Fancy Do

Since we weren't rushed this morning, I took a few minutes and actually did Amelia's hair. She was a great sport the whole time and didn't complain much at all. And she was really excited to see how it all turned out.


I didn't think that Ashley had the patience for it today so she just got a pony tail. She told me that I couldn't take her picture because it would just be a sad picture. She was right but I took it anyway.


Elliot is staying busy cruising around everything and climbing everything else. I don't worry about him unless things get really quiet. That's when I know that I need to see what he is up to.

Elliot's First Haircut

For quite a while now, Elliot has been in desperate need of a haircut. Amelia had her first haircut around age 2 and Ashley was closer to 3 by the time I got the scissors out. Well, Elliot's hair was starting to cover his ears and it was almost hanging in his eyes. So, after breakfast this morning, out came the scissors. I tried to distract him with more cereal and milk and I let him play with the spray bottle, but he still was not a fan of me combing his hair and getting dangerously close to his head with a sharp object. In the end, I was able to trim around his ears and take a little off the top without much of a fuss. But trimming the back didn't go as well. I make no guarantees that he got a good haircut, but it does look better than it did.

before

after

all that hair

Another One Bites the Dust

Hooray to Amelia for loosing her second tooth today! It was so wiggly yesterday that I thought we could just pull it out. Apparently I am too much of a wimp to pull it out so I guess it needed to fall out on its own. I was joking around with Amelia telling her that all she needed was to eat a donut since that is what she was doing when her first tooth fell out. There must have been something inside me that believed that too because we went to the store last night for donuts. Today after lunch I told her that she could have a donut. After she had eaten the whole thing, she reached in her mouth and pulled out her tooth. Maybe they are magical donuts that make wiggly teeth fall out.

A Flowserve Christmas

Every year, we gather at Flowserve for the annual visit with Santa, lunch and crafts. Amelia and Ashley look forward to this every year. They also do a coloring contest for the kids. Amelia worked really hard on her coloring and was so happy to have Daddy take it to work so it could hang up with all the other art work. What I didn't realize, until I saw the pictures from all the other kids, was that to receive a winning ribbon you have got to use some bling and make your pictures 3-D. I was shocked at the use of glitter and other accessories that some kids used for this "coloring" contest. But Amelia was still happy because she got a ribbon that said "Amazing Job" on it. I'm glad that she doesn't know the difference between that ribbon and one that says "First Place". But now I know for next year that we have got to make our pictures POP!


We also tortured Elliot with his first experience sitting on Santa's lap. It is so sad that parents (me included) place their child on a stranger's lap and then stand back and giggle while taking pictures and not doing a single thing to rescue their frightened child. It is just too darn cute to pass up. Amelia took it upon herself to tell Santa what everyone wanted for Christmas. But since Ashley can be a little shy, maybe this was the best way to do it.


The girls also got to do a little craft. They chose to do a little foam Christmas tree that they decorated with all sorts of ornaments. It was so cute to watch them work and place each ornament in just the right place.

Gingerbread Houses

One of my favorite traditions every Christmas is to decorate gingerbread houses. We all get together at my Aunt Linda's house and just go crazy. The funniest thing is that we save the leftover candy from year to year and just supplement with the essential supplies. So the hardest thing for the kids (and adults too) is to not eat the candy while you are decorating unless you know for a fact that it is fresh. We also cheat a little bit and put our house together with hot glue and then just cover the seams with icing. We figure that it doesn't matter much because no one actually eats their house. Elliot would be the exception at my house. Whenever the gingerbread house was within his reach, he took a swipe at it and tried to pull off a piece of candy.


This year, Amelia and Ashley each wanted to decorate their own house. We didn't have any extra kits so my Mom let Ashley decorate her house and Amelia decorate the house for our family. Elliot pretty much just crawled all over the place looking for candy that had been dropped on the floor. My sister Tamara wanted to do something totally different this year...She made a gingerbread trailer park! She and my Mom baked up some gingerbread pieces that could be put together in the shape of trailers. My big contribution this year was ice cream cones that I decorated to look like trees. They turned out really great!