Breakfast with Santa!

A couple of weeks ago while eating dinner at Chick Fil A, the kids noticed a sign announcing that Santa was coming on two selected days to have breakfast at the restaurant!  Since my kids have never been big fans of seeing Santa (just having him visit our house!), I didn't think much of them pointing it out to me.  They continued to talk about it, so I figured there was no loss in making a reservation as we all like a good breakfast out of the house!  And as the picture above shows, it went even better than expected!!  This is our first ever picture with Santa where all in the picture are happy!!

 

Olivia is telling Santa that she would like puppy surprise for Christmas!  I love how the older two are listening intently!

 

Shane asked for Star Wars Legos, and Faith asked for an American Girl doll!  I was actually surprised what a successful morning it was, not only the kids doing so well with Santa, but Chick Fil A was very organized and made it a fun event!

 

Faith loved the cow dressed as an Elf.  Olivia on the other hand continues to be petrified of the cow!  She said she doesn't like not seeing his eyes!

Better Together Christmas Party

On our last day of Better Together before Christmas, we had a crazy Christmas dress up day!  Shane and Olivia chose to wear their Santa pajamas, while Faith preferred to wear her normal clothes!  It was fun to see so many of the students and adults wearing festive clothes, hats, and decorations!

 

Olivia had to have a picture of just her to show off her disco dancing boots (as she likes to call them!) and her backpack!

 

In chapel the kids helped to tell the Christmas story, complete with costumes!  Faith and Olivia were angels!

 

Here are all those who participated in the Christmas story presentation!  It was a fun, chaotic, memorable rendition of the Christmas story!  I think even a few songs were sung while in costume!

 

Later that evening Steve and I went to a church Christmas party at Pastor and Cindy's house!

First Family Party!

This past weekend we had our first family Christmas party! 

 

The huge present was for Olivia!  She was surprisingly patient as she waited quite a while to open it! 

Faith was so excited to receive a Barbie head for doing hair and makeup!  She wondered how Uncle Russell knew she wanted one!

 

Finally the time came for the box to be lifted!  Olivia was thrilled to find the Barbie Jeep she was dreaming of for the past month!  Thanks to Craigslist and having a birthday close to Christmas, Uncle Russell came through with the big deal of the day! 

 

She wasted no time driving around, sending fear into all the bunnies and old ladies of Leisure World! 

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas!

December has arrived, and so have all the fun, festivities, and traditions!  Our elf on the shelf, Freddy, is back, and with him arrived these adorable Santa pajamas!

 

Once the Nutcracker was over, we were all home and able to decorate the Christmas tree!  The kids are old enough that they could do all the work!  They loved seeing all the ornaments and taking about where they were from or who gave them to us!

 

They did a nice job!  And I did make that bow straighter when it was all said and done!

 

Also early on in the month, the kids sang "O Come O Come Emmanuel" at our church's midweek Advent service!

 

 

Even Cotillion has a Christmas party, and since Steve was out of town for a class, all three crazy kids went to Cotillion this time!  Shane enjoyed joining in on the Mexican Hat Dance, and Olivia and Shane both were able to go out to dance the Hokey Pokey!  Until they last 10 minutes or so, they did really well! 

 

As always the room was beautifully decorated for the Cotillion party!  It looks extra festive in this picture as the kids were dancing and trying to keep a balloon in the air!

More from the Nutcracker!

After a week off for Thanksgiving, Faith and all the other ballerinas were back in the studio to prepare for the final Nutcracker weekend!  They did four more shows over the course of three days.

Here are Faith and a few friends waiting backstage!  It was really nice for them at the Ventura shows as there were tvs backstage so they could watch what was happening onstage while they were waiting for their turn to dance!

 

In the tv room watching the show!

 

Here is an onstage photo taken from the wings by one of the directors! Faith is the mouse on the far right, closest to the sleeping Clara! 

 

One more of the adorable midnight mice!  Faith loved every moment of performing, and she is already dreaming of next year the possibility of a new role!

 

Happy Birthday Olivia!

While we were at the lake, Olivia celebrated her third birthday!  We had so much fun celebrating this sweet, funny, wild, delightful little lady!

 

For weeks and weeks Olivia has been talking about how all she wanted for her birthday was a rainbow cake!  Since we were out of town, I was hoping the local grocery store would be able to come through for us with a fitting cake!  Thankfully, Friday morning they had the above pictured cake (minus the rainbow!), and when I asked if a rainbow could be added it was no problem!  Olivia was thrilled!

 

After opening gifts and enjoying the rainbow cake, the kids played some games together out on the lawn!  First up was a sack race!  The kids loved it!

 

Next was a limbo contest!  The rules were a bit lax, and the kids were able to go low!  After the kids had their fun, the adults took a turn!  I will spare all those who participated and not post the pictures and videos that I have of the limbo contest!

 

Daddy and his three year old!  It's hard to believe that she is that old!  We love you to pieces Olivia Constance!

Havasu Thanksgiving!

Happy (late!) Thanksgiving from our family to yours!  Once again, we have so much for which to be thankful!  Health, family, a church we love, great friends, our home, and so so so much more!  We were grateful to once again escape for a few days to Lake Havasu and spend Thanksgiving with some family!

 

The weather was quite a bit cooler than last year, but it couldn't keep the kids and the dads out of the heated pool.  On the side sat all the moms and grandmas bundled up as if it were about to snow!

 

Thanksgiving lunch was at one of our favorite restaurants, The Springs, and it was delicious!  No one left disappointed or hungry!  And the best part was someone else did all the preparing and cleaning!  Faith enjoyed having Grandma Poelstra and her friend Anna with us!  I don't have any pictures of it,  but for dinner that evening we all brought an appetizer to share.  Shane discovered a love for smokie links, and we all fell in love with Brittany's buffalo chicken dip!  All the appetizers were tasty and enjoyed by all!  It was a fun way to end the day!

 

After the noon meal on Thanksgiving, we went over to the Parker Dam to check it out!  Everyone is looking at the water from the lake traveling into the dam.

 

I don't know what he's telling her, but it's probably something he learned on Wild Kratz, a show on PBS!  Both Shane and Haley have a love for that show!

 

In addition to all going out for Thanksgiving, we also all went out for dinner Friday night to the Golden Horseshoe!  They had the perfect table for our group of 16!!

 

The birthday girl enjoyed her dinner out with all the family!

 

It was a wonderful weekend filled with food, family, and fun!  We were thankful so many wanted to join us at the lake for a bit of a non-traditional Thanksgiving weekend!