A "Flu-ish" Christmas...

Well, we had a wonderful Christmas this year here in Longview. It was so great to have my mom, sister and niece with us! However, we were all a little under the weather. For weeks Eriik, Ava and I have had a bad cough off and on, and my mom had the same thing. We were just glad that Alec haden't gotten any of it....well...it all hit him on Christmas Eve before bed. He was running a high fever and had chills. At least all the gifts the next morning distracted him from feeling bad for a little bit. Anyway...he battled fever for around 3 days, and this morning I took him in because he was up all night and he has a double ear infection. Soo...hopefully he will be well before we head out to Colorado to see Eriiks fam.

Dispite all the sicknesses, we really did have a great Christmas and enjoyed each others company. Here are some pics!

The Sunday before Christmas.

Our snowman lost his hat this year.

Making ornaments with MeMa



Making Christmas cookies

Look at poor Alec all wrapped up in a blanket with chills and a fever! He's holding cookies for Santa...although Santa may have bypassed the "germy cookies" this year! He still left only crumbs to be polite :)

This pic was taken just yesterday when Carson came over for a visit. Don't they look so angelic :)

A Christmas Carol for you!!

Well, Alec and Ava wanted to sing for Me Ma who is with us from MO and I had to get it on video. So...here is a Christmas carol for you...we did the same thing last year...so I guess that makes it a tradition! Alec had to have the toy microphone to sing, and Ava ended up using the cord as her microphone...too funny. Anyway...hope you all have a very Merry Christmas!

Christmas parties and programs...

Well, we have been staying nice and busy this Christmas season with lots of fun stuff. Shortly after my last post we had our small group Christmas Party at our house. We had a ton of fun with the White Elephant gift exchange. Alec and Ava also had the Giving Tree Christmas program at their preschool. They get to bring a gift to give to underprivileged kids and place it under the Christmas tree in front of the church. Then they sing a couple songs...actually Ava's class of two year olds mostly just stood there while the music leader sang...it was cute though. Alec's class sang some fun songs and one of the songs cracked him up the whole time he sang it. It was "I'm Gettin Nuttin for Christmas" ...too cute. Then, this past Sunday night Alec sang with the other preschoolers at our church. I was asked to lead them this year, and let me just say it was a little stressful at times....it was like herding cats to get them on and off stage! The kids were adorable minus a little scuffle between two brothers while singing "Silent Night" which caused Alec to fall off the risers! He was fine and got right back up....the whole thing was pretty hilarious!

During the White Elephant exchange.

Mer, Amy, Christy and Sabrina at our small group party...what's up with all the scarfs!!!
I didn't get the memo I guess :)

Ava carrying a doll to give at her preschool program


Alec and his class right after singing at his preschool program

Oh Christmas Tree...Oh Christmas Tree...

Well...we chose to do our annual Christmas tree cutting on a good day. It actually snowed the entire time we were looking for and cutting down our Christmas tree! It snowed right here is east Texas...how fun is that? OK... I say it snowed....it was more of a flurry...but that's still news worthy around here! The kids were really excited and didn't seem to mind too much that is was really cold. It took us a long time to find just the right tree (I can be pretty picky), but it was a lot of fun!

This isn't our tree...just a pic when we first got there.

Sooo excited!

On the hayride out to the trees.



We were trying to get a pic of the snow flakes all over us...didn't work out so well :)

Can you see the snow falling? It was much more impressive in person!

They loved good ole "Smokey"

The finished product! The kids had fun helping.

Thanksgiving at Me Ma's!

We spent a week at my moms house in MO for Thanksgiving. It was a great visit that went by way too fast. Eriik and I also celebrated our 6th wedding anniversary in St. Louis while mom and my sibs watched the kids. I think it was our best anniversary yet! We got to see the broadway musical "In the Heights" at the Fox theater (which is a beautiful, elaborate old theater in St. Louis). We then had dinner at Charlie Gitto's on "The Hill", an Italian community. We also stayed over night in St. Louis...it was so great to have a little time away.


We were very busy the entire visit with my fam. We went to a bounce house place called Monkey Joe's, did a lot of shopping, and eating. But the kids favorite thing was to go to "The Magic House" a place that I went to as a child...but it had really expanded since my childhood. Eriik and I were talking on the way home about what our favorite part of the trip was (besides our anniversary) and we really enjoyed the night we spent just playing Skippbo and talking with the whole fam. Simple family fun.

It was so great to see little Laura...what is she doing to Ava in this pic?!
She was so fun to watch...she loved chasing her cousin Alec all around the house.
Sweet girls!

Tiff reading to her little cousins...Alec is wearing the super hero costume his Aunt Kelly got for him!

I remember getting my picture taken at this "Magic House" static exhibit as a child...Ava's hair wins the prize!!!! Love it! My hair barely budged!

They had this "bean stalk" running up and down three floors!

Curious George was a big hit!

Thanksgiving dinner

Me Ma with most of her grandkids (missing Rex and Titus). It was great to have my niece Tiffany with us who was on break from College.

Third Time's a Charm!

Two years in a row Ava was a "Flower Fairy" for Halloween, and she could have been again this year! I ordered this costume when Ava was 5 months old and the size said 6 to 18 months....but my intention was for her to wear it only once! Because it still fit her I was just planning on putting her in the same costume again this year, but Meredith let us borrow an adorable lamb costume of Mary's. I still couldn't resist dressing up Ava again to do a three year comparison. So fun! This year it finally really fits her...I bet it might even fit next year...I sure know how to get my moneys worth out of a costume!! :)

Ava at 5 months old! You can't tell in this pic, but she was pretty chubby.

Ava at 17 months...it was still too big for her. Always running!!!

Ava at 2 years and 5 months. It finally fits!! So sweet!

Farm Fair...Trick or Treat

Our church had their annual "Farm Fair" this past Saturday. It was from 4-6 instead of 6- 8 because of church being the next day, and they needed time to clean up. I liked that it was still light out so the kids could play games outside and enjoy the beautful weather. I also liked that afterwards we could go home eat some pizza and still have time for the kids to go around to a few of our neighborhood friends to trick or treat. I went with them to the Dobbs house next door and then went back to hand out candy, while Eriik took them around the neighborhood. It was a fun night. Alec decided a long time ago that he wanted to be either Spiderman or Batman...it didn't matter which one. Ava got to be an adorable little lamb which was a hand-me-down costume from Mary.

Rachel went as Willma Flinstone...so cute!

A splash of fall...

Have I mentioned that fall is my favorite season! I LOVE all the color...and normally we have to wait longer for it around here, but not this year. I don't know if it is all the rain and clouds that we have had over the past month or what, but I'm loving that the trees are turning before Halloween this year. Anyway, I snaped these pics last Saturday when we got home from Alec's soccer game. I just love the Oak trees in our front yard.

Friendly, Cute Halloween....

Well, every year we have been saying we were going to carve pumpkins, and we always end up putting it off and not doing it. So...we were determined...well, Alec was determined that we were going to carve one this year. So, finally a week and a half ago we did! It was a lot of fun, and Alec loved playing in the pumpkin gut goo. Ava was a little more dainty about it...picking out the seeds one at a time. I ended up toasting the pumpkin seeds with seasoning salt, and they were really yummy! Eriik was the actual pumpkin carver...Alec and I picked out a pattern on the internet...although, Alec wanted the scariest looking thing he could find, I like to keep Halloween as sweet and friendly as possible....not always easy. I had just told him the other day "We do cute, sweet, Halloween in this house...not yucky, scary Halloween!" Well...the next day he came home from preschool with a book he had picked out from the library called "Scary, Scary, Halloween". I had to give a little chuckle...that was his way of rebelling I guess. Boys are just fasinated with scary things I think. But no matter what I'm still keeping my front porch sweet!

Look at Ava's face...it says..."ooh gross"..such a little priss!