christmas eve

So I decided that on Christmas Eve that I would brave it and take the girls to our church service all by myself without childcare.

BIG MISTAKE.  BIG.  HUGE.

I was poorly outnumbered.  Emma would have done great.  She was belting out the Christmas carols.  Ava, however, was extremely bored.  The bag of goodies that I brought was all used up after the first song.  Then, Ava thought that if Daddy was on stage surely she should be too.  She started yelling and pointing at Daddy while he was trying to talk.  

So after 15 minutes into the service we took the walk of shame out into the hall where we spent the rest of the service with all the other embarrassed parents whose children could not handle being quiet.  And yes, just because we are in ministry does not mean that we have some secret formula for making our children behave.  In fact, I would even venture that our children act worse than others.

Note to self... childcare is a must at the Christmas Eve service.

After the torture, we headed to a festive Christmas Eve dinner at Outback Steakhouse.  I was so not up for cooking dinner when I was going to be busy in the kitchen on Christmas Day.

At home we let the girls open up some of the games we got them and we had game night.  Well, we attempted to have game night.  Emma was really stressed out about the game Gone Fishin'. She couldn't catch a fish and so the meltdown began.

We made some cookies for Santa.  Actually, we were so tired the cookies didn't even make it to a plate for Santa.  We headed to bed with them still stuck to the pan.

Emma opening up her present.

Ava with her game, Gone Fishing

The attempt to catch fish...

Enjoying some snickerdoodle cookies

the christmas decor

Some of our family and friends that live out-of-town were asking how we decorated for Christmas this year.  Here are some pics of what our house looked like at Christmas.

our living room

the tree

This is what I made to decorate the mantle with.

the presents

part of my snowman collection

the mantle... it is a little hard to decorate with a mantle that holds the tv.

from the balcony after Santa dropped off the presents

the front of the house (well, half of it since you can't see the 2nd story because of the dark)

the 2nd tree in the entry hall

the tale of despereaux

The people at American Family Radio here in Tupelo have been so sweet to us since we have been there.  They have given Jason and I tickets to the Casting Crowns show and as of recently they gave our family tickets to see an advanced screening of, The Tale of Despereaux, or as Emma calls it "The Mousey Movie".

Before the movie they were giving out masks of the characters from the movie.  The girls wanted to wear them all night.  It was too cute!  Here are some pics that were taken when we got home.

Emma as the princess (of course)

now as Despereaux, the mouse

and Ava can not be outdone

The girls really enjoyed themselves and did reasonably well for their age in a movie.  Ava kept pointing and shouting at the screen, "MOUSE!  MOUSE!" every time a mouse came on.  And yes, there was a lot of mice in the movie:)

building blocks

One of the neatest things about Emma that I have observed as of late is that her imagination has really come alive.  She pretends constantly, make up songs to sing on the fly and she loves to build things.

Her latest creation she has worked on to build with her blocks is what she calls "Barbie's Diamond Castle".  She saw it on a commercial recently and wanted it.  Quickly realizing that she wasn't going to get it (especially before Christmas) she decided that she was going to make it herself.  The funny thing is that I think she enjoys making it more than having the actual toy.

hanging out by the tree

They look like that are up to something!

Around the House

We are really getting into the Christmas spirit around the Stockdale house! Shopping is almost done, Christmas parties are in full swing, and we finally have all the decorating done around the house. This is just a little taste of what things look like. Merry Christmas!

the christmas parade

Saturday morning we got up and headed to the Tupelo Christmas parade. The girls were all decked out in their winter paraphernalia. The girls love a good parade. I didn't even mind the 30 degree temperature after seeing how still the girls sat in their stroller during the parade.

The start of the parade... we got to be right up close in the front row as it came by.

All bundled up

The Beverly Hillbillies... only in a small town

Uhmm yeah... this is supposed to be Jesus and the Fishers of Men float (very interesting)

Emma was so excited.  She had to point out everything that came by.

Ava liked the parade, however, she was just a little bewildered by it.

See- Jason does exist in our family!

This baby monkey was too cute!  We were able to get up close and personal with it.  It lives at the Buffalo Park, which is Tupelo's answer to a zoo:)

The grand finale... Santa Claus!

I love living in a small town:)