Christmas Eve

Christmas Eve was great this year. We had family over to eat then opened one present each, a tradition I had while growing up. Elsie insisted on making lemon lime juice for everyone so here she is squeezing the fruit. She picked her present I made her this year an apron. We had a fun night. Grandma helped put Elsie to bed and then the siblings went out to a movie while Flora and I stayed home to wrap more presents.

Elsie Dr

Pretty cool right??

Our awesome trip!!

Elsie and I went on an awesome trip a few weeks back. It was so much fun! We went to stay with our close friends in Kansas where we lived before we moved here. The little girl who is in this top picture is a day younger then Elsie. Her mom and I met at our church a month before the girls were born and they were our first kids. We became great friends. We also met several other moms with new babies and we all got together to form a playgroup. It was great the kids are all with in 4 or 5 months of each other in age and we were all first time moms so had lots to talk and ask questions about. 

Fast forward 4 and a half years and here we are. We moved away 2 years ago but another family did too and we both made it back this December to visit! It was great to all get togehter again and the kids had a blast!

We did a lot of fun stuff. We went to Chick-fil-a our favorite fast food and play place, Elsie played in the mud, we surprised each other, Elsie saw Santa, we had a Christmas party, gave presents, made a tool box at Home Depot, had a girls night out for just moms, spent a lot of fun time together, saw the temple and said good bye. 

It was so fun to spend a week with friends that I think we might need to make this a tradition!!!

Christmas lights

A fun family activity is going to see Christmas lights where ever you live! Here are a few shots of us enjoying some lights. What a beautiful way to make things magical durring Christmas. 

Holiday performance

Elsie had a holiday performance at Spanish preschool at the beginning of December. She got to say two lines "Frosty tambien tiene un amigo" and a few lines later she said "Tu sabes donde esta Santa Claus?". She did a great job memorizing the lines and saying them nice and loud. She also got to say her name and age in Spanish at the end. One family came up to us after the performance and told us how impressed they were with her. Her teachers also say great things about her too. The other day she even talked to her doctor in Spanish. She is improving and we are excited to have her get into the school that has the immersion class in it. In the mean time we will keep her in Spanish preschool for this spring and summer and then do it part time during kindergarten as the immersion class does not start until 1st grade. Hopefully she keeps enjoying it and can be fluent by the time she leave the 6th grade. 

Fun museum

We went to a local museum a few weeks back with some friends and had so much fun. They have a special exhibit for kids with lots of games to play and fun displays to learn too. They had a garden they could plant and harvest , a kitchen to play house in and a boat to go fishing in. As well as several other fun things like huge building blocks and cardboard dolls to dress. They also had some fun dress ups as you can see. And it was all for free!!! The exhibit is up for a bit longer so I am sure we will go down there again some time soon.

Tumbling

We signed up for tumbling again this fall. It has been fun but I think the kids in it are a bit young for Elsie. The main teacher said she does private small group lessons and a friend and I want to try and do this. We will have to wait and see if it works out. Either way Elsie still had fun and asks for tumbling still.

Christmas presents

This year for Christmas I made a lot of aprons. They were presents for my nieces and nephews and a few close friends. In total I made 12 I think. Some were pretty small others big but they all are made for people we love.

Decorating

We decorated the Christmas tree before Elsie and my trip so Will could enjoy it while we were gone. I was sad to find out, but not surprised, that he never once turned on the lights. Elsie wanted to have lights out side this year. Will was going to do it on a small scale but then he said he could not find an outlet out side of the house in front so we compromised and put them up in the window instead.