Merry Christmas, Everyone...

It all started last week, when my friend, Noelle, came over to keep my kids for me. She brought along the singing penguin... it sings to the tune of the song "Yackety Yack, don't talk back". But it says "Quackety quack, quackety quack... Merry Christmas, Everyone!"

Needless to say, Noelle was getting tired of hearing it played over and over by her kids, so she wanted to share it with us. My kids do get a kick out of it. I never expected that Truman would like it so much, though! Watch this video to see his great moves!

My mom came to visit us this weekend, and was just able to leave this morning because the icy roads were too dangerous yesterday. We had such a great time with her! She kept the kiddos on Saturday, and Brad and I had a full-day date. What a great gift! Mom and I went shopping on Sunday. Then Monday, she helped me get our family most of the way packed for our trip to Michigan. Thanks, Mom, for all your hard work and eager help, and most of all, just for coming to be with us!

We're headed out on Thursday, and will be driving for 2 days to get to Michigan, for our Christmas visit to Brad's parents. It will be such fun, and we're really looking forward to it! Snowmen, snowball fights, walks in the snow, eating snow (but not the yellow or brown kind), then warm cozy fires, hot chocolate or tea, making yummy meals together, and having good conversations in the early mornings, late nights, and everywhere in between.

We're so grateful to have family (on both sides) that we love and look forward to being with. Merry Christmas, Everyone! :)

Happy Birthday, Evelyn!

We've got a 4-year-old in the house now! Happy Birthday, Evelyn!!!

November 30 was her actual birthday, and we were still at my parents' house in Navasota because of Thanksgiving. So we had a celebration there with our family. Mom and Amy made Evelyn a birthday cake, and we gave her our present: a little girl doll that looks like her. Meet Emily Lily Ruth Smucker (grown-ups have to call her Emily, but kids can call her Lily):

And wonder of all wonders, we actually got a family picture on that day! Thanks, GW, for being our photographer!

Here is just a cute picture of John from Thanksgiving Day. After he ate cranberry relish, his shirt was covered in red underneath that buffalo. Brad commented that it looked like someone had slaughtered a buffalo. It really did! Too bad there's no picture of that.

We had a "friends" birthday party (costume party!) this past Saturday, and Evelyn was quite excited, as usual, to have friends around. Even though I don't have pictures of her friends right now, they all had fun playing games and dancing and eating cupcakes and making "footprint" butterflies!

Evelyn has had her sights set on these "crown" cupcakes for months. The night before, while I was working on making them, the fondant I was using went all wrong. So at 10pm, I trashed it all and started over. I finally crawled into bed at 2am. If it wasn't for my sweet little Evie and her great desire for crown cupcakes, I wouldn't have persevered. And they didn't quite turn out as well as I had hoped. But thankfully, kids are easily pleased!

My Mom and Dad made the drive to attend her party here in Sherman, and Mom even dressed in costume: she was an indian! Too bad you can't see her entire outfit in this picture. But you can see her short little braids, and indian-painted designs on her shirt and vest. She's so cute!

So, to sum up, we had two wonderful birthday celebrations for Evie. It's such a joy to celebrate her life! We have been so blessed because of her!