Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas!

Christmas Eve

 Our Christmas Eve was full of game playing, baking cookies for Santa, baking ham and mashed potatoes for dinner, reading the story of Baby Jesus, going to Christmas Eve service and getting into our Christmas jammies.

We had a great day as a family and can't wait to celebrate the birth of Jesus tomorrow.

Calla

Our Elf on the Shelf, Calla, has been busy lately.  She loves to make the girls laugh.  Here she is taking a bubble bath in marshmallows.

 Calla really likes our new pet, Prince Eric.  He was a Christmas gift from our wonderful neighbors, Mr. Bob and Ms. Connie.  The girls love to sit and watch Prince Eric.

 Calla has also been known to hang off of pictures, hide in stockings, eat M&Ms, drive doll cars, and sit in the Christmas tree.  We have had a lot of fun with Calla this year.  This morning Calla brought a card and gift for the girls.  The card thanked them for letting her visit this year, told them they were on the nice list and she would see them next year.  The girls were very excited that Calla brought them something.  Hadley decided that she wanted to give Calla a gift and write her a card.  The girls spent time drawing cards for her and then wrapped up a couple of toys for Calla to take back to the North Pole with her.
Here they are with the gifts they left her.

I think they were both a little sad to say goodbye to Calla tonight but they excitement of Santa took over and all was good.

Edible Christmas Trees

We have been trying to do some sort of Christmas activity each day this week.  One of the activities was to make Christmas tress out of ice cream cones.  I used this as my bribe to get the girls to behave at the grocery store on Monday.  I told them we would make them when we got home.  I did not count on Target being out of the actual cone shaped ice cream cones.  So we made due with what we could get.  They still had fun and looked somewhat like a Christmas tree.

 And this is what Jillian looked like after eating her Christmas tree.

Baby Kirk #3

We had an ultrasound last Tuesday and everything looks great. We got some good pictures of the baby but our scanner isn't working so I will post them when I can.  Baby's heartbeat was 176.  My doctor moved my due date up a little and I am now due July 2 (no I will not try and hold out for a firecracker baby).  If this baby is like the other two he/she will be making an early arrival.
I was very excited when my doctor moved the dates because that meant I was less than a week away from the 12 week mark.  I am hoping the 12th week marks a time of no sickness but we will have to see. 
We took the girls with us to the ultrasound.  I wanted them to be able to hear the heartbeat and see the baby.  I prepared them by looking at ultrasound pictures from when I was 6 weeks pregnant with Hadley and 10 weeks pregnant with Jillian.  As we were watching on the screen Hadley said, "That does not look like a baby."  She was a little more convinced when she heard the heartbeat.  Jillian on the other hand had been saying there was no baby in my tummy but after the ultrasound she is sure there is a baby in there.
We have started talking names and I think the girls are pretty sure they will be naming this baby.  That could make for a real interesting name.  We are excited to find out what we are having and hope to do that in January or February.

Christmas Parties

Last week was a week full of Christmas parties.  It started on Tuesday with Jillian's  party at school.  Here she is in her Christmas shirt.  Her face cracks me up.  I wasn't able to make it to her party but she seemed to have a great time.  She came home with lots of goodies.

 Thursday morning was Hadley's party at school.  Jillian was in school at the same time so I was able to help with the party.  They all seemed to have a good time.  We made reindeer food, snowman and reindeer snacks and an adorable fingerprint ornament.  I love getting to be back in the the classroom from time to time and see all the little kiddos.  Hadley had a great time.  One of the best parts of the party was when their class elf on the shelf, Jingle brought them a present.  It was a huge box wrapped with lots of smaller boxes wrapped inside.  The kids thought it was funny.  Finally they got to their present, candy canes.  They were very excited and thought their elf was very silly.  Here is my girl all grown up.

 Thursday afternoon was parent observation day and party day at ballet/tap/jazz class.  Hadley did great.  I had never seen her do her jazz dance and she really got into it.  Here is our beautiful ballerina.

 Friday morning was a busy morning and I was very thankful that Mike had the day off.  Jillian had parent observation day and party at tumbling and Hadley was singing for the Grandma and Grandpa's at school.  Both things were at 10am so we had to divide and conquer.  I videotaped Hadley's performance and Mike took pictures at Jillian's.  Jillian looks all grown-up in this picture.

 We ended Friday night by getting in jammies and going to see Christmas lights.  It was fun but about 30 minutes into it Hadley said, "Can we go home and go to bed?"  It was a busy week and she was done.

December catch up

This is the post where I try and catch up on all the things we have done this December.  I am so tired right now that blogging is not even on the list of things to do these days.  Most days I am doing good to clothe and feed the kids :)
We started December by decorating for Christmas.  The girls were a big help this year.

The morning after we got the house decorated our Elf on the Shelf, Calla, came back for her yearly visit.  She has been the silly elf this year.

This past Sunday Hadley was in the Christmas program at church.  Her class sang 3 songs.  She did a great job.  She was a sheep.

 Jillian felt a little left out of all the picture taking so we had our own photo shoot.

 And then Hadley figured out what we were doing.

 A couple of weeks ago Lady came for a visit and made gingerbread houses with the girls.

December has been quite the busy month and is getting even busier.  I hope to update again soon but am not promising anything.

Exciting news...

The girls got some exciting news from their elf, Calla, last week.  This is how they found her.

They were both very excited.  Hadley started jumping up and down and could not wait to tell everyone.  When we took her to school that morning she was not even out of the van (yes we are now a mini van family) and she was yelling her news to her teacher.  It was very cute.  Jillian is excited but is sure there is no baby in my tummy and that it will be there in "ly" (July).
Mike and I are very excited. This pregnancy has really taken it out of me.  I have been pretty sick and very tired.  Hadley even offered to watch Jillian one afternoon because, "Mom making a baby is hard work."  She also has been coming into the bathroom every morning when I am in the shower and asking if my tummy is bigger yet.  I am so excited to see the girls with a baby in the house.  I don't think July will get here soon enough.

Thanksgiving

Happy Thanksgiving!  I can barely type this because I am so full.  We had a great Thanksgiving.  We had 11 here at our house and I really enjoyed hosting.  We had way too much food but that means I don't have to cook for a few days :)  The girls loved having everyone here.  Hadley said, "This is the best day.  My favorite part was having all the people at my house."  I did take a few pictures throughout the day.

Alex and Loryn having a relaxing morning.

 Thanksgiving craft time with Lady.

 The girls loved having Loryn to entertain them.

 Our little pilgrim girl.

 Lady is such a turkey.

 The whole group.

 Time to eat!

 Time to work off all the extra calories.

 We ended the day with a little webcam time with Auntie Jessica and Sophia.