Technical difficulties....

Blogger won't let me post any more picture! Grrr..... Hopefully this issue will be resolved soon.

Here are some funny sayings out of the mouths of babes...

Clayton on New Years "When I get older, I am not going to have stairs at my house. I'm going to have a conveyer belt that takes you up to the next floor. But do't worry, it will have bars so you can hold on. "

Also from Clayton recently "Mama, will you be living when I get older? 'Cause you have to be the grandma to MY children. "   Yes dear Clayton, I hope and pray that I get to be grandmother to your children!!

Austin sat with us in the "big church" today, which was a communion Sunday. I explained the cracker representing the body of Christ, and the grape juice representing the blood of Christ.
He looked at the juice and said out loud, "Is it really OK to drink blood?"   SO funny. Guess I need to keep explaining!

Christmas Part 2

After opening presents at our house, we headed over to Kevin's parents for our "Scott Family Christmas. "

The girls and their American Girl Dolls

 Remote control car for Austin - awesome!

 Clayton got his own "mini wet vac"! Perfecto!

Christmas Morning!

Waiting at the top of the stairs until Mama and Daddy give the "OK" to come downstairs...

Merry Christmas!

A scooter!

 Little Legos!

 A "big boy" bike!

 A dump truck!

 "Outlet man", in other words, the perfect gift for Clayton and no one else

 Matching Girl and American Girl Doll dresses!

And Mama got a new sewing machine! SO EXCITED!!

What a grand Christmas for all!

Christmas Eve

Caroline, Clayton, and I sang at the Christmas Eve service at church (along with a few other families.)

 Then we came home for an evening of beef bourguignon and molten chocolate cakes, leaving Santa milk and cookies, and a reading of "The Night Before Christmas."

Cookies and Crafts Party

I had Erica and my Goddaughters, and my sister Meredith and her 2 little ones over for a little cookie and crafts party.  We made little felt tree ornaments and decorated gingerbread men and sugar cookies.
SO fun! It was great to finally be able to have my little California niece and nephew over for the festivities!  (and now that they've moved back home, we get to see them all the time. Woo hoo!)

Baking Cookies and decorating Gingerbread houses

As we always do during December, we baked yummy Christmas cookies. All three LOVE to help (and taste, of course).

Instead of a big gingerbread house, we decorated a little gingerbread village. Austin was determined to decorate his all with M&Ms and NO icky fruity candy.

Preschool Christmas Party 2012

I co-hosted the Christmas party for the 3 year olds at preschool this year, (Austin's class).
It was a lot of fun.
We made 3 crafts - a baby--in-the-manger ornament, a pompom candy cane ornament, and a stand-up reindeer (on clothespins).

 

We did a relay race where each child on each team had to run and stick their snowman nose, eye, or scarf onto their team's snowman, and then run back and tag the next team member in line. This is pretty hysterical to watch with 3 year olds! I wish I had a video of th game, or at least a picture of what their final snowman looked like. Let's just say it did not look like the one I had laid out!

 

We sang "Call Rudolph"

Call Rudolph
Eight little reindeer pulling Santa's sled
One fell down and bumped his head.
The elves called Santa and Santa said,
"Can seven little reindeer pull my sled?"
Seven little reindeer...
Six little reindeer...
Five little reindeer...
Four little reindeer...
Three little reindeer...
Two little reindeer...
One little reindeer pulling Santa's sled;
He fell down and bumped his head.
The elves called Santa and Santa said,
"Call Rudolph!"

We played "Santa Says".

How To Play: Played similar to Simon Says. The parent/teacher is "Santa". The teacher will say "Santa says hop on one foot". The children will hop on one foot. Repeat for additional activities such as take one baby step forward, step backwards, turn around, tickle your tummy, tap your head, sit down. Sometimes Santa will say "Santa says" and sometimes he won't. When you don't say "Santa says" first, they're not supposed to do the action.  It'­s a fun game to play with young children.

We read Christmas books.



 

We also decorated and then ate gingerbread house shaped cookies.

 

 

 For a healthier snack, we also had kiwi trees with cheese stars and pretzel trunks.