Look What McLendon Left

McLendon was only visiting until Christmas Eve. We knew that Santa would take him home when he stopped by our house. Much to our surprise, Mac dropped a bag of goodies for the kids on the roof as he left. It was fun to watch Dad retrieve the bag and we loved getting the gifts inside.

Our Friend, McLendon

We invited one of Santa's elves to come live with us for a few days this Christmas season. He did many nice things for us, like mkaing breakfast, giving us new things in our Church bag, giving us new toothbrushes and bubble bath, and giving us a new Christmas DVD.

One morning, we woke up to find that he had given us a "Snow Day". Since we haven't received much snow this year, we thought it was a lot of fun. He TP'd the Christmas tree and hung snowflakes from the ceiling. It was one morning that we will not forget.

Baking Memories

Olivia, Audrey and I baked cookies today. The girls were really excited to help me roll out the cookies. I think they prefered to eat the leftover dough, but they had a great time doing it together.

JOY!

There are only a few moments in life that can capture full emotion through a camera's lens. This was one of them...
We went to Snowflake Lane in Bellevue and Olivia was mesmerized by the whole experience. The drummers were fantastic and she loved seeing the snow princess. I loved seeing her glow.

Olivia's Sticky Situation

Today was a day that was busy with many activities. The girls and I had many errands to run in preparation for the evenings activities, including a trip to the grocery store. We rushed home to continue our preparations.

This afternoon, right as I started getting dinner together for the kids and to bake a dish for the Relief Society activity tonight, Tyler came and asked if he could have some orange gum. I asked him what gum he was talking about because I had not bought any orange gum lately. He said he wanted the same gum Olivia had and she would not share it.

I called Olivia downstairs and noticed that her mouth was packed full of orange gum that she has put in her pocket when we were at the store.

I turned off the stove and oven, packed up Olivia (the boys went to the neighbors house) and took her back to the store to pay for the gum. The whole time she was crying and saying she was sorry and did not want to go to the store. When we got there, we went to the Customer Service desk and waited in line. Olivia was burying her head in my shoulder when it was our turn in line. I asked her to tell the lady what had happened. She refused to make eye contact.

After paying for the gum, Olivia and I headed home. She was a much more humble girl. We are hoping that this lessons sticks!!