Thursday, December 25, 2008

Merry Christmas!




Merry Christmas to all!! We spent a beautiful and blessed day with family, so grateful for all God's blessings and His gift to us, Jesus.

Wednesday, December 24, 2008

Our Little Angel

Sunday was the preschool Christmas program. What do you know...our girl was cast as the angel of the program! Two family members...I won't name names, but of course it wasn't mama or daddy...teasingly said Marissa was miscast. :) It was a cute program. This age is so unpredictable. Many of the kids were more interested in watching the audience than performing. Marissa's favorite part was doing multiple spontaneous curtsies to the audience afterwards!





Monday, December 22, 2008

Let's Party (Four Year Old Style)






















Saturday Marissa went to her friend, Kylee's fourth birthday party! Kylee's mommy, Jen is a friend of mine and it is such a blessing to have girls the same age to help keep us connected. It's also very sweet to see them developing a friendship of their own. Kylee was a gracious hostess at Custard's Last Stand and Marissa was a thankful party attendee. She enjoyed ice cream, cake, candy, and even helping Kylee open presents! Oh, and can't forget the pin the tiara on the princess game! But sadly, neither girl won. The winner was...a boy!












Friday, December 19, 2008

Gingerbread...I mean, Graham Cracker House
















Marissa and I were SO excited to decorate our gingerbread house this year. Last year we had fun, but felt a bit cheated because we decorated graham crackers instead of a real gingerbread house. So, months ago we found a great pre-baked gingerbread house decorating kit. The walls and roof were already baked AND the kit contained the decorations and icing. Viola! We had it made!! Well, we held onto that kit for months, knowing that when the time was right we'd snuggle together and go to the kitchen to build and decorate the perfect gingerbread house! We did it last weekend, only right before we were to build the house, and in the midst of her excitement, Marissa accidentally dropped the kit on the kitchen hardwood floor. The roof broke apart, but everything else looked okay. Not to be dissuaded, we bravely forged ahead. But I have to tell you, the icing in the kit was the pits. Combine that with the broken roof and our house just DID NOT want to stay together. After fighting sagging walls and horrible "cement," I let Marissa eat part of the house and decorations. We let our crumbling house sit around the kitchen all weekend, then tossed it when we gathered trash Sunday night.

So, this week at the grocery store, we bought fresh graham crackers and decorations and went back to what we know...a Christmas graham cracker house!! I must say, it's not the prettiest we've done, but we sure had a blast doing it. Marissa gets to taste all the pieces before they are placed (she's a great QC girl) and she pre-approves any decorating we do. All in all, I'm sure we'll see what next year brings, but we just might have to stick with the graham crackers. We can only go up from there.

Thursday, December 18, 2008

One Dollar


I just love the way kids reason!


Ever since Brandon and Dawn were married, Marissa has been planning her wedding. She thinks of every detail. I, by the way, am the flower girl.
When we were out yesterday, she looked at some houses we were passing and asked, "Do people live there?" "Yes, they do," I told her. She wasn't happy about my answer. "If people live in all the houses, how will I find a house to live in someday when I get married?" We talked about how when people don't want to live in a house anymore they move. We discussed the process. After I told her that people put signs in their front yard showing that their house is for sale, she was excited to be able to identify when a house was available to buy. After we talked about making an offer, she said, "Well, I'll tell them I want to pay one dollar!"


Okay, she doesn't quite get it yet, but am I proud of my little bargain-hunter? You bet!

This Plane Is In Trouble




On the way home from Florida we peeked inside the plane cockpit. We expected the pilot to wave and smile and tell us to have a good flight. Instead, he invited us in. After I took pictures of Marissa in the pilot's seat, he told both of us to take a seat and he took pictures of us. We grinned and talked about how the entire plane was now in deep trouble. Mama and Marissa are flying the plane.




Turns out the pilot and his wife are awaiting referral from China. They are expecting it to come ANY DAY after a very LONG wait. I hope Marissa was an inspiration to you. Please let us know when you finally get that referral!!

Monday, December 15, 2008

Good Help

Since preschoolers often act like teenagers and well, you know how teenagers can often act like preschoolers...why don't teenagers give the great help they did when they were preschoolers?!

Marissa has Disney princess tumblers that she loves to drink from, but they are hand-wash only, so I tend to pile a few up before washing them. Marissa now loves this chore. Not only does she wash well, she is THE BEST hand dryer I've seen!

I'll take the help while I can get it!






Sunday, December 14, 2008

Brayden




Brayden is Marissa's nephew, although she always says she is his sister. Usually Brayden has his eyes glued to Marissa, so it's a sure bet she can make him smile. But when we saw him last week, he was tired and nothing either one of us did could get him to grin. We sure think he's a cutie.

Friday, December 12, 2008

Our Little Traveler

Marissa is such a traveler! She doesn't complain and is ready to see what next adventure she'll encounter. She loves watching people, playing "Go Fish" while we wait for flights, and talking to everyone she meets!














Wednesday, December 10, 2008

There's God







I have to interrupt our travel blogs with a cute story that happened this week.

While at a Christmas party for Marissa's great grandma, Dennis excitedly told Marissa "Look, there's a dog!" He pointed to the hallway, where there was some type of work/aid dog. Marissa ran into the hallway to see. "Where," she asked. "Right there," Dennis told her. "Where?" "Right in front of you," Dennis told her again. Now he was starting to get concerned about her eyesight because the animal was right in front of her. "Don't you see it?" he asked as he pointed. When she finally spotted the dog, Marissa's excitement evaporated. "Oh," she said. "I thought you said God."

Can hearing be dyslexic?! :)

Learning and Relaxing

We decided we could do a little learning and relaxing one day...first we visited the Science and Technology Museum, which had a lot of hands-on activities for our little miss. Marissa especially loved the "Mars mission" rover. It felt like we were really traveling in a rover and went up and down like we were on very bumpy terrain. Since we had to wear seat belts and they closed us up in a little room the size of a vehicle, Marissa really "felt" the part. After a little hands-on learning, we went to the beach!!! Marissa has now seen the Atlantic ocean. We let her walk in a little, but it was cool water. We definitely didn't want to swim! She was so precious. She kept lifting her dress, afraid the waves would get her all wet (this from the one begging for the dolphins to splash her at the Seaquarium!). And...of course...when you see a playset at the beach, you have to swing.




























Tuesday, December 9, 2008

Miami Seaquarium

On our second day in Florida, we drove to the Miami Seaquarium. Talk about excited to see dolphins and whales...that was Marissa!! One of the posted pictures shows her anticipation turn to excitement as they came out to perform. Another photo shows our funny girl sticking her head in the mouth of a crocodile statue...of course Daddy is egging her on. The last photo is Marissa "face-to-face" or up close and personal with a Manatee.









Monday, December 8, 2008

Christmas Break
















We just returned from several days in Ft. Lauderdale, Florida. Marissa is quite the TRAVELER! Daddy worked all day and most of the evening the first night we were there, but Marissa and Mama had a great time together enjoying the sun and warm 83 degree days!!!!!!!! That first day we slept in until 9:44 AM! Mama NEVER sleeps in. We were tired. Then we leisurely got dressed and went for a walk around the hotel grounds. It was set up like a resort and we had fun finding lizards, frogs, a snake (right behind us about two feet and coiled - ready to pounce), ducks, and birds. After our long walk we went for lunch and then went for another walk! We played Play-Doh, played paper dolls, and Flatsy dolls. Flatsy is a doll that was popular when Mama was little - I think it came out in the 60's or 70's. The paper dolls we bought especially for the trip are SO cute! They are Days of The Week dolls, and all the little girls look very different. There's even a Chinese one. I LOVE paper dolls and we had so much fun! The time just flew that day!