Aloha...

your pup is breaking our hearts.

Evan and his friend have been hanging out with him all the time now.

Merry Christmas!

Here are the kids Christmas morning, watching tv...no urgency in this house.

Finally we get them to open their presents.

This is a great Christmas-our neighbors gave us their "old" dishwasher...lovin' it!

I think we will be seeing a lot of this...Erik got a PS3. Actually they all spent most of the day outside.

Traditions

Traci also did a great post of her Christmas traditions. We are fairly low on traditions but we do have one that I've had since I was a child. For Christmas Eve my mom always made Christmas bread and hid a tiny "baby Jesus" in one of the pieces.
We do the same on Christmas Eve but hide 3 little Jesus' so all three kids will be equally blessed. The kids love this tradition as much as I do.

Christmas Tour of Homes

Traci did such a gorgeous tour of her home all decorated for Christmas here The McDavid Chronicles: Christmas Tour of Homes. She saw Big Mama's here Big Mama » Christmas time is here, happiness and cheer and Boo Mama here BooMama » Christmas Tour of Homes 2009. Now my house isn't in the same league as those three, but here is how we decorate.
Candles in all of our windows. As small as our house is, it still takes 25 candles.

Our nativity scene. We have another but the stable is still in MD.

The tree, very simple. As a child we visited a friend of my Dad's at Christmas. His tree had candles all over it. Ever since then I wanted a tree with real candles.

I love the angel, she's my favorite part.

I made all the bows.

The door wreath. And that's it. We've really lightened our load over the years in an attempt to shed ourselves of "stuff."

Daddy's Sunday Activity

Sunday's have become Erik's cookie cooking day. Even the kids in the neighborhood come to the back door wanting to know when the cookies will be ready.
Today he tried tackling pizzelles,

and Christmas sugar cookies which Keana and Erica got to decorate.

Daddy Day Out

The day started at 8am with art,
Erica painting her pot,

Evan is the process of making a Colts bowl...just to torture his mama,

Owen, with Ms. Alison-who totally looks like Marsha and Courtney, spraying sealer on his adorable snowman bowl,

the boys goofing off as ninjas,

Hawaiian sky,

breakfast is...donuts at Zippy's,

off to the park...Erica's shirt says it all...

then to the pool...yes, they were the only ones there,

then to shoot rockets,

Owen lighting his off...wonder if he is using matches...hmm...I need investigate the safety of this activity,

more basketball,

dinner at Burger King then off to the movie "Santa Claus III" and home, whew, that was a big day.

An Amazing Field Trip

We went to the zoo today and had a tour. The tour guide was amazing. He knew the names of the animals and they recognized him and would "play" with him.

This bird let us get so close.

Here is our guide, Jason, teaching the kids about giraffes.

Then the kids got to feed the giraffes! We were in the back part of the zoo where only workers get to go.

It was incredible how the giraffes strip the leaves right off the branch. They are very strong too.

This rhino came over to the fence and stared me down the whole time we were standing there. Erica wants you know that he was a very nice rhino.

The giraffe came to get his picture taken.

The zoo smelled amazing today. Everywhere we went smelled heavenly of gardenia or plumaria.

Loads of interesting flowers,

and gorgeous ones,

One last picture under the gum tree.

Odds n Ends

Last Friday I took the kids (and a friend) to the Scholastic Warehouse book sale (for some major deals) and then to Burger King for $1.49 Whoppers jrs. and cones. I thought it was so funny how they all wore their crowns the whole time.

Poor Evan, I feel bad after my post about him being scared of a half dead bee on his shoulder because a few days later he got stung by a living bee. It hurt for two days then swelled up and itched like crazy.

Owen was all excited because he found this leaf bug.

After dinner games.

A Daddy Day Out

That's what we call the Saturdays Erik keeps the kids out from morning until dark.
They started at art and went to Zippy's for donuts,

the museum to pet the dinosaurs,

dig for bones,

make lava,

play at the pool,

the movie Astro Boy,

a chance to warm their hands in the "fire place" at the commissary, and then dinner at Arby's, plus they still had time to play outside for about an hour. Whew, I get tired just hearing about it.