Mani/Pedi...Well, for Julia, at least. And she looks quite lovely and proud of her fingernails and toenails. I figured she isn't going to be staying up late for New Year's Eve like her brother, we could at least give the girl some pampering. Once again, she opted for the house special - "one hand and one foot pink, one hand and one foot red". Quite ravishing!

Beauty Queen...I think the picture is self-explanatory! (But in case you need further explanation, she is styling her hair at her new Dora Vanity Table.) Beautiful!!! And VERY serious about the process.

More pictures to come...But here are a couple of cute shots of Julia from Sunday morning...

Other Cute Pictures...

Christmas With the Elliott's...Since we are still experiencing intermittent phone and internet service, I will hop on and quickly post some pictures from Christmas. We had a wonderful Christmas...very happy and fun...went off without a hitch except for John and I are both sick (John since Christmas Eve and me on Christmas Day). I think mine is just a cold and fatigue. Once the hustle and bustle for Christmas died down, my body knew it was time to get sick...ha!...go figure...

The kids had such a wonderful Christmas and have really enjoyed all their gifts. The great thing is that they are close enough in age that this year they both enjoy a lot of the same toys and playing together. What a blessing!

Snuggle Time With Dad...When John is home, Julia loves to have him to herself as much as possible. Jumping on the bed is one of her favorite activities. Usually I am banned from the room...ha!

Saturday Fun...The kids and I spent the day making 2 different kinds of Christmas cookies and hanky-panky's for us and the neighbors. Lots of fun but lots of work! But the kids were very creative in their cookie decorating...ha!

Jacob's Holiday Party...John, Julia and I went to the Holiday Party at Jacob's school yesterday. All three of the first grade classes celebrated in the cafeteria. They had lots of food, party hats, noise makers and horns. Talk about noise bouncing off the walls...WOW! But the kids had a blast!

Gingerbread House...Yesterday I went to help out in Jacob's classroom while all the kids made homemade gingerbread houses. The kids are so creative and no two houses looked alike. It was amazing. They really did them with almost entirely by themselves and were so pleased with the results.

Night Time Fun...Wednesday night when John got home, we took the kids out to see "Alvin and the Chipmunks" and eat pizza. We had a great time and the movie kept the kids and the adults entertained...so I recommend it! The only downside is now Julia is walking around the house shaking her behind singing "Bow-chicka-wow-wow"! Oh great! But it is pretty funny!

Victory!...The Christmas cards are "officially" stuffed, stamped, and stacked. Going out in the mail tomorrow. That always feels good. Of course, based on the mail service right now, it will take approximately 2 weeks for anyone to receive their cards. Yikes! Just by the skin of my teeth before Christmas...

Ancient Marketplace...You should have seen the ancient marketplace that was set up at church today. For 4 weeks, the kids in Sunday school will be visiting a different merchant in the marketplace. Just as in the time of Jesus' birth, there is a census being taken and the time frame recreated. It was really cool. All of the Sunday school teacher's were even in costume and did a skit in the church service right before they released the kids for Sunday school. Today, Jacob's group went to the toy maker and made homemade dreidels. Jacob, Julia and I spent quite a bit of time this afternoon playing the dreidel game. I looked up the rules on the internet and we broke out the coin jar to use as tokens. Jacob is really looking forward to next week when his group goes to visit the perfume maker. There is a lesson to be learned with each merchant and will be culminated at the end of the 4 weeks. What a great idea!

Baby Huey's (x2)...Night before last I measured the kids height. I knew they had grown and several people had commented on how tall Julia was getting. Well, the results are in...since August 28 (only 3 months), Jacob has grown almost 3/4 inch and Julia has grown over 1 1/4 inch! Can you believe that!?!? No wonder they both eat like linebackers! They are going to catch up to me in no time if this keeps up!

First Snow...We woke up this morning to a beautiful snowfall. It's not Christmas yet but it sure feels like it.

Christmas Decorations...Christmas is officially in the air. John, Jacob and Julia went out last night to the local fire station and bought our Christmas tree. It has got to be one of the most perfectly shaped Christmas tree I have ever seen. After dinner, Jacob helped me hang the lights on the tree and then we all laughed at all the old ornaments as we decorated the tree. My favorites were the ornaments with pictures of the kids when they were littler. So cute!

Angel Party...I took the kids to an "Angel Party" at our church this morning. It was for kids 3-6 years. It was very cute. Fellowship hall was decorated to look like "heaven". We were having a party to celebrate Jesus' birthday. We had food, arts/crafts, and an angel choir sing with all activities geared around the birth of Baby Jesus a long time ago. They did a great job and the kids had a lot of fun. I think it is a great reminder at this time of year about what Christmas is REALLY about.

Fun With Mimi and PaPa...The rest of our visit was spent hanging out and on Sunday, Dad took all of us to a cool place called Incredible Pizza. It was like a super duper Chuck E. Cheese. We did bowling for kids, bumper cars, games, miniature golf, and pizza, etc. It was really, really fun! Talk about an adrenaline rush for kids (or as I called it "Kids on crack"!).



It was so nice to get home to see so much family. It'll really be nice when we are living back in TX and can get together on a more regular basis. What a happy time!

Our Final Stop...The afternoon of Thanksgiving day we headed to OKC to visit my Dad and Diane. My brother, Doug, had a get together Friday night at his house. Got to see his new house, meet his girlfriend, Ashley, and also see my sister, Teresa, and nephew, Trevor. It was a really fun night. Kids and adults all had fun bowling on Doug's Wii game system. I was the high scorer of the night...ha! Who would have thunk it?!?!

Thanksgiving Day...After Dallas, we headed north to John's parents in Healdton, OK. John's brother, Jared, even came down to help celebrate. He even brought John and Jacob remote control helicopters. They all had a big time with that. We had a really nice visit and even managed to squeeze in a visit with my friend, Kristin Littlefield.

Home Again, Home Again, Jiggity-Jig...We just got back a couple of days ago from a whirlwind trip to OK and TX to see Ma Mere & PaPere, Gramma and Big Daddy, and Mimi and PaPa for the Thanksgiving holidays. We had a GREAT time! A little relaxation and a little blowing and going...just right and lots 'o fun. Poor John was the only one who had to go back to NY twice for work.

While in Dallas we went to the Ft Worth Zoo. The kids got a big kick out of that. They got to ride the train, go on the carousel, and of course, see all the cool animals. I got a cool picture of a gorilla looking right at Jacob through the glass and in the reflection, you can see Jacob's face. It is awesome!

A Nice, Relaxing Saturday...We had a very nice, relaxing (much needed) Saturday around the Elliott household yesterday. The kids and I puttered around most of the morning. John bought us a new waffle iron so we had a big lunch of waffles and sausage. Yum! Then, John and Jacob went to see the Bee Movie and worked on a model airplane Jacob got from our neighbor, Mr. Greenberger, for Halloween. John and Jacob even brought home flowers for me after the movie. So, everyone went to bed with a smile on their face. Ha! It is nice to have a day like that.

More Halloween Fun...In the afternoon, I went up to help out with Jacob's class party and the Storybook Parade. All the kids had fun putting on their costumes and hanging out with their friends. We had great snack and played games. I am always amazed at how many kids each fruits and vegetables at Jacob's school. Wow! I was responsible for coming up with an arts and crafts activity for the class. Quite a challenge for someone who is not that creative/crafty. But we made homemade Fall/Halloween bookmarks for our texts and library books using stickers, ribbon, knickknacks, crayons, glue, etc. They all turned out pretty cute and the kids got to be creative about how they wanted to decorate their book mark. One of the kids even turned his into a doorknob decoration. Smart cookie! Then we finished up with the parade out on the playground. John and Julia met us up at the school for this part. All the kids were so cute!

Then we finished up the day with take-out chinese food and trick-or-treating/visiting at our neighbors houses up and down the block. Good time for everyone!