Merry Christmas To One and All!

I have just finished wrapping the presents with the help of my brother-in-law and mother-in-law. If it hadn't been for them, I would have been up all night trying to get everything wrapped before dawn since that's probably when Emily and Eliana will come downstairs. Sarah is still too little to know that Christmas is for getting up very early and waking up adults who want to sleep in. But, I enjoy every minute of seeing them open their presents and then eating the Christmas dinner. The day will go by so fast! Merry Christmas to all of my friends and family! I hope your Christmas is filled with lots of joy!

Random Thoughts

I know that most bloggers have random thoughts on Tuesdays, but I have been meaning to make individual blog posts about these things for a while and never have time. I decided to go ahead and just get it done all in one post:

-- Sarah was running a low grade temp over the weekend. I took her to the doctor this past Sunday. She had a double ear infection, severe in the left and moderate in the right as well as a sinus infection. She is now on antibiotics and doing much better.

-- Sarah is now 19 lbs, 15 oz! I was so relieved that she had gained 15 oz since the last time we had been there since the on call doctor last time wasn't impressed with her weight loss. She was 28.5 inches long. I hope that she will be 20 lbs at her follow-up appointment so that she can be forward facing. It has been such a battle getting her into her carseat the last couple of weeks. She didn't used to be like that so I'm not sure on why now. I am just hoping that a change of scenery might help.

-- Emily was in her first school play last week. It was a musical entitled "Elfis and the Sleigh Riders". She was one of the elves. She had a couple of speaking and singing parts. I got a DVD of the performance which will be in tomorrow so I'll pack it whenever we visit family.





-- I have found a new obsession...Gymboree! I love them because not only do they have some very cute clothes, everything matches! You can get pants, shirts, socks, coats, dresses, hair bows/rubber bands/clips, tights, and shoes that all match a particular theme. They even have underwear to match, but I'm not sure why. I got all the girls "Gingerbread Girl" outfits.

-- I have now seen "New Moon" twice in the theater. For someone whose last movie seen in the theater was "The Fantastic Four", it is practically unheard of for me to see a movie twice there! I would love to go see it a third time, actually, but I guess I'll just wait for it to come out on DVD. It stuck to the book pretty well! I can't wait for "Eclipse" to come out in June!

-- Sarah got her first pair of shoes this past weekend. They were dress shoes for her Christmas dress. I plan on going tomorrow to get these cute little tennis shoes. I think it's time because she is starting to want to walk in public places more. I hope they still have her size as there was only one pair left at the time. She is kind of leery about walking in them rather than going with just socks or barefoot, but I think she'll be back to walking normally in no time! She will still be in just socks most of the time anyway since we rarely wear shoes inside.

-- Sarah started clapping her own hands a couple of days ago. Before, any time we would ask her to clap her hands, she would grab our fingers and try to clap our hands. She also started really dancing to music. The older girls have a Barbie that plays a "Diamond Castle" song whenever you press her hand. Sarah will hold onto her hand and spin around in a circle until she gets dizzy and falls down.

-- Eliana told me today that she wants to live at home forever. I wasn't sure what to say to that as it is my goal to teach them independence. I ended up just telling her that she would probably change her mind one day. She said that she didn't think she would.

I think that's everything right now. I hope everyone is enjoying this last week before Christmas!

Catch Me If You Can

Emily and her friend, Olivia, get chased by some of the boys in their class at recess. Olivia came over to play after school today. The two girls were making plans about something, but I didn't ask any questions. When she had left, I came across a sheet of paper that Emily had titled "Chase Directions".

Monday -- (Run) Run and don't stop! Run in circles so they get dizzy! Run till the bell rings.

Tuesday -- (Hide, Run) Hide. When they come, run and hide.

Wednesday -- (Swing) Swing till bell rings!

Thursday -- Free of chase

Friday -- (Pretend) Pretend to walk track.

On the back of the paper is a hand-drawn map of her playground with circles drawn around and through it. The top is titled "Chase Map".

I wonder if those boys know what is in store for them once school starts back up in January! I guess the element of surprise will be on the girls' side.

Happy 5th Birthday, Eliana!

Eliana was born on this day, five years ago, at 10:46 p.m. She is growing up so fast! I found a couple of pictures from when she was a baby/toddler:









We are going to celebrate tonight with Pizza Hut pizza and ice cream sundaes, per Eliana's wishes. She has been looking forward to this day all year! :)

Eliana's 5th Birthday Party

This past Saturday, we celebrated Eliana's 5th birthday with a swim party at the YMCA. The indoor pool there has windows all around it. It was raining and really cold outside so it was kind of wierd to be swimming while looking out at the bad weather. We had 20 kids there and everyone seemed to have fun!

Unfortunately, we had forgotten Andy's camera and I pulled my camera out of my purse only to have it tell me "Empty Battery" as I was trying to take the first picture. So I'm hoping that one of my friends will be able to send me pictures from it.

We were also sorry that Eliana did not have time to open the presents at the party. We only had 30 minutes in the party room and that time was spent eating cake. We figured the party guests wouldn't want to sit through presents being opened when they could be swimming and there was a limited amount of time to swim also. We did get a picture of her opening each gift once we got home so we plan to put those into the thank you cards. She loved them all and kept saying everything was awesome!

This Thursday is her real birthday so I will be sure to get some pictures from that evening. We saved the gifts from family until that evening when we will just have family time with whatever supper she chooses. We will also have a cake, although I am hoping she changes her mind to a different flavor. We just finished off a strawberry cake from Sarah's birthday not too long ago. I think I will take her to the store so that she can see all of her choices.

Christmas Fun

Yesterday, Emily and Eliana had their Christmas performance at church with their choirs. Eliana was an angel and Emily was a shepherd. They both did a great job of singing and helping tell the Christmas story!



That afternoon, we surprised them by taking them to pick out a tree at a local Christmas tree farm. It was 45 degrees outside so Sarah and I stayed in the van while the others ventured out into the cold. It took about an hour, but they eventually came back with a decent looking tree and red noses. They were excited and didn't complain about how cold it had been.



We got it home and got all of the Christmas decorations down from the attic. A couple of hours later, all of the ornaments were on the tree. Most of them were around the bottom since Emily and Eliana hung the majority, but they were so proud of doing it themselves we left it alone. So far, Sarah has left it alone too, although I did find a hook on the chair in the kitchen today and wondered where it had come from. I didn't see an ornament missing one so I tossed it in the trash. The pine needles are going to drive me crazy. Everytime I turn around, there are more needles on the floor. I am constantly trying to keep them picked up. I guess I'm just going to have to resign myself to the fact that Sarah will probably be putting a pine needle into her mouth sometime this Christmas season. The smell of pine in the house though makes it all worth it.



I am now in the process of trying to figure out how to hang the stockings so that Sarah won't pull on them and cause those weighted stocking holder letters to fall on her head. I'm thinking I might have to get those hooks I've seen on the commercials that don't leave marks on the fireplace and save the weighted letters for next year. I hope everyone is enjoying this time of year as much as we are!

Advent Calendar Time

Today is the day that advent calendar's start the countdown until Christmas. We are going to use a few calendars this year. Last year, after Christmas, I got a couple of advent calendars on sale for $2.00 each: a My Little Pony one and a Littlest Pet Shop one. Seeing how much they have gone up in price makes me think that I might need to sell them on ebay instead.

We also have advent calendars that were passed out at our church. There is a devotion book that goes with it that is geared toward kids. Each night, a devotion is read and then a sticker is placed on the tree.

Our last option is the "What God Wants For Christmas" set. It is an interactive nativity scene that I also got on sale after Christmas last year for $5.00. It is made by the same company that makes the "Resurrection Eggs" at Easter.

I am looking forward to trying out these calendars as we get closer to the day we celebrate Christ's birth!