Cousin time

On Thursday night Will, Danielle, Emalee, and Rylee came for dinner. Uncle Will likes to play rough and he makes the kids WILD.

On Christmas Eve morning, MawMaw helped Emalee, Rylee, Ben, and Mollie make cookies for Santa. Ben was horrified when Rylee ate a cookie, saying, "Those are for Santa!" MawMaw explained that Santa didn't need but a few cookies and they could eat the rest.

Barn

One of Ben's favorite things about visiting my parents is going to the barn with PawPaw. This visit PawPaw took us to Uncle Dub's barn where he had week old baby twin goats. Ben loved petting the baby goats and wasn't even scared when the mama goat butted him. Then he chased the billy goats all around the pasture.

Mollie wasn't as excited about the goats. PawPaw finally got her near them for a pic.

Mollie "picked" eggs and fed the horses for the first time.

Santa

I discovered recently that Ben thought Santa lived at Bass Pro Shop, because that's where we always visit Santa. One night Ben told me that he was building Santa's house. He said, "This is Bass Pro Shop and here is a place for the elves to play." He was amazed to find Santa in the mall when I took them to have their pictures taken at Olan Mills a couple of weeks ago. This year we haven't made it to Jackson to see Santa at Bass Pro so today at lunchtime we picked up John and went to see Santa at the mall. Ben wasn't sure why Santa was there a second time (rather than at Bass Pro); however, we explained that Santa goes all kinds of places (even to other states) to see as many children as he can.

Mollie was not as excited to see Santa as Ben was. At least she didn't cry uncontrollably. Ben told Santa he wanted Duplos, a real guitar, a bicycle, and a "shovel rake" (whatever that is. He just came up with that last night).

Neighbors

This morning we made chocolate chip cookies and shared them with our neighbors. Now we're headed to see Santa Claus. We're in full Christmas mode today.

Elf

Doesn't Mollie look like one of Santa's elves in this outfit?

Big Church

Tonight at church the two and three year olds recited the verses they've been learning this fall and sang two Christmas songs. Ben is the next to last kid on the right wearing khaki pants and a green vest.

Uncle Zac

Zac came to visit us this weekend. He spent Saturday night and went to church with us this morning. He had to work Thanksgiving and will be at work Christmas, too. We were very glad to see him. He and Ben are avoiding having their picture taken.

Man Trip

On Friday night, Ben and John made their first trip to the camp with just the two of them. We had planned to go as a family, but decided Mollie didn't need to go since she's been sick. Ben still wanted to go, though. We were a little concerned that he would get sad at bed time, but John said he did great. Ben played with Nana while John and Grandaddy hunted Saturday morning.

Maybe the title of this post should have been "Ben sticking out his tongue." You can see John's shadow trying to get a picture of Ben at the camp. Maybe Nana and Grandaddy have some better pictures of Ben's first trip to the camp with John.

This is a funny picture John took of Ben running after Grandaddy. I think both of Ben's feet are off the ground.

Wrapping

We were invited to a friend's house to wrap presents on Friday morning. Ben alternated between watching PBS in the den and helping me wrap presents. Mollie spent most of the morning on my hip but I was able to get all my gifts wrapped.

Adding some decoration to Janey's present.

Wrapping PawPaw Mac's present. Ben wrapped PawPaw's present all by himself.

It required a lot of tape.

Visiting

On Thursday, several friends and I took our kids to visit at a local retirement home. Before we went, Ben made Christmas cards. On each card he wrote, "MR CHRISTMAS" and his name. MR was for merry since those were the sounds he could hear in the word. I spelled Christmas for him. After he ran out of cards, he gave the residents stickers. I didn't get any pictures because I was directing Ben and had a fussy Mollie on my hip. She had an ear infection last week and has been out of sorts. We all had lunch and played at Chick-fil-a afterwards.

Christmas Carols

This video is of Ben and Mollie singing. The reason we're always at the table on these singing videos is that during the week we read the Bible, pray, and sing during breakfast. I have no idea what Mollie is saying and Ben totally makes up the words during the second verse of Joy to the World.

Let Us Adore Him

The past two Sunday nights, we've sang "O Come All Ye Faithful" at church. It's so sweet to hear Ben join in on the chorus and he does it with gusto. He improvises the verses around the words he remembers.

Christmas Pictures

The Wednesday before Thanksgiving, we met Fran, MV, and Janey at Olan Mills for our yearly cousin picture. Below is a link to the picture we finally chose. As usual, it isn't perfect. Mollie has her blanket. Janey looks a little scared, but everyone is looking at the camera and no one is crying.

Cousin Pic with MV and Janey

I had hoped to get a picture of Ben and Mollie together, but Mollie was done by the time we got a cousin picture. We made a couple of attempts but the pictures were terrible. Here is a really cute one of Mollie by herself, though.

Mollie pic from Cousin Pictures

After I had mentally recovered from the cousin pictures, I scheduled another session for Ben and Mollie. It took a while, but the photographer got several cute pictures of them together.

Ben and Mollie

Ben

Ben and Mollie

18 Months

Mollie had her 18-month well child check up Friday morning. She weighs 22.6 lbs and is 32 inches tall.

Mollie loves to climb up and down, up and down, up and down on the step stools. Notice how Ben made his taller with building blocks.

Music Notes

On Wednesday nights, the 2 and 3-year-olds have 30 minutes of catechism with Mrs. Rachel and 30 minutes of music with Mrs. Whitney. According to Ben, Mrs. Whitney has been teaching them about beats and rhythms. She draws music notes like these that Ben drew.

Ornaments

John was in Tupelo at a meeting Friday and Saturday. We were supposed to go with him to visit friends, but Ben threw up all morning Thursday and I was scared to take a trip with Mollie and I possibly exposed to a stomach virus. We kept busy by making another round of Christmas cookies and by painting ornaments.

Mollie painted the egg carton and the ornaments.

Notice how serious her face looks. She's really concentrating.

Christmas Tree

We put our Christmas tree up last Saturday night. Ben put the star on top.

John had to straighten it a little.

John put the first ornament on the tree, mouse ears from Disney World.

Ben put his 2012 ornament on the tree, Space Captain Mickey with Toodles from Mickey Mouse Clubhouse. Mickey Mouse Clubhouse is a daily part of mine and Ben's life. Every morning he gets up and comes and gets in bed with me and we watch Mickey Mouse Clubhouse. Mollie is usually still sleeping (sometimes I'm still sleeping too).

John helping Mollie put her 2012 ornament on the tree -- Elmo or Belbo as she calls him. Like Ben, Mollie loves Elmo so we now have two Elmo ornaments on our tree.

Waving at "Belbo" on the tree. He had to be moved higher because Mollie didn't want to leave him on the tree.

Ben and Mollie playing with the Little People nativity.





The decorated tree.

Our living room.

The Christmas angel Ben made at church on Wednesday night.

Raking Leaves

John had lots of help raking leaves last Saturday.



Mollie was determined to swing on the big swing.

Christmas cookies

We started out the month by making Christmas cookies on December 2.

December

I have totally failed to put pictures on the blog so far this month. This is a picture of Ben and Mollie playing at the park on Dec. 1.

TV

Ben and Mollie are watching Bob the Builder on our new Black Friday TV. Wednesday and Thursday were busy days. Ben, Mollie, and I headed to Jackson Wednesday morning to meet Fran, MV and Janey for our yearly cousin picture. Mollie was the difficult one this year. We spent the night with the Elders. Thursday, we ate lunch with the Elders and then headed to Jena for supper with MawMaw and PawPaw. After supper, Ben and Mollie went home with Mama while I went to Wal-Mart. The sale started at midnight and I really wanted to get a TV so I got in line at 8:30. I was the 19th person in line and there were 32 40" TVs. I made a few purchases after midnight and got back to Mama and Daddy's house around 1:15 a.m.

The new TV is currently sitting on our sofa table until we get a new entertainment center. Our original plan was to wait until we got the entertainment center to set up the new TV. John had barely unloaded it when he started thinking about how he could watch the Mississippi State v. Ole Miss game on the bigger screen if we set it up. It didn't take much to convince me. Ben on the other hand, found changing TVs "charmastic." (I think he meant traumatic.) He does not like change.

Rubber Boots

When Ben was Mollie's age, I had to teach him how to wade in puddles. He wasn't sure about it. Mollie watched Ben for about a second and then waded in.

Mollie is wearing Ben's first pair of rubber boots.

They are wearing long sleeved shirts just because it is late November. It was in the mid-70s while we were outside. We didn't stay out long, though, since they got themselves wet pretty quickly.

This is why I literally dumped water out of Ben's boots into the sink after we came inside.

Mollie had lots of fun and did NOT want to come inside.