Merry Christmas!!!

I want to wish all of you a Merry Christmas!! I love my Savior and am so grateful for this holiday when we get to celebrate His birth, His life and His example.

"Battery Exhausted"

This week has been stuffed with Christmas activities and other bustlings. We were stranded for the beginning part of the week, but by Wednesday afternoon I had walked to the service station (with two kids and their huge car seats in tow) and retrieved my car, new radiator and all. Back in business. This was just in time for our Christmas cookie decorating party hosted by a friend of ours.
This brave family hosted a dozen mini-cookie decorators and their parents. Sadly, I forgot my camera and don't have any pictures of Elena working away with the pink and green frostings. With half a week of errands to run, we spent Thursday in the car hopping from store to store trying to track down all we needed for our parties today (this included a hunt for reindeer antlers that seemed to be evading us).
This morning Elena had her Christmas party at preschool. It was so fun to see all the little kids romping around high on sugar and Christmas excitement. I had my camera and was ready to go when the screen flashed: Battery Exhausted. So, no pictures of this event either.
After this party we rushed home to get ready for Elena's Birthday Party for Jesus that she wanted to hold. We were able to have a few families over to celebrate and it was a lot of fun for us. We even collected a few toys that we are going to take to a local charity. I hope to make it an annual event. In all of the motions, I forgot to take any pictures of this one too.
So-sorry to Drew and grandparents who would have liked to see some sort of record of these fun activities, but just know the kids were cute and had a blast!

Dreams

Me: When you grow up and get big like Daddy, what do you want to be?
Elena: A penguin


North Dakota, here we come =)

Timing is everything

Yesterday morning I was reading a friends blog entry about holiday stress. I remember thinking to myself, "I'm doing pretty well managing the holidays this year." Why would I think such an audacious thought the week before Christmas? With only one week until Christmas and a two page to-do list I am now home-bound with no car and two cranky kids! Yikes. Now my stress is kicking in.
Yesterday we ran into some major problems with my car and are having it towed and looked at today. Hopefully it will be a quick fix (inexpensive would be nice too) so that I can get to work on the other things I have to get done before this weekend. I guess we'll start working on the in-house projects first.

Rite of Passage

Supposedly most kids, at one time or another decide to play barber shop on their own heads. Well the day has come for Elena. She decided, in her words, that her hair was too long. Now, in her words also, it is too short. I didn't know exactly how to react when I found the mound of hair on her table. I was angry, sad, amused, etc. I at least knew I had to capture this momentous occasion on camera.

Before the trip to the salon for a touch up:

The end result:
My dad always thought she had too much hair around her face, now that it's all cut off maybe he'll be satisfied. =)

To roll or not to roll!

Cookie making is upon us. Sugar cookies, no brainer - you have to roll them out. Snickerdoodles - again a no brainer. You roll them into balls. The dilema arises when you get to the drop cookie category. I'm a roller. I'm an obsessed, controlling roller. Drew is banned from helping because he couldn't care if his cookie dough balls are the same size or perfectly spherical. The recipes tell me to just drop rounded tablespoonfulls onto a cookie sheet. I can't do that. Drew doesn't understand why not. I get it from my mom, and her whole family. All rollers.

Well, Saturday I decided out of time constraints to drop my cookies onto the sheet. Much to my satisfaction, Elena informed me: "Mom, you have to roll them into balls. They have to be this big and round." I've created a cookie monster, but at least I can trust one of my family members to help me.

Delinquent

Maybe it is the age, maybe it is the excitement of the holidays, maybe she is tired of her little preschool stalker - I don't know what it is, but Elena got her first time out in school on Monday. She hit the little boy that won't leave her alone and they ended up in a little scuffle. (I think the teacher broke it up before a winner was declared, although I know Elena could have taken him.)


Today she decided she was upset so she punched Lucas in the head. For as much as the kid knocks himself around, he sure didn't take that well. I'm just paranoid that Elena is going to turn into the "mean kid" or something. Hopefully the phase is short lived and nothing a few time-out can't cure.

Giving Thanks

We have so much to be grateful for and it is nice that tradition allows us at least one time a year to celebrate and remember all of those blessings. Our list was topped off by the fact that Drew had the whole weekend off. Thursday, Friday, Saturday AND Sunday! We were able to take the weekend and go to Indiana to visit friends and Drew's family.
We were able to meet our newest nephew and Elena had a blast playing with the baby.
Now we're ready for Christmas!