires all the rest of my time.  So, here we gooooooo......

On December 1st we adopted Eli.  Eli is an Elf.  He sits on a shelf.  Or so he said.  He is magical.  He flies to the North Pole every night and reports to Santa.  Then he appears in a new place each morning.  Children cannot touch him or his magic goes away.  Eli started out sitting in some pretty predictable places.  The girls loved finding him each morning and then Eli started, well, getting into things.


It all started off with a rained out trip for Addison's school to the local museum.  It is a historical home that decorates for Christmas every year and offers a great tour for kids.  Well, we couldn't miss it so I picked her up from school and took her myself, with Cowboy Trynt, of course!  We got to see Santa and he read us "The Night Before Christmas".
We could take our picture with him too, but Trynt was the only taker!  Addison declared then and now she wants nothing to do with Santa.
But she was more then happy to cook with Mrs. Claus in the kitchen...COOKIES!
And, of course, she wasn't opposed to art time.....a GLITTERY ANGEL!
 Little Cowboys eat anything!

We have this game called "couch fun".  I am sure it was invented when I wasn't around.  Basically the couch cushions get taken apart and, well, I will let Eli show you how it is done!  The girls loved it!
This was Eli's first appearance within reach of the girls.  And he GOT TOUCHED!  When he tried to leave that night he didn't have enough magic to get through the fireplace and up the chimney.
He left a note that if we found him this way we should sprinkle sugar on him that night to restore his magic.  So, we did.  And it worked!

To keep on top of things Olivia decided she needed to start setting her alarm clock.  Oh my!  This is the same child that already gets up at 6:30 with no alarm clock.  So, we set it for her.  Sometimes I worry about her.
Yes, I left it there.  And, yes, she was up before it ever had the chance to go off.  I love her, but she did not get that "Early Bird" stuff from me.

Perhaps she was hoping to find Eli first...

because he was up to some crazy stuff....


Addison had her first school program. 
She even had her own cheering crowd!
All of the kids in her class were dressed up and acting out the birth of Jesus.  
Addison was Mary...
and our very own cowboy was a Shepherd. 
 And the best part was in the middle of the whole play, Addison is sweetly holding the baby and yells, "Hey, Trynt, come look at my baby!"  Priceless!

Addison had another first just a few days later...her first dance recital! 
This dance school does a "mini" holiday recital every December.  It is great for little ones to adjust to the bigger stage and having people watch.  It is so hard to believe that Addison was 3 months old when Olivia started dancing at this same school.  
 They have watched her grow and now have her as a student.  It really doesn't seem possible.


The next morning this is how we found Eli...
He must have been saving up all of his energy for the next night...
Zip-lining?  And on parachute cord...as my 6 year old pointed out to me.

Our last school event was Olivia's Christmas party.  It was so much fun to see her with all of her friends and their excitement for the holiday season.  

LET THE FUN BEGIN!  NO MORE SCHOOL!

First stop - Electri-Critters!
While Nate and Allye hung out at home, I braved the cold with the girls!  
We walked the trails and saw the lights...
Had some hot chocolate to warm up after our walk...
Then a little play time in the man-made igloo...
A visit to Santa, where she ordered up something Mommy had not heard about before.
And some final pictures on the covered wagon...


It was about time we got some presents under the tree so Nate and I braved the late hours to make the magic appear under the tree for our girls.  We accidentally left the ribbon out and guess who got in it?

After he got that mess cleaned up he left a trail of marshmallows from the kitchen cupboards to the linen closet the next night.  Oh, and a note for Olivia telling her to rest and get better.  She caught the stomach bug so bad we had to spend a Sunday in the ER :(  
(Trust me, you don't want to see the pictures of that mess!)

Then Daddy let us loose to go on our annual trip to Dallas to see ICE! at the Gaylord Texan.  The theme this year was Shrek!  Pssst....we squeezed in a little trip to American Girl too!
Getting ready to go in...all bundled up...
We are getting closer!
The magic of ICE!
The only picture I could get of Addison....going down the ICE! slide.
I will miss this tradition in years to come!
We hopped in the car and it somehow steered itself straight to American Girl.  It's funny how it does that when Daddy isn't with us.  We got some special Christmas money from GG and the girls were so excited that I was actually going to let them spend it!  First we needed to power up with some lunch to have the energy needed to get through this shop!
A little dessert never hurt anybody!
We had success and FUN!  Thanks GG!

A couple nights later, Daddy built us this...
So we had to do this...

And then, the moment we had all been waiting for.  Christmas EVE!  I was actually on the ball enough and had Christmas PJs for all my girls!  I was so proud of myself.  That is one of those things I always plan on and never get done, so I was super excited to get this picture!
When they were all snuggled in, we went to bed and awoke the next morning to Olivia, of course.  She whispers (very loudly), "Mommy, there is a problem.  I mean, first, he came, he came! But, Mom, there is a problem.  You have to come see.  There is something wet in our hallway."  
SNOW!  Yes, real, cold, wet, SNOW!  Left by who else????  ELI!

And then we were off to see what Santa left!
Sometimes Mrs. Claus has a weak moment...
But it is worth all the smiles...

Especially when she hits it on her third try!!!!
So, I guess you could say we went out with a BANG!
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