Decorating Christmas Cookies

We had our first (and only) Christmas cookie decorating session.  Sophia and Charlie came over for haircuts and brought stuff for cookies as well.  We busted out the cookie sheets and 9x13's and set to work.

Brecken's hard at work decorating.  Joelle's hard at work eating.

Love little Charlie's cheeser face.

Two pretty girls.  Don't break a tooth on your cookie ;)  I promise my cookie sheets are clean.  They just look dirty.

 We had a blast and the mess was minimal.  Whoever thought to use cookie sheets is pure genius.  I just couldn't summon the energy to decorate more cookies this season...for some odd reason or another.

First Christmas Party

We had our first Christmas party the first weekend in December.  It was with my parent's small group.  They invited all the kids.  These are all families I grew up with in church so it was fun to see them all "older."  One of the guys dressed up as Santa and brought around gifts for the little kids.

As you can tell, Joelle couldn't decide if she should cry or not ;)

Adelyn, however, was thrilled someone brought her a present.  And promptly informed everyone "Santa is just pretend."

"Oohh, a present for me?!"

We then had a contest to decorate the dad's like Christmas trees.  I'm not gonna lie.  My dad's star on the top of his head pretty much rocks his socks.

Santa got in on the family picture;)

All the dad's.

One of the ladies brought all kinds of fun things to do family pictures with.  B man strutting his stuff.

Our family.

And again.  Please notice the children.

It was fun to see everyone again and everyone did a great job organizing!

She did what?!

We were at the mall shopping for some birthday presents and Christmas presents and Adelyn saw the ear piercing store.  She has been talking about it off and on for a while.  The only waiting factor was her.  I had told her it was going to hurt (like a shot-which she doesn't cry for), we would have to clean them and that she couldn't play with them.  She had said for the longest time she didn't want them done.  Then she started talking about it.  She asked to go while at the mall.  I made sure she was ready and said ok.  I didn't count on the wait time..

Waiting in the chair while Mommy signs all the paperwork..

Getting them cleaned..

Done!  She was soooooo excited!  And did not shed a tear ;)

What Brecken and Joelle did while we waited..  Eric is real proud of his boy.

I noticed, right away, one of them was crooked.  I didn't know whether or not to say something to Adelyn or just wait it out until the swelling went down.  I had Eric look when we got home and he said he could see what I meant but didn't think it was a big deal.  By that time the swelling was down.  All I could hear, in my head, was 12-15 year old Adelyn telling me how she couldn't believe I didn't take her earring out, that I left them crooked, now they can't be fixed, blah blah blah.  So I did end up talking to her about it.  I just flat out told her, you don't know right now but, when you are older, you would be really mad at mommy.  She understood and told me to take the offensive earring out.  I figured if I could get it out right away it would close right up.  I was right and a week later we went to get it re-pierced.  Don't even get me started on what a debacle that was (with the store..).  Adelyn did great and LOOOOOOOOOOVES her earrings.

A little side note::I cleaned them the first couple days.  And never did again.  Whoops.  If you go to an actual piercing shop all they tell you to clean it with is a little salt water anyways.  They never once got red or infected, at all.  She has been asking, since she got them pierced, when she got to put new ones in.  She thought she had to go back and get them pierced again for new ones.  I kept telling her she didn't have to do that ;)  We took her old ones out, today, and put her pink flower ones in :) :)

Pretty “Sleeping” Girls..

We were watching a few minutes of TV before lunch the other day.  Everyone had the crabbies and a little TV always helps.  I looked over and Joelle had zonked out.  That girl will just fall asleep anywhere.  The good news is, I can wake her up and she will still take a nap in her room.  I had to quick grab my camera to take a picture so Adelyn had to pretend she was sleeping too ;)

O Christmas Tree, O Christmas Tree

We put our Christmas tree up Thanksgiving weekend.  The kids have been so excited to help.  They even got into fluffing the branches.  Our Christmas tree needs each and every.single.branch fluffed out and put on.  Not exactly it's best quality but it is a pretty nice looking (fake) tree once it's together.  We had Christmas jammies in their stockings for when they pulled those out.  I gave them jammies at Christmas, last year, and felt that was silly because then it wasn't Christmas anymore.  So we decided to start doing it at Thanksgiving.  Then they could wear them the whole Christmas season.  

Confession::I have not done the laundry since BEFORE Thanksgiving (writing this on December 19, just post-dated it).  So go ahead and ask if they have worn their Christmas jammies SINCE the first couple days after this.  NOPE.  Eric and I both HATE laundry.  We have lots of underwear at the Fitzgerald's.  And you get two uses if you turn them inside out.  KIDDING.

Cute little twinkies putting on their first ornaments.  Don't you love Joelle's cheeser face?!

Pretty girl hanging her first ornament for the year

Show me your crazy face..

Why, oh why, do the crazy face pictures always have to turn out "better" than the normal ones?!  Ha.

Our pretty tree is all up.  The ornaments get moved all the time.  Sir Brecken takes care of that.  I've stopped asking him to not touch them.  They aren't breakable.  Now his only requirement is to put them back on.  He always wants them at the top too.  So he pushes the ottoman over, climbs up and puts them "up high."  So there's a big cluster at the top and on the left side.  Everything else is pretty sparse.  Who cares anyways?!  Not me.

Doll Beds...

...or people beds.  Either one.

Joelle loves to climb in her little doll bed and hold her doll.  Good thing Papa made them strong.  Then everyone else sees her doing it and they have to do it too;)

I'm not quite sure if Joelle was being kind here or not.  But please do not notice Brecken's blanket.

Some of what we have been doing…

We have been crafting up a storm lately.  Adelyn got it in her head we had to make sock puppets.  So one morning we set out to make them.  The kids thoroughly got into it.  Adelyn stringing her hair on and putting jewels on her lady.  Eric was afraid I used all his socks.  Just so you know, it was a pair of mine and one lone sock of his.

Joelle hairing hers up.  Isn't her haircut so cute?!  I need to cut it again.

"Oh no!  She fell over!"

 It took 2 days for all the glue and sparkles to dry.  I'm sure you understand.  Then Brecken promptly picked off the eyes and his jewels.  So I glued them back on.  Then he picked them off again AND his hair.  So I threw it away when he wasn't looking.  He didn't care.

The girls, however, love to put on puppet shows and run around with them on their hands.  They are beyond adorable.

This picture is only included because the hair on the doll cracks me up.  And creeps me out..

 We also worked on making thankful turkeys.

Adelyn is thankful for:: trees, mommy, uncle, josh (on two fingers because she's thankful for both Uncle Josh's.  I can not make this up.) and Nana.  Daddy was sad he didn't get a finger..

Brecken is thankful for:: love, grass, daddy, mommy and uncle josh.

Joelle is thankful for:: mommy, uncle josh, daddy, grandma and baby dolls.

It's a lot of work crafting with my kiddos.  And messy.  But they have so much fun.  And who really cares if there is a little bit of glue on the table anyways?!  We are making memories.

Adelyn is currently in the process of making an adorable book.  I may be regretting how many pages I stapled together but she is totally loving it.