Christmas Times Five!

We had a wonderful Christmas Eve dinner at Grandma and Grandpa's house. Before we ate, Sara enjoyed playing with the motorcycle Santa.

Get your motor runnin'...

Emma had a new taste treat...chocolate cheesecake! She loved it!

When we got home, Emma spread out the Reindeer food she made at school.

Each of the girls chose a cookie for Santa and left them on their special plates...along with some milk, of course.

After a long winter's nap, we woke up to Christmas morning! Happy Birthday Jesus!

Santa brought Emma a Cinderella Castle!

Sara received a My Friend's Tigger and Pooh Treehouse.

Miss Hollywood also got some new sunglasses.

Then we loaded up and went back over to Grandma and Grandpa's house to open up more presents.

It was Cousin Cooper's first Christmas!

Sara got a Handy Manny and his tools! She loves him!

Then we went back home to relax a few hours. Then we loaded our "sleigh" and flew over to my grandmother's house in Ft. Walton Beach.

It was all a bit too exciting for Sara Grace. She had to take it easy while everyone else opened presents.

Sleeping Beauty is coming to life! (I don't know why I'm sticking my tongue out.)

Sara was excited to open her Little Einstein Rocket submarine. It's already become a favorite bathtub toy!

Rachel helped Emma untie a bow on another present.

Then it was a short ride over to Grana and Grandaddy's house for more Christmas surprises...including these snazzy boots! (Which I might add, the girls are wearing at this very moment while in their pajamas.)

Once we got the girls down, the adults opened up more presents!
Grandaddy got a new coffee mug from Emma and Sara. It says "Mine, Mine, Mine, Mine" with the seagulls from Finding Nemo. I was lucky enough to get one from Grandma and Grandpa. It holds A LOT of coffee or tea!

Aunt Beth loves being the last person to open up a present so I thought it was fitting for her picture to be last.

Yep...that's one Christmas Eve dinner and five Christmas Day celebrations! What a blessing to have so much family around us during this special time of year!

See ya in 2009!

Merry Christmas!

We hope everyone has a very Merry Christmas!

For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given. Isaiah 9:6

Little Lambs Christmas Program

Emma's preschool put on their school program on Wednesday. It was really cute and the children seemed to love all the attention.

Emma was in the first row, right smack dab in the middle! Too bad my camera focused on the persons head in front of me instead of Emma! You can see that she is the fuzzy little blond in the green dress.

Sara loved the program. At first she kept yelling, "Sara, where are you?" (Reminder: Sara calls Emma "Sara" for some reason). Then after each song Emma's group would sing, Sara would clap and yell "Bravo!"

Here is Emma in action...again, my camera focused on the person who got in front of me!

Here is a good shot of our girl! As you can tell, she is a little irritated. She wanted to stay with her class (Emma only goes to school on Tuesday and Thursday) and go back to their room. Instead we ran through the drive-thru for chicken fingers and fries!

Emma had a week of parties at school. On Tuesday, her class threw a birthday party for Jesus. I asked her how it went and she said,

"We had a birthday party for Jesus...but He didn't come."

On Thursday, they had a class Christmas party. They had a book exchange and had lots of cookies and milk! Above is a picture of all the projects Emma brought home in her bag. (And yes, her bag is a bunny rabbit. I've tried asking her why her Christmas bag is a rabbit but I can't get any answers out of her. Maybe it was part of the Nativity?) Anyway...my favorites are the gingerbread ornament that smells like cinnamon and the poinsettia flower made out of her sweet little hands!

Emma Sings!

Here is a trio of Christmas favorites from Emma!

Sara Sings!

We hope you enjoy the singing stylings of Miss Sara Grace! Here are her renditions of "Go Tell it on the Mountain" and "Jingle Bells."

She loves being on camera and you can tell she wanted to see herself while she performed. Enjoy!

Sara's New Job

Yep, we finally decided that Sara needed to get a part-time job.

Sara's title is "Wrapping Paper Sorter." She takes the paper out of the wrapper container...

and places it on the kitchen floor.

Then she laughs at all the paper and...

poses for a picture.

Once all the paper is on the floor, it's time to put it all back in the container. I know the uniform for this job looks a little funny...it's the dress she wore to church and a pair of pajama pants. We didn't want her working so hard in her white tights and Sunday shoes. This is a perfect job for Sara because it only takes up about 5-10 minutes of her day and it lasts long enough for Mommy to wash dishes while keeping her eye on Sara. It's a win-win for everyone!

Thanksgiving

Didn't Emma do a great job on her headdress and Indian vest?

We traveled to my Aunt Cris' and Uncle Johnny's house in Pensacola. I warned them in early Fall that we were coming so they would have plenty of time to "Emma and Sara Proof" their home. I believe Uncle Johnny is doing the honors of carving the turkey here.

We took Emma and Sara's table from Grana's house over with us.

Of course Sara saw a challenge and took it!

After lunch, we had lots of playtime outside!

Grana brought her bubble machine. Yeah!

My cousin Rachel let the girls play with Baby the kitty on her bed. I hope poor Baby has recovered from the shock!

Once we got back to Grana and Grandaddy's house in Fort Walton, I found Grandaddy teaching the girls how to cast their fishing lines. Sara kept calling it a "fishing wand." And yes, they were doing this in the house...in the laundry room to be exact.

Before we left the next morning, Sara decided to climb Mt. Presents in Grana's dining room. So if your gift is slightly squashed you know why!

More Disney Days

I can't believe it's December already! Here is our last entry from our November Disney trip. I'll try to catch up with Thanksgiving and various Christmas goings-on before New Years!

The girls (Mommy, Grandma, Emma and Sara) got to Hollywood Studios early Friday morning to catch the first performance of Playhouse Disney Live! On Stage. The girls loved it! Each time a new character would appear Sara would yell "It's Manny! (or Mickey, or Daisy, or Tigger, or June, etc.) "Hello Manny!" I had to keep a tight grip on the belt buckle of Sara's shorts because she wanted to be up on the stage too!

After watching the show, we decided to finally find Mickey Mouse. We had tried on our last trip but the wait to visit him at EPCOT was at least 45 minutes. We tried the day before at the Magic Kingdom and the wait was 75 minutes! Crazy! So, we heard the bus driver say that Mickey could be found in the Animator's Courtyard. But it wasn't that easy! They were holding Mickey captive!
The cast member I spoke with said we would have to see a short movie on animation before going to see Mickey...long story short...we waited in line A for 10 minutes, waited in line B for 5 minutes, watched the movie (Grandma took Sara to the side of the theater after she threw her pacifier at the people in front of us), and then got in line C to see Mickey! He was right there...just 3 families in front of us! And then he took a cheese break! I wanted to scream but he was only gone for a minute or two. Then we finally had our time with Mickey. After we left I was feeling pretty good about fulfilling a Disney dream for my children when I overheard Emma say, "I can't wait to meet Minnie!"

While Sara was being strollered (is that a word?) by Grandma, Emma and I got to meet Annie and Leo from the Little Einsteins. Emma was thrilled!

After lunch and rest, Grandpa and Daddy came back just in time to have some Pooh Kicks fun! Pooh Kicks is a game that Pooh and Tigger play. We don't know the rules or any other specifics about it but any game involving a ball is Pooh Kicks to Sara.

This isn't Pooh Kicks but Sara still enjoyed it! And now Daddy's arms are two inches longer!


Pooh Kicks in action!

Resting after a long game!

The next morning, we got up early for tea. Get it? Ha ha! Grandpa, Daddy, Emma and Sara had a ball in their pink teacup.

Notice who popped into a teacup just before the ride started! Those little girls were so excited to see Alice jump into their cup. Notice Daddy and Grandpa in the background.

We also got a little time to visit with Donald Duck at his tree farm. The girls loved meeting him!

After lunch and a rest, it was time for a swim! Don't cha love the Nemo swimmy wings! Thanks again Aunt Beth!

Guess Sara really didn't need those swimmy wings. We had to take them off of her because
A.) She had a death grip on Daddy and B.) Nemo kept hitting Daddy in the face.

Emma and Mommy had a quick swimming lesson. She was even brave enough to try blowing bubbles in the water.

After our refreshing dip in the pool, we went back to EPCOT for our last helpings from the Food and Wine Festival. This is what happens when you have too much fun at Disney World!

Sara modeled her Minnie ears when we got home. Isn't she cute!

We had another great trip!