Christmas Part 3

We got home a couple days before Christmas, just in time for Papi, Grammy, and Uncle Jason to arrive! The kids helped Grammy make pirate gingerbread cookies for Santa, and opened new pajamas and listened to Papi read A Pirate's Night Before Christmas before heading to bed.





Santa had set things out so nicely for the next morning, but Aidan got a bit of an early start on Christmas. At 2 in the morning I heard footsteps running upstairs, and I came to the living room to discover a crime scene. Here are the before pics:


After:

He just couldn't wait any longer to see what Santa brought! I was hugely disappointed that I missed the look on his face because it seems like he was really excited :) He took forever to get settled back in bed, but we got up the next morning to let Avery see what Santa brought, then we all opened presents under the tree and then ate a delicious prime rib lunch my mom made. Avery got lots of princess things and a new tricycle!



It was a very Star Wars Christmas for Aidan...very similar to my brother's 4th birthday party back in the '80s!


Wishing you and yours a Very Merry Christmas!!!

Christmas Part 1 and 2

A few days before Christmas we drove to Crawford to have our Christmas with the Steward clan. The kids got to enjoy lots of outdoor time and we even got to see Aunt Kathleen, who we hadn't seen all year since she is in college! Grandpa and Nanna gave the kids two Toy Story race cars which were a huge hit, along with tons of other stuff. Uncle Jacob gave Aidan a cool lego man which they both enjoyed playing with.




Then we drove to Comanche to see Gigi, Cookie, Jeff, Cody, Amy, Sage, Logan, and Lindsay. It was 82 degrees the day we got there!! I didn't pack any short sleeves so the kids played outside with no clothes for a little while :) We had tons of presents to open and it was great to be with everyone!

Behavioral Aides

A couple weeks ago the kids each got an email message from Santa! He talked to each one of them about what a good boy/girl they'd been, and even had pictures of them from this past year in his big book. He also knew exactly what they wanted for Christmas, and encouraged them to keep behaving. We also got an Elf on the Shelf from Nanna this year. Aidan named him Ardo and he followed us around Crawford and Christmas to keep an eye on the kids :) I think both the Santa emails and Ardo the Elf worked wonders!!

WEE School Program

Thursday was the last day of WEE School for the year, and it was also the day of their Christmas program. Aidan's class did "Reindeer Pokey," and also did "Feliz Navidad" with the 3-year-old class. Avery and Cousin Sage's class sang "Rockin' Around the Christmas Tree." The combined classes sang "Away in a Manger" and "Happy Birthday Jesus." Then there was a pageant that featured a video of all the 4-year-olds (including Aidan!) telling part of the Christmas story. He was also a Wise Man in the pageant, like he was last year. Neither one of my kids are really star performers. Avery does little, if anything, on stage. But Aidan seemed to have a good time and knew what he was supposed to do. I was a little sad that it was his last preschool performance :(

Christmas Festivities

'Tis the season to party! And we have been doing just that. Last week my Moms Club had an Ugly Sweater Christmas party which was a BLAST to say the least. We ate and had a white elephant gift exchange, then a few of us went karaoking afterwards (tacky sweaters and all!).



Daniel and I went to the PWC Christmas party this past weekend which was held at the huge Neiman Marcus downtown. It was fun to dress up and feel fancy for a night! Thanks Aunt Lindsay for baby-sitting :)

Our Sunday School party was also this weekend, and we had a fun scavenger hunt. My team won!!! I didn't take any pictures, but the kids stayed at Kaelyn's house that evening, and Kaelyn and Aidan put on a pageant for Tracey, David, and Avery. Are they not hilarious? Thanks for capturing some cute moments, Tracey (and for baby-sitting!).


The children's and preschool choir at our church put on a musical and Aidan was part of the chorus.

Party Time

Two of the kids' friends celebrated birthdays recently...first, Kaelyn turned 5 and had a roller-skating party! It was Aidan's first time in skates (and my first time in a LONG time!) and we went really slow but had so much fun!



Then Avery's friend Rylee from church had her 4th birthday party at Sweet & Sassy (a fun girly place where Avery gets her hair cut). They got to dress up like princesses and get a make-over, then do a dance and walk down the runway!

Northpark Santa

Yesterday was our 5th annual trip to Northpark to see Santa! We've been going there since Aidan's first Christmas...the Santa is SO great and I love Northpark Mall at Christmas. Daniel came with us and we rushed to the mall to get tickets at 9am. There was already a line so we were #28 but it beat last year's #98! The kids listened to Santa Storytime with our Moms Club friends, then after storytime Daniel had to head to work, so I took the kids to see the ducks and turtles to kill some time. When we came back to get in line, Avery got really cranky so I was worried that we'd have a repeat of last year's picture. But once we got up to Santa, she cheered up and calmly went with Aidan to sit on his lap. She was VERY serious! Aidan told Santa he wanted Star Wars legos (what a coincidence, Santa may have done a little shopping at the Lego store while Daddy took the kids to eat breakfast!) and Avery told him she wanted a "princess" (per my prompting). It was a long day but so worth it! See you next year, Santa :)