Christmas Morning

Ahhh the calm and peace at one o'clock in the morning, just after Santa has finished working...

Jane was the first to wake up, dragging everyone out of bed to come see the presents. Here is what she asked for from Santa when she saw him at the mall, a first bath baby.

Jill was still sleepy and moving kind of slow so Jane helped her open most of her presents.

This is Jill with her baby Alive.

Jena got some stacking blocks which she loves...

...and a shape sorter...

..and this cool gears toy that the girls played with her. Jena LOVES gears!

Jill asked Santa for a dinosaur and...

...a car. Here she is mastering her remote control car controller in a matter of seconds and racing it all around the house to torture/entertain Jackson who chased after it or was chased by it all while barking.

This is my favorite! I had to take a picture of Jane's Baby Alive (yes, Allison they ARE kind of creepy looking!). Look at the baby's foot! Think Jane has seen Toy Story enough times?

Good times!

Christmas Eve

Christmas Eve we spend at my parents' house. Here is a brief look at the chaos!

 

My mom decided to be a bit more festive this year...

My dad was in hog heaven surrounded by the grandkids.

The boys love their baby girls! Here's Jill and Cameron.

Preston and Jena

Yep.

The girls are IN LOVE with their new baby cousin Clara. When she started crying they sang twinkle twinkle little star to her until she stopped crying. She stares at them in wonder.

What a great night! Gosh, I love my family!!!

Christmas with the Sparks family

We spent the few days before Christmas with Jay's family down hear Houston. These pictures are all kind of out of order so bare with me...

When we first arrived at Pops house the girls were told that uncle Jeff's Bulldog and Pops' Lab had puppies!! They are only three weeks old but are just old enough to pick up, crawl around, lick, and climb. This is pretty much where the girls could be found (especially Jill!) during most of our visit. Jill would look at me with pleading eyes and say, "Can we take one to our house, PWWWEEEEAAASE!!" (no we did not bring home a puppy!)

Jill loves Gus almost as much as she loves his puppies and he was tolerating her laying on top of him without growling or snapping at her so I like Gus too.

Pops was giving Jena some ice cream, a rare treat since Jena is lactose intolerant (or something along those lines). It was so cute I actually forgot Jena isn't allowed to have ice cream until she was a few bites in!

On the night of the 23rd most all of Jay's family came over to Pops and Nikki's house to have dinner and exchange presents. Here is a cute one with Jay's mom, Meemaw Janet and Jay's dad, Pops.

The Sparks Family

Going from left to right: Me, holding Jill (who literally fell asleep during this picture taking session), Jay's dad and mom with his brother Jeff behind them, then Cassandra, (Jon's girlfriend) Jon, (Jay's youngest brother) holding Alazae (Cassandra's little girl), Jay holding Jane. Jena was already asleep upstairs.

Jay's grandma, Meemaw Georgie is just about the coolest grandma around. We are able to keep up with her on Facebook in between her trips with her groups of friends from the retirement community where she lives. (I swear her social calendar is busier than mine!)

Jay's aunt Jenny and cousin Ashley. We are all squeezed in by the fireplace because we were all freezing. Jay's dad likes to keep the house at a nice comfortable 60 degrees. I kid. But seriously we were all grateful when Jenny snuck over and adjusted the thermostat!

Cute pics of Pops and his girls....

The girls did some baking with Jay's stepmom Nikki. They made brownies and decorated cookies!

It was a fulfilled few days! Thanks for having us!!

Jane, the Pilgrim; Jill and Jena, the Wampanoags

Tuesday kindergarten had the annual Thanksgiving Feast we do each year but this year Jane was there too!! Look how cute my little Pilgrim girl is!

 For the feast each student brings in something like turkey, mashed potatoes, green beans, popcorn, cranberry sauce, cookies, juice, etc... Some kids like Jane choose to just fill their plates with popcorn and cookies but oh well...

Both Jena and Jill made little headdresses for their feasts at school. I got one smiling wampanoag....

And one not so smiling wampanoag....

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!!

Train Ride

We went to Trinity Park today to ride the train with Jane's friend Jennifer and her family. We got a few cute pics from the day so I thought I would post...

Here are the three big girls. They had a great time!

Jennifer's baby sister, Allison enjoyed the ride too!

Especially the rhythmic motion that put her right to sleep!

Woohoo! Jena thought it was the ride of the century!

Fun day! Beautiful weather! Thanks to the Hollis' for the invite!

Jane, the Violist

Jane is super lucky to get to take viola lessons at school. Our school, and a few others in our district, have a strings program using the Suzuki method to teach young children how to play the violin, viola, chello or bass. After listening to all of the instruments Jane chose to learn how to play the viola. She gets individual lessons once a week during school and has a group class after school once a week too and practices daily. At first the students learn how to play on a homemade box instrument. They use it to learn proper form and playing the rhythms they need for the first few songs they learn. Jane had her first "concert" last week and here are some pics. The first one is her and her friend Julie (our babysitter's daughter who is also in Suzuki at another school.) Julie and both of her sisters play the violin. All of the Eisermann girls came to watch Jane's first "concert". I keep putting it in quotations because as of the first concert Jane hadn't gotten her actual viola so her along with the rest of the "pre-twinklers" (kids who haven't learned Twinkle Twinkle Little Star- the first song) played along on stage with their boxes.

Here is Jane with her box, showing perfect form I might add!

 Here is Jane's "scared" face. I told her to show me how she was feeling and this is the look I got!

This week Jane met all of her goals and has graduated to the real viola. Here is a picture that her teacher took from the first lesson off of the box! Jane is super excited and has worked really hard to earn her viola. She is a diligent practicer and I have come to learn is very goal- oriented! I couldn't be more proud of her dedication and enthusiasm!