Our Christmas Vacation

Our 2011 Christmas Vacation was full of exciting events!

 We went to the girls church Christmas performance "Arrest These Merry Gentlemen"

With the lifted Burn Ban we were finally able to have a backyard bonfire...and roast some marshmallows!

We went to Brylie's class Christmas Party (it was pajama day)

 This is Brylie and her BFF Mya

and this is Brylie and her teacher Mrs. Ratcliff...we love her!

 Here we are at Grandma and Grandpa's opening presents

 and now here is our annual trip to the Prairie Lights with my Dad...

We took the girl's ice skating for the first time.  It was a total blast!  Brylie was a natural and little Katy even eventually got the hang of it!  This is one tradition that will definitely be continued!

 Here we are at the annual Chinese Christmas with Mitchell's Dad's side of the family.  I was so excited that my Dad was able to go with us this year.

 Santa (Uncle Jeff) always visits and brings all of the kids a gift.

 Opening gifts Christmas Eve:

 Baking those yummy cookies for Santa:

Grrrr....blog issue lol.  Not sure why it won't let me space out the few pics above, but they are from Christmas morning.

The pictures below are more of all the previous events.  They came from my Grandfather's camera so they are a little misplaced:

Katy and Elfie...she was pretty inseparable from our Elf on the Shelf this year.  In fact she still talks about him...and blames things on him EVERYDAY! 

More Ice Skating:

 Brylie is dying laughing at the fact that Mitchell fell down:

I love these girls!

Well that was our Christmas Vacation in a nut shell!  We had a great time getting to just relax and be a family together without all the hustle of work and school.  We started some new traditions and carried on some old ones!

A Few Projects

Here are the pictures of the "Rules" I added to our chalkboard wall and also the art wall in the mudroom.  The mudroom still isn't finished but I did get the art wall up.  :)

Meet Elfie

The Elf on the Shelf is by far a GENIUS and ADORABLE idea!  The girls are so into it!  They named our elf "Elfie".  Here are a couple of places he has been hiding so far:

While on the subject of Christmas, here is the advent calendar I made and also a final pic of the tree:

Future Olympians

A few weeks ago I found out that Katy was being moved up in gymnastics.  She has always been leaps and bounds ahead of everyone in her class so I was not surprised when they moved her up.  They put her in a class with mostly 5 year olds.  She is loving the new challenges it brings!  Her arm strength is still incredible, making the uneven bars her best event.

Just before Thanksgiving vacation I found out that Brylie was getting moved up as well.  Since John had taken her the night that we found out, I had to call to get her class time changed.  When I called they asked what level she was in and then told me the day and time of the next level.  Well, tonight we showed up to the new time and her coach asked why we were there.  I told her that was when we were told to come but much to my surprise Brylie was actually invited onto the pre-team.  The pre-team is by invitation only and for those that are advanced enough to begin learning routines and such for competition.  So basically, my little non-athlete went from being in level one gymnastics to pre-team.  There are some kids who complete level 2 and 3 before being asked onto this team.

I am so proud of both of the girls!  They are both doing AWESOME in gymnastics!

Here Come's Santa Claus

We went to the Annual Christmas Parade in Lumberton tonight.  I was sad that Katy was still in Lubbock and didn't get to go but Brylie still had a blast with her cousin Jessye!