The Elf on the Shelf

Mamaw and Papaw got Ashley an "Elf on the Shelf" for Christmas. For those of you who don't know, this seems to be all the rage this year -- it's an elf who sits around your house all during the Christmas season and zips to the North Pole each night to report to Santa on whether you've been good or bad that day. Each morning, you will usually find that he has moved to a new vantage point, or is missing altogether, which could mean that he is lying in wait at school, church, Grandma's house, etc. Unfortunately, Ashley informs me that a friend of hers at school had an elf on the shelf this year, and HER elf brought little presents each day that she was good. I have a feeling our elf will not be quite so generous. Anyway, here's a picture of me reading the Elf on the Shelf story to the kids, which explains how he works, and then there's a pic of Tyler that I just thought was too cute not to share.

Christmas Joy

We had our Christmas celebration on the morning of December 24 this year. As you can see, both kids were thrilled...the two big hits of the morning were Tyler's train set and Ashley's Barbie Girl MP3 player. What a wonderful day!

Basketball season

Ashley moved right from cheerleading to basketball, and Saturday was her first game. Basketball is really the only sport she has consistently enjoyed...we've tried soccer a number of times and t-ball once, but she really wasn't interested in either of those. I think this is going to be a great season for her...her shooting is so much better already, and she's one of the older and more experienced girls on her team, so she's getting to take the ball down the court, play point guard on occasion, and is one of the "go-to" girls when they are on offense. They unfortunately lost this game, 14-12 I think, but they still played great and I was very proud of her effort.

Fireman Tyler

Today is the first really rainy day we've had in a while, and I noticed in the closet when I was getting Ashley's rain jacket out that Tyler has one he has never even worn. And better than that, it's a fireman jacket, and it has matching boots! He has worn the boots around the house all morning (we are home because he's getting over some sort of virus that has had him down the past few days), but agreed to put on the coat so I could take pictures of him.