Gingerbread Man as retold by Carter Lyttle

Once upon a time Carter and my mom and dad and my little brother and my little sister baked a gingerbread man.  It was supposed to cook for 10 minutes, but it actually baked for 9 minutes, then it jumped out of the oven and it ran out the door!  My dad tried to close the door, but it ran too fast.  Then a bear was there, and a wall.  The gingerbread man jumped over the wall, and the bear got hit.  Henri went around it, and the rest of my family went around the wall to try to catch the gingebread man.  Then a wolf came adn tried to catch the gingerbread man, but he got hit by a rock.  Then a running clock came after the gingerbread man, but then the clock broke and the gingerbread man ran away!  Then my fishes were coming after the gingerbread man - in their fish tank.  And then there was a wolf that chased the gingerbread man through a little hole in the wall.  The wolf was too big to fit through the hole in the wall, and the gingerbread man got away again!  Next a meteoroid came, and tried to chase the gingerbread man, but it hit some paper.  Then the gingerbread man ran to a forest, and found some birds.  But the birds weren't chasing him... they didn't see him.  So, the gingerbread man ran out of the forest and back into the fish bowl.  My fishes shared with the whole family, and we all ate the gingerbread man!  The end.

Merry Christmas banner

So glad we've done the "obligatory" things for Christmas and can just do what we want the rest of the season.  I've been taking the little ones for hourS long stroller rides trying to burn off those Christmas cookies.  Tonight I made a project for fun, but I think I'm giving it in our MOPS gift exchange this morning.  It's a banner that says "Merry Christmas" suitable for a doorway or mantle.

In a cuteness report, Carter slept on the floor in Valerie's room last night.

Super cute Valerie pictures

Santa!

Do you love Santa pictures as much as I do?  You are gonna love these ones!

We tried the Santa at Molback's this year.  Awesome experience!  11am-3pm every weekend and one person in front of us, gorgeous suit and loved kids.  A little hard of hearing, though so he told Carter to e-mail his list...

Practice photos in front of the tree.  I LOVE the expression on Valerie's face in the second one...

Valerie is finally growing some hair!

Here's how I got her to sit so still for the picture of her hair...

One of our advent activities was "make cookies for someone who need encouragement."  Well, our pastor's dog died last night after years and years of being just a wonderful family dog, so we figured they qualified.  On our way, we stopped to see the light show near us and drove around the pastor's neighborhood to look at lights.  There was also a strong possibility that "No-Nap" Henri would fall asleep.

Well, Henri fell asleep during the light show and I found out after dropping off the cookie that apparently we were stalking the pastor's family that had gone out to look at lights to get out of the "no dog quiet house"  and I got a text message from him wondering why we were following them :)

Busy week with a chance of Friday Laziness

So this week I got everything done. Christmas Shopping & wrapping (save 1 item I need Paul to order)  I switched babysitting again this week and also babysat for my co-op for some points. Also finished my dinner swap meals. Feels so good to be done!  Yesterday I really needed a sick day, but pushed through and got my house cleaned up and my office finally cleaned up.

Today the only thing I have to do is go through the inbox on my desk and go to our annual MOPs Christmas Tea this morning, which I contributed nothing to, am able to just go and have fun!

Wednesday after shopping Carter and I had a date.  We had thought about going to Sky  High Trampolines, but they don't open until 2pm (we had 1/2 days Tues & Wed this week) so we went and saw Tangled in 3D.

This weekend Saturday the only thing we have to do is sign up for swim lessons, we're trying to get all 3 kids in class at the same time.

Sunday is our family Christmas party.  We have our last swim class right before, so we'll be a little late, but it should be fun.

Henri story

Forgot another story from swimming.  Henri was watching the bubbles from the jets in the hot tub by the swimming pool and kept going, "uh, oh!" and then the timer ran out and the jets ran out and it was calm, "I did it! " Henri told me excitedly

Exhaustion setting in

Yesterday we hung out in pajamas until we went to our dear friend's housewarming/engagement party.  It was fun, but the kids and I managed to leave before Henri could stuff any more cookies in his mouth and they could break anything.

Today was our typical swim, church, swim (so glad next week is the last week of it).  Henri did great and had fun during his class and I laughed during Carter's-it was life jacket day and the teacher was pushing them off the mat "boat" and Henri was shouting, "oh, no!" and Carter was telling his classmates to watch out for sharks.

Then we went back to church to pick something up, stopped by home for a birthday gift and some food (kids didn't get out of the car) went to Jump Planet for a birthday party.  Then 8 hours after we left the house, we finally got home.  The kids were then pretty good, but loud and mommy was TIRED.  I went to bed with the kids last night.  I've been doing this several nights and am still tired, and grouchy.  Then I got a knock on the door and two cute little girls in dresses handed me this note:

I actually cried.  And started to get back in the Christmas spirit :)