Christmas in Harlingen

The Friday before Christmas, Jason and I loaded up the girls and all our gear to head back to Harlingen to celebrate an early Christmas with my family.  Jason just stayed the weekend, but the girls and I stayed and flew back on Tuesday afternoon.  We had a great time full of fun and relaxation.  Addie enjoyed helping MiMi in the kitchen and doing lots of Christmas crafts.  We spent time lounging in our jammies.  We had a mommy/daughter afternoon of hunting (post coming soon) and even squeezed in an afternoon of shopping.  We were all completely spoiled with gifts from my parents, and I am just so thankful we found a weekend for us all to be together on our "off year".  

Putting the chocolates on the pretzels kept Ad occupied for a good 20 minutes.

Baby bean helping in the kitchen too

One of our many Christmas crafts.  Addie had a blast with all the activities.

Lila getting in on the hand print action

I adore the final product.  I'm just sad I don't have one of these to put up in my house.

Hayes came over one afternoon to visit

Sweet cousins

Love my momma

Hayes

Lila

My mom got the kiddos matching jammies to wear while we opened gifts.  They were precious!

Hayes (10 months), Lila (5 months) and Addie (2 years old)

Snowman stickers for the back windows.

Roasting marshmallows on the back porch

Lila and Mimi taking a snooze

Addie played the these toilet tube reindeer for hours

One afternoon, we met the family at the Santa Rosa cafe.  It was great to see my grandparents and aunts/uncles that were in town.

Ad and Cale spotted a bear at Bass Pro.

Christmas with the Kittens and Ponies

On December 19th, Addie and Lila had their class Christmas parties at school.  I was off work, but we drove in to attend the parties at lunch before we headed to Harlingen for an early Christmas celebration later that evening.  It was a rainy day, and of course I had a stroller, a 2-year old, an umbrella, a dessert and gifts for the class book exchanges to juggle in from the parking lot, but once we were inside, we had a good time.  Jason had something at work and wasn't able to attend so I ran back and forth between the girl's classrooms.  It wasn't ideal, but neither of the girls seemed to mind.  I'm sure it will be the first of many events of having to split time.  Addie's class had chick-fil-a for lunch, decorated cookies and had a book exchange.  She had a great time.  Lila's class also had a book exchange, and the teachers had done a really cute art project with Lila's footprints that they gave us.  Both of the girls teachers also gave them such sweet Christmas gifts.  It was a great time celebrating Christmas at school.

Love this sweet baby and her huge bow

Showing off the number she drew for the book exchange

She got a Mickey Mouse book about cooking which was right up her alley

My precious baby decked out for Christmas

Ad and Wyatt playing snowman bowling

Our Little Ballerina

This year at school, Addie is taking ballet.  They pull her out of class once a week for class, and she is just loving it.  Most of her little girl friends at school are also taking ballet, and she has been showing us everything she learns at home.  I had not seen her at all since her class is in the middle of the day until their Christmas performance in December.  Jason, Deanna and I all went to watch her show, and it was adorable and comical.....just imagine a class full of 2 year olds doing ballet.  :)  They actually did so much better than I was expecting, and I was so proud of our little ballerina.  They did several different routines to various Christmas songs, and they were sooo cute!  We plan to sign her up again for the Spring semester, and I can wait to see how much they improve at their year-end recital.