It Takes a Village
12/14/2010 11:06:00 PM Edit This 4 Comments »So in the spirit of holidays past, I decided Lexie and I could handle not just a gingerbread house but a whole village as our craft project for the weekend (what was I thinking?) Lexie was very excited when I showed her what was in the box.
She jumped right into the assembly of the houses.
She took the icing and decorating of the house so seriously that she took off her princess costume and crown so you know she meant business!
And she was very proud of her work...
But when she was getting bored by her 3rd house I told her I guess I needed to call some of Santa's helpers in like maybe his favorite reindeer.
She couldn't believe that I actually did it.
But when she realized that it was icing well of course she had to "clean it up." Oh my good little helper.
Once we pretty much finished all the houses well they needed to dry before we put them together as a village so it was off to the bath for my little decorator.
Once she was all clean she insisted that she was still hunger so a bowl of oatmeal later she was ready for bed. At least according to me. And I promised I'd finish the village. And here it is.
Pretty darn cute or so I thought.
When I showed Lexie the next morning she said she love it and it was almost perfect. Almost?? She told me this made it perfect.......
Princesses and lots of them! I should have known. What was I thinking? Of course every gingerbread village needs princesses and their friends to make it complete.
And here's my little princess so thrilled to have her own gingerbread princess village.
But what really cracked me up was her story about the princesses in the village. You have to watch this.
This was just one of her "stories." And I love that she's acting like the teacher asking questions of her student - me! She thought she was soooo funny teaching Mommy all about the princesses.
Now I wonder how long gingerbread will last. Anyone have any suggestions?
HAPPY HOLIDAYS TO ALL THE PRINCES AND PRINCESSES!!!
Thanks, Babies, Music and More
12/12/2010 02:18:00 PM Edit This 1 Comment »As usual we had a great time down in Texas for the Thanksgiving holiday. The best part of Thanksgiving is spending time with family and being thankful for that opportunity which we both are. Lexie always has "cousin withdrawals" when we get back.
Of course the first thing we noticed was how much the twins have grown. Here's Maddie - what a petite little girl. At 3 months she's now over 16 pounds, likes to sit up (with help of course) and is very curious about everything going on around her (and there is always LOTS going on.)
And Maddox may be her younger brother but he's decided he would be the biggest brother at just over 17 pounds. And believe me, when you hold him he feels way more than just a pound heavier. He doesn't really like to sit up (we've decided that's because his tummy is too big for him to be comfortable sitting) but he's a champion spitter. The boy can punk and get someone sitting 3 feet away - no problem. He makes his Aunt so proud!
And as big as the twins seem to be, they are down right dainty compared to their bigger brother Blake at 3 months.
Now that is a big boy!! Of course he started at just shy of 10 pounds so he had a head start.
Here he is today and he just turned 3 years old heading out to play with Z and Lexie. They have so much fun together!
I'm very proud of my nephew Cody who has just started taking trumpet in band at middle school (in Texas middle school is 6-9th grades.)
The kids decided to give me an impromptu to concert.
They are getting ready to audition for America's Got Talent. I hope they have your vote.
We also had to play catch up with GaGa since we missed her birthday. Here she is surrounded by her best gifts - some of her grandkids and holding a few of the presents from Lexie & I.
The next morning was Blake's Thanksgiving feast at his pre-school and what a feast it was.
Their were songs that Lexie knew and yummy cookies to eat the heads off.
Have no fear, we didn't leave the twins at home. They were excellent since they were sleeping through almost the whole event.
Then it was time for Blake to show Lexie and GaGa his favorite toys....
but Lexie wasn't impressed. Until she found HER favorite...a princess doll. Pre-school is great!
Once we got home (and had our naps) Lexie asked me if she could hold Maddie. How sweet are these two?
That night, Lynn (aka Yin-Yin) and Brooke showed up and naturally a baby was put into her arms (not that she was forced :-)
With extra hands available to hold babies, the next morning I took the big kids over to Grandma's for an intense game of air hockey.
Brooke and Cody were really getting into it.
Naturally the littler big kids wanted to play.
I think it was a tie between Lexie & Blake.
Then it was back to Boo-Boo & Jim-Jim's house for some outdoor fun while we waited for Uncle Todd & Yo-Yo to arrive.
Lexie did her part.
It's nice to know that Brooke isn't getting too old to join in the fun.
And Blake is the king of silly fun.
Finally they made it (notice baby in a new set of arms.)
Very soon they are giving both babies...
who were quickly "propped"onto something. Holding them for very long is not an option.
Sadly it was time for bed and Jim-Jim was in charge of the pre-bed game...
I wonder why it took the kids so long to fall asleep?
Buzz, I mean Blake wanted to make sure he got his turn.
Here's the girls having a slumber party in my room (rather Z's but we were borrowing it.) Lexie had put in a special request for a slumber party and Z was more than happy to accommodate her.
No one told Todd that the first one up gets a baby (how he hadn't figure that out yet I don't know) so this was the sight I came down to on Thanksgiving morning. Pretty darn cute!
Then Maddie turned on the charm and Uncle Todd was putty in her little hands.
Who could resist that smile?
Naturally Lexie had to break out the princess outfit...
and Blake had to improvise since Daddy still had Snow White under lock and key.
Dancing to the Macy's Parade was a must for Turkey Day morning.
I gave the girls EZ Bun-Makers that I brought for them so naturally a few buns where in order.
The double bun looks adorable on Z (and so do her freckles!!)
A few hours later the kids sat down at the kids table for their dinner (Blakie couldn't last so he was still napping) and the adult partook at the big peoples table (I didn't get a picture since the forks were flying too fast to for the camera to catch the action!) Great dinner everyone!
As you can see it was a causal dinner so Lexie dined in her simple ball gown.
Later in the evening when football was ruling the TV, I had the kids do a scavenger hunt.
Cody was not fond of one of the items Brooke found.
Z was seriously working on her presentation (which is an important part of this game.)
As you can see, Brooke had no problems in that department.
Brooke even got Uncle Jim to help share the task of push ups. Nice job Jim!
Blake thought he looked the best so he won in Best Glasses Wearing.
Grandma and I were the judges with a little help from Lexie.
And the winner is.....everyone!!
So a fun time was had by all on Turkey Day in Texas!
The next day we celebrated Mackenzie's 10th Birthday (even though this was just her pretend birthday since she was actually 10 until Nov 30th and she reminded us often.)
I can't believe Z is already in the double digits! That is just not right.
What a beautiful group of children. We are missing Casey (I know you aren't a child any more at almost 21 but you'll always the cute little curly headed blond toddler to me) Dylyn & Damian.
Yin-Yin had to get in on the picture taking.
The birthday girl clearly pleased with one of her gifts and Lexie mentally adding the toy to her list for Santa.
This was Yo-Yo pretty much the whole time she was there - one baby in her arms and a burp cloth over her shoulder.
Oh the boys. Cody his usually happy self and Blake trying to figure out how he can get another piece of cake.
I liked this outfit Lexie had on so I tried to grab a couple of shots of her. One was all I got. She said she was cold. Oh please! It had been in the upper 70's the whole time we were then and had dropped into the 50s on Thanksgiving. I am so evil to send her out in the blizzard. Besides she was wearing hear favorite boots!
So Blogger says this post is too long (there's a surprise) and I've run out of memory, so you need to click on older post (just below this on the left) to see "The Rest of the Story."
