Making a Fireplace

Brody has already expressed some concern this year that our house doesn't have a "firebox" for Santa to come. We explained to him that we do have a Santa Key that we put on our doorstep for Santa to use on Christmas Eve. He felt a bit better about that, but just to be sure...today we made ourselves a fireplace. Brody got to practice his cutting skills and Ella was my tape girl. She wasn't too hot on pictures tonight. I tried several times and when she heard the camera turn on she ran and said "No" I asked her why she didn't want her picture taken, but she didn't respond. The girl has got some sass in her today

Decorating the Tree

Sunday night for family night we decorated the tree. Brody had a hard time waiting and started with out us, but he was too cute to stop. We have a tradition every year that the kids get an ornament. We decided that we'd give them their ornaments (from mom and dad) they day we decorated the tree so we'd be able to enjoy them. This year they got their ornaments from ICE. Brody's was the nice Grinch and Ella's is Cindy Lou Who. Brody and Ella are quite the pair! Trying to get anything on the tree was hard --- but getting it to stay on the tree in the same place is going to be a bigger challenge. These two want to be such big helpers they keep moving where everything is. Our tree might be a bit bottom heavy with ornaments this year, but we made sure the really fragile ones went up high.

Ella showing off one of her "Baby's First Christmas" ornaments from last year...while sporting Brody's Christmas jammies from 2007. Snowman are gender neutral right?? Just ignore that they are too small for her...Working together to try and hang some higherThe finished product!

(And just so everyone knows...Ella has Chrismas jammies that are girlie and that fit her, but they were dirty and she wanted to wear some, so we improvized!)

Decking the Halls & Company Christmas Party

I started my "one Christmas thing a day" calendar the day after Thanksgiving. This has proved to be so much fun already - but it will be the LONGEST December for Brody. We have been woken up each morning since "black Friday" to...Mom, Dad...hurry get up its Christmas!!! I feel like a mean mom when every morning I have to disappoint him and tell him, no, not yet. He has to learn to enjoy the journey though...so on Friday we had tickets to ICE, and on Saturday we decorated the house.

The kids ran around crazy for the most part while we tried to work around them. We had the music on and they were dancing around the house. They are loving there magnet nativity set that decorates our fridge.

While Ella napped that afternoon the boys put the Christmas lights up outside. I went out at one point but was quickly told by Brody that I needed to go away because he was helping Dad. The house feels festive and we are all getting more and more excited for all that this time of year brings!

That night we had a babysitter and we went to Brandon's company Christmas Party at the Cheesecake Factory. It was nice to get dressed up and go out just the two of us - and the Peppermint Cheesecake topped the night off. So yummy!!

ICE!

To celebrate my mom's birthday we decided to go and see ICE! with the Grinch Who Stole Christmas. It is an ice sculpture display at the Gaylord Texan Resort. It was made by Chinese artisians who use over one million pounds of ice to create beautiful displays taken from the Dr. Seuss book The Grinch Who Stole Christmas. It was amazing to see what they had done with ice, and we sat guessing at how they could make it work. Before we went I had Brody watch the Grinch movie so he would get a refresher of the story. At first he was very upset that Christmas was ruined, but he was glad the Grinch's heart grew and he brought Christmas back to Whoville. Such a cute cute story for kids (it was my favorite Christmas cartoon growing up)

We waited in a line and when we got close we got on the jackets and hats and mittens we had brought. The room is kept at a frigid 9 degrees. We turned another corner of the line and we were issued additional parkas to wear over our coats to keep us warm and to use when going down the slides. Seeing Ella in this huge parka, over a coat was hilarious. We couldn't find her arms for awhile and she walked like a penguin and even took a couple of face plants. Once we were finally dressed appropriately we went inside and the kids loved looking at the displays and especially going down the slides. It was breath taking what they could do with ice.

Our little ones before the parkas made them twice as bulky

Cuddling to keep warm

I Can't Put My Arms Down...(can you name that Christmas movie??)

Our group...minus Aunt Stephie (our photographer) who was able to come with us while she was home for Thanksgiving

The Grinch Who Stole Christmas!

Our family with the Grinch

The birthday girl with Ella

We found her arms!

Brody on the slide

Ella on the slide

Daddy on the slide

Christmas came with out packages or bows and the Who's still sang their Christmas carols...

Two very excited little Who's who are loving all the lights, decorations and celebrating! The joy that these two little people have while experiencing all the holiday fun is the best Christmas gift ever!

An attempt at a Christmas card photo...I don't think it will be used...but my camera died right afterwards so we couldn't try for a better shot. They were brave enough to shed their coats for the picture though!

Dollar Day at the Dallas Zoo

You can't beat admission to the zoo for just a buck! We told all our friends, loaded up the van and spent the day at the Dallas Zoo. It was fun to walk around and see the animals and enjoy being outside. The kids loved it...they even insisted on walking out of the stroller...making me one very tired mom by the time it was over!

Before we left the house. Ella liked hers for a minute and then lost interest. Brody insisted on wearing his all day. We've got our map and we're ready to go!

Climbing on the statues

The boys...beating the tree with sticks while we had lunch.

Watching the elephant eat her lunch. Ella even remembered and told her Dad when we got home that the elephant ate apples and carrots

Good friends - Brody was trying to keep Ben from running off so he told him he had to hold his hand. So bossy...yet so cute!

My Handsome Cowboy

Ella playing in the dirt and loving every bit of it

Just to prove I was there we took one family shot before walking out to the car

Dollar Day at Zoo = Dollar Ice Cream Bars...Yum!

Happy Birthday Grandpa!

We had a "fake" birthday party on my Dad's real birthday to celebrate and when Stephanie gets home we will do it again (this is our family's way of dragging out birthdays as much as we can :)

So to celebrate...we met up at Taco Bell for lunch and had brownies complete with a Scooby Doo candle that the A/C kept blowing out...

Then we went to the Sci-Tech Discovery Center in Frisco. It just opened in October with its first exhibit "Grossology - the impolite science of the human body" It was every bit as gross as the name implies...and the kids loved it!
Here is a piece of food (a.k.a. Ella) sliding down the esophogus

Here is a piece of food (a.k.a. Brody) sliding down the esophogus

Here is our food being digested in the stomach (Brody is just about to enter the intestines)

And lastly...he emerges as poop.

Brody and daddy spent some time trying to shoot boogers back up this big nose

And then he was able to make snot of his own (he looks thrilled doesn't he)

Ironically, this is the only picture I have with the birthday boy...or whats left of him :)

There was an arts and crafts station where they built a helicopter and a paper airplane. Ella is getting so grown up! She loved throwing it in the air and trying to make them fly.

We watched as they disected a cow's eyeball. It was pretty cool and gross. Afterwards they let everyone touch it and some of the other parts. Above Ella and Brandon are touching a cow heart.

Touching the inside of the cows eye. The lining inside the cows eye looked a lot like those alabaster shells. It was all shiny and multi-colored. Very pretty. I guess that is unique to cows.

Petting the sheep brain.

Brody touching the cow heart...I don't forsee him being a pathologist when he grows up. I won't eliminate a doctor yet - but definitely not a pathologist.

Brody being coaxed into touching the sheep brain.

We finished off the afternoon with a game of "Gaseous Pinball" The kids liked that too. It was a fun museum. We'll definitely go back when the exhibit changes in the Spring.

Even though we didn't get many photos with Grandpa we still loved being able to spend part of your birthday with you! Happy Birthday!!

Im hooked...

I've even been called by some a "hoarder" but whatever...if your hungry I've got food. It started out as a freezer meal swap with some friends. The ease of defrosting and cooking and cleaning up a freezer meal quickly became addictive. So I decided to make 30. I did it in 3 days for less than $130. Our freezer is full! Between the meals and other items in there we are currently putting heavy car kits on the lid of our chest freezer to keep it sealed tight.

I have been couponing for over a year - the economy sucked and the easiest way to save money (for us) was on food. I had a goal to save 50% off my bill on a regular basis. I didn't always do it, I probably averaged around 40% (it shows me on my receipt). Until today. Today I purchased all the food shown above (30 items) for $15. The retail value was $67. I saved 76%! Yeah! Do I need 6 cans of evaporated milk or 6 bags of chex mix? Maybe not today - but sometime. And I will have gotten them for nearly free. Its my way of doing food storage I guess. So some can laugh, but in an emergency you can hike your way to my house and I will share my food...if you say I was right.