(s)Not much going on here...

...Other than blowing noses, picking noses, using the "bulb" on noses, putting lotion on noses, taking temperatures, and adminstering mass quantites of some form of Tylenol to each child. Yep, Elle caught a bug and has kindly shared it withAva(why can't they share other things?) who seems to be doing okay though her wet sounding cough has begun and a low grade fever. I'm sure Shawn and I will follow in the next few days but for now, God has been kind to us and is letting us put all our nose blowing efforts into use with the girls. We have taught Elle to properly blow her own nose, but she still likes for us to do it :)

How to spend less than 24 hours on Christmas!

A rocking chair!...Nana did such a good job making a cushion for the chairs.
Ava took her shirt off and then kept pulling down her pants.
Rocking in her new rocker
Some of the haul!

Okay so Christmas wasn't exactly what I hoped for this year. The presents were wonderful (although I think there's never enough, but I bet even if I got a bazillion things, I would still want more...I know it's something I need to work on. I thought I'd grow out of that when I "grew up" but I guess I'm not grown up yet!) ANYWAY, as I was saying, the presents were all very good this year, but after we opened then we headed to Tyler for a nice 3 day vacation and time with family...so we thought! When we got there we found out that my dad had fainted earlier in the day and was extremely sick and VERY weak and probably contagious....and on top of that my sister-in-law was coming down with a mysterious illness that made her feel really bad. We went ahead and had Christmas of course, all the while washing our hands every 2.7 seconds and trying not to breathe in sick-person air. Later that night Shawn and I decided that probably it wasn't the best idea to stay in the house with major sickness, so we packed up and headed home the next morning...less than 24 hours after leaving our house. What a bummer BIG TIME. It was probably a good thing that we decided to come home early because the next morning Elle woke up with 101.9 fever and a really horrible cough. She is still fighting the cough though her fever is gone. Everyone else is healthy at this point, just a little lonely and bummed not to be spending this time with family. By the way, my sister-in-law with the mysterious illness turned out to be the flu which Shawn and I haven't had a shot for...stay tuned. Anyway, all remnants of Christmas have been packed away from this house and I'm looking forward to starting 2008 WAY better than how we are finishing 2007.

Just what I wanted!!!

Totally astonished!
Ava loving her new kitty; it meows, purrs and moves
Elle with her new dollhouse....just what she wanted.
Shawn filming and Ava looking on Too cute..both girls love the doll house
Ava finished the fun morning with some light reading in her Bible.

Christmas morning was fun as always. We were all up at 8 and promptly tearing paper and seeing our new toys. Shawn's main gift was a new bike. My main gift was a cake tip decorating set. Elle's main gift was a doll house and Ava's main gift...well she didn't really have one but I guess you could say her kitty. Both girls got a lot of books also. Maybe all the goodies will last us a few days :)

Visions of Sugarplums...whatever they are?

Traditional Christmas Eve appetizer dinner....cresent rolls, smokies with maple bacon and brown sugar, green beans wrapped in bacon....DELICIOUS!
The girls in their Christmas PJ's.
Reading The Night Before Christmas
Milk and cookies for Santa and Ava is mad because she doesn't get to have some!

Busy Weekend

Getting ready to hurt each other in a friendly game of spoons.

Injuries includes but were not limited to scratches, carpet burn, bent back fingernails, head butts, and bruised arms.

The girls...notice the "twinkies" with the unplanned same shirt on!

Elle's play buddy while we all had fun....they played for 4 hours straight!

We have had a fun weekend full of fellowship (say that 5 times fast!) Friday night we invited a few couples over to have a game night. We played Catchphrase, Spoons, Nerts, Crazy Solitare, and Dominos. We had a blast. No one left until after 11 and that's late for us old foggies. Then Saturday our friends from Greenville came in for the weekend. We took them to Olive Garden last night and then played their Wii until the wee hours. What fun!!! Today after church we headed to McAlister's then home to put Ava down for a nap and play more Wii. It is very addictive and I'm sure as we build up a little extra money here and there, we will buy it...but that will have to wait...it's expensive and a hot item right now. Then our friends headed back to Greenville. Now we anticipate tomorrow, my favorite day of the year! I am going to make finger foods and of course chocolate chip cookies and spend a warm cozy day hanging out with the people that make me the happiest! Merry Christmas.

Somethings old, Somethings new

A new ornament this year...I love green of course and polka dots too!
Couldn't pass this one up. This is in honor of our close encounter with a bear at Camp Blue Haven in July of this year.

Elle's favorite ornament. Shawn got this for her last year and she adores it. It smells sweet so she sniffs it every time she comes in the room.

Ava's favorite ornament came from Papaw and Carolyn a few years ago. Every time she sees it she says "Pee a boo" and "Ho Ho Ho!" It pops up out of the stocking and then goes back down over and over.

Gingerbread House

Such concentration...plus the royal icing was REALLY hard to push through the tip of the pastry bag!
The front

The back

Ava with a peppermint...I don't think she's ever been stickier or more content.

I want more candy!!!

The goods

Here's our annual gingerbread house. This one was a little harder than usual. The first time we assembled it, it fell completely apart so we had to start over....all is well though. It has held up over night and we can't wait to start eating it! Can't wait to do next years....I'm thinking mansion? By the way, it's not a good idea to be decorating a gingerbread house with all that candy when a 15 month old is sitting right there. She couldn't eat a lot of the candy so she cried really loud and whined through most of the decorating....Elle enjoyed herself though!

A Mile of Lights

A pink tree for Elle!

The traditional spinning around under the huge tree looks like this...it creates some kind of effect on your eyes and makes you dizzy really fast...it was neat!
We headed to Zilker Park in Austin Monday to see an amazing light display. It's free and open to the public and it's a mile walking trail of Christmas lights and scenes. It was very neat and the girls loved it. I'm sure it will become a yearly tradition.

Open House

Yesterday was our open house for the church here. We opened the house to everyone from 4-5:30 and had cookies and punch. We had a WONDERFUL turnout! I would guess we had around 75 people. Anyway here are some pictures from the event.

Oh what a night....and day!

Yesterday was one of those marathon days. But it was a blast for the most part. We started the day on a not so fun note...took the girls to the dr. Elle got a flu shot, which she really didn't like and Ava had a 15 month well check and FOUR shots. In three months she has gained a whooping 14 ounces to make her 19lbs 5 ounces and hasn't gained even a smidge of an inch! She checked out great. She is starting a bit of stranger anxiety. She is fine at church when I put her down...she heads off in whatever direction looks most promising. But, if I am holding her, she is wary of some strangers...not all though? She was giving the dr and nurse sideways glances with the don't get too close look in her eyes. She cried the whole time the dr was just listening to her heart and checking her reflexes and we were holding her through all that! All we could do was try to suppress our laughter because of how hysterical she was over nothing. Then came the shots and thank goodness at least they let me hold her while they did it. They were pretty big needles and she had to get 2 in each leg. My heart was hurting so bad for her.... I really hate that part of having kids, but you just have to remind yourself that it's for the best and they get over it really quickly. Then came the freaky part....the dr. shows me possible symptoms that may appear in the next few days and since this is her 4th round of one of the shots, it could be more serious symptoms like 105 degree fever and extreme swelling for up to 7 days after the shot. Yea, that was really exciting to see.

Anyway, we had family pictures planned for yesterday afternoon so we didn't know if that would work. We just held our breath and kept giving Tylenol and both the girls were great! We took them to the mall, took AMAZING family pictures, and then went to see Santa. Unfortunately Santa and his naughty elves were charging nothing less than $20 to sit on Santa's lap. They wouldn't allow us to take pictures without purchasing a package and let me say, the pictures they were taking were HORRIBLE. So we scratched that plan and headed to Round Rock where we knew they were having a Family Christmas Night downtown in the streets. What was so awesome about this thing was that EVERYTHING WAS FREE! Free balloons, free Santa, free sleigh rides, free hot dogs, hot chocolate, gingerbread cookies, popcorn, apple cider, free candles and of course free entertainment. It was wonderful! The weather wasn't too cold and as long as we kept the snacks coming, the girls didn't care what was going on. Anyway, it was a long and wonderful day and everything couldn't have gone better....well the girls would probably have taken away the shots part, but otherwise wonderful!

Pure bliss! A candy cane and a red balloon is all she needs!

Here's the carriage we rode in...wish it had been snowing!

Elle's favorite...Frosty the Snowman

I absolutely love this picture. It is hilarious! (I've taught Elle well...she kept her composure and continued smiling at the camera even as Ava had a nervous breakdown.)

Let's eat!

Once again Craigslist has been wonderful to us. Not only did we find an amazing mantel at an amazing deal and a Kia Sedona, but we now have a new-to-us kitchen table! The table was just what I had been looking for. We have had the same table since a year before we got married and it was just not working anymore. We were squeezed in and anytime we had people over, seating had to be really creative. So I found one on Craigslist a while back and the guy selling it also offered 3 chairs for free that were exact matches of the chairs we already had. So how much did I pay for a solid wood table from World Market and 3 perfectly matched chairs....$100! I am thrilled! It has barely been used by a bachelor, for a few years so it's just right for us. Anyway, if you haven't gotten into Craigslist yet, and you don't mind used stuff, it's awesome. I guess I can say it's my way of going green.....recycling other's peoples stuff they don't want.

Two down, Two to go

This past weekend, we headed to Tyler to celebrate Christmas with Shawn's side. We had such a great time hanging out with Shawn's brother and sister and their spouses and the girls. It is so exciting to think that in a few months, we will have 5 little nieces running around together...what could be better? We had a wonderful Christmas lunch at my m.i.l.'s house and a great time talking and laughing and sweating! It was burning up outside (80 degrees with high humidity)which dampened my Christmas spirit, but I got over it since I was in good company. The girls did very well playing with their cousins. They all were so happy to get together. After that, we headed to my f.i.l's house and had a nice lite dinner which was just right after overeating at lunch. Right as we were about to open presents, Santa knocked on the door! It was priceless to see the girl's faces when they saw him come in the house. Not sure whether they were in panic mode or excited/surprised mode....either way it was funny. Riley was the only one brave enough to hop up on his lap and start telling what she wanted. Elle only did because I told her she couldn't open presents till she did....wasn't too happy about that. Anyway, it was neat and after he left, the mayhem ensued. Lots of paper flying and gasping and shouting...your typical Christmas. Sunday we headed to church all together and then we were headed back to our home. Wish we could have all stayed an extra day. We did get to see lots of Christmas lights and one amazing one by a family called the Goods. It was pretty cool. Friday we also went to the park and were going to play in the "snow" but neither Riley nor Elle wanted to go down the hill in a tube by themselves. Oh well....we'll head back to Tyler on the 25th to do Christmas with my family and then maybe all the new toys will hold them over for at least 2-3 weeks! ha ha ha

Trying on Grandma's hats...so cute.

Having a tea party

Drinkin the holiday away

Making cookies with Gramme....much cleaner and easier than cutout! These were called Angel Crisps and they were pretty good! Good idea Gramme

What a spread! What a great lunch too.

Ava leaning up against a present for her

One of my favorite pics...Shawn took it....love the one below also, taken by me.

Does body language say it well enough?

We'll stay close to him as long as Papaw stays with us!

Cute idea...a grab bag stocking for all the little ones...went over very well!