Holiday Happenings Out of Order

This post is not in order...forgive me...blame it on the holiday chaos!  It may be chaos but, we are soaking it up!  We have stayed in our pajamas until we absolutely have to, we make whatever the kids want, we watch Christmas movies(Elmo especially), and we are playing with a lot a legos a lot of hours a day! Harry got Legos for her birthday and I end up putting them together because they are to hard for him.  I love it!  Here is GK at dance a couple of weeks ago!  It was cold and we had something right after, so we didn't put her in dance clothes!  She LOVES dance...if you couldn't tell from this blog!

 I started wrapping in November and finished up last night! I love wrapping presents!  I especially love wrapping for my nieces!

 Funny thing that Harry's buddy Maddox LOVES Golden Coral! We have never been! Tuesday night is family night and I must say..a fun family night it was!  There was a magician and the kids went nuts over the "chocolate waterfall"!  Harry is dying to go back!

 I have been getting ready for Harry's Elf birthday party!  It will be our family only! I am having a lot of fun with this one because it is a family party! Our house is getting 'elfin' ready!

 I have the joy of going to lunch with two of my favorite people quite often and Kathy and this girl, Laurie, had lunch last Thursday!  We had a ball! She is leaving for a beach vacay, so we got her a little treat to enjoy!  Isn't she the cutest!  Laurie and Kathy are my favs!

 Georgia Kelley got invited to her first cookie exchange!  It was sooooo precious!  She had a blast and so did I!  The girl who hosted it is one of the most inspiring people I have ever met! I have enjoyed getting to know their little family!

 Harry got to do whatever he wanted on his birthday!  For lunch he wanted shrimp!

 We went ice skating with his cousin! More pics to come!

 He had a hummus platter at Table Mesa with his grands and cousins!

 He got to "drink like a pirate" with their cream sodas! Soo funny!

 Tucker has made himself at home!

 We skipped Harry's school program to join our life group and our "old" group for dinner Sunday night! These are some of the best people I know and I adore them!

 Speaking of adore...I have had the gift of spending quite a bit of time with these two jewels!

 Amy hosted a very festive cookie exchange and LRC party, where I won the big pot of $$!  Then Ashley hosted an ornament exchange full of smiles and yummo apps! These two are quite the hostesses! 

 Saturday night we did a progressive dinner with these three girls and their hubs!  We ate great food at two different restaurants and let the boys play hours of ping pong!  Chad was in HEAVEN....and so was I!  Good times!

 I guess I can't post without a little pinterest inspired treats...

 Oh Tucker!

 This was precious! Before I went to bed, I saw this on the counter! It says "sorry"! Harry had left it by some treats he left Tucker! I couldn't figure it out until I realized Harry had accidently knocked down Tucker early in the day!  He was writing him a note! So sweet! I have never seen him try to write "sorry"! 
 Speaking of Tucker...he painted the whole family's noses red while the cousins were here!  BTW, I have been hearing about all the "elf haters" and I just don't get it!  Tucker is so much fun!

 Making cookies...la de da!

Tomorrow we are making the last batch of bon bons of the year and I am planning on sitting my pajamas and eating bon bons all day!  Well I won't be able to get away with the whole day but, you get the picture!

Fa La La La La

We have been making a ton of sweets...so many that I am sick of sugar! It's a MIRACLE! A Christmas MIRACLE!  The kids have been helping me make our treats and they are not turning out as cute as I would like but we have had a lot of fun making them! This made me laugh because Georgia Kelley is such a copy cat! She sits like Harry, talks like Harry and is beginning to play like Harry!

 Tucker(AKA Kicker) elfed Harry's lunch!

 Pinterest has totally made me a more fun mom!  Actually Pinterest has made me a better teacher too! Pinterest has stepped up my game in all aspects of my life! Notice the Ipad sitting right beside my seat where we made one of our many hand print projects!
 Tucker was roasting marshmallows! When Harry saw him he said, "Mom don't be made at him...!" I am not doing a good job documenting his adventures!

 Practicing our elf breakfast!

 More treats!

 Here we made really good Red Velvet cookies and they have been the family's favorite so far!

 This is a book that I gave my grandmother last year and she read it while it recorded her. I can't get through it without crying! Hearing her voice brings a rush of peace and a sweetness that I can't describe. Georgia Kelley wants to read it over and over! I love that my kids get to keep a peace of her. Her love for reading was such a legacy.  I am really struggling this year with how things will be without her.  All the Christmas blogs are huge staples of our memories with her. I went through reading them and I noticed I wrote how hard it was to leave, or how it was a tear goodbye and last year Chad and I had to stay one more night because we couldn't bare to leave her.

 We really got cooking this weekend for some of the little old ladies at church.  We have fallen in love with some widows! Harryism: "Mom, I am going to marry you." Me: "Harry you can't marry me, I am married to your daddy." Harry in a very sad voice: "Okay then, I will just be a widow."  You can tell we talk about them a lot! We love making them treats and taking them to their houses!

 Harry loved dropping by their house! I felt bad that I didn't have time to stay and chat. While driving from house to house, Harry said. "Mom, I notice something, they all have the same hair." 

 Georgia Kelley had to help too. "I big girl, I help too." She has her dance clothes under that jacket!

Just a few pics from our days leading us to Christmas!

It's a Ninja Thing....and I pretend to understand..

Harry wanted Ninja/Sumo/Chopsticks party for his birthday! He also wanted a sleepover, so we granted his wish and what a party it was!  We invited his three favorite friends! We were really sad Jesse and Payton were out of town but, we will make it up with a play date! Chad and I ordered these sumo costumes a month or so back for this party!

 I made signs everywhere with the Chinese symbols! Thank you Google translator!

 Jake came first and the wrestling began!

 All ninjas need weapons and sushi!

We ordered the most basic food from Panda Express (Harry's favorite restaurant) and none of boys liked it! We ended up ordering pizzas! They all tried eating Chinese food with chopsticks!

 To earn their weapons, I created a scavenger hunt! They had to find certain coins to get their swords and nun chucks! I gave them clues and they had to kill and eat whatever was covering the coins! This was a rattlesnake! Pigs, worms and fish were a few other animals protecting the precious coins!  Chad thinks the game was weird since I made them eat the gummy animals but, the kids LOVED it! The boys thought it was crazy cool!

 Here they are getting ready for the hunt!

 Hearing the important clues to where the coins are!

 Georgia Kelley helped me pass out their weapons! They were very successful!

 Chad cleared out the living room for a safe place to fight and wrestle! Of course there were rules to make it super safe!

Chad was a great sport! I don't know if he didn't enjoy it as much as the kids did! They were wild!

 Here is an example of the wasted food!

 They loved the sumo costumes!  It was hilarious watching them try to push each other out of the ring!  They all cheered for each other like big kids!  "I got your back!" "I'm counting on you." "You got this!"  Funny boys1

 Disclaimer: No one got hurt during this event!

 They loved cheering for each other! They all wanted to get on teams with Chad! So funny!

 Notice Georgia's feet in this picture! She did not like this party at the beginning but, she got use to it and ended up running in the middle of the fighting!  This picture below is deceiving! They said they wanted to watch a movie but kept changing their mind!

 Another hunt and more wrestling in between Kung Fu Panda!

 I mustache you a question...

 It was fun night and the boys were not up too late! Harry had a blast! He kept saying, "Thank you mom!"  It was a success! I wish I had gotten more pics of them all together!