Cinnamon Rolls.....Yum!!

I don't make cinnamon rolls very often...a major source of disappointment for my husband and kids, but when I do they are delicious and they disappear quickly.  Yummy and sticky.

Arts & Crafts and other Fun Things

Painting...Coloring...Drawing.  If I let the girls do these things all day, they would.  Every time I turn around the table has exploded with papers, markers, pencils, tape, paint, scissors, glue.  Emily says she wants to be an artist.  Of course Sarah's paints look a lot different than Emily's.  Emily's are perfectly beautiful and not mixed...Sarah's on the other hand...well eventually her paints end up looking like one color:)

I have been attempting to discipline myself to take time in the afternoon after lunch and school work is done to allow the kids to get out anything they want to work on, and to be available to help them with what they need.  It is difficult for me to jus sit and watch and work with them sometimes, when I can think of a hundred other things I "need" to get done.  I'm trying to remember this time will pass and one day I will wish I watched them more...somedays are easier than others to remember this.

Derek likes to draw too, but on his own time.  During our afternoon project time he usually wants to do something else...such as play chess.  So one day we did this while the girls colored and painted.

He also likes to do science projects.  This project was to make slime...he loved this one.  It was pretty neat to see the ingredients become this solid slime:)

Christmas Day

Darrell received a great Christmas Day gift from one of his fellow residents.  One of the residents offered to work for him on Christmas so he could be with his family...So so sweet.  He wouldn't let her work the whole day, he wanted to get most of the work done so she didn't have to do much the rest of the day.  So he went in for the morning and came home around noon.  So he did get to spend time with us on Christmas.  Since we had already done the presents 2 days ago, we went on an adventure in the desert.  Darrell made a fire and we had a little lunch consisting of summer sausage, bread, cheese, and cutie oranges.

Here is sweet Emily, posing for me.

I was experimenting with my new camera lenses, and I loved this picture of Derek and Sarah trying to help Darrell blow the fire to life.

Emily had the idea to heat her sausage up over the fire, so Sarah joined in also.

Emily enjoying her warm sausage.

These are just fun pictures I took with my zoom lens.

I took this picture of Sarah playing with rocks.  I zoomed up on a picture of her pouring rocks into her hands and was amazed at the detail I could see.

"Christmas"

Darrell was scheduled to work on Christmas Day, so we celebrated 2 days earlier on Sunday.  In the evening we went to my parents for our annual Mexican Food dinner before Christmas.  The food was delicious.  My Dad always buys chips and salsa from a restaurant called Pedro's and we have chimichangas.  As a continuation of the Hansel and Gretel theme for my Mom's piano studio, the kids made gingerbread houses. 

The kids had to wait for Darrell to get home on Sunday morning before they could open presents.  He went to work Saturday morning and got off around 8:00 on Sunday (yes 24 hours).  The kids were SO restless and driving up the wall with "when is Dad going to be home."  They also had to wait until after we ate breakfast.

During the looong wait for Dad to come home the kids of course were horsing around and being told to stop numerous times.  So of course Emily lacerates her face on one of our end tables...fun:) Luckily for us we have an in home doctor, so he glued it back together.

Derek's favorite toy is legos...so once again it was a lego Christmas.  It is practically the only toy he has in his room.  They are great and allow for a ton of creativity, so it works for me.  Lately he has been keeping the sets pretty much together, instead of just taking them apart and throwing the pieces in his bin.  He likes to dis assemble his sets and then rebuild them.

Emily has really really wanted ballet shoes for a long time so she can dance  on her toes.  Well, of course toe shoes are not for little girls, but she non the less loves the ones we got her and stands on her toes anyway.

Sarah is our little outdoors girls.  She is outside a good part of the day.  She loves digging (and laying) in the dirt and digging for earth worms.  She plays out there by herself most of the time while the two older kids are out in the front playing with neighbor kids.  She got some kid garden tools and a couple bug viewers for Christmas.  My sweet little crazy haired girl.

Emily also really likes chapstick, she got a few in her stocking.