TLEB in Texas

Good Morning Kids!

We were lucky enough to have Grandma and Grandpa B come to see Elizabeth and Ben open their presents from Santa.

Santa was very good to our kids. Elizabeth and Ben had 2 requests - a fishing pole and a kite. Luckily, Santa came through and they got both. Here Elizabeth is showing off her fishing pole.
Ben is practicing fishing. He's learning how to cast. (In case you were worried there is no hook, just a rubber thing on the end )

We had a wonderful Christmas Eve full of family and doing fun stuff together at home. We baked, yet again, more cookies. This time for Santa. We had to leave him some goodies after his long voyage!

Oh yeah - the eating is the best part of decorating.

After decorating cookies we headed to children's church with Grandma and Grandpa B. It was a perfect service for the kids - children led the entire service. Afterwards we took pictures in the little village in front of church.

Could you turn around, Ben? Please??? Last, we went to Grandma and Grandpa H's for Christmas Eve dinner and presents. One of Elizabeth's highlights was this doctor's outfit she got.

Elizabeth and Drew showing off their costumes - a cowboy and a doctor.

The kids, Tom, and I were busy baking for the holidays. Ben was busy tasting it all. (luckily we kept all of this stuff for just us...I figured our extended family probably wouldn't want Ben's sticky fingers throughout all their food)
We decorated a gingerbread house...the kids love doing it.

We had an early Christmas with my side of the family because Jessica and her family were going to be out of town for the holidays. Elizabeth received the coolest zoo, and it didn't look like it was going to be too much work (when looking at the outside of the box) so I decided to put it together when the kids were napping. One look at the inside of the box and I was thinking - no way! I'm leaving this for Tom. There were HUNDREDS of pieces, no exaggeration. Anything that could be in pieces, was. Even some of the animals needed to be put together! That evening Tom and his brother had gone out and were home around 9. They each grabbed a beer and proceeded to attempt to put the zoo together. Needless to say by 10 Tom's brother was out of there with the job about 1/5th of the way done. (I don't blame him, I would have left too if I had gotten the chance.) I didn't say - the direction booklet was 25 pages long! Finally by 1am Tom and I got the zoo together. Just a mere 4 hours later this was finished. It is a pretty cool zoo, but geez! You'd think that some of it could be pieced together when you open the box!! Our first of many long put- togethers I have a feeling. At least we were able to do it! :)

I thought I would share our handprint reindeer we made. (Copied from another blog of course!)
Every time I try to do an art project with Cooper and Ben it ends up fairly disasterous (mostly messy and chaotic) , so it was nice to have something turn out cute, and not too messy.

Say "cheese" everyone. Merry Christmas!

This week we visited the Gaylord hotel with my mom, Jessica, and the kids. It is filled with all sorts of holiday decorations and there is a big ice exhibit. The first few pictures are all in the ice area - it was only 9 degrees in there! We wimpy Texans aren't used to it being that cold! The kids didn't mind it at all. Here they are on Santa.
Ice candy, Ben even licked it! We're lucky his tongue didn't get stuck :)

I had to put these pictures on because I think it shows how big - and crazy - Ben is becoming. The above picture is Ben standing on a big chair, making a tower. He crawled up there and did it all by himself. He is so good at stacking things so carefully, and then he smashes them down.
Here is the crazy picture. For some reason the kids current favorite thing to do is play in Cooper's port-a-crib. This is how Ben gets into the crib - a free fall. I thought it was a great action shot. I can't believe my little baby boy is almost 2!

Well, I'll tell you! Any of you who know my children know that they are very attached to us (me and Tom). They don't go to the gym daycare, Ben refuses doesn't go to the church nursery, things of that nature. So when it came to sitting on Santa's lap, I wasn't sure what the result would be. We went to see Santa at Cabelas (thus the giant fish) I can't believe that fish is bigger than me!

Ok - here are the 2 pictures Tom took of the kids with Santa - make a guess - is Ben SCREAMING or not??

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NOT! He did great! He didn't smile, but he seemed honestly excited to be sitting on Santa's lap, and even mumbled something about wanting a balloon for Christmas (easy enough :) For the record, Elizabeth wants a kite and fishing pole from Santa. And she added a doll house while we were waiting in line for Santa. (That was news to us!) So, all in all it was a success. Whew!

Ben and Cooper had their last day of gymnastics and they had so much fun! We had to get a picture of the two of them crammed into this donut thing. I think we'll have to sign them up for another session!
Bye!

I realized I never posted about one of mine (and the kids) favorite holiday tradition. We have a holiday elf that visits starting December 1st. He leaves special notes, candy, or little items for the kids in this elf house. I made the house this year after seeing it on someone else's blog. (I'm such a copy cat!) The elf hides in various spots around the house so the first thing Elizabeth does is search for the elf. It makes it really fun in the month of December. He also reports back to Santa so we get a little better behavior, too :)
There is he, hanging out on the mantel.

Showing off one of their presents ...Elizabeth got headbands and Ben a giant cricket. I wonder what they'll get tomorrow...