Christmas in Black and White.

The kids had their Christmas program yesterday at the Church where they go to daycare.  The theme was Christmas in Black and White and they've been practicing everyday at school for months and months.  The kids even had a CD with all the music on it which we played at home multiple times a week - singing and doing our "motions."

This year's program was awesome.  Totally awesome.  It was a little play featuring some penguins (adult members of the church), some big kids (child members of the church) playing students and a teacher and then of course all the precious little daycare kiddos.  They were fully decked out in black and white clothes and let me tell you - that was a freakin' cute bunch of kiddos.  

The only down side was that they didn't bring littlest kids out until about half way through.  So at first, I was like, where's my kids?  I want to see my cute little kiddos standing up there singing.  But turns out that was really the best plan because this little play was long - like an hour (which was totally fine because it was so cute and funny).  And the 30 minutes that the age 4 and under group was out there, was about 10 minutes too long cause they were losing interest. 

I'm happy to report that neither of my kids cried or ran out to the audience to find Joel and I.  Somehow the Christmas versions of these programs almost always go better than the Easter ones.  I think we've had a meltdown every Easter but never at Christmas.  Hmm...

Lily.  Lily, Lily, Lily.  That girl hardly sang a word or did any of her motions.  I have no idea why not.  She wasn't upset.  She didn't act like she had stage fright but she must have had it a little because the motions that she did do, were super reserved.  Like, if you didn't KNOW what she was supposed to be doing, you would have missed that she actually kind of did it.  She sang a few lines in each song, but that's it.  It's like she gets distracted by all the people and forgets she's supposed to be doing something.  Afterwards, she insisted that she sang all the songs and did all her motions and even showing her the videos did not change her perception.  She was, however, beautiful standing up there - a full head taller than her friends.  

Tyler on the other hand....he did a ton of motions and even some singing.  I was so proud of him, I thought I might spontaneously combust.  There was only one minor debate between Tyler and his friend Graydon.  They got in to the "My Mommy!" argument.  This is the one where one of the boys will say "My Mommy" and sometimes point to said Mommy.  And the other one will respond with, "No!  My Mommy!" Sometimes Daddy is substituted for Mommy.  This happened during one of the songs where they should have been singing and signing - but it was a relatively quiet debate and didn't draw too much attention.  Not like earlier in the program, where Graydon had been screaming "HI DADDY!" at the top of his lungs - for like a full 2 minutes.  He had the whole church rollin'.

What a precious morning.  

What the random.

These two were being so sweet and precious, laying together on the couch giggling and whispering.

And then I got the camera out and they got wild.

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We went out to eat a couple weeks ago and Tyler literally fell asleep sitting up in the booth.

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Joel took the kiddos to Josh and Marie's a couple weekends ago while I went in to work for a few hours (boo).  Tyler hung out with his Uncle Josh and helped load some wood in the truck.  Then he was treated to a fourwheeler ride.  

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Auntie Ree spoiled the kiddos with sugar.  And socks from Kjestine's work.  

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We were wrapping presents the other night (non Santa delivered presented) and the kids were cracking us up trying to package themselves up in these diaper boxes.  

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Tyler the bag man.  Not unlike Lily the bag lady that we met a couple years ago.

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Lily and I participated in an Angel Tree activity with my coworkers.  Unfortunately, I didn't take any pictures  of that but Lily did a great job helping me pick out some toys and books for a two year old boy in need.  I kept asking her to think about what Tyler might like to have to help her figure out what to pick for another little boy.  She did great.  After the wrapping, we went to my desk and Lily worked on her letters on my dry erase board.  She instructed me not to take a photo...I didn't listen.

Meanwhile, Tyler was devastated that I didn't take him with me too (I had picked Lily up from daycare and Tyler saw me leave with her).  I felt AWFUL so I immediately called Joel and told him he needed to do something special with Tyler as soon as he got off of work.  So they went to Steak and Shake for a happy hour milkshake.  Tyler's devastation was cured.

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Lily as a Salvation Army Bell Ringer.  She thought that was pretty great.  The actual bell ringer INSISTED that I take a picture of this.  So, yeah....

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With the threat of snow a few weeks ago, I took the kids to get new snow boots.  Tyler's are light up Spider-man.  He likes to wear them to bed.

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Lily was flying her baby....

And then her baby took a header....

Luckily this has never happened when Joel or I were flying the kids..... right??

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Joel has a serious, and I mean SERIOUS, aversion to hanging Christmas lights.   Like before we got married, he told me, "I hope you're not someone who likes to hang Christmas lights.  Cause if you are, either you're going to have to do it yourself, or we shouldn't get married, cause I'm not doing it."

Even having kids has not softened him up in this area.  It's not the lights themselves that he doesn't like.  He just doesn't want to hang them.  He'd rather drive around for hours looking at other people's Christmas lights.

So you can imagine Joel's DELIGHT when he pulled in the driveway after work one day to find a giant inflatable penguin in our front yard.  A gift to Lily and Tyler from Meme and Papaw.  It was a hit....with the kids....

Joel on the other hand....I think there's still a little steam coming out of his ears.  As for me?  I'm still laughing (but only on the inside so as not to incite a riot in my household).  

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Yeah, I have no words...

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Lily is big time in to "reading" to us.  She loves to hold the book like the teachers do.  Sometimes she tells real stories and sometimes it's complete and total gibberish and made up words.  Pretty funny.

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Dance class is going well.  Joel took her the last time and he had a minor brain fart and thought the class started at 4, but it doesn't start til 4:30.  So they were there really early.  The kids ended up running around and playing and dancing in the class room.  Joel shot a few videos of Lily bossing all the other kids around.  It. Was. HYS-STER-RI-CAL.  Hysterical.

She was telling them to glide.  And then MARCH!  MARCH!  MARCH!  And then crawl and slide on the ground.  Most of the kids were doing whatever she told them to.  I was dying.  Bossy McBossFace - do not ask me how we invent some of these nicknames, I don't know - but that was her nickname that day, for sure.

Meanwhile, during the class, Joel and Tyler wandered the building a little.  Tyler was caught spying on the older ladies....