Goals and New Year's Eve

My goals for this year aren't changing drastically from the ones I made last year. I still need to do most of the ones from 2009 to make sure they are a habit and to remind myself to do them.

Ransom Family Goals for 2010

1. Attend Temple as a couple monthly.

2. Be Financially FREE by:
a. Eat out as a family only once a month.
b. Keep an agreed budget.
c. Buy things we need on sale and in bulk to prepare.

3. Work harder on Fasting and Prayer.

4. Missionary Work as a family by reaching out to neighbors and people we see daily and talking about the gospel and how it helps our lives.

5. Make healthy and frugal dinners nightly and lunches for Andy and Elizabeth daily.

6. Scrapbook 2008 and 2009.

7. Continue to make cross-stitch gifts for weddings and babies and help Elizabeth and Olivia make gifts for friends' birthdays in addition to small store bought gift.

8. Keep adding to food storage supply.

9. Help our family GROW and be happy together.

10. Continue to read scriptures and other books with kids.

Because I was too busy last year with #7, #6 did not get done. I'm already ahead of the game for next year though because all the 2008 pictures are organized, the 2009 papers to go with the 2009 pictures are organized and the 2009 pictures (except for those from the last week) are ordered and will be shipped to me soon. I'm confident that I can complete that goal this year.

On a separate note, we celebrated with the kids at noon today with a few of their friends at our house. I found a few sites online for cute and cheap party crafts and we made those, then they counted down, ate their sack lunches, and had a little time to play too.
Blowing kazoos after the big countdown. Look how red Elizabeth's face is getting. It cracks me up.

I found both ideas from this blog. One is the pipe cleaner 2010 glasses and the other is a toilet paper tube with a hole punch, a piece of wax paper, and a rubberband around it to make a kazoo. The kids LOVED it.

I'll tell about my side's Christmas party after I am emailed some pictures because my pictures are BAD. (hint, hint.) After the party I did look through my camera manual and figure out the settings that have been mixed up for a while. I think it's all fixed now. Only a day or two late.

After that party, my brother from Idaho Falls and his wife and two sons spent the night here. They played all day with the kids here and ate breakfast and lunch with us before moving onto another brother's house for New Year's Eve. Elizabeth wanted to fix Aunt Tina's hair. Aunt Tina then fixed her crazy hair too. Elizabeth kept asking Uncle Brant to wrestle. He kept telling her that he just ate. I told him to just tell her NO if he didn't want to. Not a big deal to tell kids no at our house. I say it almost constantly. I know they understand it. He's a third grade teacher. I figured he knew that.
We had a fun day with them and will be able to see them tomorrow again before they have to drive back home.
Happy New Year!

A little bit of Snow

Equals a lot of fun for three Ransom children. The last time it snowed it was all iced over and crunchy by the next day, so I didn't let them go out and play in it (and I think it was a Sunday too) and then it all melted, so this was our first official day of playing in the snow this winter season.
I'm still recovering from this awful cold that makes me tired and achy (I think I'm finally almost better!), so I slept a lot of the morning, with many interruptions, and fed the kids lunch before tackling the snow outfits. Even though it was only 1/8 an inch of snow (or something tiny like that-I didn't actually measure), it's more fun to play in the snow in snowsuits and not have to worry about getting your pants all wet making snow angels and I don't have to do quite so much laundry.
Vincent with his mittens before he took them off.After using up all the fresh snow in our driveway, we moved over to our neighbor's driveway that is nicely smooth and no one had driven on. On her driveway the snow angels could be made without tearing clothes and getting too dirty. Vincent's gloves didn't last the trek over to her driveway, but he had plenty of fun without them. Enough fun for me to take a bunch of pictures to document all of it.
Down the driveway to the neighbor's house. Vincent totally kept on walking into the road.See how silly Olivia is?
Vincent seeing what all the snow was about.
Elizabeth's snow angel.
Olivia's snow angel. After looking at both, Elizabeth proclaimed, "Her's is better than mine!"
Vincent found a little treasure in the snow. Actually a sycamore tree seed ball. They are all over on our block.
Olivia made a little mountain of snow. The snow wouldn't pack to make a snowman.
Elizabeth tried to make snowballs, but they all flew apart. She threw this one at me. Most of it got me in the face.
Three silly Ransoms having a fun time in the snow. Totally worth all that extra effort to get them all dressed up.
When I was tired of the cold and taking pictures, I suggested a move to the backyard. I also volunteered to take Vincent in for a nap and start some hot cocoa. This was well received and I was able to get warm again.
Elizabeth wrote her name in the snow before we moved to the backyard.I read a book much of the afternoon while the girls played with Christmas toys and watched library movies that needed to be returned tonight when we went to the library. After they watched a few of them, I put "Nim's Island" in that is due soon and we watched that together while the girls did some beading and I worked on a cross-stitch. Vincent woke up and we cleaned up a little before Andy got home and then went to the library, ate some dinner, spent some of Andy's Best Buy money, and got the kids all ready for bed. I have been reading a ton lately because I haven't wanted to talk too much with my throat healing.
Oh, I thought I'd let you all know that Winkflash.com is having a great picture print sale. You upload your pictures to their website where they save them as long as you want, and then choose which ones you want to print. They are currently FIVE CENTS each for 4x6 and ten cents for 5x7. It's a great deal. I have been using Winkflash for years. I love them. They will print the file name on the back of each photo too, so if you label your photos in your file with the date or person's name, it will be printed on the back. That saves so much time in the photo organization effort.
Tomorrow will be a mad cleaning and cooking time for me. We are having a potato bar dinner with my family, which will be twenty five people here. I have to put away most of the toys so we aren't stepping on them all night with thirteen kids underfoot. Wish me luck on getting all those potatoes cooked in time!

Christmas comes at last!

Andy here:
Christmas 2009 has been good to us. We had a nice time with family, and we had a lot of fun giving and receiving gifts.

We got things started Christmas Eve at Grandma & Grandpa Ransom's house. There was a lot of yummy finger food, then a short program that included the following: Singing carols, Aunt Suzie's amusing story of the boy who asked Santa to bring him a shark, then got his hand bit off during feeding time (But not to worry because it was all a dream. The next morning, he was relieved that Santa didn't bring him a shark.), Cousin Kurt's solo of Oh Holy Night, and the ever-popular Nativity Puppets.
Here's all the cousins, that live in Tri Cities, sitting together, oldest to youngest, during the Christmas Eve program. Vincent didn't leave any room for Daphne to sit next to him, but that's okay because she can't sit up yet anyway.Here's Aunt Nancy, performing her roll of King Herod in the Nativity puppet show. You say your Nativity puppet set doesn't include Herod? Well, I guess you're just not as lucky as we are. Andy made King Herod himself.After the fun at Grandma's it was time to go home and go to bed so Santa could come.
About eight-o'clock in the morning, Elizabeth and Olivia were ready to see if he had come. According to Andy's family tradition, everyone has to line up in the hall, and wait until dad goes to check whether or not Santa has been there, tradition also demands that this moment be preserved by photograph.
We had to restrain Vincent a little.
Then the fun began, here's Olivia opening her gift from Santa. She was a little excited to get a new Barbie.
Soon enough, all the presents were opened. We all made a haul! NaDell's tradition is that everyone takes a picture with all their loot.
Vincent got a lot of cars, and a neat racetrack set. He's holding a magnetic farm animal matching game.Olivia got a new Barbie, some movies, and a coloring book you paint in.Elizabeth got a Lego set, she and Olivia and Vincent got Clone Wars, Season 1 on bluray to share (we started watching them, and they're really good, better than I expected, and a lot better than that Clone Wars movie). They also each got a paper doll that's better than regular paper dolls because the doll and clothes are made of wood and magnets. Vincent's doll is a guy who can dress up as a fireman or a knight, or a pirate, Arrggghh! NaDell got a new printer/scanner/copier, some new cookie sheets and oven mitts (some of you are thinking, 'what kind of jerk gives his wife cookie sheets and oven mitts for Christmas?' In my defense, she makes a lot of cookies, and she asked me for new cookie sheets and oven mitts.), and some necklaces from Olivia (NaDell's note: Elizabeth looked all sad and almost started to cry when I opened those. I was trying to figure out why and then she said that she was worried I wouldn't like what she got me because of the jewelry Olivia gave me. Elizabeth picked out a lavender scented oil that you put sticks in to make a room smell nice. I do like lavender.) Oh, and NaDell wasn't in pajamas all day. She just didn't get any pictures of herself later in the day.Andy got what every guy needs, Legos (NaDell's note: Check out the age it suggests on the box, 9-14), a deep-fat-fryer, and a movie where they try to kill Hitler. That orange thing in the picture is a neat tool for cutting open that annoying plastic packaging and wires that everything seems to come in nowadays. The only problem was that it came in its own annoying plastic packaging, and guess what I didn't have to cut it open with? I took the tool with us to the rest of the festivities and it came in very handy.
Vincent's racetrack set is probably the most popular gift of all. It's got these Little People racecars that zoom around in a figure-eight and crash into each other. We've all played with it so much that it's just about ready for more batteries.Vincent really enjoyed all his cars too. NaDell found some cool ones that are die cast of the Cars movie, Elizabeth picked out the little knock-off hot wheels, and Olivia choose the bigger Tonka cars. Vincent was lining them all up by size. At lunchtime, we went back over to see Grandma & Grandpa Ransom, so we could all give each other more gifts.
Olivia really likes the feather boa from Aunt Nancy, that she can add to her dress-up clothes. We hope it still has feathers left by the end of the month, it sheds.
Vincent is saying, "a train? I wanted socks!" Actually, Vincent was taking a nap when everyone else was opening their presents from Grandpa and Grandma. We made him open his when he was only half awake, and he was cranky.After a late lunch, or early dinner, we went over to Walla Walla to see Grandma and Grandpa Crowther. Grandpa Paul got Vincent a racecar that goes with his racetrack, and he didn't even know Santa was bringing the racetrack. With a third car, Vincent can have 50% more fun than he could have had.
Elizabeth got a loom from Grandma Mary. She spent the rest of the night weaving, and she wanted to weave in the car, but it was too dark. "Just let me hold it, dad. I won't get it out," said Elizabeth. Yeah right! The loom had to go in the trunk.Olivia received a set of tiny dolls that she loves to play with. She already decided that they are friends with her other tiny dolls.
Edited to add: If you want to see more of the fun at Grandma Mary's house, check out her blog.
We get to continue our fun next Tuesday with NaDell's family. It is always fun to be around our family.

Where a Kid can be a Kid.

Elizabeth went to a birthday party for one of her friends from school last Saturday. She had a great time running from game to game at Chuck E Cheese's.Olivia had a friend party that morning too, but she was a little sick (you know snotty nose stuff). Since it seemed like just a 'routine' cold, we took her anyway. Andy dropped her off and went to run some errands. Vincent napped. I got a call from the friend's mom that Olivia was crying and a little while later, her dad dropped Olivia off. She was there long enough to make a foam wand.
While Elizabeth was at her party, I ran a few errands. It was pretty crazy since it was the Saturday before Christmas, but I survived and I even found some girl shoes for $3 each. I bought three pairs and used my $2 off coupon. I should admit here that I bought $9 shoes for myself too. And they had a two pack of long girls socks for $2 too. I love finding deals.
Saturday night was our much awaited Primary Worker Christmas party. It's the best party in our ward, if we weren't currently working in the Primary, we would have crashed it and said we were entitled to be there because we'd subbed a lot. They had a Mexican food dinner and fun pinatas to hit. (Whoever made the pinatas thought it would be amusing to make them indestructible. Have you ever made a pinata by blowing up a balloon and covering it with papier-mache? They were like that, except the papier-mache was about 1/4 inch thick, and a whole roll of duct tape was hiding between the papier-mache and the colorful outer covering.) Then we had the white elephant gift exchange which is always a blast. It's fun to get together with our friends.
Church Sunday was crazy. We had 19 or 20 kids in nursery. Good thing we had plenty of help. I made the kids ornaments Saturday night (about 23, so I had to arrange all of that while we were there and I took pictures of the two kids who hadn't been to our ward for the two weeks previously when I took pictures for the ornaments. I made those extra ornaments on Tuesday. They are felt, ribbon, a picture that I cut out with my circle cutter, and a lot of hot glue and they are supposed to look like a present. Do you like the picture of Vincent with his slicked back hair and bow tie? I do too.
I finished all the sweet bread cinnamon wreaths that I take to friends as a goodie plate and delivered them this week. (I don't even bake it. I just make the dough and put it in a pie tin, cover it with foil, and they cook it themselves. No one wants stale cold bread anyway. It's much better warm and fresh. I call it the goodie plate when you want it. 'Cause there's nothing worse than having too many goodie plates at once and having some go stale. Or maybe there is. Maybe if you don't get any. I give out enough plates that I get plenty in return, so that's never a problem here.)
After we finished delivering our last goodie plates on Tuesday night, I was all achy and crummy feeling. I went to bed at 10pm. That's SO early for me. If you remember, I normally go to be at 2am. Yes, I'm a little crazy. I was still all achy and my throat hurt on Wednesday, so I got up to take care of the kids during the day and spent the rest in bed. I didn't even eat because nothing sounded good with my sore throat. Today is Christmas Eve and I still have a sore throat, but most of the achiness is gone. I slept most of today too. It's not even because I'm tired. Just because I think it will help me recover faster if I rest.
Good thing nearly all the wrapping is done. I have four more things to wrap. Santa wraps his own presents at Santa's workshop (AKA work). Andy's family is getting together for the telling of Jesus' birth tonight and we are taking our nativity puppets to share. The girls are getting all excited and Elizabeth is starting to suck up to us. Yesterday she helped tuck me in (I was freezing all day even with four layers) and she said, "You're my best mom ever." It made me feel good. Olivia and Vincent are both a little sick too and Olivia felt lousy this morning, so Elizabeth made her a "feel better crown" with paper and string and tape. Andy has been great taking care of them today so I could keep resting so I'm not grumpy at the party tonight.
Merry Christmas to all of you!

Random Stories

Courtesy of two little imaginations in overdrive and boredom in the car on the way to the Grandparent's house (which is only 15 minutes away).

Olivia started a little story about two friends (Angelina and Alice from the Angelina Ballerina books and movies) whose mom told them to make the room shine after they made a mess. That was the whole story. We asked her to tell us more (like if they had a hard time cleaning the room or if they were able to do something fun after they finished) and she told us it was a short story.

Elizabeth told us a story about a girl named Elizabeth who liked to run fast and her two friends from school who liked to play the game "Run Fast". (We asked her if the Elizabeth in the story ran faster than her and she told us that it was really a dream and she was the Elizabeth.) She went on to say that the three of them were playing at recess and then went through a portal into Jabba's (Star Wars) palace and they found Olivia and Vincent in frozen cubes (like Han Solo) and rescued them. Olivia froze Jabba with her fairy magic and made them all wings and Vincent rode in a backpack to escape. They came back through the portal at the school, where the teacher was looking for them and called me to come and pick up Olivia and Vincent. Also, not much time had elapsed during the visit to Jabba.

(She's a huge Star Wars fan and Andy is currently reading the first Narnia book with her which explains the portal.) I like that she's combining so many different concepts from different stories. Even Olivia's special fairy powers came from one of Olivia's Barbie Fairy movies and she knew that Olivia wouldn't want to be a Jedi.

Clever one is she. I love when they entertain themselves in the car and that they aren't misbehaving all the time. I actually had to grab some paper and write some of the story down so I wouldn't forget.

Cute Nativity for Kids

I just found this cute printable nativity that kids (or you) can color and then glue onto cardboard tubes (toilet paper tubes or wrapping paper tubes or paper towel tubes). It prints out in eight pages and makes 13 pieces. If you want to make one, go to this site to print your copies out. The picture is from their site as well.I know my kids will enjoy this set.

Santa Claus

Just thought I'd add in this nicer picture that was taken at our ward Christmas party. I don't know how Olivia forces herself to have a double chin in the picture. She must be related to my side of the family. Elizabeth has some trouble looking at the camera and Vincent looks a little scared, but isn't. He probably saw some cake or something behind the photographer. He loves his cake and screams between bites. Check out how many hands it takes to confine him. Count them. Really. I'm still trying to figure out who Santa is...

=) Still

8 1/2 years ago today Andy and I were married. It's been such a great time.
Tomorrow is the tenth work Christmas party I'll attend with Andy. Our courtship (before marriage) was short, but it obviously worked for us, I think so anyway... We dated the whole month of December in the year 2000. I saw Andy every day except for the 2nd and the 15th. I talked to him on the 15th, but had to go on a date with another boy to his work party that night (our moms arranged that one. At least it was at the Moore Mansion, so I can say I've been there before it was burned down.) I left for Rick's College the beginning of January, so we (I) discussed the future plans and decided that we'd like to get married while my little brother Jeff jumped on the back of his car. How he agreed after that, I don' t know. I left for college with a giant plastic ring. Andy said that if anyone noticed, they'd think I was engaged and that the guy I was engaged to was rich (it was that big.)
See my giant fake ring? It was fun. When my college roommates introduced me to the FHE brothers, they told them all to check out my rock. I think I spoiled that by telling them immediately that it was a fake plastic ring.)On a visit home for President's Day he did a real proposal with a real (NICE) ring that he picked out. I had a great time at college (and had fabulous roommates!) and we made a few visits in person too and came home after the semester to be married June 16, 2001. It was my 19th birthday.
It was the perfect June day. Cloudy a little. Not too cold. Not too hot. Perfect.This is my favorite one of the two of us from our wedding day. Our wedding reception line. My parents, Andy's parents, my brother Jeff (who was filling in for Andy's cousin Karl-late to the reception), Andy and I, my friend Chelsea, Andy's sisters Sara and Torrie, and my sister Janessa. We had one reception because my house was only 20 minutes from Andy's.

Done with Nutcracker 2009

Andy Here:

Today (Monday, Dec 14) marks the end of the Nutcracker for this year. Yeah, I'm in a ballet, but I don't wear tights or a ballet-jock, I wear a tux, and I don't dance much.

It went pretty well. My baby sister, Torrie, and I, filled the roll of party-parents for the third time. In case you don't know, party-parents are the adults who come to the party that takes place at the beginning of the Nutcracker. They bring the kids, who are the real stars of the show. Basically, we're human scenery. It is a mostly-fun experience. The main annoyance is having to wear a bunch of stage-makeup, like in this picture, that we took before the Sunday performance.
Torrie looks pretty nice in her getup, I must look OK, because they've had two chances to not invite me back, and haven't.

Anyway, we had a lot of rehearsals starting in October, a couple dress rehearsals last week, over the weekend four full-blown performances, and today we did two abbreviated performances where they bus in nearly all the fifth-graders in Tri-Cities. My part is not super hard, we do a couple of ballroom-type dances, and the rest of the time we're standing there acting like we're having fun at the party. My biggest challenge is not stepping on anyone's dress. I was fairly successful this year, I stepped on Torrie's dress only half-a-dozen times, and only one of those times was severe enough to get made fun of. In contrast, in previous years, I have stepped on her dress and popped a seam or two, so I think I'm improving a bit. The only other boo-boo we had, was when I handed Torrie a plastic champagne glass for her to hold during the 'drinking dance' and the bottom of the glass snapped off. Torrie took it in stride, and hardly anyone who wasn't on the stage noticed.

There's a lot of time sitting around waiting to go on the stage. They want you to show up ninety minutes before the start so everyone has time to get ready, but it only takes me about fifteen minutes to get ready, so I have a lot of time to kick around. A lot of people who either know Torrie, because she works at the ballet studio, or know NaDell because she hangs around the ballet studio while Elizabeth and Olivia are in class, come up and talk to me, and I don't really know them. Some lady says, "so how long have you been in your house?" and I want to say, "who the heck are you, and how do you know I own a house?" but instead I use manners and say, "three years ago." My favorite is, "so Torrie is your sister, is she older, or are you?" I want to say, "are you calling her old-looking, or me young-looking?" Maybe the makeup is making me look a little younger, but it doesn't hide my white hairs.

Aside from the makeup, the other annoyance is that I have to keep my hair longer than I like, until the show is done. But I've taken care of that already.
I'm a short-hair guy, especially in winter, because I can wear a stocking-cap and not get very bad hat-hair.

NaDell adds:
He really does smile. I promise! These look like boot camp pictures. Well, maybe just the bottom one.

Band on the Run

Olivia loves that song. It's on our Wii Guitar Hero and she always sings along. It's also on my little music player at the bottom of the page if you want to try and figure out what she's singing here. She knows how the music goes and when to say Band on the Run.
Enjoy.

Nutcracker

We went to watch the Nutcracker this afternoon. The afternoon one is the best with kids. One of Andy's cousins came over to babysit Vincent while the girls and I were gone. I asked Andy's sister, Sara, to go with me so that if I had to take a kid to the bathroom, I wouldn't have to take both or take all my stuff with me. She came with her adorable baby Daphne. She hadn't been for a long time either, so she wanted to go anyway. It was fun to see Andy onstage and one of Elizabeth friends was his "son". Here is the post from last year's nutcracker in case you'd like to see how Andy looks with makeup.
Here are the girls in front of the Christmas tree.And in front of the giant nutcracker.
Sara and Daphne sitting and waiting for the show to begin. Daphne is so cute! Sara made her that bow this morning.
Elizabeth and Olivia waiting in line at intermission for cookies.
Me, Elizabeth, and Olivia waiting for the second half of nutcracker to begin.
We ended up sitting right next to a family in our ward, another family in the row in front of us a little ways down, and one of Olivia's ballet classmates behind us. We saw a few other people we knew too. It was sprinkling snowflakes when we went in and when we came out, everything was covered. It took a while to get out of the parking lot, but it takes a long time even when the weather is nice.
Yesterday our old van's back lights were stuck on and I couldn't get them to turn off, so Andy looked at them last night and ended up unhooking the battery. This morning, he worked on that while I went to a bridal shower brunch and when I got back he explained how to hook up the wires to turn the lights back on and how to turn them off and then he went off to Nutcracker again. He plans on getting a part to fix them Monday. But hey, our van has lasted since the beginning of May, so that's seven months. Pretty good for a Craig's List cheapo van.
The Nutcracker was wonderful. Everyone did a great job and the dances were great. At intermission we went out and had cookies and visited. When it was over, Olivia and Elizabeth started going down the row to leave while Sara and I got Daphne's little jacket back on. I told them to stop and come back and Elizabeth came back, but Olivia was waiting at the end of the row. When we walked out, she disappeared. I figured that she walked out to the place we had cookies or possibly to the car (she likes to freak me out by going by herself to the car and then hiding in there. It's SO fun.), so I checked those places. Sara waited next to the outside door to check for her while I went out to the car. She wasn't there, so I went back inside, left Elizabeth with Sara, and went back down to the seats. She was coming up the stairs by the seats crying because she couldn't find us. I don't know where she went to while we were looking around for her. She was too upset to explain. My kids seem to be enjoying giving me heart attacks lately. It's so freaky!
Elizabeth did it earlier this week after school. I was picking her and a friend up, so I parked at one of my friend's houses across the street from the school and left Vincent and Olivia in her house. Then I walked over to where the first graders come out. I must have been a minute late because I couldn't find them, but other moms kept telling me they saw Elizabeth running off somewhere. I walked to her classroom to look, went inside the school, and walked back and forth a few times before going inside to make sure the friend didn't get picked up by anyone else and surprised her mom at home or something, which freaked her out too. I called my friend across the street, but her phone was in her car and she didn't answer. As I walked out to check over there, my friend called the school saying that both girls showed up there. Oh my goodness! They freak me out! Especially because two kids were missing and that's not where we meet. So annoying. Elizabeth was worried today when Olivia was missing and I explained to her how I felt when she was missing, so hopefully she gets it now. Sorry for the long story.
Tomorrow I get to go to church with all three kids alone. Hopefully I survive. That and nursery. I think I'm going to need a nap tomorrow after church.

Santa's R-E-A-L!

That was Olivia's reaction at the church Christmas party when Santa came in, so make sure you say that in kind of a babyish sing-song voice that's a tad deep, like Olivia's.
Andy is dancing in the Nutcracker with his sister, Torrie, in the party scene as a party dad. They get to do a little ballroom dancing, but mostly it's pretend talking and wine glass toasting. (Last year Andy had to carry one of the middle-sized ballerinas onstage to act as a doll. They are heavy, he reports. This year, he doesn't have to do that part, and that's a relief because that ballerina probably gained 10lbs of muscle since last year.) He was busy the last several Saturdays for an hour or two and then every night this week rehearsing.
Tonight I was on my own with the kids at the ward party. It was a dinner, then music, then, singing, then reading a few stories and scriptures, more caroling, then two hours later, Santa came out. I really would love it if Santa came to the church like an hour before the party. I think that would be awesome! All the kids would be clean and dry and have clean faces and they (probably) wouldn't be crying and they wouldn't be just recovering from sitting at a table for two hours. And the party could be all about what Christmas REALLY is about. Even though the wrestling at the table with Vincent got old and he can only rip up so many Styrofoam cups, the kids all did pretty well for the Santa picture. Too bad my camera takes lousy gym shots. Really anywhere with fluorescent lighting. Vincent eyeing Santa to see what he's all about. But no crying! I think he was just glad to get a treat. The kid chants "cookie" all over the house!
One of the men in my ward was taking pictures with his really nice camera on his tripod and they gave us prints of our manger scene picture from last year, so that's probably the plan for these too. I hope!
I had been trying for weeks to find someone to come over and rake up our leaves and finally asked Andy's cousin to do it. He came over with a buddy on Monday to do it. They only had about an hour of daylight left, so they had to come back on Tuesday. They worked on Tuesday for 4 hours, but still weren't done, so they came back for two more hours on Wednesday. A lot of work. SO glad it's done though. Just before they got here on Wednesday I put up the Christmas lights all by myself! I climbed up on the ladder and attached the special clips that slide under the shingles and then went back around with the lights to hang them. I ran out toward the end of the house, so I had to go back and take down the first ones and use an extension cord where they were to finish the front of the house. I didn't want to go to the store or have to finish the next day. The boys came to finish up the leaves literally just as I climbed down the ladder the last time.
Elizabeth's playdough duck while the girls played with playdough on Monday after school.
Olivia with her playdough on Monday. She copied Elizabeth's ducks, but she wanted three of them and in the right colors.
Tuesday after school, we wrapped some presents. I wrapped, Olivia handed me tape, Elizabeth tied the ribbons on, and Vincent helped pick out tags. It was pretty fun. Now I just hope they don't tell anyone what their present is. It helped that Andy wrapped a bunch the few nights before, so Elizabeth started with plenty to put ribbons on that were for them, but it didn't spoil their surprise.
Wednesday morning Olivia's preschool went caroling at a nursing home close by. They were so cute! They sang "Jingle Bells", "Rudolph", "ABCs", "Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star", and "Once There Was a Snowman". It was cute. There are six kids in Olivia's group. One of the ones in the picture is a younger sister.Vincent got into it too. It helped that the man who helps with these things plays his guitar along with the kids. He even gave them those jingle bells pictured above to play with. We hardly had to do anything. When we left each of the four houses, I held Vincent and he'd wave and say bye-bye to the grandmas and grandpas and I'd tell him to blow a kiss. They LOVED that! The hat was what held the jingle bells.Thursday, I got a call from the school at 10am that the school's three year old heating system wasn't working and to pick up my child before 12:45pm or they would take them to the middle school close by. So, we spent the afternoon kid crafting while Vincent napped. We painted the puzzle pieces to make wreaths on Friday and then started on our cotton ball Santa faces.
Painting puzzle pieces.Olivia's finished Santa face.Elizabeth's finished Santa face.Friday is Elizabeth's early release day, so it was another kid craft/kid movie watching afternoon. 'Tis the season for all of that.

Just for fun, Santa's past visits with our family. The ones I have digital copies of anyway...
Elizabeth and Olivia in 2005 with Santa.
Olivia in 2006 with Santa.Elizabeth in 2006 with Santa.
Elizabeth in 2007 with Santa. Olivia wouldn't go near him. This was during Olivia's scared of everything stage. She is still a little leery of things, but we found out that she thought Scooter (Andy's parent's dog) was going to eat her when he licked her fingers or feet once and as soon as she could speak well enough to communicate that to us, we told her that wasn't going to happen and since then she's been mostly okay with animals.
2008 with the tarp-covered Santa in the freezing snowy park. They were freezing. Really cold. After this, the city did some fireworks that we stayed for. Until the kids were all frozen and crying. A little long. It was another Nutcracker weekend and I was keeping them busy.Me and my siblings with Santa in 1989 (or somewhere close there). I'm pretty sure right after this is when we crashed, right mom? Something like that. My mom reported that this picture was taken in 1986, so I was 4 1/2 (close to Olivia's age now). Milton is all beat up because he rammed his bike into a telephone pole.
I love Christmastime!