I made gingerbread cookies for the first time. I made a ton of dough, so we did it in two rounds. I tried to make some squares and then make a house out of them, but that didn't work at all (too heavy, sides not straight enough, me not talented enough). The boys had fun decorating them, but I ate most of them.
Brother and sister on Sunday morning. I tried to get Thomas, but he wouldn't cooperate, but this turned out cute. Heidi has a what is going on here look on her face. The story about the little tree that Stuart is holding is that we got it during a white elephant exchange at our friends' (the Piersons) Christmas party. It came in a bag with army men, little squishy things (I think they are called squinqies and they ended up all over the house and subsequently in the trash), a bowl, and a bag of Rolos. We also got a stick dragon that makes noise. Just a random tidbit about the random tree.
This is Stuart's 2nd Birthday (Christmas Eve). Thomas decided that since he had a train cake when he turned 2 (he saw a picture), I was going to make one for Stuart as well. He was set on it, so I decided I'd try my hand at it again. It turned out pretty good, even if the engine started falling apart. Maybe for Heidi's 2nd birthday I'll get it perfect ;) Stuart loved it. He kept saying "choo" and he showed everyone his cake. He had a good birthday. I can't believe he is 2. He can say just about everything now and is starting to put words together. Such a sweet boy.
We had our neighbors over the Friday before Christmas and had a pizza/grinch party. I made 3 pizzas plus breadsticks and grinch (mint chocolate chip) cookies. The kids watched the grinch and ate pizza and we got to visit in peace for a little while.
One of my favorite pictures of Heidi. Taken on Christmas day. She is getting so big. As quick as you put her down on her back she rolls over to her tummy. She loves to stand up. She is a smiler, a talker, and a drooler. She is the best sleeper ever. I love my baby girl!
David's sister Rebecca just got married in November and came to spend Christmas with us prior to going back to Idaho for school. It was fun to have them here. They were even nice enough to babysit the kids while we went out for our anniversary (Dec. 22).
Christmas morning
Thomas got a space shuttle for Christmas. That was all he wanted. On Christmas Eve he told me, "I have to go to bed, so Santa can bring my space shuttle." Here he is showing his space shuttle a space shuttle video on You Tube.
My snow angel.
Stuart's only attempt at going out in the snow. It didn't last more than a minute.
On Christmas night we got an awful storm. First there was freezing rain which covered everything in ice and then it started snowing and kept snowing. We got 10 inches. It knocked our power out for 24 hours. Some in Little Rock were out of power for almost a week. In this picture we are bundled up sitting in the dim house reading books (they got a lot for Christmas). It was cold, but we survived.
About 48 hours after it snowed Thomas decided he wanted to go outside and play in the snow. We had tried to convince him to many times before that. There wasn't nearly as much at that point of course (especially since it had rained) and it was starting to get dark, but he had fun. He made a snowman and wrecked it and rebuilt it, made a snow fort and threw snowballs (all things he came up with from reading about snow).
Here is the limb (really about half of a tree) that came down on our deck. It was one of many many trees that came down in the storm (which of course is what knocked the power out). We also had a pretty tree in our side yard that was damaged, but I think it will recover. The only thing this tree damaged was the trellis in our garden (and at that mostly the netting). We were fortunate to not have anymore damage and not be out of power too long.
As you can see we had an eventful, but happy Christmas season. It was so good to have David home and homework free for two weeks. It was hard to send him back to work on Monday. My sister Anna is flying in today to see us before she leaves on her mission next month. We are happy and blessed.
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