Christmas Preparations

We ended the Thanksgiving weekend with going to pick out a Christmas tree. Our neighbor has a tree lot nearby that we enjoy going to. They are beautiful, freshly cut trees nicely displayed for easy viewing. Heidi was VERY in to picking out a tree. She would walk up to one, point, and say, "how about this one?" Then on to the next tree - same thing. :-)They all towered over Rachel!
Heidi had a tendency to pick out trees that were taller than we needed. So Jason told her we needed a smaller one. After a little bit, she called to us - "How about this one!!" I think she really wanted it - it was definitely smaller! Then we had to tell her we needed one bigger than that (how we confuse our children). I asked her if I could take her picture with it since we weren't going to buy it.They have a wood stove set up at the lot to keep them warm as they man the lot through cold evenings. And it was a cold evening when we were there! Here is Emma enjoying the warmth. As soon as we got home, Heidi wanted to know when we could decorate the tree. When could we put lights on the tree? Could she help? It took 5 days to get it all done, but the end result is beautiful! (Although I need to get a clearer picture.)Merry Christmas!!

Black Friday & Doughnuts

I'm one of those crazy ones that enjoys Black Friday shopping. It's fun to get good deals! And it's fun to observe. :-) So I went shopping on Friday morning - not crazy early though - I was at Kohl's at 7:45 AM. They had opened at 3 AM!!!! With me out shopping, Jason took advantage of the time with his girls and took them to Krispy Kreme for doughnuts! They had a great time and he took some fun pictures.

Notice the icing all over her pants. It's hard to eat Krispy Kreme doughnuts neatly - no matter how old you are.Chocolate iced with sprinkles. Yum!!!

Thanksgiving in Dahlonega

After sleeping in on Wednesday (we got in from Ohio at 12:30 AM), it was time to get ready for Thanksgiving. Go to Publix, make a pecan pie, re-pack an overnight bag for all of us and drive to Dahlonega to spend the night at my parent's house. After dinner there, we all piled in to our van and drove in to town. The U.S. Capital Christmas Tree made a stop in Dahlonega on it's way from Wyoming to D.C. The trucker who was hauling it is from Dahlonega, so they got to make a detour to his hometown. It was on a really long truck with just a small window to view it.The town was decorated for Christmas and had a celebration and various activities surrounding the time the tree was there. I'm guessing this is where Santa sits, but he wasn't there, so the girls piled in to the sleigh.One of those things was a live nativity. However we got there right as they were finishing it and it was more like a petting zoo for us. Which Emma loved.And Heidi and Rachel were a little more timid of the animals. I'm not sure Heidi's feet touched the ground while we were near the animals. Eventually I think they did both touch a sheep or goat.After seeing the animals, the tree, and taking in the Christmas lights on the square, we went to Dairy Queen for a treat. Couldn't resist posting this great picture of Grammy with her girls.We spent the night at Grammy and Papa's house and the rest of the family arrived on Thursday.

Emma with Uncle Curtis and Brooks.Heidi playing with Lindsay.Chinese Checkers - the game that unites the generations. :-)SistersFamily!It was a wonderful day to spend together. SO thankful for my family!!!

Trip to Ohio

Jason's dad has recently retired from the church he has been pastor of for 22 years. His last Sunday to preach was the Sunday before Thanksgiving. The church was planning a big celebration to honor Jim & Sharon that day and they secretly invited all of the family. So all of us were planning to be there for the celebration - but Jason's parents didn't know we were all coming. In fact, I don't think they had even mentioned the celebration to us. So they were VERY surprised to see lots of surprise guests Sunday morning! The day was one of great joy, celebration and praise to God.After the celebrating on Sunday, we went back to our hotel. When we visit Ohio, it always seems to be a chilly time of year, and as much as our girls love to play in the pool, we try to find a place with an indoor pool. This was a new hotel for us and they did have an indoor pool - in fact our room looked out on it - which means our girls asked constantly when we could go swimming.We did spend some time in the pool every night - and they loved it!Monday, we headed to the Cleveland Children's Museum - a great way to spend a chilly, rainy day. It's a really great museum and all the girls really enjoyed it. The water table was a big hit! Emma found it first.Rachel & Cousin Becca enjoyed it too!They had a barn area with lots of large stuffed animals. Heidi enjoyed loading them in to the back of this pickup truck.A girl who likes to shop. And Rachel wanted to get in the cart!Tuesday morning we met Jason's dad for breakfast then hit the road at 10:15AM. We have never made the drive in one day since having kids. But we did it Tuesday rolling in to our garage about 12:30AM. The girls all traveled SO well. And portable DVD players are a life saver! Hopefully they will all travel well again as we head to PA after Christmas.

Heidi's List for Santa

I have some catching up to do on posts, but had to post this before I forgot it. Jumping from Halloween to Christmas...

Heidi has a project to do for school this week - cut out 5 pictures of things she wants Santa to bring her this year and attach them to a paper stocking. I mentioned the project to her this afternoon and that we needed to look for pictures of things she wanted Santa to bring her. She paused for a minute, then said, "will Santa see the stocking or will you email him?"

I told her if we got her stocking back from school, maybe we could take it with us when we go see Santa & Mrs. Claus next Tuesday and she could show it to Santa. (If you remember from last Christmas' posts, Heidi is not so fond of Santa, but is fine with Mrs. Claus. And thankfully, Mrs. Claus travels with Santa when they visit Lockheed. ;-)) She asked me if Mrs. Claus and Santa talked. I took that to mean - do they have voices to talk. So I said, "yes." However, she meant it - do they communicate with each other; because her response was, "I love Mrs. Claus, 'cause she's my friend. I'll show my stocking to Mrs. Claus and then she can tell Santa." This child always has a plan. :-)

Baby Dolls

Heidi has enjoyed playing with baby dolls for a couple years now, I guess. Rachel has observed and has really taken to baby dolls. Because she was frequently wanting to hold one of Heidi's baby dolls (she has 6 or 8), and of course it was ALWAYS the one Heidi NEEDED at that particular time (read between the lines: because Rachel wanted it, she all of a sudden needed it - even though she hadn't paid it any attention in recent history), Rachel received several baby dolls for her birthday in September. So now she has her own. :-)But they still want each others at times.It is so cute to watch her play with them. She puts them in the doll stroller and pushes them around the house; she puts blankets on top of them when "they go night-night"; and she feeds them bottles - including making a sound with her mouth like they are drinking. :-) Too cute!

Three Yellow Jacket Girls

So a friend of mine suggested I post pictures of all 3 of our girls when they dressed as a yellow jacket their first real Halloween. I wasn't sure we had one of Emma (or really, where it was - we've crashed a computer since then), but Jason recently found one. So here you go - just for fun!
Emma 2004Heidi 2007Rachel 2010