Eli and Riley

Eli and Riley are so cute. I love taking pictures of them playing together.

Merry Christmas!

Christmas is such a fun and stressful time for the little ones. It's hard when we put up the Christmas tree and then they can't open any presents. To combat this challenge, a co-worker suggested that we take Christmas books and wrap them under the tree. Then each day, we can open one and read it. It was a lot of fun for both kids because they can see the pile of books get smaller and gage how long until Chistmas and we can enjoy the season with each book.

Finally, Christmas came and after a very long night, full of interruptions, we were able to open presents. Eli went to the couch and saw all the presents and asked, "Is it Christmas?" I told him it was and his face lit up. He walked over to one of the presents that I gave him, a Starwars C3P-O case to hold all of his figures. It was given to us by a neighbor getting rid of it. He said, "Hey, I've seen that movie." He got other toys, like Legos, more figures and Transformers.

Riley started figuring out that presents were to be opened. She had a log of help from Eli. For Christmas, she got a stuffed unicorn from dad, some little people and a Zhu Zhu pet. After opening presents, we went to church, where we celebrated the real meaning of Christmas with music directed from the choir director, Jared. We ended the wonderful day at the Koyle's and were able to visit with the whole family there.

Christmas Tree

Riley loves the glimmer, ornaments, and lights of the Christmas tree. At first, Grandma's tree was nicely balanced with beautiful ornamnts. Unfortanetly, Riley's first encounter this year changed that. She went up to it and grabbed a glass ball on the tree, tried to bounce it on the tile floor, to discover it doesn't bounce. Eli was upset and told me that Christmas was ruined. We learned our lesson since then and put a few unbreakable ornaments at the bottom. Now, every time she goes up to the tree, she looks at the ornaments and goes "Oh!"

Beary Cute

This is a hand-me-down costume given to Eli by Charles. I thought it cute enough to blog.

Happy Birthday Eli!

Eli has turned four. We celebrated his birthday at the Koyle's for the weekend and then at our house on Monday. We then went to the end of the street for the Holiday Christmas Party. We shared his cake at the party. He loved his cake. Part of turning four, includes dressing himself. We have had a difficult time every morning getting him to get dressed. Finally, my mother recommended that I tell him that four year old's dress themselves. I was getting him started on this a few weeks before his birthday. And he responded, "Am I four yet?" I told him that he wasn't. He replied, "Then I don't have to get myself dressed."

His birthday cake. Don't look too closely. I used the wrong tip. Fortunately, the party was in the dark and he is the only one that I have to impress.