Christmas Cookies

Friday night we made Christmas cookies.

It is so funny how no matter how much icing and sprinkles they put on them, that they are still all beautiful. The mess was huge but the kids had a blast.

Don't you want one of the cookies he decorated....

You might find the secret ingredient. :)

Elisabeth's cookies were all perfect. She picked only the white sprinkles out so that the tops of the stockings were only white.


If you don't want one of Hogan's cookies....maybe you'll want one of Gates'. He licked his knife after every cookie.

Beck just went ahead and licked the cookie itself. Then put more icing.

At the end of the night.....the floor looked like this.

....SpRinKLeS everywhere.

Just a few of the finished product.

Gates wanted his snowman to have glasses and well I couldn't resist.

One cute snowman for one cute kid.

Happy Birthday Samuel!!! ... and a funny story!

Nine years ago, my sister gave birth to a precious baby boy. His name was Samuel Wyatt Young. While perfect to us, God decided that he would rather have him in heaven with him. It is hard to ever understand why God would bring such sorrow to our family but we know it is for his glory. My sister and her husband blessed their church with a set of swings in Samuel's name. Today we dedicated the swings with the entire family. All the kids had a great time playing on the swings and the playground equipment. Even the BIG kids climbed up on the jungle gym.
They had so much fun just being kids.


Check out this sweet face.

Baby brother loved to go HIGH!

All the kids getting to SwInG!

Sweet Boys!

Henley and Marymae doing the spider.

I couldn't help but wonder what this big brother was thinking.

S-W-I-N-G

Elisabeth always the mother hen....

......taking care of the Baby.

We ended the day by going to see a Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens. It was a musical playing at the local theater. It was so good and the kids loved it. Beck was a little scared of the ghosts. During intermission, I took him to the bathroom. After doing his business, I told him to wait one minute so I could go. I began to sit down and he says at the top of his lungs, did I mention the bathroom was crowded because it was intermission, "mom why do you have to poop?" I didn't have to poop he just didn't realize that girls always have to sit. So I said "I don't have to poop girls have to sit down to go potty. " Then he says really loud and silly "I see your WIENER!!" Let me just make sure you know. There is no wiener. I am no cross dresser. I tried to say really loud "Mommy doesn't have a wiener. You don't look at mommy." I was so embarrassed. I did not want to leave the stall. Of coarse I had to very quickly so no one thought I was pooping. When we got back to our seats, I told Josh he had to take him to the potty from now on.

Just a Funny Story

Gates came into the living room where Josh and I were sitting. He proceeded to say: "Mom can I have some ear plugs for Christmas?"

Me: "Why do you want ear plugs for Christmas? " (I thought it was for shooting pretend guns or something because Josh had taken the boys to the Firing Range and he had to wear ear plugs. Little did I know what he was going to say next.)

Gates: "Because Beck talks too much and I get tired of hearing him talk."

Josh and I cracked up. Beck for the longest time didn't say a thing. In fact, when he was a year, I had him checked because I was worried he was delayed in talking. I was wrong. The lady tested him and said he was actually advanced. HA! However, since then, the dude talks non-stop. I mean all the time. Ear plugs would be nice sometimes. Silly Gates. Silly Gates. I do think Santa might have to leave a pair just for laughs.

What would you do?

Last night, a sweet couple at our church invited everyone over to their town home for coffee and hot chocolate. Their town home is in a gated little community and it has a duck pond with bridges and islands etc. They hosted the party out on one of the decks of the pond area. It was really pretty!! The community had decorated the whole area with lots of lights and Christmas decorations. Gates and two of his friends were playing on an island. An older woman who was not part of our little party but who lives in the community walked by with her two dogs. They were crazy barking at the kids on the island. The dogs were on a walkway. Separating the kids and the dogs was water, then grass then railing. The kids on the island playfully barked back at the dogs from the distance. The old woman got mad and in her loudest meanest voice she yelled at the kids to "SHUT UP!" I couldn't believe it. At first I thought she might have been saying that to her dogs, but I was wrong. I have never had another adult talk so rudely to my children. My first instinct was to go over there and give her a piece of my mind. However, I was standing in front of a big group of my christian peers and not at my own house. I can't believe anyone would talk that way to children. I am still shocked. I called the kids over and asked them to stay over on the side where we were. Nothing was said to the woman. Would you have said something to the woman who was clearly much older than you?

It's Beginning to Look a lot Like Christmas....

This past year, we changed churches. Our new church is small and does not own its own building or have a paid preacher. What I really love is that the church gives 75% of its contribution to outreach and missions. Because we don't have a building, we rent a senior citizens garden center. It is owned by the city so a city worker always has to be there. This past weekend was a holiday weekend and so we were unable to have our regular building. Josh and I used the opportunity to have our own family devo. It was important to me that we teach our children what Christmas should really be about. I love Santa and presents and trees but I want Jesus to be first. So we read the story of Jesus birth and and sang a few religious Christmas songs. I hope we got through to the kids that He is the reason for the season. When we were finished with or devo, we put up our little Christmas tree. I really struggled with it. We usually take the whole family out and buy a BIG fresh tree. This year we used a small fake tree. We will be in and out this year during Christmas and wanted to be able to take down quickly. So fake tree it was. I pretended I loved it so that the kids would love it, too. It did turn out ok after I messed with it a lot. So here are some pictures of our tree. One of my favorite things about decorating for Christmas is the GLiTTeR! I just love sparkles and glitter. I always look for the most sparkly ornaments. This butterfly is one of my favorites.

The reason for the season! I love to celebrate the birth of our Lord Jesus! Mary and Joseph have a little bling, too.

This reindeer is covered in glitter and has beaded legs.

Found this GLiTTeRy word.

If you look close, you can see GLiTTeRy poinsettia flowers throughout the whole tree.

....and all the presents have sparkly tags and ribbon.

Merry Christmas everyone!!! I hope your holiday sparkles just as much as mine does!!

Pinewood Derby

Tonight the kids got to race cars in the Awana Pinewood Derby. There were lots of cars and we had four of them. None of our cars were winners. That is really hard for Gates and Hogan to accept. Teaching children that games are about the fun and not about winning is really hard. Josh and I worked really hard on the cars and had a lot of fun designing them with the kids. We were a bit frustrated because we used a food scale at the house to weigh them and it must not have been accurate because our cars were severely under weight. ARGH... Here are the boys watching the races.

Look at those little cheeks. They are just so scrumptious to me.

Poor Gates was really sad. He wanted to win so bad.

At the end of the night the announcer called out every ones names and gave them a ribbon for participating. When Gates got his ribbon he came running back to me and said (while holding up his ribbon out in front of his face and with great excitement) "I thought I didn't win but I did!!" It cracked us all up.

Here is Beck with his car. His was "shampoo" as he calls her. You can't see it in the pictures but he did have a blue eye.

Shampoo was in the blue lane.

Hogan and his car. His had flames like fire.

His car was in the yellow lane.

Gates and his rocket car. He is in that cheesy smile faze can you tell.

His car was in the red lane.

Here is Elisabeth and her car. She picked an Aggie car. It would be us if there wasn't one Aggie something in the mix.

Her car was in the red lane.

Even though none of the cars won. It was still fun to make and race the cars.

Here is a little closer look at all the cars.

Hogan requested fire. You should have seen me trying to tape off those flames. I watched way to many car make over shows with Josh. :)

SHAMU

The Rocket

Gig 'em! ...and yes that is bling you see. All girls have to have a little bling.

Maybe next year we will take home a trophy. :)

My Greatest Fear...happened. BARF

Today after dropping the kids off at school, I went throught he drive through of a local coffee shop. I got myself a caramel pecan latte and I got Beck a cup of milk with a straw. We drove down Staples to Target to do our weekly Target thing for the first time this week.(do any of the rest of you go to Target multiple times a week?) I'm talking to Josh on the phone and pulling into a parking space (yes he knows about my multiple time a week Target addiction) when Beck barfs all over himselft and my car. I threw the phone down and began trying to find a sack or something he can barf in to prevent any more barf from getting everywhere. It was terrible and stinky. Milk barf is even more disgusting than regular food barf. I used every baby wipe I had and he was far from being cleaned up. I drove straight home as he proceeded to continue barfing in the bag I found. Thank goodness I am a mess and there is always some sort of sack of something to return in my car. I cleaned him up and put him in front of the TV with a barf bucket and a pillow and blanket. Of course he never barfed again. He has eaten like a horse all day and is playing like a wild man. I washed his yucky clothes but I haven't brought myself to go outside and tend to the nasty car seat. (It is sitting in the drive way. Maybe the neighbors cat will eat it all and get sick. I am so tired of that thing pooping in my flower bed. Boy I am a grump, today) The devil in me wants to throw that sucker (the car seat not the cat) in the garbage. SERIOUSLY. I did realize: that barfing is disgusting but it isn't life threatening and I will survive it. So maybe I am not near as barf-o-phobic as I used to be. I am still going to pray that none of the other kids get it, though. :)