Slip Sliding Away ...on Christmas Day...

Brayden got a toy snowboard from Santa. He just stepped on and rode like a pro.

Brielle Walks...on Christmas Eve

Finally, the post you have all been waiting for-- Brielle's first steps!!! As Brayden so eloquently said "can you believe, Brielle learned to walk on Christmas Eve." The kids were wired and tired (as you can tell from the video) and that is always when Brielle learns new tricks. She just up and decided to walk and as usual -loved the attention so she kept it going.


After all that walking and wildness we tried to settle the kids in for a more calmer Christmas eve program. Here is a picture of the nativity cast. We had a little difficulty casting with 3 girls and only one boy in a story that is mostly male parts. Emma was Mary and Makenna and Natalie decided to be the 3 kings (with light up crowns being their motivation) but they insisted that Kevin be one two so that we actually had three. He was a good sport. You might want to enjoy this picture while you can, I suspect when Kevin see's it, he will make me take it down. After the play, it was pajama time and story time...such cutie patooties!

Merry Christmas to all and to all a good night!

Graham Cracker Houses

I let my kids join in with my "Activity Day" girls as they made these Christmas creations.

The blog gets an update on the day that just won't end

So it might not be fair to call it the day that just won't end yet...seeing as how it is only 1pm
- but that is how today is feeling.

I woke up at 4:30 to Makenna crying in a wet bed. She was on her 5th night of a fever which seems to come with bed wetting- a completely new thing for Makenna. It's getting tiresome, to say the least. I am hoping that it is just a symptom of sorts from her sickness and not yet another chapter in Makenna's never-ending-potty-training-saga. When I finally got back to bed, my mind started to race and I couldn't sleep, and well I figured I might as well get started on my workout. My goal this month is to double my normal 30 minute workout so that I can enjoy the treats of the season without guilt (we'll see how long this lasts:).

Anyways, today we got our first real dump of snow and it is bitterly cold outside. So yet again we are housebound- thus the "day that just won't end." And so...

Sick kids + cold weather + stir crazy mother = blog update.

Did I mention we call her trouble? It's funny how since I started blogging, whenever my kids do something messy, rather than rush to clean- I rush to get the camera.

I know this is just a messy stage for eating but, of course, she had to discover this new and exciting trick (which had the kids in hysterics) on a morning when I actually had to go somewhere. I finally got to start teaching cake decorating and since Kevin was out of town, I had to pick up a sitter- bright and early on a Saturday morning!

And in case you are wondering, those are hashbrowns with ketchup. Yep-Ketchup in hair- always fun!

Some of our neighbors had a Christmas party with an actual Santa. I dressed up the kids, hoping to get a cute picture of all of them with Santa, but Brielle would not even go in the room without shaking in horror. Oh well 2 out of 3 isn't bad.
The cutest part was watching Makenna with Santa because she truly believed that was indeed the one and only Mr. Claus and she felt like we were all pretty lucky he was there. She stared at him all night and climbed on his lap every chance she got.

And last, but not least, an homage to my childhood Christmases Last night we (in alternating shifts because of sickness) delivered these popcorn goody plates to all our neighbors. When I was growing up we always made these popcorn Christmas trees to deliver to our friends for Family Home Evening- only the ones we did were much larger, without the cookies or the cheesey tag, but with jujubes instead of M&M's. Shockingly enough, when I asked Kevin to pick up some jujubes at the store, he didn't have a clue what I was talking about. Apparently this candy, while extremely common in Canada, is nowhere to be found in the USA. How we managed to be married for over 7 years and not ever encounter this problem before- I have no idea!

Preschool Crafts that make me laugh

Isn't this a cute little baby Jesus.

And what makes me laugh about this one is what Makenna called it
"A Snowflake Pillow in Africa"

(well, of course, isn't it obvious)

What I did this morning...

The activity of the morning here was dancing. Makenna danced and told me to "take pictures." She danced quite a long time- I made at least 10 short videos of her different dances. I tried just pretending to video her after awhile- but she figured that one out pretty quick since she likes to watch the video after each dance, so then I just did a lot of deleting. I thought I would post this one since it's cute to see Brielle try to copy Makenna. Instead of twirling, she crawls in circles. I anticipate a "Brielle's first steps" blog post coming hopefully soon :)

We call her trouble