Cute

Third Christmas party

The Green Christmas Party is held out at the farm house, it is not very big, but it makes it all the more cosy. There were a few people who did not make it because of the sickies that had been going around.

Azrielle borrowed a flower that came off of Kati's little girl, Brielle's head, for the night.

 This is Papa Green, it warmed my heart to see Avery go and give him a big hug, twice, even though Avery had only met him, I don't count last year, and did not know him very well. We have such a happy friendly boy.

 Avery with his monkey blanket. He liked it much more once he knew it had a hoody and paws.

 Not only did Avery get a kids white elephant gift. This cowboy hat was opened by one of the adults and Avery had it on his head in less than two minutes. Jessica and I traded "gifts" so that I could bring this hat home for Avery. It is actually a chip bowl, and has been going around the gift exchange for a few years. It looks like it has finally found a home, at least until he grows out of it.

 I tried to put Azrielle down on time. She did fall asleep, but with the house being so "quiet" she did not sleep very long at all. The pink by Jeremy's right arm is his gift from the exchange, it was a pig watering can with candy inside. Jeremy emptied the candy and we turned it into yet another gift for Avery. It is now his piggy bank, Avery totally scored on the gift exchange this year.

Jeremy is looking rather tired in this picture because he worked most of the time we were up there trying to get a new shower installed for Martha and Wendy. The shower has not worked for almost 10 years. My husband is very wonderful and agreed to fix it for them for Christmas. It turned out looking great.

This is yet another gift that Avery appropriated from someone else, and then found a great use for it.

Plummer

We went up to Plummer, Id, for the Green Family Christmas party, I have been adopted into their family. 

Azrielle had to be kept up off the floor so that Roo, Wendy's 12 week old red heeler puppy, could not get her. As I could not always hold her, she got to help in the kitchen some. This is also my good friend, Wendy.

 Avery and Roo ended up being pretty good pals. Except Roo kept trying to take the toys that Avery was playing with.

 Avery wanted to see where Roo slept, since Roo would climb up in the cot with Avery when he got the chance.

 Out in the barn there was a pile of hay in front of all the stacked hay that Avery loved to slide down. Roo would sometimes come and help, if Billy were there, an older Australian Shepherd(I think), he would get in front of Avery so that Avery would not "fall" down off the hay.

It was a fun filled four days, we stayed out on the farm with Wendy and her Mother, Martha. They have cows, horses, cats, dogs, chickens, and some wild turkeys and coyotes. Avery loved getting dressed up and going out to help feed and collect the eggs. He loved to run and ride on the four wheeler. There was no snow this year, which made driving back and forth much easier.

We played hard and this is my little monkey sleeping hard. He got this monkey blanket in the kids white elephant gift exchange.

Second Christmas Party

We had an enjoyable time at our Ward Christmas Party on December 10th. No pictures from this one, we were there 5 minutes, when I turned to Jeremy and told him I had left the camera at home.
One very memorable thing did happen, I do wish I had it on video. All the primary children went up and stood on the stage to sing a couple of Christmas songs. When Avery saw all the little ones going up, he did not want to be left out, so he went too. He was one of the last ones there. He could not see a way up until he looked down at the other end and saw a chair pulled up close. He ran down and climbed up on the chair and onto the stage. Standing at the end of all the kids, not knowing the songs they were singing, he decided to climb back down. He was back on the chair when one of our young women went and "helped" him back up on the stage.
 He still didn't know the songs so he started to look around. You could tell the instant that he saw something that he wanted, he started sliding sideways then bent down and picked it up. It was a good thing an adult was close and thought quick, he had grabbed the microphone, that was still on. We were sitting halfway back in the gym and on the other side, so we could not have done much. It was very cute.

First Christmas Party

We had the opportunity to go to three different Christmas parties this year. The first one that we attended was just the kids and me. Both of our wonderful elves had the pleasure of spending some time in the NICU. Each year they have two parties, one in the summer and a Christmas party. As I was in the hospital having Azrielle on the evening of the summer party, we missed it.

Jeremy had to work so the kids and I went ourselves. Last year there were not very many people who went, the line for Santa was five minutes long and they had lots of left over crafts. This year we got there, the two lines for Santa were 30-45 minutes long, it was hard to move around and half of the crafts were already gone. 

 We had fun, we got to visit with some friends that we haven't seen in a while, pet some dogs (one of Avery's favorites) and get into the season. A nice lady took our picture in front of the tree.

 By the time we got done seeing Santa, I didn't get any pictures this year other than the Polaroid they gave me, they had cleared out the large room and there was a guy sweeping up. After changing Azrielle's diaper, I decided to go get some pics with just the kids, this one turned out cute.

W

My Friend

As the kids and I were on the way home from the Carlson's late last night, at least late for the little munchkins, Avery was in the back seat talking up a storm. I think that he was trying to stay awake. I started asking him questions about what he was talking about, he replied that he was talking to his friend. I then asked him what his friend's name was, with no hesitation at all he says "Jeremy Himle". It is nice to be thought of as a friend in your child's eyes.

When we got home he started to play with Azrielle a little while she was still in her car seat. He got her laughing so much. She sure does love her big brother!

Full Moon

Last night was a full moon, and I think that somewhere in either Jeremy or my ancestry, there was a werewolf.  Avery went to bed just like normal. Then after sleeping peacefully for about 2 hours he started to scream and cry and have a horrible night. The first half of the night I went in to try to calm him down. I would try and make sure that he was awake; take him to the potty, get him a drink, pick him up and hold him. He would go back to sleep for a little bit and then be right back to screaming and crying.
Jeremy finally told me to go to bed at quarter after midnight. Jeremy was holding Azrielle on his lap, she did not want to go to sleep either, watching a movie. He put Azrielle down at 1am. This morning Jeremy told me that Avery had been up about every hour until 4am. We were all really tired this morning. We got around to eating french toast around 10 am.

We had our ward Christmas party tonight. For the first part of the program, after we ate dinner, the Primary children got up on the stage and sang a couple of songs. When Avery saw all the little ones heading to the stage he decided that he was not going to be left out. He ran up at the end and found a chair pushed up close and climbed on up. I had mentioned to Jeremy that I wish I had remembered the camera earlier, now I really wish that I had it. He was so cute. After being put back up there by one of our Young Women, he decided maybe he had made a mistake in going up there with the other kids. He then noticed something on the stage just out of his reach. He leaned down picked up the mike that was just setting there. Thank goodness to some quick acting parent that was near to save the day, we were seated halfway back in the gym.

Our little Princess

 Comfy cozy and ready to brave the outside temperatures. 

"Who said that you could take pictures of me naked?"

 Avery and Azrielle reading a Christmas story together.

This is definitely one little girl with a big personality. She talks all of the time. Heaven help the unlucky parents who ever give this girl a cell phone.