Merry Christmas to all and to all a goodnight!

Christmas Eve 2010

Ella being our little "Who Girl" and our handsome Brody

Christmas Jammies!

Dicken's of a Christmas

The City of McKinney, Texas holds an old-fashioned Charles Dickens Christmas celebration the weekend after Thanksgiving. We had never been to downtown McKinney and it was really fun to walk the streets and see all the festive lights and activities. Grandma Burton got sick and wasn't able to go, but Grandpa Burton, Uncle Kevin and Uncle David all came out to explore with us.

Brody & Ella in front of the live reindeer

Writing letters to Santa...Ella is asking for dollhouse stuff and Brody is asking for Mavis the Train and cars.

Dropping the notes into the mailbox to the North Pole

Family Photo in the Christmas Sleigh

This is Ella after she won a sucker in the Candy Walk. Her number was called and she had to answer a question to win the prize...her question was "Who is the big guy in the red suit" She was SO excited to answer "Santa Claus" into the microphone. Her face was priceless!

Brody doing the candy walk...he had to do it awhile before his number was called. His question was who is the reindeer with the nose that help lead Santa's sleigh. He was also so excited that he knew "Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer"

Ella was being stubborn and wouldn't wear a jacket...it was probably somewhere in the mid 40's outside.

We saw a Live Nativity performance put on by a couple of churches - ironically the Jewish congregation was one of them. The play lasted A LOT longer than I expected, but it was pretty good. I learned a few new things (did you know that Mary had a midwife in the manger?? -- Im being sarcastic here) Overall, the kids got the jist of the story, but in the meantime we had promised them a bounce in the bounce house but because of how long the play was, we walked up to the bounce house as it was half way deflated. This caused the biggest public melt down from Brody...I mean big! He holds grudges. Instead we had them ride on the carousel. Even though he was all smiles while riding, all he could talk about when it was over was how he didn't get to go in the bounce house.

By the time we got through with the carousel we were all hungry and cold. We went to dinner with the Burton boys and made sure to get some to go for Grandma at home. It was a fun evening to spend while Uncle Kevin and David were home from school.

Santa is already in town

at Bass Pro Shop, one of Great Grandpa's favorite places to visit while in Texas.

ICE!

After the festivities of the weekend, the family that was still in town spent the afternoon at the Gaylord Texan Resort and we went to ICE! We went last year when it was the Grinch and we loved it. This year it was "Merry Christmas Charlie Brown!" and it was awesome!

Brody, Ella and McKenzie in the hotel atrium before going into Ice
The kids and I with the Texan Santa

She is SO cute these days! The jacket fits her better this year than last year

Dad (either being goofy or slipping on the ice??)

Snoopy's dog house

Ella kept touching the ice, over and over again. Her hands were stained with whatever they used to painted the ice (hopefully non toxic :) )

The ICE slides! Both kids LOVED the slides and went over and over again. The exhibit just opened and we went during a regular work day - it was awesome, there was no one there!

Dad in lane 1, Leigh in lane 2, and Kenney in lane 3 (he is harder to see)...pretty sure Dad won that race. I did slide, however I had technical difficulties and every time I got to the bottom of the slide (below that red carpet is just concrete) I'd stop quickly on my rear. I thought I better stop before I broke my bum. Last year the slides were a little more "broke in" and the ice extended on the red carpet to help slow you down.

The Whole Peanuts Gang. I think we'd fit in, right? (We are missing many of the Gang, including Brandon who flew to South Carolina that morning to work)

Ella, touching more of the ice

Our little puppies

Notice Ella's pouty face? She broke into tears right after the picture because before the picture I had scolded her for licking the ice. Yep, that's my girl. Next year could be "A Christmas Story" and Ella could play the part of the kid whose tongue freezes to the pole.

Brody trying to smile while urging me to just leave the exhibit. It was COLD! They keep the room at 9 degrees. We weren't prepared with gloves this year either...so the kids were anxious to get going!

Our group picture before going into the exhibit

The picture came in handy because after getting out of the exhibit and walking all the way to the car (a good half mile away) I realized I didn't have the coat I had borrowed from my mom anymore...I took off the parka they lend you and took my coat off with it. I ran back in from the car, through the hotel and then to the back of the convention center to see if I could find my coat. The people asked, what color parka were you wearing? I was like, um, blue?? But all the coats are color coded on the sleeve so they found our group picture and saw I had a black sleeve and then went through all the black parkas until they found my coat, yeah! I then ran back out of the convention center and hotel. By the time I made it to the car I was sweating and didn't need a coat...but I was glad I hadn't lost my mom's coat.

The BIG day for Dad

This past May after 32 years of being inactive in the Church, my Dad and Mom made the committment that they were together going to become active and involved. This has been prayed for by MANY for a long time! The Frisco 3rd ward has welcomed them and supported them as they came to Church. Sunday was not only my Dad's 49th birthday, but because of his efforts he was able to receive the Melchezidic Priesthood. So many of our family were able to be here to support him and celebrate with us. All of the family here attended church in my mom and dad's ward and were able to meet the people who've been so great to them. We are grateful to them for all the love and fellowship that they extended to our family that allowed these blessing to come.

All the men who took part in the ordination: Bishop Dancey, Stake President (I forgot his name) Kenney Hrabik, Larry Gregson, Logan Gregson, Lew Mullin, DAD, Keith Mann, Brandon Burton, Bryan Stroud, Brother Hall, Home Teacher (I forgot his name), President Tolbert
Grandma and Grandpa Mullin, Dad & Mom, Grandpa Mann. We took the sudden sunshine as a sign that the Lord was pleased! :)

The family that was able to come
Uncle Kenney, Aunt Leigh, Cousin McKenzie, Grandpa Mullin, Grandma Mullin, Dad, Mom, Grandpa Mann, Me, Ella, Brody, Brandon, Stephanie, Uncle Larry, Cousin Logan

Petting Zoo

We've got lots of family in town for the weekend and while hanging out on Saturday afternoon we found a petting zoo in my mom's neighborhood for their "Fall Fest" The kids had a ball chasing these animals.

This poor rabbit was caught by Ella, who had to pick her up and walk around with her.

Grandpa Layne helped situate the rabbit so that it wasn't being crushed. (He then took it from Ella and cuddled it like he'd like to have one of his own rabbits!)

My Grandpa Keith Mann with my mom came in from Logan to celebrate the weekend with us

Grandpa Layne and Brody with the minitaure horse

Halloween Night

Our little trick or treaters were allowed to visit our two neighbors before we headed to Grandma and Grandpa Burtons to spend the rest of our Halloween evening.

They waited very patiently at the door...I think Brody only rang the bell once and knocked twice

At Grandma's we had dinner and then carved our pumpkins. We realize this is backwards, but we couldn't fit it in before then. We figured it was something fun to do while handing out candy to the trick or treaters. Brody drew his face on paper and then we copied (as exact as we could) to the pumpkin. I was sucessful at making all seven teeny tiny pumpkin teeth.

Brody was NOT intersted in taking out the gooey stuff.

Ella on the other hand, dug right in.

And that officially concluded the Halloween Festivities...although I have already figured out what Brandon and I will be next year.

Friday Night Trunk or Treating

We had a tri-ward trunk or treat on Friday night. Knowing that we'd all fill up on candy we had a quick dinner of hot dog mummy's. The heads kind of look like turbans...but they tasted good.

We headed out to the church just before dark to stake out our spot. The kids were excited to see all their friends in costumes. Toy Story was a poular theme this year...

Landen M. and Brody being Buzz. Brandon laughed as he took this picture. He told me to make the wings smaller, but I refused saying that they'd be fine (I made them after Brody went to bed one night). They were super cute, and after all the festivities I think Brody learned to control them a little better too. He told me at the end of the night. "thanks for making my costume so good mom, everyone really liked it." For a 4 1/2 year old, I think that is pretty darn thoughtful.

Brody and Ella being super cute, again. They were stopped several times for people to take their pictures.

Baby Logan sporting the monkey costume I made for Brody in 2006. We LOVE baby Logan and Ella has named all her dolls (even the girl ones) after him.

Ella with one of her best friends, Taelee (aka Minnie Mouse). These girls are a riot together. They love to play and walk around everywhere holding hands.

Another Toy Story family...Ella loved seeing "big girl Jessie" and Brody was exctied that there was a Woody (his pal Davin) to be his side kick

The kids trunk or treated til their buckets were full! I think I started with 420 pieces of candy and I ran out after maybe 30 mins. There were LOTS of kids! It was a fun night for all of us.

Preschool Halloween Party

My kids had such a fun time at the preschoolers Halloween party. They all dressed up and posed for a group picture...we had to do it right away, Brody's wingspan isn't exactly "indoor friendly"

Ashlyn, Brody, Ella, Spencer, McKayl, Alli and Henry
Mrs Kathy made orange pumpkin face pancakes with green syrup for the stem and vine...it was a huge hit!
(Can you see the face on Ella's pancake? You drizzle the eyes and mouth on the griddle first, then let it cook for a little bit before you add more batter to make a pancake. When you flip it the result is that the face (having been cooked longer) is darker then the rest of the pancake. It is a really cute idea)
We played "put the nose on the pumpkin" All the adults laughed watching these little ones be disoriented with the blind fold on.

It was a fun afternoon playing with all our favortie preschool friends!

The kids all learned a song to sing for us too!