Claire's holiday party at school

Yesterday was Claire's last day of second grade for 2016. We got to join her for her holiday party. They made a picture frame which took a lot of concentration, as you can see!

Claire and her friend Alexis working on their craft.

 After making a picture frame, they got to make a candy cane ornament

 and have donuts and milk!

All done! Such a fun project to hang on the fridge!

 Claire and Alexis with their finished projects! Merry Christmas!

Our naughty little elf, Eddie

Our family elf, Eddie, has returned and is doing some crazy stuff! He likes to stay up high so the little kids won't touch him! Smart little elf!

 He tried to get the remote one day

 and worked on trying to make a peanut butter sandwich. What a mess!

Claire's first children's choir performance at Houston NW Church!

This beautiful girl was excited but nervous to perform today in church. The church had its first ever children's choir and after only 2 practices, the kids sang three songs in the front of church. Claire did amazing!

 She even made it on the big screen a few times! Even though she claimed she was not looking forward to doing this, she did admit it was fun and she would be willing to do it again! Score for Mom and Dad!

The dead tooth has to go!

Last Sunday we had to say goodbye to Claire's baby front tooth. It has been wiggly for a long time and had finally lost its color. It was so gross to look at so we decided that it had to go. It took some convincing on Claire's part, but we were able to talk her into letting Mom give it a good yank. 

 After a few pulls and some bleeding, we got the dead tooth out! 

 Once the shock wore off, Claire was pretty excited to have a hole in her mouth once again.

Claire made sure to put her tooth in her tooth jar and got the home all ready for the Tooth Fairy in case she needed to rest when she arrived. When Claire woke, she found $5 in her tooth jar and discovered the Tooth Fairy had indeed slept in the fairy house because the feather that was on top of the house was now sticking out of the doorway. What an exciting day! 

Get Air with Alexis

Claire met her friend Alexis at Get Air today for some jumping fun! It was fun to watch them both come out of their shells and face their fears on the obstacles!

 Claire and Alexis. They both went home exhausted after an hour of balancing, jumping, and climbing!

It's time to decorate the Christmas tree!

When it came time to decorate the tree this year, Claire was in charge. She took over and placed almost every ornament on the tree. It is always such a fun time of year to reflect on the meaning of each ornament. We have made it a tradition to buy a ball ornament from every place we ever vacation and to have Claire pick out an ornament each year with her name and the year written on it. What a great afternoon spent talking about each of the ornaments and how they became a part of our family tradition! We also have plenty of Claire's homemade ornaments from years past as well which are a great touch to the tree.

Happy Thanksgiving Y'all!

Jeff ordered an electric potato peeler and we got it just in time for Thanksgiving. Claire was so excited and had to tell me many times that Daddy got it just for her since her and Dad have a tradition of making the mashed potatoes.

I have to admit, it did work very well and saved lots of time. Good thing we can use it for fruits too! 

 Claire was the official taste tester of the potatoes and she gave a thumbs up!

Even though we cannot be with our extended family, we had our traditional meal and began by sharing what we are thankful for!

 It just wouldn't be Jeff and Claire if we didn't have silly picture!

 I just love this picure!

 Claire and Jeff learning how to make bracelets in our little bit of downtime while the other kids are taking a nap!

Our first batch of Christmas cookies!

Claire and I were lucky enough to have the day off together yesterday. We spent the day putting out Christmas decorations, playing school, and doing a little bit of shopping, The best part of the day was making our traditional first batch of Christmas cookies! Claire did most of it all by herself! She first rolled out the dough.

Then she picked her cutouts.

 She placed them ever so carefully on the pan to bake.

 She made sure to not mess up any of her cutouts!

 It was finally time for her favorite part...frosting the cookies! Of course she enjoyed licking her fingers the most I think! She got very creative with mixing colors and using a variety of sprinkles to make some super cute and delicious cookies! I have a feeling we will be making many batches this year!

Claire meets with Santa

Today Santa decided to make a stop at Methodist Willowbrook Hospital! We got to go so Claire could meet with him and let him know what she is wanting for Christmas. First she met with Mrs. Claus..

 Then she got a little lecture from Santa himself! She told him she would like a basketball for Christmas.

Finally, we got a picture with both Mr and Mrs Claus! A fun way to start the holiday season!

Sleepover with Addisyn

                                     

Claire had such a fun sleepover with her good friend Addisyn. Of course they wanted to make something sweet. They picked out brownies with frosting and then had to have cookie dough ice cream to go with it. We had fun watching the girls prepare the brownies all by themselves.

 After baking them and letting them cool, it was time to frost them with bright yellow frosting! Both girls wanted to just eat the frosting from the container!

Then it was time for some "Go Noodle" dancing on the computer...

 and some reading in their fort before going to bed.

This morning we went for a walk. The girls did some jogging and then took some baby dolls for a stroll with us.

We had gotten Claire this electric scooter for Christmas last year and she had never been brave enough to try it out. Well, you have to be brave in front of your friends right? So Jeff brought it out and both girls had a blast riding it. I have a feeling we won't be able to keep Claire off of it from now on!