Christmas Festivities

First up... the Jingle Jam.

One of the local churches hosted the Jingle Jam at the Honeywell Center this year and it was WONDERFUL! They used the entire center so there was plenty of room, reasonable crafts, delicious snacks, and it was all free! The kids decorated cookies, made a nativity ornament, and sang Christmas karaoke!!! It was fantastic and I hope they do it again next year.

Tim and Cooper "smashed" every piece of their nativity ornament together. Sigh. Boys.
And, the high light - Rudolf the Red Nosed Reindeer Karaoke!!! Grace walked right up to the lady with the list and asked to do Rudolf. We had to hold them back till it was our turn, and they did awesome! Tim really didn't think they'd do it when he agreed to let them, but he stepped up as the dedicated dad that he is and helped them get through it! Cooper started off singing right away and held the mic up close the whole time. During the musical section in the middle, Cooper did a little dance, and Grace giggled into the mic! So cute and so frustrated to not have had the video camera or phone!!!
Lots more to come!!

Silent Night

We had a ridiculously blessed Christmas again this year and are continuing to recover from it! Tim has been able to play with the video camera and his laptop with all his free time, so until I have time to get the pictures off of the camera, here is the Silent Night video I promised. Enjoy!

Merry 200th!

I mean Christmas! This is my 200th post and I thought you might enjoy the journey for this one. I've been in search of "the one": The perfect Christmas picture of my beautiful babies. I know enough not to expect it to happen in one sitting, but this was harder than ever! I did enjoy the ride, and am kind of happy with a few of them. The "out takes" are just about as fun as the "good" ones! So, I hope you enjoy and have a very Merry Christmas!

"Cheeeese!"

And a quick visit to see Grandma at the Jail.

(Grace is eyeing the candy on the nearby table!)

"Sleep" in Heavenly Peace!

Cookies for daddy's students

Grace and I made reindeer cookies for one of Tim's classes today and delivered them.

Cooper followed us up and down the hall as we delivered the extras saying, "Cookie. Cookie!"

They (the kids and the cookies!) were of course a hit!

Also, today I overheard Grace playing out the Christmas story with her Little People nativity... "And the Angel said, 'Oh my goodness! It's a baby!"

Daddy's Little Snow Bunny

Happy Birthday!

Tim's birthday was yesterday. He requested Pizza King (that is like a present for me - No dinner or dishes!) and a carrot cake. I got a little fancy with the cake, and other than being a little under cooked in the middle, it was a hit!

The kids gave Daddy a cool mug for his "favorite" drink that Mommy got him. (That would be Baileys in his hot chocolate!)

Happy Birthday!

Graham Cracker Houses

Grace wanted to make Ginger Bread houses this year, so we gave it a try!

I found a recipe where you use Graham Crackers, so here are our supplies....

Daddy and Cooper worked on theirs.

And then "Smashed" it and ate it!

This what we wanted the roof to look like, but there was no way we were going to be able to decorate it!

So we went with the flat top roof with sky lights.

Grace and Mommy's even had a fenced in back yard with a pet bear!

So proud!

Silent Night

I helped out with our church Christmas Pageant this year. Grace was asked to sign Silent Night. Here she is with her choir of little angels.

She also got to sing Go Tell it on the Mountain.
They were all very good at the chorus, and fought over who could stand the closest to the mic! I think they stole the show!

And as for the signing, I decided to put Cooper up on stage as well because Grace really had not "performed" it all the way through for me, and he had learned it just as well as she had. We have it on video, but I forgot to change the flash setting for my friend who had the camera, so this is as good as she could do.

Grace did pretty well, and Cooper was too enthralled by all the kids on stage and the people watching, but he hit a few of the signs. They did well enough for being 1 and 3! Someday we'll have video software again, and I'll put the footage on here.

First Hair Cuts!

Grandma Patty had the honor of giving Cooper his first hair cut last week. He had been mistaken for a girl a couple of times, so it was time. I videoed it, but forgot to take pictures while it was happening, but here are the before and after shots!

Grace also had her first hair cut this week at the salon. There are no pictures of that either, because I was restraining her to keep the cape on! She just got a trim, but it has made the ends curl up nicer!

Gymnastics

First up: The Boy

Stretching

The Forward Roll
The Beam

Crawling "on" the beam.

Climbing "the rock"

Ta Da!

And next up: The Girl

Stretching

Poor girl doesn't stand a chance of having flexibility... the instructor is always trying to help her straighten her legs. Sigh.

Cutie!

The Bridge.

The Table.

Straddle Jump.

Straight Jump.

Turn around on the jump.

Not following directions....

The Beam.

The knee scale.

A little help with the tuck jump dismount.

Hand stand.

The bar.