Christmas Part 1

 Christmas was coming and it looked as if out of the Daniels family we were the ones with the time and vacation from work in order to travel.  So travel we did!  We set off on December 19th for a trip which encountered 10 states and covered 2 weeks.  The kids were quite happy about it, can't you tell?

Our first stop was to Arkansas to visit Chris, Katie, and Ellie.  We had a great evening with them, then off to bed after a very tiring day of travel.  It turned out that Ellie had school the following day so we decided to make a trip to Memphis.  During a search of what to do in Memphis I discovered the Peabody Hotel and the Peabody ducks.  I had read about these ducks so I informed Matt that we MUST go see them.

 In the gift shop, Everything is ducks!

 But the hotel is fancy,

 And the Christmas tree was HUGE!

 But I got a few smiles as we waited for the live ducks to enter from the elevator to go to the fountain.

 Here is the duck master who is in charge of leading the ducks.  He even let Glen hold the duck cane.

 Here they come!  Fast and furious from the elevator.

 Watch them speed by.

 But they veered off, They decided that they did not want to go up the steps today.

 They hopped over the wall.

 All except for one who continued to run around the fountain twice playing chase with the duck master.  To our understanding that had never happened before.

 But they all made it safe in the fountain.  And when we came home I made sure to read John Philip Duck by Patricia Polacco (which is where I heard about the ducks in the first place).

 That evening we had a very nice early Christmas with Chris, Katie and Ellie.

 Cars, Legos, and art supplies flooded the living room (and the house in general)

 It was good to see the girls draw and play (mostly Pokemon) together.

 Glen was happy with his cars, and his new track.

But who can complain?  All is right with the world when you have TWO Luigis to play with!

 A great picture of the three kids together.  This is quite a rare occurrence.

 Katie was kind enough to share her American Dolls with Grace.  We are so thankful for your generosity.  Grace plays with the girls daily.

A few more Legos before we say good bye and move on to our next leg of the trip.
Thank you for having us Chris, Katie, and Ellie, it was great to visit and see you all!

Grace is 7

 Happy Birthday Grace!

 She is our energetic, loving, creative and curious girl.

 She loves to play, dress up, dance, and just have fun.  (she got this Anna dress up costume for her birthday from Grandma and Grandpa)

 For her birthday from Carol, she got lunch out at Dairy Queen and an afternoon of ice skating.  She began by using the ice skating "walker" thing, but by the end of the afternoon she was skating pretty well on her own.  Thank you for such an adventure!

Amy also gave Grace an adventure.

 Grace got an invitation for her present.

 The invitation was for a lunch out at Dairy Queen.  An afternoon out at the book fair (where she got to buy items that SHE got to pick out) where she bought a box full of Barbie books.

 Then after the book fair they went to Mamaw and Papaw's house where they decorated Christmas tree ornaments.

Thank you Amy for such a fun and creative time!

1. How old are you? 7

2. Who is your best friend?  Christiana

3. What is your favorite thing to do?  Exercise

4. What is your favorite color? Purple

5. What is your favorite food? Cake and Ice Cream

6. What do you like to do with your family?  Play Games

7. What is your favorite toy? American Girl Dolls

8. What do you want to be when you grow up? An art teacher

9. What makes you happy?  When I read books

10.  What makes you sad?  When I am alone

11.  What is your favorite show to watch?  Frozen

12.  What is your favorite book? Beck's Bunny Secret

13.  What do you love to learn about? Animals

14.  What is the best part of your birthday?  Presents

15.  Where do you like to go?  Mike and Amy's house

16.  Who was your teacher?  Mrs. Romero and Mrs. Skelton

17.  What is your favorite treat? Dark chocolate pomegranates

18.  What do you think about right before you fall asleep? Ponies and Princesses

19.  If you could meet anyone famous, who would it be?  President Obama

20.  What was your favorite birthday present?  CD player

Lindale Christmas Drama

 This year Lindale kids put on the musical Miracle on Bethlehem Street.  Grace was a camel in the play.  You can see her with her ears on in the picture above.

 My two cute little actors.  I love Glen's face in the second picture!

 If you look in the first row in the picture above you can see Glen wearing brown.

If you look in the first row in the picture above you can see Grace wearing all white.

They both did a great job.  What a great way to celebrate the story of Christmas.

Glen is 5

 This sweet little boy turned 5.  He brings so much love and imagination to life.

 For his birthday he got a stuffed Luigi, stuffed mushroom guy, stuffed ghost guy, and Yoshi from the Super Mario Brothers Game he was and still is very happy about them.

 He also had a special playdate with his friend Joel from preschool.  They played duplos,

 Made this house.  They also played, cars and many other things.

They also got to "cook" where they got to have chocolate pudding and they decorated and topped it as they wanted.

1. How old are you? 5

2. Who is your best friend?  Joel Nafziger

3. What is your favorite thing to do?  Play with Luigi

4. What is your favorite color? Green

5. What is your favorite food? Rice

6. What do you like to do with your family?  Play Games

7. What is your favorite toy? Baby Kitty

8. What do you want to be when you grow up? A Baker (make snacks)

9. What makes you happy?  Baby Kitty

10.  What makes you sad?  Falling

11.  What is your favorite show to watch?  Darkwing Duck

12.  What is your favorite book? Alphabet Under Construction

13.  What do you love to learn about? Math

14.  What is the best part of your birthday?  When Joel came over

15.  Where do you like to go?  Mamaw's and Papaw's

16.  Who was your teacher?  Mrs. Hess and Mrs. Hiser

17.  What is your favorite treat? Crackers

18.  What do you think about right before you fall asleep? Super Mario Brothers Characters

19.  If you could meet anyone famous, who would it be?  Luigi

20.  What was your favorite birthday present?  The Luigi character

Merry Christmas 2016

First Race

 On Thanksgiving Grace ran her first race.  She ran the Gobble Gobble Kids Dash which was .33 of a mile while I ran the 4 mile Turkey Trot afterward.

 She was so excited to get running.

 She loved that a guy in a turkey suit led all of the kids in a stretching warm up.

 She ran as fast as she could and I think that she did a great job.

 The next day we saw the newspaper and saw that Grace kind of made it into the newspaper.  If you look at the picture below in the bottom left hand corner you can see her striped pants and her gray shirt.  So she kind of made it in...

She is already talking about doing more races.  I am so excited to share running with her.