Making Christmas Cookies and a 'Tricky Elf

pouring the eggs in....always get me a little anxious!

So I thought that I should quick post these photos tonight as there will plenty more in the days to come with several more Christmas celebrations on the horizon.  These are all from my iphone captured by myself and Eric.  Wednesday evening we had John and Sue come over for pizza. John is one of my best running buddies. He and Sue came over earlier this fall to help Eric get our bikes hung from the ceiling of the garage, a fabulous space saver if you have bikes lying around.  Maddox was enamored with John and Sue and wanted them to come over for pizza and kept repeatedly mentioning it the last month or so.  John hauls gasoline for Casey's so he brought Casey's pizza.....our favorite. It happened to be John's birthday last Saturday so we took advantage of celebrating his YOUNG age and got a cake.  You can see Maddox positioned herself right close to the birthday boy to get a clean shot at blowing out the candles. Luckily John has a lot of grand kids and didn't mind sharing his cake/candles with Maddox.  Sue even shared her frosting with Maddox.....something Maddox will never forget. Happy birthday John and thanks for bringing the pizza.  Thursday the blizzard hit. I managed to get a few patients in and then Maddox and I took advantage of the weather and put together some sugar cookie dough.  We baked them Saturday morning and then frosted them this afternoon.  I found a great new icing recipe but Maddox really could have cared less about the icing. She was WAY into the sprinkles. You can see the results of her heavy hand on the cookies. She and I have made this a tradition and we will be happy to have Kennon join us next year.   These cookies actually taste good this year!! Last year not so much.....we are getting better with practice Maddox.  So Blake, the Elf, has just about done his duty for 2012. He has been through an identity crisis, made a snow angel in the sugar bowl and teepeed the Christmas tree which is just about enough for 2012.  Maddox called him 'tricky' which she woke up this morning and saw that he had made a snow angel in the sugar. CUTE  We are excited to see what the 2013 Christmas season will bring. Maddox is really into Blake  (or Chippie as she sometimes calls him....hence the identity crisis). She hurries down each morning to see where his new location is.  I can't say it has totally fixed her behavior but it has definitely heightened her Christmas spirit and belief in Santa which is really the most exciting aspect of the Elf.  Next year Kennon will get in on the action a bit more.  Maddox and Kennon took advantage of the warm weather yesterday and got out to play in the snow. They had a good time, although Maddox definitely more than Kennon.  Kennon had a hard time negotiating the huge drifts and getting his snow boots to stay on. He was wearing a pair of Maddox's hand-me-downs which apparently did not fit him very well. He would get caught up in the snow and let out this shriek like 'why are we out here in the cold and could someone please come take me inside....really people'. It was almost like he was mad at the snow. Maddox on the other hand fared well in the snow and loved sliding down swing set slide which is super fast with the combo of snow pants and snow.  They both seemed to be very interested in the shovel as well....hoping this will come in handy in the future.  Merry Christmas everyone and special wishes of good health to Grammy and Great Grandma Reta. We are thinking of you and love you both lots!! 

Sue, Maddox and John  Severs 

'I'll help you John'

Blake making a snow angel in the sugar.

Blake tee peed the Christmas tree 

Disney on Ice and Christmas in Washington and Kcare and OSLP Christmas Programs.....phew!!!

So I have tons of pictures as it has been a couple of weeks since I last posted. Eric and I took the kids to Disney on Ice on Friday evening.  We met our friends the Wentlands and everyone had a fabulous time!!  I absolutely loved it myself so I can imagine how much Maddox loved it.  And KTK did as well.  He stood on his seat dancing and clapping along with the characters. We had great seats ( thank you Megan!!!) and could almost reach out and touch the characters.  Maddox, of course,  loved Cinderella and all the characters from the Lion King. But, really seemed to latch onto Pinocchio and Gepeto getting swallowed up by the whale....remember that tale....it is an old one.  Yesterday we went to Washington to celebrate an early Christmas with Grandpa Jim, Grandma Jean and Great Grandma Reta.  We wish a big 'GOOD LUCK and WE ARE THINKING OF YOU and SENDING PRAYERS YOUR WAY' to Great Grandma Reta as she travels to the Mayo Clinic tomorrow to possibly have her leaky heart valve replaced.  It was so nice to spend time together as a family.  The kids were showered with gifts as you can see from the photos. I did manage to get a couple of really good shots of the kiddos together.  Kennon's favorite gift was the Caterpillar bulldozer from Grandpa Jim and Maddox's favorite the Disney Reader from Grandma Jean.  But there were many other highlights as well...too many to mention!! Thank you so much for the fabulous day and wonderful gifts. We are very blessed.  KTK's vocabulary has tripled in the last week. He is even saying little phrases now with 2 or 3 words. He knows all his animal sounds even QUACK and OINK which are kind of hard to say.  We are working on him saying MADDOX and really if you say 'Kennon can you say doggie' he will generally repeat anything and everything you ask him with pretty good pronunciation.  It is nice to be able to communicate with him. He is even getting extremely efficient at NO and YES complete with the head nods.  So in the last week Maddox has had 2 Christmas programs, one at Kindercare and the other today at Our Savior Lutheran Preschool. I have a ton of pictures. At both events I was REALLY far from Maddox so the pictures leave a little to be desired. She didn't fair all that well at Kindercare sitting cold in her chair with no expression not even mouthing the words, despite signing the songs day in and day out at home.... a little stage fright? She did finally join in at the last song 'The Reindeer Hokey Pokey'.  I was very proud of her. But, then at Our Savior she blasted out every word to every song and did every action!! I was SOOOO proud of her and just sat gleaming in the pew while I tried to keep KTK from bonking his head and falling off :)  As I've mentioned before she gets way more attention at Our Savior as the class is much smaller and she is the oldest kid in the class. It is definitely evident that she enjoys Our Savior more. Unfortunately they don't have an all day program so I can't take her there on the days that I work. After the Christmas program in the sanctuary they had a 'Happy Birthday Jesus' celebration complete with Happy Birthday plates, napkins, table cloths and BROWNIES!! Maddox's favorite of course.  I got to meet some of her classmates and their moms and dads all the while trying to keep KTK contained :)  Gotta have a lot of hands for that nowadays.  But, we had a great time and I was happy to get to join in the celebration and so proud of her participation. Maddox is on the left in a pink shirt at Kindercare and sort of in the center right in a red shirt at the Church program. Good luck finding her and enjoy the videos. 

This is Kennon and Maddox's favorite spot to sit now during dinner making time.  KTK can even climb up on the chair all by himself now. Helping himself to some brocolli here.

Maddox doing the Reindeer Hokey Pokey

Maddox in her 'going to see Santa dress'....which we all know did not really work out. Next year Maddox that's ok!!

Christmas program at Our Savior Lutheran Preschool 

Maddox enjoying her brownie at the Happy Birthday Jesus celebration.

The Genie, Aladdin, and his best friend a monkey named Abu

Genies from Aladdin

Cinderella and her prince

Mickey Mouse ridding down into 'It's a Small World'

Jiminey Cricket

Kennon and Dad watching the ice

Simba taking a nap right in front of us

Timon and Pumbaa

I certainly don't have to tell you who that is now do i?? :)

The Grand Finale

'oh....do you see all those presents??'

Brotherly sisterly love.....such a cute shot.

Maddox getting a little help from Dad

KTK pushing his dozer from Grandpa Jim

'Look at all my Silly Bandzzzzzz' from Grandma Jean. 

Second cousin Alex and KTK

Grandma Jean and KTK

I love this shot....Grandpa Jim, KTK and Dad.

Showing off my new bumble bee boots!! 

Kennon played in the bay window running the John Deere tractors up and down all afternoon.

'ROAR'.....so funny!!