Jolly Old St. Nicholas

 Here is our assortment of Santa Claus photos for the season:

At one of the Christmas parties we attended there was a table set up for face painting. Ashlyn was the first to run over and she came back with a candy cane on one cheek and Santa's face on the other.

When it was Brenna's turn she also requested Santa on her cheek, and ended up with this impressive artwork (different painter).

And here's the whole gang. (Do you like Kaylee's glowstick-turned-headband, and my fashionable camera string-hanging-out-of-the-pocket look?)

Smartypants

Kaylee (2nd grade) has a spelling pre-test each Monday. The deal is that if a student aces the pre-test they are not required to take the post-test on Friday. Kaylee often does this, but I thought her accomplishment was particularly notable today. Here's the list of words she spelled correctly (without having seen them ahead of time):

basketball
someone
weekend
something
birthday
riverbank
bathtub
backyard
driveway
bedtime
mailbox
raindrop

I've a feeling we're not in Kansas (Delaware) any more.

Last night we headed out to visit "Christmas at the Creek" - an outdoor holiday event hosted by the city of College Station and held at a local park area .

When you live in Texas you can enjoy an outdoor holiday event on December 1st and not have to worry about your kids getting cold. You don't even have to bring jackets. If they happen to wear long sleeves, they'll probably roll them up before long.

When you live in Texas, things are more family-friendly. The fact that you have three or four children does not make you an anomaly. You're just part of the crowd.

When you live in Texas, people are openly and happily religious. The event we attended last night, which was hosted by the CITY (as opposed to some church group), included a live nativity. I love that the city did not shy away from including something so openly Christian in their holiday celebration.

And apparently when you live in Texas, the petting zoo adjacent to the live nativity includes crazy things like donkeys and camels.

So, I should qualify all of my "when you live in Texas" statements, because our experience is limited to living here in the Bryan/College Station area. But I have a feeling much of Texas would be the same.

Wobbly Baby Video (probably only interesting to grandparents)

We Are Thankful

Earlier this month we hung a posterboard on the wall and instructed the girls to draw and write things they're thankful for. They've done a great job of filling our poster with many things our family is thankful for!

Here are a few of my favorite drawings from the board:

 "President Obama" by Kaylee

(for some reason this picture always reminds me of a Jack-O-Lantern)

"Nana and Papa" by Ashlyn

(of course she also drew a picture of Grandma and Grandpa)

"The Bishop" by Kaylee

"The Temple" by Ashlyn

I drew this one - I'm SOOOO thankful for my wonderful family!

HAPPY THANKSGIVING!!!

Beautiful Baby

McKell was finally blessed in church this week. It was supposed to happen about a month ago, but I ended up home sick that day, so it got pushed off until now. Everything went well, and she made it through the blessing without crying (hooray!).

Here are some of the lovely pictures she posed for in her blessing dress!

 

 

  

Halloween 2012

 

Alice in Wonderland, who is making her parents feel very old lately. We hardly saw her during our church Halloween party/trunk-or-treat, since she was running around with two friends from her school class (who both happen to be boys) the entire time.

 

Dorothy from "The Wizard of Oz", who realized that house to house trick-or-treating can be very tiring. Still, she was unwilling to give up before each and every house on the street had been approached. "But I want to get lots of candy!"

 

Cutest little Witch you've ever seen, whose father spent more time with her hat on his head than she did. Her little legs had a hard time keeping up with the older and faster trick-or-treating sisters, so she ended up being strolled from house to house (and still couldn't quite keep up).

 

Adorable Baby, who was so thrilled by the whole trick-or-treat scene that she spent the majority of the time asleep in Mom's arms.