Breakfast with Santa

12.10

Last night was Brent's office party which was held at Priscilla's house in Bullard and we knew the kids needed to go to bed early since Breakfast with Santa started at 8:30 Saturday morning. I brought a Lemon Cream Cheese Cheese Ball with Honey Graham crackers to the party and I got several compliments on it which made me happy since the long drive from Gilmer to Bullard flatten the cheese ball. It was fun meeting Brent's co-workers and their spouses. We were the first couple to leave the party at 9pm and by the time we went to Brent's office to get my car, got gas, picked up the kids from Kiki and Pops house, Beck and Kinsey finally went to bed at 11pm. I took several pictures but most of them turned out blurry (still learning how to use the fixed lens). However, I did ask somebody to take a picture of us...our big night out since going to Dallas for the Nascar race five weeks ago.

Beck ate a bowl of cereal before going to the church since he told us that he doesn't like pancakes...who doesn't like pancakes??? Anyway, we woke Kinsey up from a deep sleep, hopped in the car for our less than one mile drive to church. Beck loves his camo jacket so much that it's almost impossible to get it off of him.

Kinsey enjoyed eating donut holes and sausage links. She is wearing Beck's first Christmas jammies which has his name on them so I put a tutu on her to cover up his name. She looked really cute!

The kids enjoyed coloring and making Christmas ornaments...

I knew Kinsey would cry when she saw Santa so I went ahead and got a picture of her in Santa's chair near the Christmas tree...

I wish we could have taken Beck's jacket off for this picture because this is the only picture I got of them together...

All of the kids sang Christmas songs while waiting for Santa...

Surprise....Santa is here!!!

Beck never cried when he sat in Santa's lap but Kinsey is definitely a screamer!

Since Beck saw Kinsey crying so hard, he decided he did not want to sit on Santa's lap so this is a picture of Beck with Santa...

Maybe we'll have better luck next year. Great job to all of those that organized this event!!!

Christmas Play Date

12.09

Heather, Kenzi and Lydia invited us over for a Christmas play date with Bonnie and her girls along with Amy and her girls. Yes, that means Beck was the only boy there and I wish I got a picture of all of them but I forgot. While we waited for every body to arrive, Beck found his best friend and I want to see if you can keep up with Frosty during this festivity.

Heather served red and green snacks and she prepared some really cute crafts for the kids. The first one was making Rudolph and here's how you do it...trace the child's hand, make the finger tips black which will be the hoofs, glue on the red dot which is the nose, add an eye, apply antlers (pipe cleaners), then add glitter around Rudolph's neck.

Then the kids made a jingle bell necklace...afterwards, they stood in front of the Christmas tree and sang Jingle Bells but Beck only wanted to play with Frosty.

Kinsey made us all laugh when she tried to get in the baby stroller!

The last activity we did was decorate a gingerbread cookie...too cute!

Later this evening, Beck got really upset when he realized he did not get his Frosty cup.

Did you notice that Beck had Frosty with him the entire time? I thought it might be hard to leave without Frosty but that wasn't the problem...Beck didn't want to leave period. He wanted to stay there forever and Kenzi wanted us to stay too. But, we all had to eat lunch and take a nap so we had scoot. We had so much fun and this is something that I'd like to do next year!

Open House

12.06

On Tuesday, the library had an open house which included different groups from the surrounding schools to sing Christmas songs. The first group was the Gilmer High School Choir at 9am which was going to be tough to make it there on time since Kinsey wakes up between 8-8:30am. Surprisingly, we made it and I'm so glad we did because they were spectacular!!! In fact, they were so good that I wanted to video tape them but I kind of had my hands full with two kids wanting to sit in my lap. The second group was the Gilmer Elementary School Choir and the library was packed full of people to watch the little kids sing. We left after watching the third group which was the New Diana Intermediate Choir because Beck and Kinsey were getting out of control. Beck discovered the refreshment table and ate many cookies then he started with a small cup of apple cider which made me nervous because I could envision him tasting it, not like it and acting like he was going to throw up. Luckily and surprisingly, he loved it! While drinking the second cup, he saying, "this is yummy" while licking his lips. I was cracking up! I wish we could have stayed and watched the next group which was the Gilmer Junior High Band but Beck and Kinsey were tired of sitting and started running around the library.

As soon as we got home, Beck striped off his clothes and put on his jammies then he got comfy on the couch.

The next day, we picked up Aunt Wendy from the workshop then I had to run a few errands. I needed to run in the mall real quick and make an exchange. The last time we were there, Beck starred at Santa and would not sit in his lap but this time he did want to sit in Santa's lap. I was shocked! I didn't want to spend a lot of money on these pictures because the kids were not dressed up. The lady offered a half sheet for $12 so I got it because who knows when Beck will sit on Santa's lap again. Kinsey screamed when we put her on his lap so the picture also includes me! Ha!

Since Wendy was here, I had her take a few picture of us. I snuggled up with Beck on the couch then I pretended to take a bite of his booty. Ha!

I recently went through Beck's old clothes and found some jammies that Kinsey could wear so that's why she's wearing boy jammies in this picture. I thought it was cute that she made herself comfy using the diaper changing pad as a seat.

Wendy watched the kids Thursday afternoon so I could see the Christmas Tour of Homes with Kiki then we took her back to her house because the Pilot Club was there to give the girls a Christmas party. I love this club because they do some really neat things for the girls! She ended up getting a bag full of goodies such as two scarfs, gloves, body wash, etc. And, they made turkey, ham, green bean casserole and other yummy food for dinner. She had a good time!

Krueger Christmas

12.03

The annual Krueger Christmas was held at Uncle Kerry and Kathy's house in Sasche and their house is beautifully decorated. Kiki brought a cake from Society Bakery and if you look closely at the picture, it looks like the icing is messed up but the icing was perfect until Beck tasted it...yummm, finger-lickin' good!

On the way home, Brent and I tried to count how many slices of cake Beck "had" and I say "had" because he never actually ate the cake...he only ate the icing from each slice that was cut for him!

The newest member of the Justice family, Canon, must be a super happy baby because I never heard a peep out of him.

The little ones (Beck, Kinsey, Haylee and Jackson) enjoyed eating at the kiddie table...

We are gearing up for the big White Elephant gift exchange! Each person draws a number and the person with number one picks a gift then the person with number two can either steal the gift from number one or pick a new gift, etc. The gift cannot be stolen once it's been stolen three times. The ultimate number to have is a high number such as 18 which was my number. I was really happy because I could steal from almost anybody! We all really enjoy playing this game!

Uncle Bill opened the gift we brought which was an air hockey game and Jan opened a snowman lunch box filled with fruit.

I really loved Brent's gift (Dallas Cowboy hat) and Kinsey did too! However, it was stolen from him by Uncle Kerry. I think that hat looks great on Brent!

Sweet Aunt Stevie got a Connect 4 game...

This was a funny moment of the evening...Jan's snowman lunch box was stolen so she opened the gift that she brought LAST YEAR (a tiny toilet)!!! Ha! We better watch out because she might bring it back next year.

I'm pretty sure Uncle Kerry will enjoy the Dallas Cowboys hat way more than Brent. Will Brad enjoy the Christmas cook book? And, will Krysti wear the pajama jeans? I foresee two gifts making an appearance next year...

I ended up stealing the air hockey game and poor Uncle Bill ended up getting a Christmas plate. And, Kiki got the BEST gift that was there...scratch off lottery tickets! Normally, most people don't win much with these but after Brent scratched off all of them, she ended up winning $50!!! Wow!

We think the game is over until Kiki makes a big announcement...Blake was the first person to open a gift and he got two boxes of coal. Ha! Well, guess what? The joke is on us because she told him to look closely in one of the boxes and there was a $20 bill! Score!!!

Beck has been SO emotional lately. I have no idea what is up with the many melt-downs he's been having but Kathy was so sweet to console him! And, Kinsey was very content snagging food from where ever she could find it.

In the pictures below, we see Beck with another slice of cake, another melt-down and something that Daddy likes to do to him...pull his pants up like an old man! Ha!

The evening ended with Uncle Kerry playing his guitar and singing Christmas songs to the kids, Chelsea creating funny pictures of her husband and sister with an iPhone app and a few of us talking about who's not getting lucky tonight. It rained the entire evening but we still had so much fun!

Merry Christmas!!!

What Did I Do?

12.02

This was a big day for me...I had to go to the post office to mail mom's Christmas card/gift, run a couple of errands which means getting the kids in and out of car seats at each stop then pack for our weekend trip to Plano. Whew! Am I ready for this? Not really but I'm going to make it work. I pretty much had the kids clothes ready to pack but I had to pack my stuff which takes forever! I had the perfect outfit picked out for the Krueger Christmas party but it only looks good with my new boots that I'm getting for Christmas and Brent won't let me wear them so then I had to resort to plan B which didn't work either. I finally decided on an outfit after pulling almost everything out of the closet! In the midst of all the chaos, Miss Kinsey decided she needed to play with my clothes. She opened my pajama drawer along with the drawer full of unmentionables and she pulled most of my clothes out but also put my pajama shorts and tops around her neck. She can make the biggest mess faster than I can clean it up! (Notice that she's also wearing a golf glove!)

As I was packing all of our stuff, I caught her in the closet opening up my jewelry box drawers and pulling out jewelry...jewelry was flying everywhere! Look at this innocent face...

Anyway, after working up a sweat, I got everything packed in the car and it is stuffed! We hit the road in time to make it to the doctors office for her 16-month check-up. Dr. Minsky was glad to see us and he said Kinsey is eating well based on her weight which is 24 lbs. 14 oz (this is without a diaper). She is off the chart for height and weight just like her big brother. She got two shots (third polio and first MMR) and did not cry when she got the first one but cried hard when she got the second one. Luckily, Dr. Minsky gave the kids a sucker before she got the shots and she quickly stopped crying once she discovered that she had a sucker in her hand.

We went to our Plano house, unloaded the car and headed to Leigh's house in McKinney to play with Natalie and Anderson. The kids had a lot of fun and I enjoyed catching up with an old friend.

Christmas Parade

12.01

Today is the first day of December and we kicked off this month with a Christmas parade on the square. It was chilly but not too terribly cold. We stood next to the Nessen family and their two girls were just as excited to see the parade as our kids.

Beck thought the fire truck and police cars were too loud...

The Jr. High marching band looked very festive...

Queen Drew looked beautiful and the driver of Thomas the Train looks at lot like Uncle Kerry! This is also the same train we rode at the church Halloween festival in Enon. Brent informed me that Mr. White donated the lights for the Courthouse after his wife passed away.

Most of the floats from the Yamboree was in this parade and they all looked festively fabulous!

Even the Shriner's had fun decorating their little cars. One car broke down in front of us and the man had to push his car off to the side so that the parade could continue.

I like how the band marched in the parade but the Stars drill team rode a trailer. The cheerleaders walked in the parade so maybe it's a trade-off since the cheerleaders ride on cars during the Yamboree.

It doesn't look safe seeing the football players standing on the moving trailer. Sadly, the Buckeyes played their last game the next night.

These decorations have been around for many, many years! I remember when these trees were used on light poles around the square...

The kids really enjoyed watching the parade and running around afterwards. What a great way to start this month!