Cabin Fever!

So... this is what its like to have Cabin Fever! We had an ice storm this past Tuesday in which it left us with about 3 inches of ice on the roads and temperatures not above 20'. No one was going anywhere! Schools were cancelled for 4 days. It wouldn't have been so bad if we could go out and play with the neighbors but since the girls had fevers we were literally stuck inside for the past FIVE days! We have watched Despicable Me and Dora the Explorer enough that we were singing the songs through out the day. We have pulled out the play dough, the crayons, the lite brite, the dolls, games, legos, you name it! I would give anything just to drive to Target and walk down the isles. That's all! That's all I would need is to get out of the house. So today the roads are thawing, finally, so around 1 pm, that's what I am going to do. I am sure I will get some shopping in also, may as well right. Next week we are getting more snow, with luck it won't be ice. Cross your fingers! Hopefully the girls will get better soon so we can go out and build a snowman.

Snow in Texas!

You can see that when it snows in Texas, everyone has to get out and enjoy it before it's gone! It started to snow like crazy on our way to church. It was so cold and icy that church was cancelled after sacrament. By 4pm the roads would've been ice. So we went home early and enjoyed building a snowman, along with a snowball fight. Aaron had something to show Ashlee which was a face full of snow. My neighbor asked "is he really going to do that?" "Oh yes, it's Aaron." and he did. We got him back with lots of snowballs. It was a lot of fun and Ashlee was a good sport; and what better way to warm up than a cup of cocoa by a nice warm fire! I was in heaven.

Christmas morning...

We had such a fun Christmas. I think I woke up before the girls did (of course)! Aaron was nice enough to get out of bed and plug in the Christmas tree lights. He came back to bed and it wasn't much later that we heard Ashlee running down the stairs hollering "It worked, Santa came!" It was awesome! Danielle was still too little to really get it but next year I think she will be more enthusiastic. She did love unwrapping her presents. The highlights were Danielle's bitty baby and Ashlee's Tangled doll. It was a wonderful Christmas! Oh, and yes, we did read the Christmas story before going into the living room (one of Aaron's family traditions). It's not as long as it seems!

Christmas eve...

Christmas eve we have a tradition of spending it at the Call's home. Ashlee was super excited to see Austin, Talan and her 'new cousin' Malia. We had a nice quiet dinner, then watched a video about the Baby Jesus, the kids opened up their Christmas pajamas, and by then it was time to go home. The roads weren't bad this year, I remember last year it was super icy and took up twice as long to drive home. Danielle was pretty spent so she went to bed early while Ashlee put out the reindeer food and set out cookies and milk for Santa. We read "Twas the night before Christmas", said "Goodbye" to Krickett (our shelf elf) then went to bed.

Christmas on Main Street.

Every year we go to Main street to celebrate the coming holiday. Santa is always there and they have an incredible light show set up with music. It was pretty chilly so we only stayed long enough to see Santa. Ashlee had already told Santa what she wanted for Christmas so when she sat on his lap, she made sure that he knew what Danielle wanted. It was super sweet!

The Gingerbread Baby!

All of us mom's on our street got together and planned a Christmas party for our kids. It was so much fun! I don't know how we are going to beat this one! It was perfect! We had chosen a Gingerbread man theme. So it went like this...

We started making the men at the first home and while they were baking we went upstairs to read the story called "The Gingerbread Baby". Someone, "Aaron", must have peeked too soon and all the gingerbread men went running out the door. the kids found a clue on the oven door to go across the street. There they found musical chairs and off to the next house where they made reindeer food, followed by another clue for a snowball fight, another clue to make Christmas ornaments, and lastly, yummy gingerbread houses.

All the kids had so much fun! Ashlee kept asking how the Gingerbread men got out of the oven. It was a lot of fun and all the husbands were proud of us! It ended with sleepy kids and all the husbands at our house for Poker night. "Couldn't be better" Aaron would say. Ashlee still asks if we can make gingerbread cookies and peek early.

Merry Christmas!

...from our house to yours!

Our little Mary.

We had our Joy School Christmas program last week. The kids were so cute and did such a good job singing. The very last song they did they got to dress up. Ashlee was the perfect Mary. Halfway through we caught her kissing the baby Jesus. Heather took a better picture of her holding Jesus ("I'll have to get that from you!"). She looked so cute!

Finally!

It's taken Aaron years to do this! I am so proud of him! Finally!!!!
Ashlee had a lot of fun helping him. She was so cute holding the stakes that go in the ground. I believe she had on her "I Love Santa" jammies that whole day!

Not quite ready for Santa!

I think if it wasn't for the line Ashlee would've been okay but there were a lot of kids and I couldn't bring myself to make her sit on his lap. I thought this picture explains it all!