Noon Year's Eve

Happy New Year!

We decided to go all out and have a countdown and balloon drop at noon today so the kids wouldn't feel left out.  We drank a toast to 2013, complete with a sparkling ginger pomegranate drink (after we took the picture, Peter decided our goblets needed a garnish and proceeded to place an orange slice on each one - perfect!)

After our toast, we cranked up the music and had an impromptu dance party amid dozens of balloons.

There's no better way to ring in the new year than dancing til you drop!

While we were busy dancing, Eli was playing the part of the lush... walking around the table and draining everyone's glasses of the last few drops - silly boy!

We hope you all are as excited for this new year as we are... potty training and house renovations here we come!

The Big Day

 The last few years we have really enjoyed not traveling on Christmas.  It takes so much of the stress and busyness out of the holiday and allows us to just enjoy the day with our kids.  Not that we don't love our celebrations with family during the month - it's just nice not to have to add travel into the normal craziness of the holiday.

The kids must have been good this year...

Before

and After!

This was a very Lego filled holiday for the kids with a few games and clothes mixed in.

After spending a leisurely morning together, we finally got dressed and headed out to enjoy lunch with a single sister from church - who may have gotten more than she bargained for with our crazy kids.  Luckily the weather was beautiful if a bit windy (like blow the kids over windy!) so we had them run around outside to minimize the chaos.

And just when the wind blew in enough cold weather to chase us back indoors, we headed across the street to enjoy the good company (and excellent cooking!) of our neighbors.
We finally headed home to Skype with family members before bedtime.

It turned out to be a wonderfully relaxing day.

As a side note, I have to post this picture because I was actually kind of amazed that I got them to come together in the end - there were some moments when I wasn't sure they would!  My sister got married in September and I made these stockings for her and her husband.

Hopefully they'll be able to enjoy them for many years to come!

Christmas Eve Traditions

We woke up Christmas Eve to this parting gift left by our elf, Felix.

Silly old elf!

We enjoyed a relaxing day playing games and sneaking off to wrap gifts when we could.

Lincoln and I also took a last minute trip to the store to buy fish for our traditional Jerusalem Dinner.

Cheese and flatbreads and fruit and nuts and yummy poached fish!

Although I have to say, I think the kids favorite part of the dinner is the fact that we eat by candlelight.

If it was up to them, we'd eat that way every night!

 

We finished the evening with a rather unconventional nativity performance that included a ladybug and what appears to be a Nephite.

Andrew and I then enjoyed the one night of the year when our kids don't complain about having to go to bed and stayed up way too late ourselves, knowing full well that we would be awakened pretty early the next morning.

An auspicious day

Leah's birthday celebrations got off to a great start with a special message left by Felix the Elf.

Then it was off to eat breakfast tacos with Dad!

Next on the schedule was a choir performance at our school's annual International/Cultural Festival.  This year was mostly sponsored by the Korean Education Center so we had yummy Korean bento boxes for lunch.

After a dinner of Pigs in a Blanket and Macaroni and Cheese, it was time to open presents!

Leah's big present this year was a room makeover.  Since she is no longer sharing with Eli, we decided it was time to prettify her bedroom and let her show her personality in it.

She also received a camera, art books and new clothes from grandparents.

Thanks everyone!

Leah opted to go with pie for her dessert.

A homemade peanut butter pie and an apple pie that we picked up from a local bakery.

The favorite was definitely the PB pie - seriously yummy!

We are looking forward to another great year with our precocious, talented, talkative girl.
Leah is always making plans for something and loves to involve everyone around in her plans - whether they want to be included or not!  We can't wait to see what she comes up with next!

Falling Down

Peter fell down as he was running into the kitchen the other day.  As I asked him if he was okay, he looked up at me and said:

"Aaah, my old enemy.... Gravity"

(Bonus points if you can name which movie he's paraphrasing)

Leftovers

Saturdays often end up being leftover day in our home.  Partially because we're so busy with chores around the house, and partially because we need to clean out the fridge for the coming week.

Last week Peter said the blessing on our leftover dinner as follows:

"Please bless this food that Mom has repaired for us"

I'm pretty sure it was just a pronunciation issue, but we all thought it was rather apropos.

Day 5

Aaaw... how sweet - Felix spent the morning reading a Christmas parable to our matryoshka nativity... and apparently to the whole Thorley clan.

Day 4

This morning we found Felix taking a marshmallow bath on the kitchen counter!

He was willing to share his bubbles for our hot chocolate :)

Our Advent

We have collected many advent style calendars over the years.

Each year we choose a few that we want to use and often add a new one.

Some of them are just for fun and others we use to help us keep our focus on the true meaning of Christmas.

This year we added our Lego City advent to feed our Lego addiction.

Our friendly elf also brought a mini chain countdown that is hanging on our fridge where we can see it getting shorter each day.

Another new advent countdown that we have added is this candle

The star dish was passed down to us by my grandfather and my parents brought the candle back from a recent trip to England.  We always had birthday candles similar to this when I was growing up, so this has been a fun calendar to use.  We light the candle each night while we eat dinner and blow it out when it reaches the next number.

Not all of our calendars are just about counting down the days though...

Each night before bed, we read a scripture and a short Christmas story from this book.  Each day also has a Christmas song, but my kids voted me down on singing each night - this year at least.

We are also using the advent theme in our Family Home Evenings.

 Both of my parents grew up in the Lutheran faith and one of their Christmas traditions is the Advent Wreath.

The candles represent the coming of the light of Christ to the earth.  Each Sunday one candle is lit and the sermon that week focuses on the topic represented by that candle.  Drawing on this idea, we are using those topics in our FHE lessons leading up to Christmas:

 Week 1: Prophecy Candle - in remembrance of the prophets who foretold the birth of Christ. Also, hope or expectation in anticipation of the coming Messiah. 

Week 2: Bethlehem Candle - a reminder of the love our Father has for us in sending his Son as our salvation.

Week 3: Shepherd's Candle - representing joy in the knowledge of our Redeemer

Week 4: Angel's Candle - represents the peace that Christ brings to our lives through the atonement

Christmas Eve - the white Christ Candle.  represents the purity of Christ as our sinless, spotless, pure Savior. Also, those who receive Christ as Savior are washed of their sins and made whiter than snow.

Day 2

Felix was found in the bathroom this morning.

It looks like he brought some snow back from the North Pole and used it to give us a little reminder for the morning.

Felix the Elf

 Santa's helper has come once again this year to help remind us to be nice..

This year he brought a tiny countdown chain so we would know how long he would be visiting.

We also started our advent countdowns.

This year we added a new one - Lego City!

He's my brother

The last few weeks, Peter and Eli have started playing really well together - which is huge since their personalities are so completely opposite.  Peter is very methodical and likes to take his time with things to do them right whereas Eli is just a huge bundle of energy and must be climbing and running and jumping all the time - he has no time for things like Legos unless someone else builds them for him and he can just zoom them around.  Lately, however, they seem to have found a middle ground where they can play more harmoniously and it is glorious to see.

Clearance

They were on sale for only $10 each, so we stocked up!

(This is how you spend an hour in Brenham when your tire blows out on a Sunday evening on your way back from Houston.)

Battleship Texas

 After spending Thanksgiving at Grandma and Papa's in Houston, we stayed over until Friday to play some more and decided to take a drive down to La Porte to see the San Jacinto Monument and Battleship Texas.

We mostly just drove by the monument and read the history engraved at the bottom, but we ended up spending almost 4 hours exploring the Battleship! (with only a brief stop at lunchtime to revive blood sugar levels)  They've restored a lot more of it for touring than was open back when I remember going to see it as a 3rd or 4th grader.

We practiced shooting down enemy planes...

I actually think I need one of these to do something in my house - it would be a great way to teach cooperation and collaboration since one gunner raises and lowers the barrel and the other rotates the gun back and forth.  I'm sure there could be some home application, couldn't there?

And we swabbed the deck.

This was actually much more effective after it started raining.

Too bad I can't get them this excited about mopping at home!

 The next time we redo the boys room, we are totally doing this!

It would be even cooler if we could set it up on a pulley system so we fold it up against the wall or ceiling when they're not sleeping and have a lot more room to play.

It was a good day of cool exploring and boat watching in the Ship Channel.

Thanks Grandpa!

5 years old!

This crazy boy had a birthday this week.

We did a lot of our celebrating on Monday, but tried to make it a Yes Week for him all week.

I let him pick where we ate for lunch one day - and he chose

Jack in the Box where he ordered a huge breakfast sandwich!

He really loves those eggs.

Since my oven is still out of commission, we decided to get the turkey cake Peter has been asking for all month - at least every time he sees it at the grocery store.  We thought it was appropriate since we definitely do give thanks for our Peter :)  

This is the first time we've had a store-bought cake for any birthday around here... the consensus was that there was WAY too much icing!

And of course, we had time for presents!

 Lots of Legos and Superheroes and dinosaurs made their appearance this year.

We were lucky enough to celebrate again on Thanksgiving Day with cousin Josh whose birthday is a few days after Peter's... this time with yummy homemade cupcakes and just the right amount of icing :)  

Thanks Grandma!

Peter is such a smart kid - he is always coming up with interesting animal facts to share with us.  He has a huge imagination that keeps him busy for hours when playing with Legos or animals, but sometimes results in some intense dreams so we have to be careful of what he sees in movies or on TV.  This little man loves to read and learn about dinosaurs or science.  He will start school next year, but he already knows a lot of basic math and reads as well as a 1st or 2nd grader so we are working on a plan to keep him engaged and interested.  Peter is a sweet boy who is always ready  with a hug or a kiss (especially for his mom!) and he's a huge help when it comes to keeping Eli out of trouble.  We do love this boy and are glad he's a part of our family!

I leave you with one final image...

 Here's hoping our Green Lantern turns out a little more well adjusted than Dr. Cooper!

Zilker Botanical Gardens

Our ward met this morning for a service project at the Botanical Gardens.

We helped them plant daffodil bulbs and mulch the azalea bushes.

It really was a great service project because even the kids were able to help.

After working for a couple of hours, we had a chance to explore the gardens.

They really are beautiful, even in the fall when a lot of the plants are in hibernation mode.

The picture above is a "dinosaur" in the children's garden which the kids loved

and I could have spent the rest of the day in the rose garden which was full of lovely blossoms.

 

It was a lovely way to spend a beautiful fall morning!

Longhorn Fans

An occupational hazard

Cousins!

My brother blessed his baby on Sunday and there was a great gathering of cousins!

Poor Archer was a little overwhelmed by all the chaos I think...

but I have no doubt that he will enjoy adding to it very soon :)

All the cousins on the Bardo side of the family were able to be there - 

We were especially glad that my brother's family made the drive from Tennessee

and brought a birthday celebration with them as well!

We partied at a fun park in North Houston...

pizza, cupcakes, candy, fun games, and

miniature golf!

We might need to work on his technique a little.

Daniel and the Lion's Den

 

 When Leah turned 8, she was able to start attending Activity Days - a program our church created for girls ages 8-12.  There are only two other girls this age in our ward so they were thrilled to have Leah join their ranks.  I absolutely LOVE these girls!  They encourage each other to read their scriptures and share their testimony on Fast Sunday.  I will take quality over quantity any day!!

So... the point of this post is to share the culmination of almost a year of hard work on the part of these girls and their awesome Activity Days leader.  Since just before Leah joined them, they have been working on a puppet show of Daniel and the Lion's Den.

These amazing girls made the rod puppets (including paper mache heads), wrote the script, and came up with songs to turn it into a musical!  Then they performed it twice for the Primary and again for the Young Women and other assorted ward members.  They did a wonderful job!

I'm posting a video of one of their shows here for those who are interested.  Be forewarned that it is about 10 minutes long, but it is very enjoyable.  I apologize in advance for the shaky camera work in the middle when Eli decided he needed to sit on my lap.

In case you couldn't tell from the video, Leah was the voice behind the Daniel puppet.

She had such a great time working on this project!  

I can't wait to see what they come up with next...