Christmas Tree Pictures

We put up the Christmas tree today at Momma and Papa's house. Mom wanted to get a picture of the kids sitting in front of the tree, but I thought maybe we could get them (the big girls at least) laying UNDER the tree.

I honestly don't know how my mom got this picture! We were both snapping away, and Leah kept crawling away, laying her head down, and being generally uncooperative during the picture taking.


Then I talked Drew into stuffing ourselves under the tree for a picture.


Then Mom decided that she and Dad should do the same.


Parker even dropped by before he went to work so we took a picture of him as well.

Leaving Early

Due to a ice/snow storm that's due to blow through our travelling route, we are leaving a full 24 hours early for our Christmas vacation. I had not made ANY preparations when we changed our plans at 1pm today... This afternoon and evening have been full of laundry, cleaning, and packing. The kids are over excited and therefore grumpy. I was extra grumpy this afternoon as well. Other than the last minute things we need to get in the morning and loading the car, we are READY! Now, I hope everyone sleeps well tonight.

Creche

Our church hosts a Creche Exhibit every year, and they typically have about 500 nativities set up. My friend, Michael took the pictures for the official website, actually, he designed the website as well!

Here's the largest nativity that I've ever seen. I can't wait to get a better look at it (when I'm not carrying Leah).
This morning, I stopped by to drop off some cookies and look around before it got too busy. Somehow I got wrangled into being in the live nativity that evening!


Angel Hannah, Angel Leah (holding naked Baby Jesus), and shepherd Elijah (with his trusty Lamby)


I left my real camera with my coat, so this what I got (taken with my cell phone, of course).

Tomorrow morning, Hannah will be singing with all the other kids from church, so I'll try to get some more pictures then.

Scissor Ban Update

I sent Ms Sarah an email about the scissor incident, and when she wrote back she let me know that it wasn't nearly as bad as Elijah made it sound. Alex did NOT lose any hair. Elijah half-accidentally snipped at his head, and came very close to cutting hair. I'm guessing that the little talk Ms Sarah had with him made a BIG impression. Elijah was surprised when I told him that he hadn't actually cut Alex's hair. So I don't think the scissor ban can possibly last too long... He's finally getting pretty good with those scissors too!

Banned from Scissors

When I picked up Elijah from school today, he said, "Mommy, I'm not allowed to use the scissors anymore." I asked him what had he cut that he wasn't supposed to... He burst into tears and said, "I cut Alex's hair! It was an accident"

Now, I do believe he is truly sorry for what he did, but I don't quite believe it was an accident. I'm sure he WISHES it were an accident.

What is it with my children and cutting hair? Remember this? Before and after pictures. Hannah was just a few months older than Elijah is now when she did that... However, Hannah never showed any remorse and fully admitted that she liked cutting her hair.

I'm am extremely hopeful that Alex fared better with his Elijah haircut than Hannah did with her own!!

Latest Montessori Pictures

Working on the map of the U.S.A.


Gluing


Working on the US map again


Working on the map of the world


Hannah's pumpkin patch field trip


On the bus back from the pumpkin patch


This is Taffy, who belongs to one of Elijah's classmates. Apparently everyone was so excited over the turtle that she visited all the classrooms. Hannah looks a bit wary.




Field trip to the Children's Museum


Hannah's face painting


Painting faces


Listening at the museum


Getting ready to shoot balls

One More ElfYourself Video of the Kids

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Merry Christmas!!!

Kid Updates

Here is Hannah just before the "Bedlam" game. Of course, OU beat us, but OSU scored an amazing amount of points as well (61 to 41 was the final, and that's a LOT of touchdowns, my friends). For the record, Hannah is holding her hands like pistols not #1.


Here's Elijah trying on last year's snow pants and his brand new snow boots. He was VERY excited and said he looked like a farmer. Now we're ready for some snow!!! At least the kids are. We've had several days of flurries, but no real accumulation.


Here is the terror of the group. Notice the new trash can? Nice, huh? She hasn't figured out how to open it just yet. In this picture she showing off her new found ability to open the pantry. I put a babyproof latch on it tonight and showed the other two how it works... I'm afraid Leah will figure it out on her own. This one is too smart! She's mechanical and is good at figuring things out. Hopefully by the time she's figured out how to disable the babyproofing, she won't be such a mess maker. I can dream anyway.

Elf Yourself Goes COUNTRY!!

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Elf Yourself

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I think these are a total crack up!!

Santa and other updates

Today, we went to our local 'dead' mall which happens to be a few blocks from our house to see Santa. There was NO LINE and no pressure to buy the $10 photograph. I had very low expectations, so I didn't even bring the camera. I figured IF the girls decided Santa was okay, then we could come back with the camera on another day. Elijah actually got pretty nervous about meeting Santa. He was really unclear on the concept that he would be a real person and not some animatronic gizmo (which freak him out!!). Once he saw Santa, he ran right to him and hopped in his lap. Well, almost. He was a tiny bit shy for about a millisecond, then he turned on the Elijah charm. Hannah hid behind me for a minute or so, then Santa coaxed her with a candy cane (I found that a little disturbing that she could be lured so easily by candy). Even Leah wanted to sit on Santa's lap, so I took a couple of pictures with that handy dandly, new-fangled camera phone. For those of you who know Leah, you realize what a big deal this is. She doesn't go to ANYONE.

For the updates (hopefully, I'll remember a few things)... I stupidly put the beeswax lip balm on Hannah's lips last night, and guess what, her lips swelled again!! So, it wasn't just the impetiego last time, it really was the lip balm. The allergist thought it might be the flavor oil, and suggested she steer clear of all mint and camphor lip balms. I definitely feel like I should be up for World's Worst Mother today. After some Claritin her lips deflated, but they are still red ten hours later. They look like they want to have impetiego again (YUCK!!), so we started the antibiotic ointment this afternoon as well. Hopefully, we'll nip that in the bud before it starts.

Leah is into EVERYTHING these days. I had to go buy a different trash can yesterday because I couldn't keep her out of the old one (we hated it too, so it was going to be replaced anyway). Now we are the proud owner of a stainless steel, foot pedal, lidded trash can. Hopefully, she won't be strong enough to open it for a couple of years! Leah is more ambitious in her destruction than the other two were. She has better large motor skills than the other two and very little fear. Those two things do not bode well for me!! She's also very verbal, even MORE than Hannah and Elijah (if you can even imagine that!). We estimate that she uses about 50 words at this point, and she's even starting to put two words together. She is learning new words all the time! The other morning her mitten got stuck when I was putting her in her car seat, and I said, "Oh, your mitten is stuck". About two hours later, she got herself into a predicament and she was shouting, "I'm stuck!!". She is an amazing baby!!

We are now the proud owners of a Wii, and we are really enjoying it!! Now, if I could just find a Wii Fit...