Whooo-wee! We're done! Three programs, 5 parties, 2 sick kids, lots of shopping, putting up our decorations and Christmas lights as well as helping both sets of Grandparents do the same...No wonder I'm tired!
Saturday night we decided on the spur of the moment to go to a live nativity in a nearby town that we had heard about. Note to self, next year, don't go on Saturday night. We waited for close to an hour and a half, but it wasn't so bad because after a half hour, you made it far enough up the line that you got to go into the sanctuary and could sit and watch the entertainment which was, amazingly enough, actually entertaining.
Then the walking tour began. We were all given passports that we had to keep at the ready at all times because Roman soldiers on horseback would charge up and demand to see them. We walked through the grounds and passed the Three Wise Men on their journey to follow the star, we met some shepherds at their campfire and were amazed by an angel appearing with a heavenly message. We were attacked by robbers on our journey to Bethlehem, but the Roman soldiers saved us just in time. When we got to Bethlehem, we were counted in the census and our passports were stamped. Then we got to explore the Bethlehem marketplace and finally saw baby Jesus in a stable on the outskirts of town. It was an amazing production (and totally free!) and something the kids and I are still talking about. We will definitly do this again next year. Call if you want to come with us!
Jenna clutching her passport. Need to get that girl some red mittens!
The amazing Bethlehem marketplace.
The Unibomber, aka Cole, petting a mini goat.
The star of the show.
Sunday was church, a heartbreaking Cowboy game, and thankfully, a quiet evening at home. There was an old Mr. Bean movie on T.V. that we had never seen, so we DVR'd it (so we could skip the commercials) and made popcorn.
What is so funny you ask?
Why making popcorn in a Stir Crazy popper! Seriously. The kids were all lined up in eager expectation and cracking up at the popping crazyness. They were amazed to find out that in our pre-microwave youth, this is how we always made popcorn. Hilarious! Wait til I tell them about turning the knob (click, click, click) on the T.V. to change the channel.
( Yes, I gave birth to that head!)
After the feast, he showed me the little book he made about Thanksgiving, and I asked him to tell me about each page. Here's our conversation regarding the first page...
Me: "What is this a picture of, Grant?"
Grant: "That's a battleship."
Me: "Really? I kinda thought it might be the ship the pilgrims sailed to America on."
Grant: "Oh yeah. That's what it is."
Me: "Do you remember the name of the ship they sailed on?"
Grant: "Um...The Cauliflower?"
Close, sweetie. Very, very close.
Happy Thanksgiving, y'all! May you gather some sweet, sweet memories.
You've already seen the fairy princess. Now meet Indiana Jones (Posing like the movie poster. You can't see his whip cuz his hand is too far back) and introducing...Little Elvis!
It's a crying shame I didn't get a better picture, but trust me, this costume was sweet! There were a ridiculous number of woman-hours put into it. Gran made the costume, and I applied the bling. The glasses with attached sideburns complete the look. Grant was quite a hit as he said, "Thank you. Thank you very much" in his deep Elvis voice at each house.
Cole's inspired creation.
Those Elvis glasses are a crack-up!
The whole crew...Elvis is playing his air guitar for you
Cutest little punkin...our niece, Sophia
Fairy Princess with a mouth full of Kit Kat
Cole found that a sheet on your head in 80 degree weather is rather stifling.
Indy with his loot.
My little girl is 3! I just can't believe it. I want to write more about alll of my emotions and thoughts about the last 20 months with Jenna, but I will have to save it for another post when I have more time. For now, let me just say that Jenna is a far different little girl than she was when she first joined our family. At three, she is joyful, laughs with abandon, shys away from those she is uncomforable with (which still includes most men), has attitude to spare, is smart as a whip, and is a total girly-girl. We had her party a couple of days early and it included all of her cousins and our closest friends and their three kiddos.
Just monkeyin' around...
Waiting to blow out her Dora and Diego cake. Dora is "da bomb" in Jenna's opinion. She talked about her "Dora party, and Dora plates, and Dora cups, and Dora napkins" for weeks. When I showed her the cake I was ordering, she squealed with delight! Gosh, it's fun making someone's day!
The guests were Jenna's favorite people--her brothers and cousins and friends.
Look at all that pink. And look at her giving the evil eye to poor Garrett who just wanted to see her gift, not hi-jack it! If you enlarge the picture, you can almost hear her saying NO, NO, NO!
Happy Birthday, Sweetheart!
We went to a local pumpkin patch last night with some family friends and had a BLAST! This one was new to us, and had tons of fun things, but strangely enough, no pumpkins that I can recall.
They had a HUGE slide that Jenna and Grant went down a million times. Each time, Grant said, "Oh! I got a wedgie."
There was a giant water balloon slingshot. Here are the boys waiting in line.
Grant getting some help from Daddy.
Cole on the zip line. 
Jenna doing the baby zip line.
Mason waiting his turn on the rope swing. 
Jenna and Blake. Too cute for words!
The big feature was a ginormous maze cut into a 6 acre corn field. The kids thought running through it with flashlights was the hugest adventure.
Our sweet bunch. By the way, Cole is holding the map for the corn maze. Pretty amazing, huh? (You can click on the pics to make them bigger.)
