Angel's We Have Heard On HIgh!

Emily's Christmas Program at her preschool was on Monday, and our little angel played... you guessed it, an angel. Last year, Emily was Mary and she did not have to memorize any lines because the preschool teacher narrated the whole story. I did not know if this year was any different, and when I asked Emily about it she told me she did have to sing to baby Jesus. "Because that was the angel's job." When I asked her to show me how she was going to sing she let out the most beautiful, melodious, (not quite)...... ear piercing (sounded like a cat possibly dying) sound. I was horrified. Could her teacher's really have her do that on stage in front of everyone? I took a big gulp, and asked her if she was sure that is what the angel should sound like and she assured me (quite loudly, with a repeat performance) that is what the angel was supposed to do. (Poor Baby Jesus!) Later on that day (before the program) I mentioned to Dave what Emily had said and sounded like. He laughed, and said that it was his fault. What! He had been joking around with Emily and she had taken him seriously! Now I was starting to get nervous, Emily's poor teacher was probably going to have a heart attack if Emily belted that tune out! Thankfully, the teacher narrated the whole play again, and Emily just had to stand there and look pretty! Of course I am not sure if the teacher decided to forgo the angel singing after a practice or not! It was a great program though! Good Job Emmy!

Emily's Preschool Class

Emily singing Jingle Bells

The Sniffles

We went to Christmas Village last Friday night. It was so cold, but we had gone last year and Ethan had absolutely loved the train display so we wanted to take the kids again this year. Did I mention it was cold? I was so worried that the kids would catch a cold (especially Ben) But I bundled them all up. Poor Ben had 2 snowsuits on and about 4 blankets. To my delight the kids didn't seem to get sick.

So of course I was thinking about my good fortune yesterday, and then, they all woke up with sniffles this morning. I can't blame it on Friday b/c that was about 5 days ago, but nonetheless here we all sit or mope with our runny noses. Poor Ben couldn't decide what was more important this morning,eating or breathing. He finally figured out how to do both at the same time. Thankfully he is a good baby and has not been to fussy. Well, I've got to go and start lysoling and wiping down the house for germs. ;)

Christmas Village

Snowball Fight!!

Non-Crappy Starring You! eCards on JibJab

Decorating the Christmas Tree

We finally decorated our Christms Tree last night. I had put up the tree the night before last, but I was to exhausted from our photo session to feel up to decorating it that night. We listened to Christmas music as we put up the ornaments. A few broken ornaments later we were done. Ethan learned that just because an ornament looks like a ball it is not good to bounce it, and we got a little extra vacuuming in. Otherwise we had a great time. The kids were so excited and it was fun just watching them decide where to hang what. The girls and I made quite a bit of ornamnents out of flour and salt this past weekend so we had PLENTY of ornaments this year.

Alicia took this picture of Ethan, Emily and I

My Little Christmas Helpers

Ben slept through the whole thing (not an easy feat!)

Baby Pictures....

I love taking pictures of my babies. I didn't have a digital camera (or even a good one) until last year so I have SO many more pictures of Ben than any of the other kids. Here are some that I took this morning. He just looked sooooo cute. Question though.. Why is it that a baby can look so cute with teddy bear ears on their hats? Can you imagine a grown man waking around with the same hat?

Christmas Pictures

We took the kids to get their annual Christmas picture done last night. Now I have to be honest here.... I do NOT have perfect children. (Surprised?) And the last, hmmm...I don't know, 5 attempts throughout the years have been nothing short of a disaster. I dread these photo sessions, but as any mom out there can probably testify I feel a need to sit all my children down at the same time so that I can always have a visual memory of how they looked (perferably calm and happy) at Christmas every year. (The pictures also make great gifts for all the grandparents!)

So to say that I was dreading going to the portrait studio would be a bit of an understatement. And then, it started to snow. I could have called to cancel, but no, I was on a mission. The roads were passible and I had my mind made up. I got the clothes all ready for the kids to change into as soon as Alicia came home from school I would get them ready. Alicia came home and I noticed that it looked like she had drank a pitcher of cherry kool aid. But, no, it was not kool aid, it was chapped lips. (poor kid) Ok, I thought, maybe it won't show in the pictures. Then Emily could not find one of her black shoes. We searched everywhere. Could not find the dumb shoe. I was starting to get a little stressed. I decided she could where her pink shoes (which DID NOT match) She would just have to sit on her feet or have a sibling cover them. Then... Ethan fell head first into a container of toy trains. Take a deep breath, Ami...l At least the baby seemed content. Until, he spit up all over himself and his new outfit. Thankfully, he was wearing white, so it did not show to much! So we all trugged through the snow to the van. Safely got in and out without a mishap. ( just a few disagreements between siblings), and we were there.

Now this is the point where things could have fallen apart. But God must have been listening when I asked Him to get me through this without melting down. It went wonderfully I am SO happy to say. Everyone smiled. There were no tears (for the first time in five years) I could have done a happy dance right there in the middle of the mall! Here are a few of the pictures. --The only bad thing is I wanted to buy so much more of the pictures this year!