Wednesday, March 17, 2010

'MICHAEL'

Dawson has been so funny with Kate lately. And kids always say the funniest things. Latest example: Dawson will yell at Kate (like a parent) and it always starts out like this: "KATE MICHAEL JOLLEY!" We've told him that that is not her middle name, but he is not deterred by this! Maybe he's heard his middle name one too many times!

Wednesday, March 3, 2010

"THE STAR" - CHRISTMAS TREE 2009

The second Christmas Brandon and I shared, we bought a tree. We got all of the decorations and everything to make it beautiful. But, I could not find the right star. For me, I really wanted a star that had white lights and 'fit' our tree. Each year since Christmas 2000, we have been searching, and we finally found a star. Kate also noticed the importance of the star and talked about putting on the star the entire decorating time.

Side note: this is real life. We put up our tree far after Thanksgiving in a bit of a rush, so please ignore the small messes in our front room.

Kate picked up every ornament and said, "I put it on. The star." It was so adorable.


Starting at the bottom. Here is Faith, Dawson, and Kate putting the branches on.


Checking out the star to make sure that it would fit with our tree and the ceiling. Good news ... it worked!


Starting the lights. I always start at the bottom and wrap around each branch. This, by far, is the longest part of the decorating process and takes quite a bit of time. The tree makes Brandon break out on his arms, so I get to make sure that it is perfect.


During the light process, the kids hopped in the Christmas Tree tote and here are a few of the pics.






Finishing the decorating:



Topping the tree:





The finished product for 2009:




MEETING SANTA

These are pictures of kids telling Santa what they really wanted this year for Christmas. This was at the ward party. (The first since we have been in the ward to have Santa there. Yippeeeee!)

Faith has pretty much decided that Santa isn't real. And while we accept this fact, we can barely believe that she turned 9 last year. This still didn't detour her from making her request - a Nintendo DS.
Dawson could barely wait to tell him exactly what he wanted this year - a Webkinz.

Kate did NOT want to go and visit with Santa, though that is ALL that she talked about this year. She couldn't wait for him to come. She would say, "Santa . . . presents . . . toys!" always in that order. She asked for toys this Christmas.
If you see her sad little face, she also wanted Santa's puppy but was told no. How sad!

Santa really pulled through and delivered, we are proud to say, though he did send an email that told Dawson that he can only give DS to kids that are over the age of 9 . . .