Christmas

We had a great "first" Christmas!  Christmas Eve we spent making monkey bread, jellos, and cookies for Santa. 

The new plate Aunt Rhonda gave us for Christmas

Santa ate almost all of the cookies, and the reindeer had a few bites of carrots.  But...we forgot to leave him a glass of milk so he was probably thirsty. 

We opened a few presents early: new jammies and new games that we played Christmas Eve.

Uno Moo and Sorry Sliders

 Isabella like making Dad draw two in Uno Moo by giving him the "stunk" (skunk) piece.

New jammies for all.  (Shane did not get the Electric Jamz, much to his disappointment).

 We tucked in and Shane read us all this book.

At midnight Christmas morning, Shane and I were hearing all kinds of commotion on our street.  There was lots of cars and tons of kids talking loudly and laughing.  We went out on the porch (in our new jammies) to see what was going on and why a bunch of teenagers were going to wake up two sleeping girls before Santa had a chance to come.

Our Russian teenage neighbor asked us if his churchgroup could carol to us in Russian. Shane said "Why not?"  So out of what looked like 10 cars parked in front of and next to our house, came about 40 teenagers into our front yard. This is the same teenage neighbor who shoveled our driveway a few weeks ago unexpectedly.

Here's some vid - I decided to quit recording since you can't see anything except blackness...but the music was beautiful.  It gave us a warm and fuzzy feeling before we tucked into bed. 

After they were done, they gave us this Christmas card, written in Russian.  If anyone knows what it says, I'm all ears!

Santa didn't disappoint this year.  He brought really great gifts to our house and to their Meme and Papa Don's. Shane spent most of Christmas Day assembling small pieces to Isabella's gifts!

Ariel's makeup station

 

Mommy Play Center

And yes, you are seeing Isabella in one of many new outfits she got for Christmas this year.  Nanna Bonnie got her an entire treasure chest of these beautiful dresses, it even came with tiaras and many jewel bracelets and necklaces.

Kennedy painted me this special mug because she knows how much I love to drink coffee!  What a special girl and gift.

Primpin and pampering at Ariel's Magical Talking Salon - this is no sassy salon! ;)

She is very excited to do anyone's hair...no appointment necessary...just stop by! She gives curls just like she had for wedding-palooza this summer, so expect it to take awhile - good work takes time.  I had an appointment last night and if you don't mind get a curling iron twisted in your hair so bad you need Shane's assistance to get it out, or mind getting an occasional poke in the eye with the comb, this is the salon for YOU!

Hip Hop till you drop (or just get hot, sweaty, & tired)

This morning we made crayons with our new crayon maker.  And yes...the pink dress is back on! 

Shane ran to HomeDepot for a lightbulb for the crayonmaker and Isabella wanted to go with him. She wanted to go and wanted to go wearing her dress.  So he told her to put a coat and shoes on and off they went.  I thought if was funny that instead of taking off her pink princess slippers to put on socks, she used her slippers as socks and put her TwinkleToe Skechers over the top of them. She is quite the diva!

Kennedy and I worked on a few things with her new Cricut papercutter and her new scrapbooking paper and supplies.  Expect amazing homemade Thank-You cards this year that she has made! I may turn into a crafty person just yet...but a cook, probably not!

Isabella got a growing frog in her stocking and the girls both got dinosaur eggs.  I wondered why we spent so much money on huge gifts after seeing how much excitement they got out of these $2 items.

Before

This morning...with two more days of growing left!  We went to Walmart to find a bigger Tupperware bowl for this colorful friend.  After seeing that the big Tupperware containers were $10, and rationalizing that we were buying a $10 plastic dish for a frog, we decided against it.  The frog will be relocating to his new growing grounds, the upstairs bathroom, where  he can have unlimited water and growing potential...for free.

Isabella was excited to see that "my creature is coming out!" 

We had a great Christmas!  I missed my family this year but I'm glad I got to connect with most everyone by phone or at least through voicemail!  Love you guys!