Santa Update

Santa came to visit Joseph's preschool today and once again he asked for something different. Maybe Joseph is trying to get a few extra gifts. I can't wait to see what he has to say on Christmas morning. I hope Santa brings him the right thing.

Merry Christmas

My friend Laura had one of these on her blog and I thought it was fun so I made a holiday Greeting of our family. We hope you have a Merry Christmas.

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Gingerbread House

Emily Joseph and Grandma took on the challenge of putting together a gingerbread house.

(Joseph chose not to be photographed for this event, but he did let his gingerbreadman be in the picture.)

I think that the kids ate more candy than they put on the house. The kit they had was pretty simple to put together but the roof kept sliding off so they brought in grandpa on the project and he got it to stay.

They had lots of fun, but they were disappointed when they could not eat the finished house.

Joseph's Christmas Concert

Joseph's preschool class had a Christmas program yesterday. It was only about 10 minutes long and it was really cute. The class even did a little dance during part of it. I took video of the whole program but this is the song that I got the best shot of Joseph.

Here Comes Santa Clause

This is such a fun time of year. There are so many fun things going on. Last Thursday Santa and Mrs Clause came to Grandma's work. Last year Joseph did not like the idea of a stranger breaking into your house while you are sleeping, but this year he was excited to see Santa. (even though the picture doesn't look like it.) Josh on the other hand is still not sure about being handed off to strangers so Grandma got to sit on Santa's lap with him.

There were lots of fun activities for the kids to do. Josh loved the cookies.

It was a reindeer theme and Emily and Joseph liked doing all of the activities. They made reindeer ears, pinned the nose on Rudolph, made candy cane reindeer and frosted cookies. Then they got to watch the Rudolf the Red Nosed Reindeer Movie.
Thanks for the fun time Grandma!

Saturday Emily and Joseph had breakfast with Santa at the Church. Emily's requests stayed the same, but Joseph asked each Santa for a different thing. Maybe he is testing them to see which one is the real Santa.

Snow Fort

Saturday we woke up to a lot of snow. The kids were so excited to go out and play in it. Joseph and Emily started building a fort, so I decided to help them by making bricks with one of our garbage cans. Eventually we recruited dad into helping. The kids love having a little place to play in. They call it their castle. Now the question I get asked the most is if the snow is melting.

Happy Birthday

WE have had an exciting week this week. First Grandma and Grandpa Lay were able to come and visit in between Grandma's cancer treatments. It was even better because they came during birthday week so there was lots of parties going on.

On Sunday we had a family birthday party for Ryan (Dec 3), Gavin (Dec 4), and Joseph (Dec 5). It was lots of fun to see and visit with everyone.

Tracy gave Ryan the perfect gift. It was the here and now monopoly game. They have quite a past with that game. I guess when they were young Ryan would make up all kinds of rules to benefit himself and poor Tracy believed him. In fact she did not learn the real rules to Monopoly until she was in college. (Sorry Tracy)

On Wednesday we gave Joseph his present from us. He had found it a few weeks before in our closet so we hid it at Grandma's house. After that he was worried that he was not going to get it anymore, but as soon as he saw the big box he knew he was getting his Shake and Crash set.

Today was Joseph's first Friend party. He has wanted one for a long time and he has been planning it ever since Emily's last birthday.

He helped mom bake and decorate his cake. At the party the kids made macaroni necklaces and only a few kids asked if they could eat the noodles. Then we played a few games, had cake and opened presents. The kids all had a great time.

Happy Birthday Ryan and Joseph.