Christmas Eve Elf

Our Jones family tradition continues with the Christmas Elf.  Our elf has been filling our shoes long before the Elf on the Shelf.  I love it!  

The boys got fruit snacks and band-aid, SK got chalk and band-aids, and Neil received body wash and tootsie rolls. I got some hand soap.

Sarah Kathryn was thrilled!  She loves chalk.

And big brother feeding her fruit snacks.

My sweet 3!

We went to Dad's house next to see what we received!  A new addition this year was Carolyn's shoe...how sweet!

SK didn't know what to think!

Dad went and picked up a delicious breakfast of McDonald's and we enjoyed it together.  What a fun morning!

Tacky Christmas Party

Beau and Leigh had their annual tacky Christmas party and it was fun as always.  I couldn't sleep the the other night so I stayed up on Pinterest searching for tacky styles for myself.  When I stumbled upon Christmas tree hair I knew it was for me!  Between Neil and our neighbor Karen who is a hair stylist we got it up!  I sent pics to Karen and she gave me lots of tips. Neil was my main stylist. We held it up, tied it off, and event sprayed it green for me.   He is such a good sport.  He was not up for me painting his hair, though.

This was before I added battery operated lights that made it ON FLEEK!

Work-out buddies in their tacky sweaters

ready for the tacky gift exchange

Erinn and Trey got our gift!  Neil actually had a tenant leave this gorgeous piece of art!  

This giant can of tuna was so funny!  It came in a Lee Michaels bag!

The coveted blanket that everyone wants!!

Our sweatshirts have been worn about 6 times!   

Oh and I won tackiest individual!  such a honor!

Dicharry's won tackiest couple as Rudolph and Santa!

Thanks for this pic, Leigh!

Caroling 2015

We had a great caroling adventure this year!  We had some spirited singers and they brought joy to so many neighbors!  When Jennifer said they were gong to have a hayride and Justin was going to pull it using the golf cart...we said Let's combine our caroling efforts!  It was a great idea.

Neil stayed home with SK while we traveled the hood in search of people who were home and ready for a caroling brigade.  About half-way through the adventure Sweet Catherine started coughing and they realized she was allergic to the hay.  poor thing!  Thankfully she is all better!

I think Bennett thinks he is too old for this fun because he liked finding any rocker, swing, or chair on porches and took a seat like it was his home! :)  Argh!

We had a few people come outside and basically ask us to carol to their doors.  It was a delight for us and them!

Mrs. Gae LOVED our carolers.

Henry and me.  Bennett is too old for pictures with mom! :(

Caroling Cuties

Christmas filled fun

We've been having so much fun with all of our Christmas festivities.  We spent a couple of fun days with Amy and her crew and had some Christmas fun.  We went to the live nativity at St. Joseph's and to the Santa pancake breakfast at Strawn's with them.  Tons of Christmas fun!

The kids loved petting the animals.

While Daddy hunted we saw the nativity.

This is what baby girl did for about 20 or the 30 minutes we were there.

Rudolph pancakes at Strawn's

Sarah Kathryn was loving Baby Beau!  She got ticked when she didn't get to actually hold him.  

2/3 ain't bad!

Henry's Christmas program

Henry's little Christmas program was so sweet!  I heard that parents got there to get their seats at 6am!  WHAT??  Mom and I arrived at 7:30am and we got some good seats.  His teacher told me that he was dead center on the front row.  Good place for my boy!

I kept staring at the bleach stain on his adorable Christmas outfit.  Someone accidently put bleach in the washer in the wrong location so it drips out randomly on the clothes.  I didn't have anything else for him to wear so the bleach-stained Christmas outfit was it!

He sang his little heart out in between tucking in and taking out his shirt out of his pants. He also got his hand stuck in the back of the shirt...not sure how!  He kept trying to work it out the whole time.  Precious thing!

Bleach stain front and center! :)

Thanks to Pops and Gammy for coming to watch!

Christmas cake after the program

Mom and H

Henry and his teacher

Bennett's school Christmas party

We had Henry's party, went back to my office, and then went to Bennett's party. We had about 5 Christmas things at their schools the week before Christmas break.  Busy, Busy!

Bennett's was Polar Express themed. They wore pajamas to school and the notes leading up to it said the parents should wear them, too!  I grabbed pajamas from Target, changed at work, and then headed to the school.  I was the only mom in pajamas.  Yep.  Me.  The teachers were wearing them, but not the parents!  I just didn't want to be like the Halloween party in K where I was the only parent NOT wearing pajamas!  Oh well, I will know for next time.

Henry loved seeing Bryce at the party.  His big brother and Bennett played on the same football team so they got to play a lot.

Bennett had 4 rotations and then a fun snack.  They had ring toss on a hat, some Santa shuffle dance thing, Christmas BINGO, and crepe paper Christmas trees.

Got my boy in a pic!!  He is the sweetest 7 year old I know!

Calling the North Pole.

Making Bennett into a Christmas tree

He LOVED it!

Amy came down to join the festivities.  Henry went up to her and said "where's Daniel?"

Henry messed up his BINGO card.  Little brothers.

Pops even stopped by for a minute.  The snack was hot chocolate, cupcakes, cookies, chips, and candy!  Talk about healthy!

Henry made himself right at home on the rug with the movie.

Ice Skating in Shreveport?

One of the local churches had a really fun ice skating rink this December.  The church used to be a mall so it had lots of room!  In fact, I bet they could have done it inside!  It was a fun night with a little train ride, crafts, and of course, ice skating! 

Bennett was so excited to ide skate.  Henry decided he didn't want to skate until we got all the way out there and then he changed his mind!  I was thankful Ella was there to help with Henry on the rink.  I has SK who was not too happy about being in the stroller.  Oh, mom of the year didn't bring coats for me or SK.  Oops.  It was cooooold.

Right before they put on their skates!

a little train ride

Sister was loving it!

And this pretty much sums up ice skating.

Thanks, Ella!

Rail holding the whole time.

She was NOT satisfied until she got the WHOLE CHICKEN ON A STICK!  Diva!