Christmas fun!

Ellie participated in her precious Christmas program this week with her 'preschool.' I always feel funny calling it that since she's only 1. I prefer to call it 'Mother's Day Out.' Anyway, it was really cute!

Here she is in her Santa hat, "performing." Of course, her interpretation of performing was to sit there and look cute while everyone else sang. At least there was no melt down! :)

Here is the group. Her precious "Mrs. Maria" is in the green. Mrs. Maria loves our little Ellie so much, and Ellie loves her, too! She is a true blessing! She has also been Katie's Kindergarten "Journeywoman" on Sunday mornings for the past few months which means she takes the Kindergarten class to all the different classes during Bible Class time. They go to a different class each Sunday (games, storytime, drama, cooking/science, history/geography, & music/memory-each teaching the same basic story/concept using a different learning style each week for a quarter) Their Journeywoman (or man) 'travels' with them each week and encourages them with their memory verses, behavior, etc. while each class has teachers who stay in their specific class for the whole quarter. Anyway, she has been a blessing to Katie as well and truly seems to care for her as much as Ellie!

Our sweet "Mrs. BJ" is down in the bottom right corner. She is so wonderful to our little Ellie as well! Such a ray of sunshine with her smile & welcome to Ellie each time she comes into class!

Sweet girl!


We made cookies this week which Gracie & Katie really enjoyed. I cheated this year and bought the pre cut kind. Last year, we had flour everywhere and cookie cutters all over. It was fun...but a mess! I just couldn't quite find the time or energy for all of that this year, so we went with an easier route this time!

I thought (stupidly!) that Ellie might enjoy decorating her own little ball of dough. Of course, she just ATE it instead!

This is a "radio" that Katie made, along with a snail, too. She is quite creative!

My big girls hard at work.

They may not be that beautiful, but they sure tasted yummy!

When Gracie was in Kindergarten, she made the cutest ornament that included her handprint with her fingers made into snowmen. Yesterday, Katie came home with an ornament like it, too! I love it!


She was so proud!

The Nutcracker

Today was a special day for Gracie, Katie, & myself. We went to see The Nutcracker! I have been so excited ever since I bought the tickets and kept it a secret until today. They knew we were doing something special but didn't know what until they were about to get ready. I gave clues throughout the week but nothing that gave it away until today...Gracie finally guessed it.

Ellie needs to wait quite awhile before enjoying such an event, so she & Daddy enjoyed the day together. He said she slept a good portion of the afternoon, so guess who else did, too!

Here you can see Ellie peering out the door at us! (Click on any picture to make it bigger.)

I decided to treat the girls to something I've been wanting to try for awhile, so we started off our special day by visiting The Chocolate Bar! It was filled with all sorts of chocolate treats and non chocolate ones as well.

I decided we needed to eat something besides JUST sweets, so we went down the street to a Whole Foods. It was a really neat store, and I was pretty sure it would have places to sit & eat. They did, along with tons of great things to purchase and eat right there. Katie was pretty impressed when I explained that it is a health food type grocery store and lots of it is organic. She is very into organic foods! Kinda funny b/c we don't buy that much of it! The girls shared a kit that had grapes, crackers, cheese, turkey & lettuce while I enjoyed a 1/2 club sandwich.


The girls & I then enjoyed our Chocolate Bar treats for dessert! Katie chose a Nutcracker cookie.

Gracie chose this solid chocolate dog, and I had a chocolate covered (part of a) banana!

Poor dog had his face gnawed off!


Here we are at the theater. Our seats were up really high! However, once it started we could see pretty much everything really well. I wouldn't mind going again another year and getting better seats, but they really weren't too bad. The performance was very pretty. I wish I was as graceful as the ballerinas. The Sugar Plum Fairy was just amazing the way she danced!

I think Katie would have been happy with just 1 act :) but she did fine. She just talked to herself and played with her shoe alot during the 2nd act! Gracie watched pretty intently. It was all very pretty! I loved watching the Snow Queen part...my favorite.

I enjoyed having this special day with my big girls and look forward to the first time Ellie can enjoy The Nutcracker with us! There were so many little girls all dressed up in their Christmas dresses....a great "girly" day!

The blessing of a beautiful snow!

We were blessed today in Houston with a beautiful snowfall! It was simply amazing to see it coming down...slowly at times, fast at times, sometimes more like rain, sometimes big flakes. It was wonderful, and a blessing from God for all of us to experience. I was so happy for the children to get to see it and play in it just a bit.

I do have to admit that I'm glad we don't have snow all the time around here. It's wet and cold! But I think it was so fun to have it for a little while! The girls got out of school early, Chris came home from work early, we had a fire in the fireplace, "Rudolph" was on t.v. (dvr'd), Pumpkin Spice Latte, an afternoon nap....just a really great day!

Snowball fight time!


It may be small, but it's a snowman!


Snowy playtime!



Ellie loves this chair...we just have to keep reminding her not to stand in it! It was my mom's chair when SHE was a little girl....recovered a couple of times.


The beauty of a Houston snowfall!








Ellie was fun to watch as she took it all in!