Dan helping Ariel open her gift.
The family...and the destruction of presents behind us!
Last night we had a couple (Jessica and Russ) come over for dinner. They are expecting a baby any time now and they weren't able to travel to see family this year so Dan and I decided to have them over. I cooked Apple Marsala stuffed pork tenderloin, twice baked potato casserole and green beans with almonds. It was very tasty. Jessica brought a pumpkin roll! It was wonderful to have company for dinner!
On another note...Caleb has had dry pants through the whole night for two nights in a row. We forgot to put a pull-up on him on christmas eve before he went to bed and he woke up at 5:30 to tell me he went potty...that is when I discovered he had no pull-up on. We decided to leave the pull-up off last night and he woke up dry again! I hope that this is a sign that he is ready to be potty trained at night! I would love to not have to buy pull-ups again.
This was a picture of the service with all the candles lit. I tried to take a picture of Caleb helping Dan hold the candle but Ariel kept grabbing the camera since she was on my lap so they all turned out fuzzy. It was a beautiful service!
After the service we came home and then tried to take a few pictures of the kids in their chirstmas outfits under the tree. They didn't cooperate much. Since Ariel is walking now all she wanted to do was just walk around in her pretty red dress! This was the best picture of the both of them and then one of Ariel walking around in her dress is below. 
Sweet Ariel giving her Daddy Christmas kisses.
I'm starting a tradition where the kids get to open one gift on Christmas Eve and it will be their pj's for Christmas morning. Here are the kids opening their pj gift.
Here is Ariel in her pj's and you can see Caleb's below when he is making cookies for Santa.
For Santa's cookies this year I took the easy way out. I bought store bought cookies on a sheet and then had Caleb place them on a cookie sheet and then let him put sprinkles on it. I was originally going to make sugar cookies and then have him help me cut them into shapes and decorate them but I ran out of time. It was nearly 8:00 when we were making these and I still had to make a breakfast casserole of Christmas morning and also wrap a dozen gifts and get things ready for Santa to come!
Here is Caleb waiting on the cookies to bake!
This is a movie that I put together of a few pictures in each month that I captured with the kids. It is nearly 7 and a half minutes long so you may want to view it when you have time to enjoy it. I will be sending a copy to the family soon! Press pause on the music if needed below.
This is Caleb and his guitar...it was a hit!
Here is Ariel and I opening up one of her gifts.
This bag is all Ariel wanted to play with. She would pick up things and put them in the bag and then walk around carrying it all over the place. She is walking like crazy now...that is pretty much all she does now instead of crawling.
Granny (Dan's mom...she is the one laughing in the video below) and the grandkids
Here is a very dark video of Ariel walking with her sack. We were all laughing because we were saying that she is going to be a great shopping buddy one of these days and just as we said that she took off walking right towards Dan like she was asking for money...already!! (remember you can pause the music below if you want)
I didn't get many pictures of Caleb. He has not been feeling well. He has a terrible cough and he says that his throat hurts. I have been giving him Delsym at night and I have been putting some peppermint essential oil on the bottom of his feet and chest. It seems to reduce the coughing and allows him to sleep. He did get me up a few times last night so that I could spray some cloroceptic (sp?) in his mouth to numb his throat. So needless to say he was not photgenic on Saturday.
Tonight we are going to the Christmas Eve service at church (that is if Caleb ever takes a nap...I put him down nearly 45 minutes ago and he is still not asleep!). Then we will come home and make some cookies for Santa. I can't wait until tomorrow. It gets more fun as the kids get older!
Merry Christmas!
Super Heroes in their capes (I don't think Will was quite ready to be a super hero yet!) They were wearing aprons by the way!
"What's under the couch?"
"Come on Will!"
We went to the Bentonville Square tonight to look at the Christmas lights and the kids LOVED it! All they wanted to do was run around the fountain...Ariel included! She is really starting to get around now by walking. The look on her face when she gets from point A to point B without falling is just amazing! She gets excited all over...especially when you praise her! The temperature was very mild, around 49 degrees, which was great for being outside on a December evening. Remember...you can pause the music at the bottom of the blog screen!
