Marvelette the Elf

We have been having SO much fun with our "Elf on the Shelf" this year.  Thanks to many ideas on the site Pinterest, Marvelette (that's what Ella named him last year) has been having lots of fun.  If you're not familiar with Elf on the Shelf, the basic concept is that the elf watches your children during the day and reports back to the North Pole each night to tell Santa if they have been good or bad.  Each morning when he returns he is in a different spot and the kids have to find him.  Some mornings we just move him somewhere else and other mornings we find him doing something silly like drinking syrup out of the bottle with a straw or hanging upside down from the fan.  One morning the kids woke up and he had replaced their stockings with their underwear?!? Last night while they were sleeping, he and some other toys were having a little too much fun.  Ella and I were just talking and saying that we hope he still went to the North Pole and didn't forget since he was playing so much! ;)

Preschool Christmas Program!

Last week Ella and Noah had their Christmas program for preschool.  It was so sweet getting to see Noah join Ella up on stage this year!!! Ella was quite the performer this year! Noah on the other hand was just silly and spent most of the time just licking the banister in front of him LOL!  Here are a few pics and a little video to enjoy!

Christmas Carol Party!

Last Sunday night, Randy and I had a party at our house with friends from our Small Group, former Small Group, and members of the Worship Team Randy leads at church.  We provided different holiday drinks and asked everyone to bring a dessert to share.  We had a great turn out! The house was packed and once everyone had a chance to eat and mingle, we all gathered around the living room and sang songs.  We started out with Christmas songs and then took some time for people to share some of the blessings they've had this year.  Then we finished with some worship songs to praise God for all he's done!  It was the best night and definitely something we will do again.

My little party pooper fell asleep 10 minutes before the party started.  I'm sure all of you Mommies know how fun that was!

 Chocolate spoons for stirring hot chocolate and coffee

 We had a little Hot Chocolate Bar that really turned out yummy!

 Lots of fun "holiday" coffees!  

Good food..

and lots of great friends!

Christmas Lights!

Nothing better then Christmas to help me dust off the blog!  It's been awhile.  But we've had the most insanely busy year in awhile!  Today I'm going to set up several auto posts for this week to catch you up on our Christmas happenings!  So keep an eye out.  I don't want to give you all a heart attack posting so many times in one week after a month of silence ;)

**Update....after "setting up" all of the posts, I just couldn't resist.  So they are all here!**


Last week my mom and sister visited and we made a little trip out to see Christmas lights.  We visited this place last year and it became an immediate family favorite!  This guy really does his yard up!

 Ella was cracking us up since she was wearing blonde extensions pretending she had hair like Rapunzel LOL

This was kinda weird and random!  There was a little family plot in this guys yard :/

 My little superhero was excited to see Spider Man there.  Thought it was sweet since he was wearing his cape under his jacket.  Always have to be prepared ;)

 My sweet Family!