The Four of Us

I am pretty sure my mom got a better picture on her camera of the four of us, but this will do for now. Mia just has a fake smile and Bryce is clearly looking at something more interesting than the camera!

Christmas

I hope everyone had a great Christmas. We really enjoyed the holidays this year. We celebrated with my family on Christmas Eve and then went to the candlelight service at church and to look at Christmas lights. The kiddos crashed fairly early , but we were up for hours since Santa didn't put together Bryce's basketball arcade game! The kids had a good Christmas, Mia got the "Mia" American Girl. I know she is young, but it was the "doll of the year" so we had to get it this year or it would be gone! She also got the Bitty Baby and doll gear! She looks so sweet rocking her baby in the rocker with a cradle attached. Bryce got the Basketball game, spy gear, a basketball bean bag chair and a Tony Romo official jersey. Won't be wearing that for awhile :) Christmas night we went to Ryan's grandma's for dinner.

Ryan surprised me with diamond earrings which was very nice!

Children's Museum

We went to a children's museum with a friend last week and the kids loved it. They had so much to do: art, music, a play grocery store, pretend Cici's, log cabin, pyramids, airplane, hospital and more. The kids already want to go back! That may be our next place to buy a membership to. I am going to try and plan some of Bryce's lessons to go with some of the exhibits they have and bring him when we are covering those topics.

Free Dog!

Hi, this is my grandma's yorkie and he needs a new home. He is 2 yrs old and gets along great with kids and other dogs. She can no longer keep him and I would love to keep him except we already have 2 other dogs. Let me know if you are interested. He comes with a bed, bowls, collar and leash.

Nativity

A church nearby was doing a live nativity that we went to Sunday evening. It was set up where you walked through and saw the tax collector, the well, a Jewish home, the marketplace, the synagogue, shepherds and the nativity scene. All of the areas had people acting in the roles and it was really neat and informative. It was a really great way for the kids to experience the Christmas story. They especially liked the baby sheep.

And More Christmas Fun

One of the parks out here does a neat light display that the kids can walk through so we did that this weekend with my mom and nephew. The kids liked it and it was warm enough for them to play on the playground for a while. Mia was not cooperating for pictures, she would put her head down at the last minute and wait until the flash went off before looking up. Rotten, but smart!

Breakfast with Santa

Our church had a Breakfast with Santa event Saturday that was fun. They had pancakes, crafts, games and then Santa came. Neither kid was too thrilled to get a pic with Santa. Bryce accepted it as a must for me, but Mia had to be bribed with chocolate and Ryan had to hold her. We got a really cute one of the three of them with Santa! Bryce was nervous, though and forgot to tell Santa what he wanted so we have to mail a letter today. One year we called in and you could talk to Santa so Bryce said we could just call him, again! And of course, when he made his list today the thing at the top was not something he had told me. I just thought I was done shopping.

First Basketball Game

Bryce had his first basketball game Saturday and loved it! He was so excited. His team played really well and they start back in January. We had to take Mia to the dr today and the pediatrician mentioned how tall Bryce is and he said, yeah- I play basketball and my team won our game. He is so tall and while Mia isn't as tall as he was at this age, she is in the same percentile for a girl. The dr, who is female, said today that Mia will have that "look great in a 2 piece swimsuit body" because she is so long bodied. Don't know I want to think about my daughter someday wanting to look good in a 2 piece (other than her cute baby swimsuits), but I guess that is good for her! I have some tall kids- don't where they got that, but I think it is great.

Christmas Crafts

We had our winter party yesterday for our playgroup at our house and the kids had a blast. We had some crafts for them to do, but they were more interested in playing with their friends. They played a game where they used toilet paper to wrap a person up to look like a snowman. They also did a book exchange and the kids both got a neat book.

We stayed home today and did the crafts. We made penguin magnets, painted snowmen and snowflakes and made angel garland. I am trying to keep the holiday season a bit simpler this year to really enjoy the time instead of running around like crazy. It still seems like we are always going, though! We have Breakfast with Santa tomorrow at the church and Bryce's first basketball game.

I would like to take the kids to one of the live nativity scenes this year, also. It seems we are being bombarded with the commercialism this year and I really started to notice now that Bryce is older that we need to do more celebrating the reason for Christmas.

We also plan to go to Holiday in the Park if the weather cooperates. The kids and I are going to go visit my grandma in Arkansas (and hopefully bring her back here for Christmas!) next week and then we will be home enjoying Christmas. I hope everyone is having a wonderful holiday season.

Pictures

Here are some pics from the last couple weeks. We went to a Christmas Tree farm to pick out our beautiful, yet very crooked, tree. Bryce and Ryan were in the Christmas parade and we went to a city event where Bryce got to slide down an ice hill. And he only had to wait 30 minutes to do it! And to think kids up north take that for granted. We also rode the horse and carriages, which Mia liked. She is suddenly very interested in horses.

Thanksgiving

We had a good Thanksgiving. We usually go out of town to see my grandma, but decided to stay here this year and spend some time with Ryan's family who came in town. Ryan had most of the week off so that was nice. We went to the aquarium and to eat in the West End one day and that was a lot of fun. We spent a couple days hanging out with family and took the kids to Chuck E Cheese. It was a good week. I will post some pics as soon as I get a chance.

Bryce and I went ice skating today and had a great time. It was harder than he thought it would be, but he got better by the second time around (as long as he could grab the side!). He didn't pull me down once and I was surprised because I can barely ice skate myself.

We did a little Christmas shopping this weekend, but didn't fight the crowds too much. I am completely done shopping! Yeah! I try to be done by Thanksgiving, but I was only a few days late.

Tomorrow we have a field trip to the Dallas Museum of Art and to ride the trolley downtown. The kids are excited about that. The rest of the week we are staying home and doing school work and my goal is to start working out at our clubhouse gym. Bryce does have basketball practice and a friend coming over one day after school, but we have a pretty slow week considering how busy we usually are.

Bryce and Ryan are going to be in the Christmas parade Saturday for Adventure Guides and then we are going to a Christmas Tree Farm to cut down a tree. Fun!

I hope everyone is enjoying the holidays!