Christmas PJs

I forgot to include the Christmas PJ pictures in the Christmas Eve post so here are those... too many cute ones so this can just be a post dedicated to pictures! Enjoy!

The cutest of Santa's reindeer

Christmas Eve - Church!

We made it to church on Christmas Eve after our cookie decorating. The service was lovely (and packed).  We took some pictures afterwards rather than fight the traffic back to the house. Here are a few of them.

Evan and Caitlin in front of the tree

Ryan

Attempt at a family shot

Mommy and Ryan

My three gifts

Once we got home, we took some pictures by our own tree while we waiting on dinner.

Ryan!

Ryan and Chelsea - aren't they so cute?

My three precious people

Baba and Chelsea

Mommy and Ryan

After dinner, we got the kids to bed... they were SO excited for Santa to come. We put out our treats for Santa and read our Elf on the Shelf book one last time. We said goodbye to Candycane (our elf). And then it was off to bed until Christmas morning!

Christmas Eve - Cookies!

One tradition we started with the kids is to make cookies on Christmas Eve for Santa (and us). This year, I tried a new recipe and the dough was amazing!  First time my cookies didn't spread at all. I was very wary because at first as the dough looked super crumbly. But it came together great.

Kids helping me roll out the dough and then cut the cookies. NOTE: I put the dough between 2 pieces of wax paper - no sticking to the roller, no messy flour - SUPER EASY! Got this off the same site as the recipe. Genius!

After they cooked and cooled, we were ready for some decorating fun. Uncle Will even helped!

Our setup! (You can see our countdown to Christmas sign too.)

Caitlin working on her cookies

Evan concentrating hard on his decorating.

They both did a great job decorating and we didn't make too big of a mess. Score!

Ryan wasn't quite old enough to help this year, but he enjoyed playing on the floor! As you can see it was a pajama kind of day. I loved being lazy around the house, making our cookies, and listening to Christmas music until it was time to go to church. Perfect way to spend our Christmas Eve.

Trail of Lights 2013

Once Oma got to town, we decided to go ahead and try out the Trail of Lights. Last year was fun but super crowded and difficult to get in/out.  With cold weather and babies, we weren't sure we should even go. However, this year even though the Trail is free, you could pay some amount of money per person to get in about 45 minutes early. We headed down to eat dinner nearby and then do that.  Let me tell you - so worth the money!

Here's us at the start. Normally it's so crowded there is no way you are getting a picture here. Even when we went in there was a huge line waiting to get in.

The Matz' came too!

We loved getting to walk through and see all the displays without feeling walled with people. I could even take pictures of the kids with them.

Caitlin loved taking pictures and wanted one with every display... Especially if it had princesses.

We met some firefighters handing out candy canes!

Oma and the kids

About the only downfall to getting in early was that we didn't get to stop and see our friends dance troope perform (because we wanted to get through most of the displays before it opened to the public).

After the Trail of Lights, we had to go see the Zilker Tree.

The kids enjoyed spinning underneath it with Daddy.

And finally we headed back to the car. The other big downfall was the weather - it was really really cold! We did not anticipate that Ryan would get so cold and wouldn't want to sit in the stroller much. We ended up carrying him most of the way so we could keep him bundled. Still, it was a fun time and so glad we paid extra to get in early.

Caitlin's Ballet Class

Caitlin has been taking a ballet class this school year.  She loves it and so far it's been great. She really is improving and having fun. I love her teacher Ms. Julie. She is incredible with the girls. I enjoy getting to watch them and see their progress. It really is a great combination of fun and technique!

During class, they have it in a small room where there is a window that we can watch through (it's kind of tinted so we can see in but they can't see out very well which means they don't get distracted too easily).  In December, they put on a little performance for us in the big girl room. They each got to pick out a fun costume and then after the performance, we had some snacks and lemonade. We enjoyed getting to watch them perform!

Here's a video of her performance (the teacher in the video isn't Ms. Julie though...she was out of town so this was another teacher... I'm not sure why I'm pointing this out other than I think the girls are more used to Ms. Julie so they seemed a little distracted I guess... anyway):

If video doesn't appear, CLICK HERE FOR VIDEO

Caitlin's Preschool Program

Caitlin's preschool put on a Christmas program again this year.  She is in a 3s class that meets Tuesdays and Thursdays.  Before the performance, we went to her classroom to see the projects they had been working on.

Family photo!

Then it was off to the sanctuary for the performance.

Ryan was excited!

Here's a video of the performance. This was the best I could get from where we were sitting.  She did a great job singing! Apologize in advance for her "nose" activity... its cold season, what can I say.

If the video doesn't appear in your email:
CLICK THIS FOR VIDEO

Evan receives Star Texan Award

Just before Christmas, we went up to school where Evan received a special award.  His school is called Old Town and they are the Texans.  He was receiving a Star Texan award for showing self control (i.e. for being a good listener).  

They called his name and read a little paragraph that his teacher wrote about why he was receiving the award.

Dad and Evan after the ceremony

Mom and Evan after the ceremony

Evan with the assistant principal Mr. Baker and the principal Ms. Mercer

We are so proud of you Evan for doing such a great job at school and being a good listener.  I volunteer in Evan's class one day a week so I get to see all the kids and help Ms. V, his teacher.  I love being involved and feel so blessed that I'm able to be a part of his school experience. His teacher has told me what a great listener his is before and I've observed it myself.  He's also making great strides with reading. It's amazing how quickly he has picked it up.  Just 2 months ago he was not interested at all but now he can read small words and sound them out.  He already knows all his kindergarten sight words and we are working on more.

So far, we are thrilled with how it's going and that we went ahead and sent him to Kinder.  Hopefully it continues to go well. He still enjoys going to school so I think that's a good sign!

Below is a little video of him receiving his award.

If you can't see the video above, then just click this link: CLICK HERE