Gracie's School Christmas Program

Tonight was Gracie's first Kindergarten Christmas program. After the music teacher lined them up he started the concert by giving the kids a second to find their parents and wave at them so they could get their wiggles out. This picture shows some of the kids taking advantage of his permission.

This picture shows Gracie standing by the Christmas tree in her classroom.

This is the group of Kindergarten and First grade students who performed together. Ella enjoyed their songs very much. She tapped her fingers to the beat of every song during the concert.

Brent had to welcome everyone to the concert, so I thought he deserved to have his picture taken.

Grandpa and Nana came up from Moberly and Mama, Granny and our family friend Bonnie all came from Unionville, so Gracie had a large cheering section.

Ella's Telephone Skills

Recently Ella has decided to talk on the phone. She loves to chat with just about anyone. She is hard to understand, but really does try to carry on a conversation. Gracie didn't like talking on the phone until she was probably almost 5 years old, so Ella is starting young. She really likes to get my cell phone and dial a contact. The cell phone is just easier to carry around, so if you ever get a call that says it's me and all you hear is jabbering, it's probably Ella calling to catch up with you!

Little Lambs Christmas Program

This morning the kids at church had their Christmas program. Gracie and Ella are both Little Lambs. It consists of kids ages 2-5 years old. Ella isn't 2 yet, but they let her and our minister's daughter go ahead and start. They sang a few songs with the big kids in their musical and then also sang a couple songs alone. Ella was very brave and went on stage, even singing a little bit until she saw us sitting down front watching her, and then she wanted her Mommy.

They looked very pretty in their Christmas clothes. Gracie reused this dress from last year. It was so pretty, so I'm glad she could wear it a second year.

Moberly's Christmas Parade

After the girls Christmas program we headed out to lunch and then went to Moberly for the Christmas parade. This year my parents were asked to be the Grand Marshalls and they wanted Gracie and Ella to ride along and wave with them. It was a nice honor and it was super cute to see my girls waving at the crowds.

A Little Monkey In My Bed

I was attempting to make our bed this morning when Ella decided to climb under the blankets and snuggle. She looked pretty precious, so I took some pictures.

I told her to pretend that she was asleep, so she did this...

Pretty realistic huh?! Ha! She was making snoring sounds and everything. Ella is quite the firecracker at 22 months old.

Ice Capades

Today was a very fun day for the Doolin girls and some friends, because Mama took us all to Des Moines to the Ice Capades. Gracie had been very excited about going to see the Disney Princesses on Ice.

Mama let the girls buy a treat, so they shared a snowcone in a special cup and bought this Cinderella wand that lights up and spins around. Ella was obviously intrigued.

Snow White is one of Ella's favorite princesses since she loves the dwarfs, so she was very excited during this scene.

This was a great scene at the end. The castle was behind all the princesses and they were all on the ice together. Gracie loved it, obviously!

The Genie on ice.

It was hard to get good pictures, but you'll have to trust me that everything was beautiful.

Kalyn enjoyed the show, too! She liked Ariel the best, I think. Thank you Mama for such a fun and memorable day. The kids will never forget the Disney Princesses and I will never forget driving through Des Moines lost! :-) Ah, memories.

(I took a lot more pictures, but during my hiatus from blogging, something has happened to my pictures that I stored on the computer. A ton of them have disappeared totally and some of the rest are now unable to be edited, and as dark as it was there, they need edited a little.)

Thanksgiving Day

We were supposed to be in Unionville for Thanksgiving this year, but Janice made a sacrifice and decided to have us come over the weekend instead. That meant we headed to Moberly for Thanksgiving. We always end up playing some kind of game, which I love since I don't get to play many adult games at our house these days.

Brent, Uncle Tommy and Teguh chose to eat in the living room. Can you imagine why? I'm sure it had nothing to do with the football game on TV at that moment.

Grandma Kaser and Teguh were watching the parade on TV for a while.

Gracie got out the art kit that my parents have with approximately 10,000 pieces. If she didn't love it so much they might be tempted to throw it away! What a mess. She has made many lovely creations with it though.

Ella spent part of her day entertaining us on the piano.

We gave the girls a bath before we left that night. Ella enjoyed squirreling around in her pj's with daddy.

I thought about making this our Christmas card this year! Suffice it to say, it's not too flattering, but here we are hanging out on the floor watching yet another game.