A couple of angels and wise men

Sam and Awyn 'on stage'. Sam rushed up to deliver his present to Jesus, and Awyn walked slowly up the aisle, meandering a bit because she was focused on her hands prayerfully held before her. So cute.

Merry Christmas!

I am going to attempt to post a video of the kids singing, "We wish you a Merry Christmas" from Christmas Eve.

Awyn napping with Mojo

This is partly to show off how adorable Awyn is when she's sleeping (she napped today, Yes!!!) and partly to show off how much fur the dog has managed to grow. He's not quite at full Pom poofy, but he's getting there, definitely getting there.

For those of you who have skype, email me, let me know. We finally have it set up here at the house. Our bandwidth restrictions make it interesting, but it's still fun.

I was trying to post some videos, and well, I made the mistake of doing it through YouTube. I surrender, I can't make it work like photobucket or zippyvideos and put the little boxes right in my blog. So here are the links to what I have.

Decorating the Gingerbread house, Sam's concert, and more of Sam's concert.
and for funsies, here's my last attempt for the night of an imbedded video. I don't think it's going to work though. urg.

Making a Gingerbread house

What you are currently seeing is the backside of the Gingerbread house that the kids made. I helped, but they really did do most of the decorating. This is the first time I think we've attempted this as a family, and the first time I've ever used a kit. It wasn't nearly as fancy as the few that I made with Mom, but then again, I was in high school at the time, and she's very creative. It was kind of nice not to have to bake the gingerbread (although eating the scraps would have been yummy fun), and nice not to have to track down all the different candies I'd want to use, or make the icing, but the downside was that there wasn't really anything fun and snackable for the kids to eat as they made this, or they wouldn't have had enough candy to decorate with.

Sam's Christmas Concert debut

Well, it was interesting. Sam seemed to really enjoy his time onstage, although I think he added a bit more, well, spice? than what his teacher and classmates were expecting. I think perhaps it was a bit more than Sam was able to cope with, what with a costume, lights, lots of people, and his extreme excitement to be there. After the concert he sang the songs in the car on the way home, so he did have them memorized.

It's a capital J!

Awyn decorates the tree...

Popping corn

Awyn and Sam helped to make popcorn strings for the tree.

Fort Larned

I like the soldiers better than the cowboy. I mean cavalry soldier. Still, it's impressive, and gets the point across on those days when they can't fly the giant garrison flag.

J.H. Daniels

Eric and the kids stand right next to a relative's name on the bakery at Fort Larned. If I'm getting this right, Jesse Daniels was Eric's Great-Grandfather's brother who came out to Kansas to help out after a farm accident.

Washita Battlefield

Somewhere I have a picture of Sam here as a baby. Eric is at Washita Battlefield this weekend on a detail. He's probably going to do some Christmas shopping while there as well. I'd meant to tell him to buy me some of the sage and smudging bowl/shell. I really liked them when we passed through there on our way to Kansas. Sam and Awyn liked this park.

WABA

Sam is getting pretty good with the camera, don't you think?

Action Figure Museum

Yes, there are lots of action figures. Whole armies of them. Wow.

Awyn and the Batmorbilia

Batmobile!

Sam was ready to drive off into the sunset...

Awyn's turn in the batmobile

Yes, she is wearing a Snow White costume.

I'm working on a backlog of photos to post here, so please be patient. I have some great pictures from Thanksgiving once I get done with the Action Figure Museum.

Bed time

Awyn likes it when Sam reads a story to her. She was holding the trouble light for Sam to read by.

Sam and Mojo

I think this picture might be about 3 weeks old. He's even fluffier now. Sam likes to play with Mojo, Awyn still likes to try to get him to play. Sometimes he will, mostly he won't.