Christmas Morning 2013

We were jolted awake this morning by little children bouncing around wanting to see what Santa had brought them!

The first thing they saw were their stockings.

Rachel dumped her stocking out and started going through it but Nicholas spied the tree and forgot all about his stocking.

He was so excited to find a Leatherman multi-tool under the tree for him.  He has been wanting one of these for several years.

Rachel got the Baby Alive doll she asked for in her letter to Santa.

Eventually they noticed that Santa ate the treats they left for him.  He even left a thank you note for them!

Next time Santa needs to be more careful though.  He left a messy sooty footprint on the hearth! 

 Rachel couldn't wait to change her new baby's diaper!  She gave it a drink of water in its bottle.

And sure enough, it drained right through the doll into the diaper.  Grandmother was ready with paper towels to help clean her up.

While Rachel was making a mess playing with her new doll, Nicholas was checking out his new night vision goggles!

A little bit more time to play then it is time to get ready to head over to my family's Christmas celebration.

Lunch at Walk Ons

We drove into Baton Rouge last night and went straight to Stuart's parents' house to crash.  Today we got to spend some time with my family.  I love seeing my kids have fun with their grandparents.  It just melts my heart!

We ended up going out for lunch at Walk-Ons Bistreaux and Bar.  One thing you can count on in Louisiana is good food.  I mean, where else could you get Krispy Kreme bread pudding?

Mom and Rachel spent some time together working on the coloring pages.  My mom is such a good artist.  She taught me to draw and color well.  I wish we could spend more time with our parents so our children could learn more from their grandparents.

We ordered an appetizer of fried alligator.  Everyone had some but Rachel ended up eating most of them!  Yum!

Dad was acting like a parent and kept reminding the kids (and the adults!) to move their drinks or plates away from the edge of the table.  Steve chuckled about it and put his drink and mine right on the edge of the table just to mess with him.  We love you Dad!

Nicholas had a burger but decided that he didn't like the bun it was on so he wasn't going to finish eating it.  Cool Uncle Steve showed him how to make his burger even better by replacing the boring bun with criss-cross french fries.  It's a fry burger!

Rachel brought Bitty Baby over to mom for her to hold.   I really love watching Mom play with Rachel.  

Sweet memories!

Mom is still recovering from her hip replacement but she is doing amazingly well considering she had the surgery just about 6 weeks ago.  She gets around fine with a walker and Rachel is always right there to help get her walker for her or help steady her as she walks.  She is such a natural nurturer.

Rachel Read Her First Book!

Rachel has been working through the Bob Jones K5 Beginnings program which focuses on phonics, reading, and writing.  She has learned enough to read her first book!  She couldn't wait to read her book to Daddy!

It's called Grandpa's Bible and it is one of the little readers that comes with the program.  It just contains a few of the simple words that she has learned but she is so happy to be able to read.  

It's so much fun watching our kids as they learn new things and meet new milestones!  I wouldn't want to trade these days for the world.

Letting Go of Books

During the Icepocalypse earlier this month, we were stuck in the house for many days.  We took advantage of that time and worked with the kids on cleaning out their rooms.  

One of the things that takes up the most space in Nicholas' room are his books.  He has multiple bookshelves that are overflowing with books.  He loves them all and has a hard time letting any of them go, even after he has long ago outgrown them.  But we were able to convince him to donate small stack to the library and a larger stack of a little over 100 books to Rachel.

It is much easier for him to pass them down to Rachel because he knows he can still read them anytime he wants to.  The only problem now is figuring out where to fit these on Rachel's bookshelves, which as you can imagine, already have hundreds of books.

Frosty the Snowman at Casa Manana and Smashburger

We celebrated the Christmas season with a magical performance of Frosty the Snowman at Casa Manana Theater with a group of our homeschool friends.  Casa Manana always puts on amazing performances for children and families.

The costumes, set, and acting was all great.  There was lots of singing and dancing to make the show extra fun.  

Casa Manana Theater is located in the heart of the Fort Worth Cultural District at 3101 West Lancaster Avenue.  You can reach them at 817-332-2272 or online at www.casamanana.org.  Frosty runs through December 22 and you don't want to miss it!

After the show, we talked about where we should go for lunch.  We only come to this area a couple of times a year so I wanted to try something new and different.  But the kids remembered that we first discovered Smashburger on South University Drive after a Casa Manana play a couple of years ago.  It's our favorite place to go for burgers and we've been to many other locations around DFW but they wanted to go to our "original" Smashburger for lunch today.  Who am I to argue?

Their food is fresh and delicious.  Of course the kids love getting a root beer float or milkshake with their meals.

Yummy to the last drop!