Audrey's Pre-K Pictures

This post is quite late in coming, but at least it's here.  Audrey had her preschool pictures taken sometime in the fall, I can't quite remember when.  I know that school pictures don't usually turn out as well as others and that a lot of parents shun them, but I'm a firm believer in them.  Everyone needs packets of pictures documenting the toothless grins, high bangs, crimped hair, and other facial and fashion mishaps of their childhood and adolescence.  (Yes, I am thinking of my own packets of pictures as I type this.)

Audrey's pictures turned out pretty cute this year.

Her class.  All 18 kids were there!

This year, rather than ordering prints, we just ordered the CD.  It turned out to be cheaper and easier.

She's geting so big!  Now I have another packet to document her growth.

I should have posted this at Thanksgiving, but I didn't.  So I'm doing it now.  Audrey came home from preschool with this little gem.  I love handprint art because I know how quickly those little hands grow.

This one I just included for the fun of it.  I'm not the greatest at making Audrey sit down and practice her writing.  But even though she's not had much instruction yet, she's doing pretty well.  She wrote "Pops" all by herself and started to write "Holyoak" above it.  She left out the "L" and threw in an "E" so we went over how to spell it and she did perfectly on her second attempt!

Merry Christmas from the Holyoaks!

We hope your Christmas is filled with laughter and joy and that Santa is good to you and your family this year.

Audrey's Preschool Christmas Program

It is already Christmas Eve.  I wish you a very happy day before Christmas.  Before I can get to any of my Christmas posts I have to finish a few others.

Presenting...

On Wednesday, December 14, Audrey's preschool had a combined Christmas program and birthday party for Jesus with both Pre-K classes.

This was a big day for our girl and she was very excited about it.  She got to dress up and sing lots of songs for an audience filled with parents, grandparents, brothers, sisters, and lots of video cameras.

Audrey ended up on the front row, right in front of a microphone, mainly with boys from the other class.  The one on her right in the plaid shirt was a little, uh, spirited.

Matt took off work for a couple of hours so he could be there with me, Truman, Glade, and Cheri.

The kids were very cute and did a very good job.  I realized how well behaved the Primary kids at church are after seeing this program of less than 40 kids.

You may notice that the microphone is right in front of Audrey in all of the pictures except this last one and all the ones below.  At one point during the program something possessed our girl and she leaned forward so that her answer of "Baby Jesus" was heard quite well in the chapel.  After she pulled that stunt the lively boy to her right in the plaid shirt tried it over and over and over until one of the teachers moved the microphone.

That's our girl! 

Her teacher did say after the program that she was so surprised that Audrey did that.  She told us that Audrey was the last child she would have expected to do something like that.  I was surprised too.  I did not expect our girl, who has given talks and scriptures in Primary and Sacrament meeting and who has more experience performing on front of audiences than the average four year old, to pull something like that.  But it was one little slip-up so we didn't dwell on it.  She did very well the rest of the program.

Trumey sat with Grammy and Grandpa and was quite good.

They had some of the hand bell players from the church come and accompany some of the singing.  They were pretty good!

At the end they all waved good-bye and then left to meet us in the fellowship hall.

A table was set with punch and cookies and we helped ourselves.

After eating refreshments and talking with some friends we headed over to check out their tree.

These pictures are all different because I was messing around with different settings on my camera.  I like how the lights sparkle in these.

I am proud of my big girl!

Christmas Cookies for Friends

When the holidays roll around I always have the best intentions for remembering everyone who is important to our family.  I think of ways I want to tell them "thank you" or "I appreciate you" or just "Merry Christmas."  I get it into my head that I will bake cakes, cookies, mini pies, and all sorts of delicious treats.  The problem I run into is that everything is a lot of work for me.  Frankly, I run out of steam and time before everyone gets their gift from us.

Last year I really wanted to bring a treat to our neighbors and ward friends, but it never happened.  I made it to a few other people, but not the ones in our neighborhood.  So this year it was their turn.

I settled on making sugar cookies.  Because I am not the best mom in the world I made the dough, cut the cookies, and baked them when the kids were asleep.  I did, however, allow the kids to help frost some of them, which they thought was the greatest thing ever.  I baked the cookies Saturday night and Sunday, December 4, we decorated them.

Truman was very excited to be included.

He ended up eating the cookies he frosted, for obvious reasons.

He really enjoyed them too!

Audrey has done this before so she was an old pro.  She knew exactly which shapes she wanted to decorate.

She did the bell above.  I think her frosting skills are really improving!

Of course, she munched on a few of her creations too.

Here are some of Truman's final results.  Not bad for a two year old! 

After letting the kids decorate (and eat) a few cookies, Matt and I put the kids to bed and finished them off. Decorating, not eating.

The next night for FHE we put on our coats and mittens and headed out with plates of cookies and Christmas cards for our neighbors.

The kids were so, so excited for our nighttime walk.

They had to take turns ringing doorbells.

Luckily, someone was home at every house but one.  I think our friends were happy and surprised by our visit.  We loved getting to tell them how much we appreciate their friendship and wishing them a Merry Christmas.

When we got home we had hot chocolate or hot apple cider and our own plate of cookies for refreshments.

It was a hit!

Hopefully next year we'll get around to another group of people we missed this year.

I Love These Faces

I live with two of the cutest faces around.

Here's one.  I love this little face.

I love the little hands that did this finger painting on his very first day in nursery back on May 8--Mother's Day.

And I love the little feet who ran from one side of the table to the other while I cooked dinner, so little hands could bring cheese cubes and orange slices to his plate, just in case I forgot to give him some.  Or maybe it was just because he could.

Do you see that little face above the bright green Christmas shirt? 

I love that face too.

I loved to hear that little voice sing during our ward Christmas party on Friday, December 2.  And I love the little hands that pulled up one pant leg above her boot.

I love these little ankle-biters.  Every day.