Making Birthday invitations

Part of Charis' birthday will be centered around one of her favorite books "Dragon Dancing", so I thought that using a picture from that book and decorating it would be fun for her invitations.
Charis and I decorated a few each day until we had made enough. Charis loved it! Cut, glue, sparkles what is not to love... we both had fun!Kris wrote the invitations and we handed them out to our friends.

Jingle Bell Ride

One of our Christmas traditions is riding the Jingle Bell Ride. It is a slow bike ride through the Trail of lights. http://www.ci.austin.tx.us/tol/displays.htmWe ride from our house down to the starting point and then through the ride. This year the temperature dropped really low right before the ride. Charis was excited about wearing four shirts, two pants, two pairs of socks, a jacket, scarf and mittens. She was also distracted during the wait at the starting point by a soy-cheese sandwich.It was a good ride and lots of beautiful light displays but very cold. As we passed displays that Charis recognized she would shout out things like "Look it is Nemo" or when we passed a music one that was playing Feliz Navidad she shouted "It is my song" (from her Holiday party).We stopped to warm up by the fire with Skot.
Then Charis ran around playing with Kira for a few minutes.
Until she noticed these...
She loved them and had to do each one. I think there were five of them. Then she insisted that all of us do it.By the time we got her back in the bike, she was really cold, even under a blanket she asked to go home. We enjoyed the rest of the ride but did not hang around afterward instead we hurried home to warm up.

Birthday and Holiday parties

This weekend we had three birthday parties, one school holiday party and Luminations (my work's holiday celebration). We only made it to two of the birthday parties and the other parties, but it was a very full weekend. First was Mia's B-day.
The girls could borrow a dress from Mia and dress up like a princess or fairy or whatever. Charis said "mommy can I stay in my clothes" - she is so my daughter. But she had lots of fun playing on their playground, playing music, blowing bubbles and of course eating a cupcake.Next was Charis' school Holiday party. Charis' class sang "Hello to All the Children of the World", "Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer" & "Feliz Navidad". She did a great job! She knew most of the words and motions. It was a lot of fun to see her preform and she had a lot of fun doing it.In the hallway, eating crackers while they waited for their turn.
Charis singing and doing the motions, while the other girls got into a fight about the microphone. We thought for sure that she would join in on grabbing the microphone because she likes them so much, but she was great. She was only distracted for a second and then right back to signing and doing the motions - what a little performer.
"I want to wish you a Merry Christmas from the bottom of my heart." - for some reason she holds her throat instead of her heart.
Final bow with her friend.
Now that her performance is over she can go check out the microphone!

Next was Elias' B-day. Instead of pin a tail on the donkey, they played put the wheels on a car. It was a fun game. (Elias loves monster trucks and cars)
Check up my daughter in this beautiful dress! Thanks Mia for letting us borrow it.
Charis' turn.
Then for cake, each kid got to decorate a car with frosting and candy and then eat it.Charis had a lot of fun decorating it. But she then ate all the candy off and left the cake part. I could not convince her to try it. Then they all played, opened gifts and every kid got a turn to drive the 3 wheeler. Charis had a lot of fun! Thanks Elias, Meagan and Chase - we had a lot of fun.

Another hair cut

I cut Charis' hair again. It was getting a little too long. I tried to put layers in it and I think I did okay.
I guess I did not get a picture of the front but it looks about the same. But this time I promptly hid the scissors.

Praise GOD!

Charis has been a little sick and on Monday after school, she started having green stuff come out of her eyes. A little at first and then more than we could wipe away. When it first started we were at the opthamologist for Kris and she said that is was probably just from the cold Charis already had. Right before bedtime her right eye was really swollen and the other was getting worse. And she was crying from the pain. When I called the doctor, they agreed that it could wait til first thing in the morning, but that her eyes would be coated with green mucus and she would not be able to open them or see in the morning. Along with the swelling that they said would only get worse.

So we prayed, I asked some friends to pray, gave her tylenol and put her to bed. She woke up almost every hour and Kris and I traded off taking care of her. At 11:00pm, her right eye was swollen shut and the left was really swollen. I contunied to pray for some relief and that most of all her eyes would not be stuck shut in the morning. (It is suppose to be really scary for them to have that happen and she was already experiencing some of that with her right eye being swollen shut. And she kept crying for her glasses because she thought that was the problem)

Praise GOD!!! She woke up in the morning happy and talking to her animals. The swelling had gone down almost completely, she seemed to be in little to no pain, and the green mucus was gone.
Kris took her to the doctor while I went to work. Kris said she stayed in a good mood all morning. The doctor said she had pink eye (of course), an ear infection (that she was not complaining about) and some sort of bacteria infection. And with medication her eyes were almost back to normal in two days.
Whether God miraclously healed her from the swelling, pain and green mucus during the night or as Kris said "God gave her a kick*** immune system that allowed her to recover", it is all the same to me. God is good! Thank you God for loving my baby girl as much as I do and healing her!

Pretty nails

Charis and I decided to go to the dollar store and get something fun for our girls night. Daddy had to work late and would not be home until long after Charis went to bed. Charis found nail polish and we have never painted her nails, so I thought that would be something fun to entertain us for a while. Charis picked out the color. It was a little too pink for me but she loved it!We got our pj's on and painted our toes. She loved it and demanded that I paint mine too. Sorry no pictures of that. (I hate feet, little kids are ok but that is my limit.)

Park and Fishing

Saturdays are long days for Charis and me because she does not have school and Kris does not get home until 7:30 or 8:00. So we have to spend some of that time out of the house, we usually rotate between the park, library, children's museum, delivering food to homeless and town lake.

This week we chose riding our bikes to the park. Charis decided to climb the "scary" ladder all by herself. At least that is my name for it - I hate that ladder.

She has decided she loves the slides again, but mostly likes the big kid ones that only have crazy ways of getting to them. But today I got her to play on the toddler playscape for a little while.
We played at the park a long time today. She swung on the swings, climbed the crazy spiral, loved the fast slide, and colored with sidewalk chalk with some other kids. But right before we left she tried to play with some older girls and they kept running away from her.

Kris and I knew the day was coming, and today was just the first of many I am sure. Because today she seemed to actually notice and understand and when I put her in her trailer to go home, she said "Mommy, I am sad." I asked why and she said cause the girls don't like me and I don't have any friends. It was heartbreaking! I reassured her that she did have friends and had her help me name all of her friends at school, church and the ones that live far away. When we got home she was still sad so we called Daddy and he talked to her about it too. He cheered her up more and then we decided that distraction would be best.So Charis and I made fishing poles and water. Then Charis (with a little help) drew some fish, we attached the magnets and went FISHING. She loved it!

HALLOWEEN

Charis got to have two costumes this year! One for school and one for trick or treating. Just like Kris who also has at least three costumes.
A month ago, I asked her what she would like to go as for Halloween - thinking that she would not know and that I could guide her to something easy to make. But to my surprise Charis answered almost immediately... cookie monster!
I did not want to buy a cookie monster costume but lucky one of Kris' friends had a homemade cookie monster suit from last year for his 3 year old son. It was perfect! But because it was someone's homemade costume, Kris and I did not feel comfortable with Charis wearing it to school - sand playground and cupcakes for the party would not clean off easily.
So she went as Lilo (from Lilo and Stitch - one of her favorites). She was so cute! And she loved wearing it and dancing around.
Then for trick or treating, she of course went as Cookie monster and Kris went as Big Bird. Skot and I helped guide Kris because it was hard to see and laughed at the great reactions that Charis and Kris got from their costumes. One of the houses several blocks away remembered them from last year as Curious George and the man in the yellow hat. We were all shocked that they remembered them.
We went to a lot of houses and had a great time. When we got home, Charis got one piece of candy and we found some Halloween pretzels (what a great idea). Then she gave most of her candy to trick or treaters and Kris' friends. But kept just enough to have one piece for a couple of days.