Christmas Eve, Christmas Morning & Christmas Day!

Merry Christmas...a Little Late!

Hi! Just wanted to share that I hope each and every one of you had the Merriest of Christmas's yet! I tried to take a little "blog leave-of-absence" but realized that I hadn't wished you all a Merry Christmas! I hope you had a very blessed time spent with friends and/or family...and that we all remembered the true reasons for our celebrations.

We started celebrating with my side of the family on Sunday...it was a fun day! We all got to meet our sweet little niece/cousin/granddaughter Maria...what a precious little girl! Check out the photos below! We started the day by eating...what else?!?! We played a little right/left game, sang Christmas carols, my Dad read the Christmas story, and then we exchanged gifts. The rest of the day was spent visiting, snacking & playing games.

Christmas Eve day Rob was off, which he usually isn't. He and the boys went and got wood for our stove while I went up to Siemer's Appliance to visit and do a little Christmas celebrating. That evening we went to our Christmas Eve service at church, and then we went to Shoguns for supper afterwards. What an experience! An expensive one, but fun...they prepared our food right in front of us with flames of fire, a volcano, and catching food in our mouths! We then went home to open gifts with the boys. After sprinkling our reindeer food, we went to bed for some much needed rest!

Christmas Morning! "Santa came and he ate all the cookies and drank all the milk!"...was what we heard just a little too early!!! The morning was spent playing with the toys from Santa and from the night before...just a relaxing time amidst all of the clutter/mess/etc. in the house!!!

Christmas Day in the afternoon we went out to Rob's parents and family. Rob's mom, grandmother & I enjoyed some time visiting while the boy's all played outside with Matthew's new metal detector. By evening everyone had came and we enjoyed great food, opening gifts & playing games. Fun Times.

Rob went back to work on Wednesday...the boys and I have just been hanging out at home, watching movies, playing outside, etc. Trying to get the house in order somewhat...we'll get there!

Wishing you all the best in the New Year that is fast approaching!
Becky

Christmas at the Mueller's - 2007

Matthew's 1st Grade Christmas Party!

Photobucket Album

Jacob's Pre-School Christmas Party

Matthew's Christmas Program, a "DUH" Moment, Etc.

Tonight was Matthew's Christmas program at school. He was a shephard and looked so proud to be wearing his "shephard's" costume. The kids did a great job singing...this year the verses & the chorus's were all part of their memory work for the last 4 weeks (instead of Bible verses) so they really knew all the words to the songs. It was awesome and Matthew actually sang!!!

After the program we decided take the boys to Dairy Queen for some ice cream. We went thru the drive-thru because we were headed to the Jackson park to look at the lights. Me and the boys ordered...and Rob decided he didn't want anything. Well, when we got up to the window to pay, Rob had changed his mind. He asked the cashier if he could "have" a chocolate cone, in addition to what we had already ordered. The gal said, "well, you're gonna have to pay for it". Duh...Rob just looked at me and I was like "what??", and Rob just turned to her and said, "I was planning on it". If you didn't get a little chuckle out of that, I guess you just had to be there!

Last night I went with my scrappin' girlfriends to Bella Italia to eat (our group of 6 (sometimes more, sometimes less!) have been rotating crop nights now at each other's homes for probably 4-5 years now, maybe longer) and exchange Christmas gifts. It was a fun night...even though I had to cut it short because Rob also had his Union Christmas party last night.

Tomorrow is Jacob's "Happy Birthday, Jesus" party at pre-school...and then Matthew's is on Friday. Friday is the last day of school until January 3rd...yippee!!

Need to get teacher's gifts ready...have a great night!

WICKED at the Faboulous Fox in St. Louis!

It is called the FABULOUS Fox for a reason...IT IS FABULOUS! My friend, Amy, and I had tickets for WICKED last night and it was absolutely incredible!!!!! I would definitely see it again! I grew up watching the Wizard of Oz...and this was about what happened with the witches before the Wizard of Oz. It is playing until January 6th, I believe...if you get the chance...GO!

Before the show we had a little time to do some shopping, although we completely amazed ourselves by not spending much money! We had dinner at a fabulous Italian restaurant just down the street from the Fox...can't remember the name for the life of me! Scrumptious!

We had plans to stay at a Drury and then shop some more Saturday, but weather forecasts of anywhere from 2-10 inches in St. Louis urged us to go ahead and drive home after the show. Got home around 2:00 am, I think. Even though it was only a day...it was an awesome little getaway!

Rob just left with a buddy to go up north...yes, he's headed for bad weather. They are going to go hunting in the morning and then head home by 3:00 tomorrow afternoon. I'm excited for him to be able to go...hope he gets the BIG one!

The boys and I are having a movie fest this afternoon! Popcorn, soda, oreos...what more could you want?!?!

Have a GREAT, rainy Saturday!
Becky

Just a few pics of our day today...

Photos in Order from top to bottom:

1) Matthew is reading our Bible verse for the second Sunday in Advent.
2) Jacob & Matthew with our Advent wreath.
3) Miss Calli Jo taking a little snooze after playing in the tree!
4) Some yummy cinnamon rolls that were delivered to our house today by the Franklin's..Thanks!
5) A layout kit that I completed today while everyone was either napping or playing.
6 & 7) The boys' playing with their fire station & castle...this keeps them occupied for hours because they continual change how they build it.
8) Rob taking a much-needed Sunday afternoon nap!

Have a GREAT week!
Becky

For My "Scrappin" Buddies!

Good Morning!
I came across this awesome 2-page layout this morning as I was reading a fellow blogger's post. Thought this was the neatest way to record your family's holiday season. Even if you don't have a ton of stuff on your calendar, which we don't, you could record favorite traditions, Bible verses, etc. The journaling boxes are so great. Thought it was cute and wanted to share. Kelli Crowe is the gal that designed it. Have a Great Day!

This is the BESTEST day EVER!

That's what Jacob said today when I picked him up from a birthday party! A little boy from church was turning four and they were having a CARS-themed party...that is right up Jacob's alley! They went tractor-tipping in the little boy's backyard and his Daddy was Frank the combine...Jacob just thought that was awesome. Jacob's been sleeping for an hour now-the party must have wore him out!

This past Wednesday I went to Matthew's class to help make Advent wreaths. I've got a photo posted. The kids had so much fun and it was such a mess! Each child got
1 and a 1/2 of the big shredded wheat biscuits and they mashed them up in a ziplock bag. Then they dumped it in a plate, we poured glue on it, and green food coloring. We then shaped the "mess" into a circle, just like a wreath. The kids put four birthday candles on it, and then another mom and I hot-glued red berries and red bows on it. They turned out so cute. We light the first one tomorrow!

Last night my friend, Carinsa, and I had a night out together. We ate at the Olive Garden first and then we headed to my church where our ladies' ministry had a program about being "Intentional" with our kids at Christmas and making baby Jesus the focus of all that we do in celebrating. It was a fun night. There were booths set up with all kinds of ideas, books & fun things to do to help accomplish the main focus of Christmas. Lots of ideas...one that I'm going to do with our boys is have a small package wrapped up for each of them (and one for Rob & I too) that says, for example, To: Jacob, From: God. Inside I'm going to put a picture of Jesus in it and tell the boys that Jesus is the best gift of all. I also found these neat little coins today at Gospeland bookstore that has the nativity on it and on the other side it says, "Jesus is the Reason for the Season". I'm going to put them in the little packages as well.

Happy 1st of December to you!
Becky