My Cozy Little Christmas Elves

A Christmas photo shoot with my kiddos yielded tons of silly fun and laughable posing. I couldn't help but share the entire experience. I think I ended up with maybe 2 usable shots in the end. I love these kids!

Art Day!!

We had an art day! I bought some little wooden plaques for the kids to paint their own version of Blue Dog. Ellie had an itch to be artsy and Michael and Elle quickly followed suit.




It wasn't long before these amazing art pieces came to life! Large green canvas by Huntie. Praying Mantis and Blue Dog on blue background my Michael. Blue Dog on orange background by Huntie. Two abstract pieces by Ellie.

Happy Halloween!

Our great friends the Noonans joined us this Halloween. Deya is Ellie's bosom buddy and they both went trick-or-treating as Princesses. Go figure.




Ryan and Amanda patiently allowed me to dress them up - Amanda was Padme, thank you Huntie's costume last year; and Ryan went all out with the circus hat.

Kevin and I were quite a pair in our Janice-inspired "Whoopie Cushion wear."



Happy Halloween! We had lots of fun trick-or-treating. Huntie dressed up as Kit Kittredge, the American Girl. Michael was invited to a boy Halloween party and hay ride, so we girls had a night to ourselves!



And of course, the loot:

Happy Birthday Big Girl Elle!!

Happy Birthday Elle! My baby girl is 3! She is growing up so fast! She's just short of 40 inches tall and speaks to everyone, about everything, all the time - unless she's decided she's "shy" momentarily. She LOVES her dance class. She started tap and ballet class last month and wishes she could go everyday. She also started a once a week Child's Day Out program, that she loves most days. She is certainly proud to carry her own Dora lunch box into school and hang it on her hook labelled "Elle."

Elle is a dedicated dresser-upper starting each day with a carefully picked dress-up gown and shoes - the shoes being the most important element of the outfit. (So much like her daddy, about the shoes, not the dressing up, lol) Her favorite dress is a little unconventional: her Dora night gown. You can see it in the "Huntie Cafe" post.

YEAH! The newest Grandma dollie! My mom made this amazing little doll from her late mother's bathrobe. She's been making one for each of her grandchildren's birthdays this year. Here is Ellie's! So beautiful! She gushes pink and lacy and ruffly and girly, complete with jeweled slippers and crown. PERFECT to represent Elle. And as you can see, Elle approves.





In true Adams fashion, I decorated Ellie's bed with streamers so she would be celebrated the moment she woke up. So fun! I'm pretty sure Michael and Huntie were more excited about it than Elle. Oh well, she'll get the hang of it eventually. LOL.



We had birthday cake at grammy and papa's house on Sunday with daddy before he left for Norway. I made a doll cake, like my mommy used to make for me. SO fun! I really had a blast decorating that cake. I hope Michael likes doll cakes because I will be making them from now on, lol. Nah, I'll leave the rest of the cake making to grammy.


Elle was clearly pleased. *success*




This is what happens when you layer pink strawberry cake batter, then funfetti cake batter, then strawberry cake batter in a glass bowl. Looks SOOOoo cool!! Not to mention yummy.

Rise and Shout the Cougars are out!

We got invited to a special brunch in the French Quarter with BYU alumni group. So fun! Kevin was serenaded by the jazz band when Huntie told them it was her daddy's birthday.


The weather relfected the sad sad showing New Orleans' Tulane Green Tide football team showed against the Cougars - 54 to 3!! We cheerfully wore rain ponchos to and from the Superdome.


Elle wasn't do keen on rising OR shouting.


BUT, Kevin and Huntie (just like her mommy) are diehard fans. I thought it was pretty poetic to paint my family's faces for the BYU game in New Orleans - a skill I learned as a face painter in the summertime to pay my way through BYU.



Huntie and Cosmo. Oooooo, it's just so magical!


Ok, this is so sad. Look at the Tulane side of the field. So sparce, it was such a weak showing.


Now look at the BYU side. We clearly whooped their hind ends in the fan support department. Looks like we brought our home field advantage with us!


Kevin showed Mike the highest seats in the Superdome - truely the nosebleeds. Look waaaaaay up there . . .


Then he, Huntie and Michael hiked the entire distance to the center top seats of section 610. Whoa!


Look at that view!



Ellie Bellie was so tired and grumpy that she fell asleep during the game.



Huntie and I decided #51 on BYU's team was our favorite player. Can you see why?


Michael kept torpedoing into Uncle Greg, so Uncle Greg gave him a little what for with an upper hand diversion and a lower hand smack to the tummy.


Over and over again, Mike would torpedo into Greg. And over and over again, Greg would distract Mike with his right hand in the air and then slap him in the tummy with his left hand. It seriously took Michael a good 10 tries to firgure this trick out. I think he was enjoying the "game" so much, it took him a while to start dodging the slap. Lol.


It was so funny. Michael loved it.




WOOhOO! The Cougars came to New Orleans and played the Tulane Wave in the Superdome and WE got to see it! Kevin's sweet connections got us 15th row seats on the 40 yard line.

BYU has been looking great this season and just whooped up on Oklahoma, seated #3, last weekend 14 - 13! That win jumped BYU up 11 spots to rank Top 10 at #9. Very nice.