Well, since Eddie was off work this week we decided to head over to Portrait Innovations and get some portraits done. Paige was a natural, as you can see, but Shane had a tougher time. He just couldn’t get his smile right. We don’t know if he was just trying to hard or just being silly….maybe a little of both. Anyway, here they are!
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Shane, Paige and I baked Christmas cookies earlier this week to give to their teachers and bus drivers. Shane helped me spread the icing and did the sprinkles. Paige helped me draw designs on the cookies with the tubes of icing. We didn’t get to eat many because we were giving them away. We put the cookies in little Christmas tins and the kids couldn’t wait to give them away.
I have had a busy two weeks and not enough time to post all my stories and pictures so I am going to try and catch up over the next few days. Both Paige and Shane had super awesome holiday parties this year. I am so glad that I got to attend, participate, and take pictures. I am very blessed to be able to stay home and be involved in their lives.
At Paige’s party we had some treats, did some crafts, and played some games. She made a cool bell necklace that she didn’t take it off all day. I think she had a really good time!
Shane’s holiday party was yesterday and the homeroom moms did such a good job. They had several games planned and, of course, lots of yummy treats. He had a blast and was so glad that I was there with him.
Paige and I attended Shane’s holiday concert last week. It was a whole school production but the Kindergarteners had just a short little song to sing. They were super adorable. Afterwards, Paige and I went to Shane’s classroom and hung for a few minutes. Paige loved it in there and wouldn’t leave. I had to bribe her with a cookie from Target just to get her to come with me. You got to do what you got to do!
I have been editing photos lately to create interesting effects. Here are a few I did yesterday. Just wanted to share!
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I had to take a few cute pictures of Paige in her coat and hat this week. The temperature got down to a low of 9 degrees this week so I wanted to dress her as warm as possible. These pictures were take on December 3rd and 9th. She seemed to really dig the winter garb!
Well, tonight I made the Russian Tea Cakes (recipe from allrecipes.com) and they turned out perfect! They were made with a lot of very finely chopped walnuts so they are a little dry if you try to put too much in your mouth at one time. This happened to Paige. She just let some drop out of her mouth and chewed the rest.
Shane’s new obsession is Legos. He loves to build all types of things like cars, buildings, and even spelling words out. Today, I caught the kids playing together and Shane built a house that was so big that I had to take a picture. It is so cute to see Paige trying to be like her big brother. She would add a door or little person on to her green board and say, “See, Daddy”? She truly wants to be just like her big brother!
I had to post this because it made Paige and I laugh this morning. Something different…
I forgot to post this last week but I wanted to share my experience making cut out sugar cookies. I wanted to do something different for all of Paige’s and Shane’s teachers (at least 6) this year so I thought cookies would be fun. I used to make Christmas sugar cookies growing up and I loved putting icing on them and decorating them.
Since I am not a good baker and have never used a rolling pin before, I thought I should do a trial run before actually making the real thing for the teachers. I was very impressed with myself. The first two batches turned out perfect but the last batch I didn’t bake long enough. I made a very simple icing and colored it with food coloring. Shane and I had a great time decorating them and, of course, they were gone within 2 days. Now Shane keeps coming up to me and says, “Sugar”? I know what he is talking about and I have to keep reminding him that we will do it again soon. This time I bought some extra goodies to decorate them with.
Now, I am thinking about trying my hand at Russian Tea cookies…you know…the little powdered balls that melt in your mouth? They recipes come from allrecipes.com and they are fabulous. I couldn’t help subscribing to Christmas cookie countdown. No self control :(
We decided to take the kids bowling Sunday morning. Shane has been wanting to go bowling for a very long time so you can imagine how excited he was. Of course, we used the bumpers so that we all could have a chance at hitting some pins. Shane rolled the bowling ball down the lane with two hands but Paige used the rolling guide (made for children too small to roll a ball). We all had a blast…and didn’t do half bad. Here are some videos but you can go view the pictures here.
Our Thanksgiving dinner turned out perfect. Jeanette cooked the turkey at our house and made the sides at her house. I did the rolls and Eddie made the stuffing. We ate around 3:30 and we were starving this time since we didn’t do all the appetizers before dinner (I did make a few deviled eggs which were gone in minutes). Shane tried a little of everything but loved the rolls, of course. Paige did not want to try anything except the rolls. When she wanted more we told her that she had to try a bite of green bean casserole. She actually took a bite of it and did not spit it out….wow!!! We were excited but tried not to show it. I guess she decided that it was good because she ate several more bites and forgot about her rolls. It was a major breakthrough and I am very thankful for it!!!!! You can look at all the Thanksgiving pictures click here.
I attended Shane’s first play last week and it was wonderful. It was a turkey play and he had two speaking lines. I did get the entire play on video and plan to post it as soon as I can. I did get a few snapshots of him in his turkey costume. He was very uncomfortable in his costume causing him to be very fidgety but he hung in there. I was so proud of him!
I am almost done downloading the photos from our Disney Cruise. I will probably have them up by tomorrow evening. I took over 300 photos and I still haven’t downloaded Jeanette’s photos. Stay tuned…
Paige is now attending Parkway Early Childhood Center four mornings a week. Her first bus ride was yesterday and I got a few cute shots while we were waiting for the bus. She was very excited and she rode the bus like a pro. It was very strange to see my little baby get on a school bus.
I am still in the process of weeding through hundreds of pictures from our trip but I wanted to post a few now. I will be uploading all my photos up to the Shutterfly website and will let you know when I am done. We had a wonderful vacation and the cruise was simply amazing. We had great food, great shows and awesome service. We have already booked another cruise on the Disney Dream for June 2011. Anyone want to join us!?! 
Shane and Paige just loved Halloween this year. They were both really excited – but Shane showed the most excitement. He could not wait to go trick or treating. Here is a few pics of them in action. They were just too cute! 
I found Shane’s school class picture in his backpack today and just wanted to share. He has the happiest smile of them all and the only one with no front teeth!
I told Shane that he should go ask Dad if he could help with the leaves. He agreed to it and got his shoes and coat and helped out Dad by holding the lawn bag open. He was a little scared at first but then he got the hang of it after a few bags.
