A little Christmas cheer

I've got a few holiday-time pictures to share.

We made our annual visit to Santa with Grandma Bonnie this year. We went back to Willow Bend in Plano since it is usually less crowded than the madhouse Northpark has become.


Alex had been talking all year about getting to ride on Nu Nu again (if you ever watch Teletubbies, you know the character). The mall has about six of these little rides next to the play area.


Grace chose the Mustang to ride. She looked stylin', but got out about halfway through the ride. She's finally reached the age where it is "too boring." They only go back and forth, so I have to agree with her.


Both my kids after seeing Santa. I'm surprised we got Alex to smile for this one. After meeting Santa and telling him everything he wanted (and neither kid crying!), they each received a little puzzle as a gift. Alex then proceeded to bawl his eyes out. I finally got the reason out of him - he said "But Mama, I wanted a cool cool gift." Poor little guy thought that crappy cardboard puzzle was all Santa was going to give him that year.


Grace likes to pose herself for pictures now.


This is Grace (in the middle) with her friends Sarabeth and Amanda as peacocks in the church Christmas pageant. Peacocks and butterflies in the show are explained as being the "exotic" animals that came with the wise men. I think it is just a way to keep a lot of little girls happy without making them all angels once they outgrow (either in size or desire) the chicken/duck/cow/donkey/sheep costumes.


Alex had his Christmas show for school on the last day before break. His class sang Jingle Bells. You can see Alex above singing his heart out - one of the only ones in his class that did. Joy of joys, this was the first year he went up "on stage" and didn't cry!


A winning smile from my little guy after doing such a great job.

Woo hoo!

No accidents today! I had to explain to Alex that we take off our Spiderman underpants at night ("But Mommy, they aren't wet") because we have to change them every day just like our shirts. I hope tomorrow goes as dryly as today did.

Better?

Only two accidents today.

But we're taking no chances tomorrow. Pull Ups for both church and grandparent's house.

Lots of laundry

Alex started wearing underpants today.

He went through five pairs. The last pair was close enough to bedtime that he could go straight into the tub and then into a pull up.

Sigh.

Maybe tomorrow will be better.

Busiest mailing day of the year?

Or so trumpeted the newscasts today. But I stopped by my friendly neighborhood post office this afternoon around 1pm and spent all of about 5 minutes there mailing my two packages. The lady behind the counter did say it had been crazy earlier in the day. Guess I just got lucky.

And to the Ohio clan - your package should arrive via Priority Mail in a few days.

Leaf-jumping photos, plus a few others

We seem to get an inordinate amount of leaves in our front yard from our one (admittedly large) ash tree every year. To the point where there is always an annual moment when Jim and I can look down our street and every other house has a fairly empty lawn, while ours looks like someone exploded a tree in it. But it always provides us with a wonderful day of leaf pile jumping each year.


Alex about to jump.


Grace about to jump. Love this action photo Jim caught. Anyone else think she looks a lot like Emma?


This and the next couple photos just show in the kids faces how fun such a simple activity can be.






This was Grace almost entirely covered in leaves. She said she was being a "skeleton head."


Now for a few other random pics:

This was but a drop in the bucket of our pecan haul from the three trees in the back. We don't know how much of it is due to weather conditions and how much is due to the addition of a dog scaring squirrels away.


Grace DESPERATELY wanted to teach Lucy to jump through a hoop. I think Lucy was just plotting which one of my plants she was going to dig up next.


Alex is now in a big boy bed. And today we had the milestone of going 24 hours without peeing in his Pull Up (he went on the potty - don't want everyone to think he just held it). We're going to try the big switch to underpants when school is out for the holidays. Lord help us.


I just noticed this cluster of medications on the counter this evening. Pretty much sums up the state of my house these past few days. Luckily both kids tested negative today for strep, though Grace does have an ear infection. But I think we are all going to survive.

Some VERY belated photos

First here's a few from Halloween...

Grace and Alex are dressed up here for the Halloween carnival at Grace's school. Alex didn't keep the mask on much because it was too big for his head. I think he'll be able to wear this costume for the next few years if he wants.


I thought Alex looked funny trying to get candy out of his bag with those big ol' fake hands attached to his sleeves.


Alex went with his Buzz Lightyear costume for trick or treating. Here he is quite in character, most likely saying "To infinity, and beyond."


Alex, Grace and Bella before hitting our street. Bella looked so funny in her geisha outfit. Not only was that face totally painted, but her hair had been colored black. So it was very startling to see her, especially if you knew what that little blond gal looks like on normal days.



We also had our annual trip to the Arboretum to get some pumpkin pictures. The best we used for the Christmas card, so I didn't include it here.

Alex perched himself up here for a rest.


Grace is quite the ham sometimes.


I love it when the kids are full of energy and take advantage of the wonderful wide lawns to run on. Here Grace was having us time her over and over as she ran to and back from various points (a tree, a sidewalk, a group of people, etc.). Poor Alex tried to keep up with her, but his little legs are just still a little too stubby for that.


Since I finally got on Jim's computer to retrieve some pictures to post, I get pleasantly surprised by some I find there. I saw this one and loved it because it captured a moment in time where Alex was laughing his head off because I chased him and swept him up upon catching him. I thought this was my favorite photo from that day...


Until I saw this one. You may need to click on it to see it bigger, but this one just made me smile.

Next post: jumping in the leaves pictures, I promise!

Mommy has strep

Hopefully no one else will get it too.

Ugh

Mommy is sick. I got to nap on the couch some after picking Grace while my kids (pretty much) got along. Jim took care of dinner. Now I'm in bed. Hopefully the low fever, sore throat and overall yuckiness will go away by tomorrow morning.

On a good note, I was searching yesterday in a woven toy basket for the red Power Ranger's sword when I saw a little glint in the bottom of it. One of my diamond earrings, apparently dropped when we were robbed this summer (it was under the window the guys went out of). Luckily I have one earlobe with an odd number of holes, so I have a place to wear it!