Angels

Wow! I almost forgot these! Here I thought I was all caught up on my photos and then I found my second memory card completely full. :-) This was the Christmas play for our church. They had the little ones dress up as angels and go up front first to perform "Away in a Manger".

Everyone was in classic form.  K is imitating her teacher telling everyone to smile and Z, well, she is doing the opposite.

Em, well, she's just like Z.  Even in our own house I can't get her to perform.  If she sees the camera come out, she looks down and away and stops whatever she was doing.  Apparently she doesn't even like what the little boy next to her is doing.  :-)

There was one little smile when someone pointed out where I was at.

And actually performing...

Awww, such a little angel.

Ok I can't resist the whole outfit.

A was there too just too far away to be in the photos with the others.

Since two of the three weren't smiling, we had them perform in the hallway afterward.

I call this Em's gangsta pose...

Well, it was fun.  The video is even better but I am being lazy about posting those.  Once I streamline the process, I will get better about that.  I hope you get a chance to relax and remember the gift Jesus was to us on this day!  God Bless!!

Christmas

Merry Christmas!!! Well, we all know by now that M's schedule is crazy at best. He is working the 20th - 27th and then his family is here for a few days. SO, we decided to celebrate Christmas on the 18th.

Before all you sentimental crazies get all upset, please try to remember that our choice, as it usually is with holidays, is to get stuck on a certain date that someone else decided on and the girls and I celebrate on our own, OR pick our own date and have the same great celebration as a family - all of us together. Doesn't seem like a hard choice when put like that now does it?  Well, at least not in my mind.  :-)

Anyway, I think this story will make you smile, so it should be worth it. What you see below is actually a doll house built by our girls' great-great-grandpa.  He built it by hand for his grand-daughters and it has been passed through the family since then. Poppy's sister called us this year and wanted to know if the girls would want it. (Thanks Margarethe!!) I had no idea what they were all talking about as my family doesn't have much stuff like that, but M and his mother were so excited we jumped on it.

We had it and the rest shipped to us. I painted them white (that's as far as I got before we needed to wrap them) and we gave them to the girls as their present.  I do have pink paint and plan to 'pink it up' at some point but I am going to let the girls help me out.

Yes, they also sent all that stuff inside and more! The tiny stuff is really cute and ridiculously fun!  There's even a silver set of dishes.  Ok, the princess dolls are not old...those might be from K's collection.

The roof even opens and closes...

This was the cabinet sent with the house.

And the manger/cradle...I know it's hard to tell which toys were theirs already but I hope you can figure it out.

And that brings us to Christmas Eve...we brought them in from the garage and wrapped them up.

In my family, on Christmas morning, you have a good breakfast before you open presents and that is what we have decided to carry on.  So while K waited to look under those big pink wrappers, she painted.  We ate and then finished the advent tree (M's family tradition) and read the story of "The Other Wiseman" by Henry Van Dyke (one of my family's traditions and easily one of my favorite books of all time).

Then finally it was time to open the presents.

They were pretty excited and frankly stopped paying any attention to us.  I did not see their faces for quite a while.

Em, of course, immediately took the pieces out and, well, built a tower.  What else do you do with doll toys?

K grabbed her dolls and immediately started setting them up all over the house.

Em ended up with all the extras and her sesame street friends.

And K with the house...so as to allow K to play in peace for a little while.  :-)

The tea party was first on the agenda.

We did eventually tear them away and have them open their other gifts that had arrived already.  Yes, since we have to mail everything all over, my family gets on Christmas pretty early.

My mom bought the leap pad reader for the girls and I thought Em would care less about it since it is for reading (it's a pen that reads the words as you drag the pen over them) and she doesn't even know her letters yet, but it turns out that it does way more than that!  It can read the whole story, letters, sounds and play educational games, but best of all, no matter where you put the pen down on the paper, it tells you what is there and what it does.  They both play with it a lot but I am amazed how good it is for Em. She points the pen to a part of the picture and then climbs on top of the book to get a closer look at what it is talking about.

Remember these old record players from our childhood???  What fun!

Well that was the end of it.  We had a great day and I can only reiterate sentiment I have heard a lot lately: it is so refreshing to see Christmas through fresh eyes!  We tend to lose the joy of the holidays as we age, at least I have.  Children have pure joy and excitement and they express it unashamed.  Un-jaded, they are beautiful to watch!

I pray God blesses your Christmas and you find joy in your blessings - however great or small they may be!  I have a healthy family.  I need nothing more.  Yet I have been given so much beyond that.  To say I am grateful is weak.  I am so far beyond grateful words could never express it.  I tear up even thinking about it.  I praise my God!  And head to bed...

Last Trip to Sea World

Yep, our passes will run out at the end of the month so we decided to head down one last time to our happiest place on earth. Plus, they were decorated for Christmas and even had "Snow World" so we had to check it out. I wasn't going to take pictures, much less subject you to them, but sadly I got all sentimental on myself.

Of course, we had to go around saying goodbye to everyone...

And then we hit the "snow".  For those who can imagine taking a giant snow cone making machine and blowing the ice all over a huge area until it accumulates and calling it snow, there you have it.  For all the boys and girls of socal who don't even know what real snow is, it worked.  For M and I, it was a little disappointing.  I mean, I don't know what we expected on a 70 degree day but when snow is advertised, we picture the real stuff.  (Don't get me wrong - April - we aren't nostalgic for the real stuff!!).  :-)

But I digress.  There was a sledding hill but it was only for five year olds and up.  I simply told the boy at the front of the line she was not five yet and asked if she could go anyway.  He said once and so she did.  I only got one pic though cause I had to walk her to the front and then try to run back before she got down, racing a sled while snapping pictures.  She loved it and she was pretty devastated when she couldn't do it again.

Then we managed to get the ice to make snowballs and throw them at the snowman...K hit him every time.  Yes, our oldest.  What?  All Dad's work might be paying off finally?  Notice the beautiful green trees in the background...yes, it is winter...the snow is real!

The best Dad alive!!  Sorry to everyone else who thought they had the corner on that market.  :)

A picture is worth a thousand words.  This picture is a free look into our lives.  Aw, look, K made a cute little snowman.  She is so proud.  Wait!  What's that hand swinging through the middle of the photo?  Oh, that's just Em, here to search and destroy all things her sister makes.  And yes, she crushed it.  Along with K's smile.  We call her "Mayhem", "El Destructor" and other names along those lines.

While Em was taking a nap in the stroller, M and K jumped into the giant snow globe and had their picture taken.  It was really cute and a great idea but not for the money they wanted.

Well, it's been a good run for us and lovely Sea World, but even good things must come to an end (except heaven in eternity...by definition).

"Bye Bye Sam-u!"

I better get to bed!  God Bless!!

New Hike

It is good that my friend J has also decided she wants to try to teach her kids to hike. Her familiarity with the area helps me find more of the trails around here that are nice, short and well suited for kids. This one is going to become one of my favorites, I think.  This was on our way there...

There were even some tall trees on the hike.  They were few and far between but they make my heart sing!

It was pretty cold as the fog had rolled in over night and was stubbornly refusing to lift.  The trees are part of an apple orchard.

They have these cute spots along the path where they hang a pail so you can collect water and water the trees.  The kids had a blast following the well-written instructions.

At one of the "watering spots" Z slipped and fell in the water...we had to strip her down and let her wear my jacket...she was quite the trooper and didn't even cry!  In between distractions, we spend much of these hikes listening to at least one of the kids complain, cry or generally have a bad attitude - there are four of them, four and under after all.  J and I just generally don't listen and every time we get home, the kids tell us how much fun they had.  So, falling in the water, well, we thought it was all going to crumble at our feet.  But instead, Z got happy, K got out of her funk and we were able to keep hiking.  Kids!  Who can figure them out?

Well, it was cold and fun but we ended up with warm apple cider in our hands and joy in our hearts.  It is always good to wander through God's creation and I can see the difference in my kids and myself when we get home, so I am glad it isn't a million degrees here anymore!

God Bless!