Go Steelers!

Calder found Daddy's old Steelers hat and decided to take ownership.  Let's go Steelers!

Holiday Caroling at School

Last night, the kids' school had a holiday caroling night.  They brought in a couple of face painters for the kids, which turned out really cute!  Calder's class sang Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer and Jingle Bell Rock.  He knows all of the words and loves singing along to those two songs in the car!

My Rudolph:

Rudolph from courtney on Vimeo.

Tessa's class "sang" Jingle Bells.  Actually, the teachers sang it, and the kids just walked along, half of them crying.  Tessa held it together, but she was one of the lucky ones to be carried by one of the teachers.  And once she saw Daddy she reached right for him. 

 Happy in Daddy's arms!

Cooks in the Kitchen

Tessa serves up some ice cream in her kitchen...

And, here's my little Astronaut-Chef, who helped me whip up a batch of cookies this afternoon! 

Letter to Santa

Calder sort of freaked out when he realized that he really wanted a piggy bank for Christmas after we had already visited Santa.  He was very concerned about how Santa would know.  So, I suggested that we write Santa a letter...

He was so proud of his letter.  He kept "reading" it over and over.  When Dave got home, he bragged about how he did it all by himself, without any help from Mommy.  (That's sort of true... he composed the letter himself and did all of the writing, I just provided some major spelling assistance.) 

After he finished, he had the great idea to give the letter to Elfie (our Elf on a Shelf) to personally deliver to Santa tonight.  Elfie agreed, so I carefully placed the letter in Elfie's lap (without touching him of course, for fear he would lose his magic!)

After that, he wanted to write a thank-you note to Elfie for delivering the letter to Santa...but we haven't gotten around to writing that one yet.  :)

Early Gifts

While we were in Michigan for Thanksgiving, the kids received some early gifts.  They are all a hit!

This poor doll spends most of her time completely naked.  Tessa constantly wants to take off her clothes so she can wipe her bottom!

Hello, December

Happy December!  We're busy decorating and planning lots of fun activities over the next few weeks.  To kick off the season, we attended a tree-lighting ceremony at a local shopping center. 

 We went to this ceremony last year as well, and I scored the most perfect Santa picture EVER:

 

So, I definitely had high hopes for another great photo op this year.  Calder wasted no time jumping onto Santa's lap! 

But...alas, the little one could not be convinced.  She held on tight to Daddy and would not let go!

Loads of Leaves

The kids had a blast this fall playing in the leaves!  Can't wait to do it again next year!