Is it Christmas Yet?!?!?!

The kiddos are in count down mode for Christmas.  We have Grandma Collene's advent calendar and a construction paper chain calendar in which to count down the days until Christmas and every morning Ayson's lets us know how many days are left until Christmas morning!

Ayson told his teacher about the song, "Rusty Chevrolet" by "Da Yoopers" and she had not heard of it before :)  Not surprising, Mommy can sing all the words!  Mommy will have to email Mrs Long a link to the song!

Ayson loves the video (youtube) for that song where the guy starts out looking for something in the snow using a metal detctor...his car buried under the snow.


Let's not forget "Grandma Got Run Over by a Reindeer"



Playtime with "Daddy Jungle Gym"
Super Addie!


The Anthony's gave the kiddos a Christmas card and MnM candy canes...thank you!


Thanks and RAWR!


Watching a Christmas movie with Daddy :)


Daddy giving the kids a leg ride.  Grandpa Roger was famous for his leg rides when Mommy and Auntie Holly were little girls :)


A note came home from school stating that Friday was pajama day.  In order to be able to wear PJs to school on Friday, the kids had to bring in 100 pennies (to help the Syracuse Children's Hospital).  So Mommy busted out the jar of pennies and had the kiddos count out 10 piles of 10 pennies.




Of course Addie wanted to wear PJs on Friday too!  Luckily, we had a couple options of "princess" jammies to pick from :)


Addie left New Kitty at Grandma Collene's last weekend as Addie could not remember where she put New Kitty.  Grandma found New Kitty in the sitting room hanging out in a pitcher and sent us the following picture :)


Saturday
Making cookies!!!!


Daddy made three kinds of cookies and the kids helped with the ingredients AND testing the cookies to make certain they turned out alright!

Shelling pistachios for a bar cookie.  Addie LOVES pistachios and Mommy couldn't shell them fast enough for Addie!


Look at my egg ears!


On Saturday night, Mommy, Grandma Collene, Aunt Sally (Grandpa Ric's sister), Auntie Julie, and Sarah (Julie's friend) went to the Old Dominion concert in Jordan NY.  In addition to the main attraction, we heard two local bands and 2 female singers...one of which was a 14 year old girl who had a great voice!  


Girls night!
We all had a fabulous time and Mommy is on the look out for our next Girls Night concert!


Sunday
The kiddos watching a show on the Kindle while sitting in the puppy tent.




Ayson making Gianna's birthday card.


No snow so trampoline time!  Nice "air" Addie!


Addie running around Gianna


Happy 14th Birthday Gianna!!!


After playing outside, we all came inside for milk and cookies.
Addie wanted Gianna to read her a story and Mommy was instructing Gianna on how to add inflection and "emotion" into what she was reading (in order to entertain Addie.  You can't just read the words, you have to make the words fun! :)
Gianna did such a great job that Addie asked Gi to read the story to her again!


The Anthony's gave the kiddos another gift, an activity pad with crayons!  The kids had fun coloring and putting stickers on the pages.  Thank you for the Christmas gifts!!!


A bit of school work:
Ayson informed Mommy that the "gingerbread man" is flying in the sky (above the houses) and that his butt crack is showing...the gray stripe on the green "shorts."  Man, teachers must learn about ALL sorts of interesting things from their school kids!


A robot, of course!


Ayson's Minecraft house.


Working with letters and sounds

Happy Birthday, Aunties!!!!

Another quick week has flown by and we STILL do not have snow!
We had a week full of birthdays: Auntie Julie and Aunt Shirley on Friday and Auntie Holly on Sunday.  We hope all of our ladies had a great birthday weekend!

Our Elf, Elvin, has been making his daily appearance and so far the kids have been mostly good ;) (Daddy moves the elf in the morning as he gets up and leaves the house before we 3 are out of bed and so far Mommy has not had to make up an excuse as to WHY Elvin is in the same spot as the day before, whew!)

Ayson has been busy drawing Minecraft toys out of paper and cardboard while Addie has been busy playing with puzzles, the farm equipment toys, and the hot wheels racetrack. Mommy noticed that the pics for this week have no pictures with just Addie....next week! We made two week night trips to Syracuse last week (flu shots for the kiddos and picking up Mommy's car) and Mommy is blaming that reason on the lack of pictures :)

We went to Grandma Collene's for the weekend as it was the last weekend of gun season, for deer. Uncle Shawn got a deer over the weekend but no luck for Daddy.  Daddy can always try with his bow for the next week or so!

Ayson drawing a Minecraft guy.


The kiddos playing horsey with Daddy.


We had a bit of running around to do in Syracuse on Thursday afternoon/evening and on the way home, Ayson sang us Christmas songs!  Thanks, Big Guy!


Daddy taking the kiddos for a tractor ride




Daddy and Uncle Shawn.


The boys hamming it up in Grandpa Ric's hats..."Do you like my hat?! (a scene from the movie "Far and Away")"


A bit of Ayson's art and school work:


Mommy likes the colors in the robot!


Great color job and counting, Big Guy!

Happy Birthday, Daddy and a Ladies only Party

Another week with mild temps and NO snow!!!!  Hopefully we will get snow soon!
We celebrated Daddy's birthday for real on Tuesday, Happy Birthday, Daddy!!

A cute story:  Addie asked Mommy for candy and Mommy said "Eat your apple first."  SO, Addie then asked Daddy for candy and Daddy replied "Didn't Mommy tell you to eat your apple first? Mommy, Addie is trying to get away with something...."
A bit later, Ayson stated "Addie tried to "carry away" her candy"...Daddy and Mommy were confused until we realized that Ayson meant Addie tried to "get away"... too cute!


Weekday fun with the spirograph


Decorating the tree!


Now Addie likes to hide inside the barn (just like Asyon)!  Bye-bye, Mumma!


Addie wanted the blanket spread out so that everyone could take a nap...Mommy loves the cow!


Mason enjoying the fire.


Our little neighbor friend, Mikahn, started going to Miss Linda's (for daycare).  Now Addie has a girl playmate in addition to Sam and Ben :)


TaDa!  The finished tree.  Daddy decided we should put every ornament on the tree this year (no more needing to keep the glass ornaments off as the kiddos are older and understand not to mess with the glass ornaments...well, for the most part :)


The kiddos breaking the wishbone from Thanksgiving dinner.


Ayson wanted lights on the outside of the house...so Daddy did!  Thanks, Daddy!


On Sunday, the McPike Ladies went to lunch at the Sherwood Inn and Mommy and Addie joined too. Thanks for the enjoyable afternoon, Ladies!


Grandma and Addie.
Addie wore her red sparkle shoes to lunch (and a pretty red princess dress, of course).  Addie received SO many compliments on her pretty shoes!  Mommy needs to work on Addie replying with "thank you" instead of turning her head or hiding behind Mommy :)



A cute "story" that the Kindergarten classes put together...Ayson is toward the middle.


More school work:








A treasure map - with the "back to the future" clock tower


A frog book






Ayson ran out of time :)



Not sure and Ayson was mad at Mommy and would not tell her what was going on in the picture :)