Fun with Mimi and Papa

We have so enjoyed having my parents back in Texas since October! Over the holidays, we got to do lots of special things with them, and we are so excited to have them at our everyday events, too. (And to have babysitters in town!)

I personally was super excited to get to do Christmas cookies with my mom again. We did this every year growing up. (Who am I kidding...ever year until I was in my mid-twenties!) We haven't been able to make it to their house before Christmas in the past few years, so we have not gotten to partake in the fun. This year, the kids and I headed over for lots of frosting, sprinkles, and sugar fun!

Making the dough and icing (ignore Lucas' weird faces):

This is how Lucas decorated. Mom does the icing. He does one blob of sprinkles. Then eats a handful.
 

And, then he gave up and worked on a puzzle while my mom and I finished the rest of them up.

We also took my parents to the Perot Museum with our Member guest passes. We had a great time, but it was SUPER crowded. Does anyone know what days are LESS crowded. I think all the 2nd graders in the world were there!

Christmas with the Knights

So...I only snapped a few pictures at our Christmas dinner with our friends-who-are family, the Knights. (Poor Baby Jude didn't even make it in the shots...he was there, I promise!) Since they moved further away, we don't get to see them as often as we would like, but we sure have fun when we do! Here are the other three kids enjoying each other and making it impossible to take a picture :)

Our friend Jeremy is a wonder with his tools, and this is what Shea came home with from our gift exchange:

It's a super cute crib for her baby doll, complete with a drawer for all it's clothes. So cute. Shea pretty much thinks it's for her at the moment (as you can tell from the pictures), but we will work on that. Thanks Jeremy and Becky...we love you guys!

Christmas Boating Adventures

Back in November, my parents found a great Groupon for a boat ride where we get to look at Christmas lights. There is a town nearby that puts on this HUGE Christmas lights display, and we thought this would be a fun way to look at them other than by car. Well. The there was the ice storm. We got cancelled once because it was too cold, and it was STILL cold on the day we rescheduled for. However, we all toughed it up and headed out.

First of all, I am NEVER going to see these lights in a car. There were a LEAST a million cars in line, and it costs $30 just to get in!!  Our boat driver told us the wait is about 4 hours to get in. No thank you. No lights are that pretty. It was fun to be out on the water to see them, though. I would do this again if it weren't 20 degrees. Hah. My kids were pretty miserable but the rest of us had a good time. Things perked up for Lucas when he got to drive the boat. He pretty much thought that was amazing, and Steve became his new best friend.

Go figure that the year we decided to do this, December was FREEZING!  Next year, it will probably be in the 60s!

Breakfast With Santa

Mimi and Papa arranged for the kids to have breakfast with Santa this year. We thought this might be a good opportunity for them (Lucas especially) to have a better experience with him than in years past. Seriously. Lucas is TERRIFIED of him. I try not to make too big of a deal about Santa since I want Christmas to be mostly focused on Christ's birth and sharing gifts with those we love, but Lucas was still concerned that he would not get his "big machines" unless he told Santa about them in person. Here is his checking out the Big Guy and thinking about if it's really worth it...

Shea just wanted to know when breakfast started:

Shea got up with Santa first and was a bit concerned, but not much:

We tried to push Lucas us there:

Then, he stood still for just a second...

Whispered, I want a "crane truck and a dump truck and a cement mixer"...

And ran away. Much better than last year, though, when I only got a picture of Shea. Then, I got some cute shots of everyone on our way out. Thanks to Mimi and Papa for letting us eat with Santa!!!

Christmas Program

Lucas had his school Christmas program on Wednesday. Now, if you will remember from last year's Christmas and End of School programs, Lucas does not so much have the performance gene.

I had slightly higher hopes for this performance since he had been singing the songs at home and telling me about how they were going to sing for the parents. But, alas, they missed two days of school right before the performance, never got to practice on the stage, and he was NOT HAVING IT. I will post the videos later when I upload them from the Flip, but here are some shots that give you a good idea of how the day went.

Getting on stage. Thumb in mouth.

Oooo, look...a screen at the front of the church!

Saddest face ever.

He looks like he is singing here. He is not.

Nope...never mind. THIS is the saddest face ever.

Or this one.

At this point, I stopped taking pictures and got out the video camera in hopes that he might actually sing something. What actually happened was, his pants came unbuttoned and were falling down and he starting sticking his hands down them and jumping around trying to fix them. My parents and I fell over laughing at this for a few minutes, then I gave his teacher the high sign to fix his pants. Then, he went back to sad faces.

I think we will not be registering him for Children's Choir at church next year. Poor kid.

Icemageddon

So, the second weekend of December, we had a HUGE ice storm that pretty much shut down the entire metroplex. Because we don't deal with cold in Texas. And it was cold. And icy...very, very icy. Phil stayed home from work, Lucas' school was cancelled, Gymboree and tennis were cancelled, so we pretty much holed up and played inside for four days. Church was even cancelled, and I can't remember that EVER happening. These shots are from the first time the kids went out to play in the ice. I think Lucas thought is was going to be like snow. Then, when he figured out it was hard and slippery, he gave up and came in after about 3 minutes. I love the cold, but the ice is TERRIBLE since you can't go anywhere or even send the kids out to run around and play and get dirty. Hopefully, the rest of the winter will be a little tamer and more Texas-like!

Christmas Card 2013

Here was what the final card looks like. I am so in love :) I had it printed on two sided cardstock with a linen finish. Lucas looking at his little sister just makes my heart happy.  Merry Christmas!!!