Micah's visiting Texas

My mom left Tuesday night and arrived back in Houston early Wednesday morning. She said she had a great time hanging out with the kids. :)

Wednesday night Micah came over to visit, and he stayed til this morning. We will probably get to see him again before he returns to college in Kentucky.

 

Micah in our backyard this morning.

This week

Elaine playing the Wii. She kept squatting and moving around, getting quite the work out... cracked us up!

Playing with the Robot they got from (I think) Jim's uncle. It dances and waves it's arms.

*Christmas Eve*

Driving around looking at Christmas lights on Christmas Eve

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Christmas Morning

Snuggling Grandma Robin Christmas morning.

Santa didn't hear that other people were already getting our kids pillow pets and Snuggies, lol. The kids thought it was GREAT! Between them, they got 6 Snuggies and 4 Pillow Pets. They are in Heaven!

With Grandma Robin. She's spending a week with us.

Opening some more snuggies, wearing snuggies

With a Wooden Art kit... that thing is HEAVY. lol

A book about drawing trucks (to help him practice fine motor skills)

Looking at stickers

The mess.

Making bracelets with her friendship bracelet kit.

Building a Lego helicopter. 

They drew a picture of Santa's sleigh with their art kit.

 (And, that's why it was Heavy, lol)

More December photos

Elaine picked out this Mermaid Barbie for her Birthday, and got her ears pierced.

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Elaine picked out this blue bike with butterflies.

Dolled up for Jim's office's Christmas Party, early December

Jim's Birthday

I won free tickets on facebook to see UNT's New Choreographer's concert on December 4th, which happens to be Jimmy's birthday. He was a good sport, so our whole family went. We cut out at one of the intermissions, because we didn't want to keep the kids out too late. (That afternoon, Elaine saw a play with her Girl Scout troop. They all had their faces painted... thus the butterfly on her face)

Jim's birthday card from Elaine had Jimmy thinking that she drew him as Darth Vadar... turns out it was just a card covered in everything Star Wars she could think of.

In the pictures, Jimmy is wearing his birthday present from me, a new jacket.

Thanksgiving 2010

We woke up around 10am and watched part of the Macy's parade, while beginning to cook side dishes. By 11am, Lainey and I had green bean casserole and sweet potatoes in the oven cooking. So we made eggs and sausage on the stove top for breakfast. Jim joined us for breakfast, then went to volunteer feeding people at a soup kitchen for a few hours. He got back around 3pm and by 4pm we were done eating Thanksgiving. Everything was tasty, low-key and mellow. We watched some football, took naps and rented Toy Story 3 to watch with the kids.

 Mashing sweet potatoes

Allan woke up a little later than Elaine and I. Al wrapped himself up in Elaine's blanket to stay warm. Then he inspected our cooking instruments.

Kids snacked on oranges while they waited for things to cook.

Tour Continues: Allan's bedroom

This was the room that the kids shared when we first moved over from the trailer. It's Alpal's room now. We decided this would be Allan's room because he'd be the one to keep the bunk bed and it fits better in this room than in the room Elaine uses. I think I want to buy or sew red curtains for his room, to balance out all the blues.

The bunk bed use to be white and pretty dingy. During the move, before re-assembling the bed, I spray painted it light blue. His robot bedding is mainly red, grey and blues... so when I found Red & Blue storage bins at the $1 store, I knew they'd look cute. Allan and I stickered the bins with Star Wars stickers.

Take my daughter to work day :)

I took Elaine to work with me the Wednesday before Thanksgiving. Elaine and I walked over to the Barnes & Noble before the mall opened and picked out a book for her. We got her one, teaching her to draw different animals, characters and castles. I liked the book because it had lots of verbal tips and tricks about how to achieve shading and depth. Jim fetched her around 1pm.