The Holidays in Highland!

We headed down south this weeked to Highland to see Chuck's side of the family and to have some holiday fun! It was sunny when we left so it's a good thing that Bub packed his sunglasses.

Evie fell asleep in the car. I don't blame her. It's a long car ride. Grace was having fun watching all the new Christmas movies that Frankenstein gave us. Yep, she came with us too! On Saturday, Papa and Grandma Vicky came over to Uncle Frog's house. Gracie and Maddie played rin-around-the-rosy with them. They had fun until it was time to "fall down." These girls had a blast together. Normally Maddie is not there when we go down so luckily her and Gracie got some girl time together. Evie was being shy but she was super excited to open up gifts. Uncle Frog passed out the presents and everyone waited patiently to open. At Uncle Frog's house, the youngest goes first and so on. That way everyone gets to see what everyone gets. Evie was first. Afterall, she is a whole minute younger than Presley. She got 2 baby dolls. For the bathtub too!

Presley got a cool Spiderman and Hulk (his favorite) set from Uncle Schmut.

Then it was Gracie's turn. She couldn't wait to open her big bag from Papa.

In fact, both girls were excited.

Gracie got something that she has been talking about...a Lalaloopsy doll! She was beyond happy! She even got some outfits for her doll too!

Maddie got one too. Those girls played with their dolls all day!

And Gracie brought a special gift for Maddie that she made and even wrapped all by herself! A pig mask on a paperplate! Maddie loved it!

I'm so glad that Gracie has grown out of her shy stage because she was just as friendly as can be and talked everyone's ear off. She got some bonding time with Uncle Chad.

And with Papa.

We had to get some pictures with Papa and Grandma Vicky since we don't get to see them often. (Evie was pouting because Aunt Christie took away her paci. I know what you are thinking...she acts like her father right?)

And then it was time for a cousin's picture. Jordin is Gracie, Evie, and Presley's cousin. She is all-grown up now and in high school!

An Uncle's picture too!

Then after resting and napping, we headed over to Aunt Marlene's for some more family holiday fun! Sydney and Peyton were there too!

There were more presents there too!

Bub made out with some new cars from Drake.

Evie got another baby! She's a great mama!

Sydney got Gracie a Christmas Barbie!

It was fun there getting to visit with everyone. Presley was impressing everyone with his pole dancing. Apparently Daddy used to be good at it too.

After presents, it was time for Bunco. The kids had their own table going on.

The whole weekend was filled with yummy goodies too!

I'm so glad we were able to make it down for a Christmas weekend! It meant a lot to the kids and us to be able to see everyone! Thanks to everyone for all the wonderful presents. You are way too generous. Thanks Uncle Frog and Aunt Christie for letting us crash at your place too! Happy Holidays!

Busy as an Elf!

Christmas time is super busy that's for sure. It is in our household. This morning, we woke up and Frankenstein was rocking out with Elmo! Man that elf can play!

And since it's late, Frankenstein has already been to the North Pole and back for the night and while cleaning out the mini (because we are leacving tomorrow to go out of town) she was sitting on the steering wheel and brought with her 2 new Christmas movies to watch on the road. I think the kids will be excited to watch "Beauty and the Beast's Enchanted Christmas" and "A Christmas Carol." (it's the new animated one). She also has a note to share with the kids. I guess Frankenstein is coming along for the ride. See ya on Sunday!

Christmas Crafts!

My pictures got a little bit out of order here but since I wanted to talk about Christmas crafting, yesterday morning, Frankenstein surprised us with a picture that she colored of Santa's elves. She even signed her name! Hmm, maybe she can do some of the crafts I've been wanting to make one of these nights and leave them for ME in the morning.....

Anyways, because I am addicted to Pinterest and addicted to things with my kids' handprints we made our family Christmas tree. Chucks hands are at the bottom and all the way to the top. Evie's little hands threw off the tree a little bit but that's because she put them down before I could help her. Oh well. It is still cute. I added ornaments but I think that if we make something like this next year, I'll have them use theit thumbprints to make the ornments. I think I'm addicted to these little handprints because right now that is my favorite thing about Christmas-the kids! They will only be this little once and these special Christmases will fly before my eyes so it makes this tree very special to me. I also have been wanting to make this for some time. I don't have room for another tree in this house and I don't have anymore room on my big Christmas tree for any more ornaments and I reprinted pictures from Christmases past. Like I said, these are going to be the best and most memorable Christmases so I made them into garland. It took a bit of time to cut and mat the pictures but finally I added the ribbon and hung them from my windows and wallah.....Christmas picture garland! I have them in all 4 windows (sadly yes, I only have 4 windows. I don't count the basement ones). Oh and I also hung them from my sliding door windows too. I think they turned out cute. They could have been a little shorter but I didn't bother to measure. I was hyped up on caffine last night and didn't have the patience to look for the ruler. So..what do you think? Oh yeah, and today, we found Frankenstein in the fridge and she had turned the milk green! Gracie thought is was cool but no one would drink it. Chuck had to pour it out because no one wanted it. Good thing it wasn't the whole jug huh?

Letter to Santa!

Tonight Gracie and I sat down to write her letter to Santa! Last year she told me want she wanted it to say. This year she was a big enough girl to write one herself. Here she is proudly holding up her handwritten letter. We are going to mail it tomorrow.

She did a very good job. Remember she is only 4. I think she would have written more but we ran out of room. We are not used to writing small or on lined paper for that matter. Isn't sweet?

And in case you have no idea what it says because Gracie doesn't understand about putting words together on 1 line, it reads....

Dear Santa,

I have been nice.

I want a Princess castle. I have been a good girl.

Love, Gracie.

(I already told her that she REALLY needs to start being a good girl if she wants that Princess castle!)

Gingerbread House!

We spent a cold, rainy Sunday making a gingerbread house! While shopping, I picked up a kit to make one. Gracie spotted it right away and couldn't wait to get started! Here are all the materials we got ready including the piece of the box she ripped off so she could get out all the candy!

First we put the house together and let it dry. Waiting for it to dry took forever with 6 big eyes constantly watching it. Finally, it was time to get started. Everyone wanted to help so we passed out candy for everyone to help decorate. I decided that I would be in charge of the frosting.

Whoops, sorry about the pic. Now this little girl.....well, everytime I put frosting anywhere, she would take her little finger and wipe it off and eat it! She thought that was fantastic! Bub was very careful about where he was putting his candy. He even let Gracie boss him around and tell him where to put it. We had so much making this. Of course about half of the candy ended up in our tummies.

The 2 decorators and the frosting eater busy at work.Now our house turned out nothing like the beautifully designed one on the box, nor was it the calmest and smiley picture of the people. There was some fighting over the candy and where to put it and hands getting in the way and spilling candy all over the floor but it it was fun and that's what matters!Gracie is so proud of her gingerbread house!
(She even made one out of a box with Auntie Amy complete with working Christmas lights! Pics to come later) All my little gingerbread house artists. Don't mind Evie's glazed look.....she was in a frosting coma. *On another note, Frankenstein was pulling Rudolph and friends in the choo-choo train this morning. Good thing too. It reminded us that The Polar Express is on TV tonight and we LOVE that movie.

Frankenstein!

Frankenstein, our elf, has been very busy keeping her little eye on us. She is busy, busy having fun at our house during the day and flying off to the North Pole every night to give Santa his nightly report on the Weiss kids.

The other day we awoke to find Frankenstein checking out the responsiblity chart. Mainly this is for Gracie and by the looks of it, she needs to step it up a notch but so do we by rewarding her more when she does act responsibly.

This morning we awoke to find Frankenstein fishing for goldfish in the potty! Gracie thought that was pretty funny and all Presley wanted to do was try and save the little fishies. And tonight Frankenstein has already returned from the North Pole (it was a short trip because we had already called Santa today to let him know there were a naughty little girl here). She climbed in Presley's fire truck and up the ladder she went so she could do some trimming of our tree. If only I had half the energy that this elf does!

Season's Readings!

This morning Frankenstein the elf, was reading "A Charlie Brown Christmas" and was sitting on some wrapped up books. She wanted to remind us that it's December 1st and now we can offically start the 24 days of books!

We started this tradition last year and was awesome! Each night we open a book and read it! Not like we need a ton of new books around here, we have many. Some books are Christmas books that we have, just wrapped up. I'm sure the kids don't even remember we have them. I pack away the Christmas books with the holiday decorations. I've been collecting books from book orders through school and using my teacher discount at Barnes-n-Noble. I even snagged some books at school that are too easy for my 3rd graders. Here are some of the favorites that are going to be opened this year!

My favorite....a gift to Gracie from Auntie Anne before she was even born. We LOVE this book and movie and I hope that my kids will always hear the bell. I still can't read this book without choking up at the end.

We also love Llama Llama. We have all the books so far and this one is just super cute. We even have the stuffed Llama doll to read it with us!
Gracie loves the Look and Find books and the little ones are getting into them too. We have several. This one is from last year and it's Rudolph. It's sure to give us hours of I Spy fun. I highly recommed these books. The pictures that you need to find also have a little learning lesson with them in the back. Gracie totally just got into "There was an Old Lady" books. This fall we constantly read "There was an Old Lady who Swallowed Some Leaves." I have several of these in my classroom so I brought home this one and also wrapped up is "There was an Old Lady Who Swallowed Some Snow." These are sure to be a hit. I try to sing the song as I read the book. I'm a great singer you know. This is a new book that I picked up for a steal and with my educator discount. Gracie loves the Princesses and I'm sure she'll love this book too. Evie will too. I thought about buying the Cars Christmas book but Presley is still not all that into books yet so maybe next year. Of course not all books are Christmas books. I wrapped up several books from this series as I have them in hardcover and don't leave them out to read very often. I even have the author, Laura Numeroff's signed copy of "If You Give a Cat a Cupcake" courtesy of Grandma Patti! These are just silly and it inspires Gracie to make up her own silly stories. I found this one at school too. Jamie Lee Curtis has written some cute books. This one is called "When I was Little, A Memoir of a 4-year old" Perfect for my 4 year old. Gracie is always tellign the babies all the things she can do because she is a big girl and they can't because they are still babies. This was actually the first book we opened tonight and it was a hit.
If you're thinking that most of the books are geared towards Gracie, you're right. She loves to be read too and when she knows the story, she'll read it to the babies. Evie loves books too so I'm sure she'll get into it. I know as the years go on, this will be a cherished tradition in our family. Season's Readings!