An early visit from Santa

Since we are visiting TN on Christmas this year, we decided that we'd once again ask Santa to make an early visit to our home. Thankfully, he obliged.

As usual, we sprinkled reindeer food.

We put out carrots for the reindeer and cookies and milk for Santa.

Ok, we actually put out pink lemonade for Santa. The reason being we were soon leaving town for a week, and I didn't want to buy another jug of milk.

 That night, Santa came!! Since it was a few days early, our Elf decided he'd stay and play until Christmas Day. 

Julia's begged for a TV in her room, but I've been pretty adamant about that not happening. Santa and I came to the agreement that she could have the TV and a DVD player - no cable and no wifi connection.

Audrey got the biggest mannequin Santa could find. (Well, within Santa's "not spending $500 on a mannequin" price range.)

 Santa left all 4 of tickets to see a movie, Frozen, that afternoon.

We ate a lot of popcorn and had a lot of fun. Merry Christmas!

 

How to make little girls cry...

I have an idea, Robertsdale. Let's put out a big Santa mailbox in the middle of a big park. Then, let's come out and take it down a week before Christmas so that kids can search and search in vain for Santa's mailbox and then break down in tears because Santa "will never get our letters."

Great.

I appreciate it.

Thankssomuch;thisdidn'tcauseheartacheformyfamilyatall!

 

Fortunately, this momma remembered that the post office had a special spot inside to mail Santa letters, so we tried there. Thank goodness this was sufficient to the girls. It might not go "directly to Santa like the one in the park", but the post office should be able to get the letters to the North Pole before too long.

Crisis averted.

Later that week, we did head back to the park to play around the Christmas decorations they so graciously left out until after Christmas. 

Yes, they're wearing shorts. Yes, it's December 20th. Yes, I do realize that one of these days we'll live in a place where flip flops and shorts aren't likely to be seen in our Christmas pictures.

 

And, just in case you were wondering... Yes, the post office did manage to deliver their Santa letters in time.

Like many moms, visions of a nice family picture and a sweet Santa picture danced in my head this December.  Matt's not into family pictures, but I thought I'd be sneaky and force him into cooperating by including "Take a family picture" as one of our countdown to Christmas activities. Here's what I wound up with... it will not be framed and hung for all to see year after year.

 

And as for that Santa picture I wanted...

Way to go, Santa. My girls (Julia in particular) finally, FINALLY cooperate when a camera is nearby and what do you do? Screw it up with your Grinchy expression. 

 

Merry Christmas, friends and family. May your pictures be better than mine!

School Christmas Parties!

I love joining the girls in their classrooms for special events. Julia, isn't always so thrilled to see me there, but let's all just agree to tell the child to "get over it!"

I keep telling Julia that one of these days she's going to regret not smiling for my pictures, but so far she isn't buying it. 

 

 Audrey, on the other hand, loves me visiting her classroom and taking her picture.

 I tried one more time to get a nice picture of Julia...

...but as you can see it got me nowhere.

...She scares me sometimes.

Julia's Baptism

September 1, 2013 

This was our second attempt.  Julia accepted Christ as her Savior on February 14th. We originally scheduled her baptism for March 10th since Meme and Pop would be in town for the girls' birthdays, but Julia got a little stage fright. She was good to go this time around.  

1st Day of School

Julia

It's hard to see, but Julia proudly sported an Alabama Tide backpack this school year.

Audrey

 

Surprise! It's Award's Day!

A couple of weeks ago, we received a note from Julia's teacher stating that Julia had earned the "Superintendent's Award" for the year (95+ grade average in all subjects). The teacher's note said that we were encouraged to attend Award's Day to see her honored and that it was a secret so we didn't need to tell Julia.

The secret was kept, but I did nonchalantly ask Julia what Awards Day was and whether we should come. She shrugged and said, "I think it's just for Field Day winners, and I'm the slowest one in my class. I'll never win anything." Even though I reminded her that her Field Day had actually been rained out and cancelled, she still insisted that the field day activities that happened during PE time were the Award's being given out at Award's Day.

This morning, as we were leaving Kids Club (before school Bible Club I help out with), I told sweet Julia that we were planning on coming just in case. She responded with a scowl, and the poor child's shoulders slumped when she saw her Daddy and Audrey walking into the building. She also avoided eye contact with us as her class walked into the auditorium. I truly think she was embarrassed that we were coming to see her not get anything.

Part of me regrets not having told her about the award and leaving her to feel bad for a few minutes this morning, but the other part of me gets teary as I think about how surprised she must have been when her name was called.

Heading to the stage and receiving a big smile from her teacher. 

 A handshake from Baldwin County's superintendent, Dr. Lee.

A medal...

 Eating cake and punch at a reception afterwards

 A forced photo with her awards.

 And a forced photo with Audrey. Why the stinker wouldn't smile a real smile, I don't know.

Congratulations, dear Julia! We're so proud of you!

How's Audrey?

Wednesday, April 24th was both great and not great for Audrey.

The great - Audrey mastered a backflip on these bars. She's super proud of herself now. She's also finally mastered the art of swinging herself high on the swings. 

The not so great part of that day? 

Kindergarten shots.

3 of them!

 In case there was any doubt, please know that this child can scream with the best of 'em!

But the next day, we got to go register her for Kindergarten! Yay! 

Here's Audrey's preschool Graduation picture. Graduation is next Friday night.

And, what photo shoot is complete without Audrey (and friend) posing like fashion models?

Speaking of posing...

 *sigh* 

My baby is growing up!