Christmas and Stuff

      Our last 2 weeks have been full of all the fun things around the holiday season. The children are thrilled to have a real vacation from school and have lots of sugary treats around. 

     On Christmas Day we left Wichita Falls and headed to my parents. Eldon had to return and work 6 days in a row to complete his contract but the children and I are staying at dad's. He was able to stay in the hospital's "motel" so it worked out well.

Gingerbread houses!

All color coordinated. Want to guess who did this one ? 😜

Birthday cupcakes for Jesus. Michael did the icing stars after I gave up and Emily did the sugar ones.

Brown for sin, red for Jesus' blood, and green for new life.

They received 1 small present Christmas Eve. Left to Right: Planner, huge magnet, lotion, and a hook. They were so excited!

We arrived at dad's just in time for lunch.

What a feast!

After lunch dad lit his old barn on fire. Old wood burns fast!

We did our gift exchange at dad's so they could share in the joy of watching the children's happiness.

Christmas lights at Hulen Park. It was freezing so we did a very quick walk through.

Emily and Michael discovered the Childcraft books that we used to spend hours reading.

They did a beautiful job of singing several songs to us. I must say, my favorite was their excellent imitation of Home Free's 'Grandma Got Run Over by a Reindeer'.

My gifts from the children. One of theirs was a DVD player for the truck so it's nice to have some new DVD's that we all enjoy :).

It is no secret that libraries are one of our favorite places.

The children loved "cooking" over the ashes of the barn for a few days.

Eldon shot a deer! 

Texas sunrises........

Ethan was quite pleased with his wife.

They made some very elaborate forts in the barn with egg flats.

Ethan loves "do not" signs right now. He made me a card with a "do not throw away" sign on it 😂.

I had to get a wisdom tooth pulled and when I came home, Eldon and the children had pulled out the couch and all the junk under it.

We replaced it with our reclining loveseat and absolutely love it! 

Not tired, just resting......resting sound asleep that is.

I took the children to Pizza Hut for their Book-It rewards. The current special is 2 medium 1 toppings for $5.99 each so I got that for Ethan and I. Leftovers!

Ethan taking pictures of his fire station.....Here you can see how we upcycled part of the old couch so we still have a little storage.

Trying to teach this one to comb her hair (Ethan's using my camera again)

     Other then that, we're doing all the normal purge/exchange of clothes, books, ect that happens whenever we're at our storage. Of course there is also some eye doctor and dentist appointments too. Michael and Makayla are taking turns getting up every morning at 6 to walk the barn with Grandpa and pick up the floor eggs. Emily and Ethan take a turn in the evenings while Makayla and Melody pack eggs. They have all admitted to enjoying the satisfaction of hard work and a job well done so that makes me happy. When Eldon gets back from Wichita Falls, him and dad will be continuing the remodel of their bedroom and bathroom. Last week they gutted the bathroom to the studs and cut the concrete to move some drains. 

     Have a blessed week!