Twas the night before Christmas

'Twas the night before Christmas (but it really reminded me of the The Night Before the Night Before Christmas), children all tucked in their beds, and the car loaded for a late night drive ahead. When all of a sudden there was such a clatter; Daddy came running to see what was the matter.

And that is how our Christmas started off. We were planning to drive after Phil finished playing at both Christmas Eve services. I decided to carry sleeping children to the car while he ate his dinner. Poor guy hadn't even sat down when I misjudged the number of stairs we have in our house and Evie and I tumbled to the landing. Evie was completely fine and didn't even remember it the next morning. Nana came over so we could head off to Parkwest. Christmas Eve is apparently a great time to hurt yourself because we were in and out of the ER in half an hour. I insisted we would not let this ruin Christmas, so off we went the next morning. My family was a huge help as I hobbled through the day. However, between the pain, percocet, and just trying to get through the day I took zero pictures. The pictures below are from breakfast at my grandparents' house and are courtesy of my sister.

We wish you a Merry Christmas!

Nativity Pageant

Andrew has been working very hard the past few weeks on learning all his songs for the Nativity Pageant at school. He's never been much of a performer, but he has been so excited to do this in front of all the moms and dads. We were so proud of him as he crawled up on stage (as a sheep) and sang his little heart out.

Christmas Mice

Snow day #2 this week was still really cold and the snow was basically reduced to ice, so it was an inside day for us. I had seen these cute candy cane mice on Southern Plate and bought the supplies to make them over the weekend. The plan was to do this craft during Christmas break, but it worked out to do them a little earlier. It entertained the kids for the afternoon and provided favors to Andrew's preschool party next week. I did all of the cutting, but the kids were able to do the assembly all by themselves. By the way, I learned that 6 and 5 is still too young to break out the hot glue gun! The kids thought they were cute, but Andrew wanted to know where their mouths were going to go. Evie informed him that they don't have mouths so they won't eat the candy canes. Love these kids!

Putting the ears on the body

Gluing on eyes and noses

Our army of mice. Their candy cane tails are color coordinated to their noses thanks to Evie!

The finished product on the tree

Snow Day

We were outside 20 minutes after it started accumulating yesterday afternoon...they just couldn't wait!

He discovered how hard it is to ride on slick roads...lots of wipeouts

Sledding this morning

Merry Christmas

Starlight Trees Christmas Card

Shutterfly has classic, elegant Christmas invitations for your party.

View the entire collection of cards.

Fun Saturday

Evie has been excited for the past few weeks to go see The Nutcracker with her Nana. She picked out one of her Christmas dresses to wear and counted down the hours as the day went on. I think she had wonderful time! Since Evie was doing something special, Phil decided to take Andrew to Santa's Wonderland at Bass Pro Shops. This was definitely the little boy equivalent to an afternoon at the ballet.

Her ballerina ornament from Nana

Andrew's giant fish

Way Back Whensday

I cannot believe it has been 2 years since we were at Disney World. These pictures still make me smile!

Our 1st Gingerbread House

We have never made a gingerbread house with the kids because they are allergic to gingerbread and royal icing. However, we got the idea from PBS Kids to use graham crackers. The recipe called for cream of tartar in the icing, but we just added some powdered sugar instead and it worked out just fine. I know you aren't meant to eat the house, but trust me, there was a lot of finger licking and candy sneaking going on. The kids loved it!

Construction begins

Phase one complete

Phase 2- another section of roof was added along with some landscaping

Phase 3- put up shingles, doors, and windows

The completed project! Next time we are going to frost that inside graham cracker, but once the roof was stable I wasn't about to try to frost the inside.

Happy Thanksgiving

Fantasy of Trees 2010

FoT 2010

I think is the 1st time they have both been excited to see Santa

Evie and the Amherst Elementary tree~theme was based on the If You Take a Mouse to the Movies book

Evie and Andrew in front of their cardiologist's tree

The Sunsphere~one of their favorite landmarks in Knoxville

Flying with Papaw Rick

My dad took us flying with him over the weekend. It was the first time the kids have been up with him. I had no idea how they would react, but other than one brief moment of Evie being nervous they loved it. We got to fly over Mamaw and Papaw's house, which they thought was great. It is definitely a different experience than commercial flights, and they were already asking when we could go again as we landed.

Love how the headset squishes those cheeks :)

They enjoyed talking on the headsets just as much as the flight

Pre K Field Trip

Andrew's class (along with the kindergarten class at WHBC) went on field trip today to the library and Food City. Story time at the library was great because we got to go before they opened to the public. Then we headed to Food City. I cannot even imagine what the shoppers thought of 30 five and six year olds being paraded through the store. We got to go through the bakery, the credit union, the meat dept, the stock room, the freezer, etc. Andrew was not thrilled about the hair net, so we improvised and put his hood up with the hair net on top of it. The kids loved watching hamburger being ground and touching the lobsters, but the real highlight of the trip was riding the school bus to get there.!

Story time at the library

Chaos in hair nets

Lobsters at Food City

Lady Stars Soccer Party

Another soccer season has come to an end, so the girls celebrated at Gatti's. We were blessed with some wonderful coaches this season! These guys not only teach soccer skills, they tie shoes, give hugs, dry tears, compliment hairbows, and more. Evie definitely loved her team this year and we are hoping to see some familiar faces in the spring season!

Lady Stars with Coach Bryce and Coach Lynn

Note Passing

Evie passed this note to me in the car while we were stuck in traffic on the way to the pediatrician yesterday. She had made this statement a few times, but I told her it wasn't a choice to not go and to stop saying it. I couldn't help but laugh at her persistence and then praise her for using a contraction with proper spelling and punctuation. She's a character!

Happy Halloween!

Butterfly Fairy (lost a front tooth after this)

Woody

Silly children!

Trick or Treat!

Soccer Medal

Andrew finished up his last U5 soccer session this weekend. He has made huge improvements since last fall. We are so proud of him!

Princesses on Ice

We took Evie to see Princesses on Ice this afternoon. I have been waiting for this to come to Knoxville ever since we went to Disney World a couple of years ago. She loved every minute of it (except for the waiting in line to get in)!

Cinderella and Cinderella

Mickey & Minnie

We loved the dancing silverware with Belle

The princess Evie was waiting for, Aurora

Cinderella in her carriage