Making Cookies

Tonight Noah and I made sugar cookies... these are the cookies we leave out for Santa on Christmas Eve. Ofcourse, Noah always gets first pick and this year I'm guessing Rachel will be in on the action as well. She didn't help make the cookies this year, but she sure enjoyed the taste testing afterward. Noah did an awesome job helping roll out the dough and cut out the shapes and then decorating them when they were cool. He was so proud to be able to help cook and also to help with the decorating. He loves to sample the icing, sprinkles and also had his share of cookie dough as well... no wonder he wasn't as eager to eat up the cookies tonight! By the time we were all finished he was covered in flour, cookie dough, icing and lots of sprinkles.

Party Time!

Noah had his Christmas party today at school. He had a good time eating special treats, playing games and being with his friends. I love that second picture where you can see him saying the blessing before they ate their treats. They played Pin the Star on the Christmas Tree, Beanbag Toss, and Pass the Stocking. The kids were so cute to watch because they all got soooo excited. Rachel had fun too and especially loved the little rocking chair. I didn't know if I was going to be able to get her to leave after she discovered how much fun it was to rock in!

I could watch them play all day...

We were at the park this morning for a little over three hours. You would have thought the boys might get bored, but these kids could play all day and we could play with them or just watch them have fun together. Ramona and I got the kids together for a playdate before Braxton's family heads to Chattanooga for the holidays. These kids adore each other and have so much fun when they are together. Rachel had a ball too - she loves to swing and climb up the slides. We took along a picnic lunch and ended the trip with throwing rocks into the lake.

Shootin' Hoops

Noah has become a whole lot more interested in sports these days. We love that he wants us to play basketball with him. He is getting really good at standing back from the goal and making shots, rather than dunking it all the time. He says to himself "Look at the net ...and shoot!"... wonder where he got that from... ;). I think Doug would like nothing more than for his little boy to grow up and play basketball... I have my fingers crossed for him to play football... what ever he chooses to play, I just hope he loves it.

I had to add a couple of pictures of our girl. She is such a ham. She is all over the place and into everything and cackles with joy the whole time. She is beginning to be able to point at her nose, eyes, mouth, ears and belly. She is beginning to try to say the words baby and bye-bye. She also has started saying 'Uh-Oh' when she tosses things on the floor... She knows she's a cutie!
Big Happy Birthday wishes going out to Colin today -- He's the big 3! Hope you had a great day little man!

A tree of his own...

Noah was so excited to have this little Christmas tree in his room. We put colored lights on it just for him and then hung paper ornaments on it that we made. He couldn't wait to put our homemade star on top and see how the lights looked all lit up at night. I love how excited about Christmas he is.

First Pony

She was fairly patient while I was trying to gather what tiny bit of hair she had for this nearly nonexistent pony tail... Someday she'll have enough... ;) She really liked seeing it in the mirror though and just grinned and grinned at herself. Check out that belly she's been putting on since she started drinking whole milk!

This Man...

never thought he would want a daughter... never knew how much fun little girls could be... didn't know I was watching while he was playing 'dolly' with his baby girl the other day... loves her so very, very much.

She likes it too...

maybe a little too much. ;) Rachel loves to pull the lowest ornaments off the tree and has tried many times to eat the candy canes she can reach. She also loves to pull the bows off of the packages and hand them to us... which is why most of our presents are tied with ribbons this year. She has begun running around. She isn't crawling so much anymore as it is no longer the 'fast' mode of transportation. It's pretty funny right now as she is still so tiny. She does new things everyday. I love to watch her with her baby doll. She loves to 'love' her and feed her a bottle. I have even caught her trying to put her binky in it's mouth. Cute stuff.

Reindeer Games

Noah and Braxton had fun making reindeer cookies last night. They did all the work themselves - placing them on the baking sheet, watching them bake and then eating them up. They also made jingle bells to wear around their necks and played like crazy. Ramona and I enjoyed watching them play together and we kept Miss Rachel busy too. It was a fun night.

He was so excited...

to go get our tree today. He seemed to remember each step about getting the tree, putting it up, putting the star on and then the lights and at last, adding the ornaments. He was excited and anxious to help - I love how it looks and how much he loved helping me put the ornaments on. I have to laugh looking at the bottom of the tree though - I thought it would bother me more, but I love that he put those bottom ornaments on himself and every one is placed just so. I love that he did it and how proud he is. It is definitely going to be a special Christmas this year. Noah is so into it this year. He gets it and it's wonderful.

A gingerbread train...

We found this gingerbread train at Target and Noah went nuts. He was so excited to get a 'Christmas train'. He wasn't quite sure what the heck it was until we started building it, but he knew it was a train and he likes any kind of train. So, after an hour of working on this crazy thing we finished it. Noah helped more than you would think. I did all the icing and he stuck a lot of the candy on and ate quite a bit of it too! He was so careful... I had no idea he could be so careful and steady. About halfway through decorating it he decided it must be his birthday though... and this was his cake. I had to explain that no, this was our Christmas gingerbread train and it was just for fun (although he is as we speak, singing happy birthday to himself in the kitchen... heh he). He also wanted to know if we could build a gingerbread castle next... Fun stuff.

She's just so darn cute...

...ofcourse, I am extremely biased... ;)

It's beginning to feel a lot like Christmas...

I took these pictures of the kids while trying to get a cute picture for our Christmas card this year... Taking a good picture of two kids at one time is not an easy thing - nearly impossible, if you ask me. Especially if you are trying all by yourself. You get things just the way you want them, pick up the camera as fast as you can, pray it's in focus, snap... and the kids moved, the dog ran in front of you and you figure out how crazy you are for trying to get a picture at all. ;) But sometimes you get a couple that are worth all the work and they make you smile... a lot.

Puzzles & Birthdays

We thought this puzzle might be more of a challenge for our little guy, but he can work it in about 5 minutes flat. He loves puzzles and this one was so cool because it is a big Thomas floor puzzle he got on Rachel's birthday. He likes how big this one is and also that it is Thomas - that ofcourse, is always a hit. He is certainly a busy bee... He sang Happy Birthday to Daddy this morning when he woke up. There is a lot of birthday talk around our house right now with Rachel's birthday and Doug's birthday. He likes to tell people these days that he is 'almost 4'. We asked him what kind of party he might want for his birthday and he let us know he wanted a Thomas one again this year right away. Then yesterday after asking him again and talking about all the different themes he was still set on Thomas... until about an hour after talking about it he came to tell us he might want a 'Lightning McQueen' birthday this year (Yay for Cars!). I guess we'll have to wait and see... he does have plenty of time to decide.

Happy Birthday Doug! He hit the big 30 today. We hope you've had a great birthday. We love you!!