Santa presents

Ava and Harper came up Saturday to spend the night.  They brought their Christmas presents from Santa with them - Ava's puppy, she named her "Rose", and Harper's green dinosaur. 

They were so proud of the special necklaces they got from Santa that say "I love you more", Grandma Barb always said that to them, Lexi and Mom got them, too. 

Much to Daddy's dismay, Santa also brought them make-up sets, they had fun with those.  Ava loved painting her nails, and I was happy that it washed off easily.  They said Daddy's eyes would probably glow red like Harper's dinosaur's if he could see them all made up.

Papa got them mini-foosball and air-hockey tables, he got a kick out of playing with them.  Harper was cheering for Ava.

We also got them a Lego starter set, they had fun building with it but we need more people, it only came with 1 girl.  Rielee came over and spent the night with the girls, they watched Dolphin Tale 2 and like it a lot.

Today was all about Mommy's birthday.  They made cards, baked her a cake and worked hard to decorate it just right. It was so sweet,  Ava said she thought that Grandma Barb was watching them, Harper said "yes, God is always watching us, too, Ava". 

 

 

Rielee's sewing machine

Santa brought Rielee a sewing machine for Christmas.  I had given her a sewing basket, accessories and some fabric that I pre-cut for jammie pants so she came over tonight to sew them.  We first had to set up her machine, it's a Brother, which I've never worked with, so we had to study a little and adjust the bobbin case before we got it sewing correctly.  Rielee is inserting the bobbin in the picture, she was excited and wanted to do everything herself.  She's learned so much from her sewing lessons.  Her pants turned out well even though the fabric was a little thick for her to easily sew.  She was just glad to get them done without having to use her seam ripper!  She immediately put them on and stupid me, I didn't think to take a picture... 

Christmas

Charb and Kelly brought the girls up on Christmas Eve, it was fun watching them open gifts.  Ava was most excited by a new Princess puppy, she said it would be a twin sister for her old one. 

They were both excited to get new nightgowns and Frozen dresses,  there was a lots of flinging things up in the air. 

We all went down to Dan and Robin's for our annual Christmas Eve party.  It was a wonderful time, great food, a fun trivia game, the gift exchange and Santa's visit, of course.

The Gourdes,

more Gourdes, (we missed having Luke and Lexi with us),

and the Dolans all took great pictures.

Auna, Parker and James posed for me.

Harper getting her gift from Santa, neither she nor Ava wanted to sit on his lap,

but Rielee did, he asked her if she wanted a horse and she said "sure".  Parker and Auna played along and sat on his lap, too. 

Christmas morning Gabe, Des, Macee, Parker and Rielee came over for breakfast.  I had considered perhaps making cardamom french toast this year, but the kids all had a fit, biscuits and gravy is a tradition, they said, you don't mess with that, Grandma! 

Rielee was the top winner on the lotto tickets, winning a whopping $6.  We went over to their house later in the day for dessert. 

 

 

Play breakfast/watching Parker

 Harper woke up at 6:30 this morning and tried to get everyone up.  She got their table out and had it set for herself, Ava, Big Dog and Auna.  Obviously, Auna wasn't hungry because she slept right through it.  She did get up and have breakfast with us later but then went back to sleep and didn't even hear Charb and Kelly when they came and picked up the girls.

Auna, Rielee, Michael and Macee at Parker's game today vs. Centralia.  Parker's back has been helped by the chiropractor, he's playing really well and they won easily. 

Violin serenade

All the girls talked about when we picked them up from school today was making donuts and playing with blocks.  They got the blocks out as soon as we got home but we waited until after dinner to make donuts.  Papa got his violin out of storage this week and played it for them while they were eating.  They were as impressed as I was that he could still play it after all these years.

Rockets win

Auna was all smiles after her game tonight, the Rockets got their first win, beating Seton Catholic.  Auna was high scorer with 10 points and had 8 rebounds.   The boys played after, Brock was high scorer in their win with 18.  It was a fun night.

Parker logging, Auna & Rielee video

Parker came over just after the Seahawk game started Sunday to cut down a tree for me.  I helped him haul the limbs to the burn pile.  He tried to use the tractor to remove the limbs from the wagon and it didn't work very well, he accidentally broke a couple of the top rails on the wagon, oops.  We were worried about how Papa would take the news, but he wasn't upset at all, an easy fix, he said.  We were done in time to watch the 4th quarter of the game. 

I found some old videos of Auna and Rielee singing Christmas Carols and combined them into one.  Here's a link to it on YouTube:   http://youtu.be/_-6tWlGfMzY