Our last Sunday at church I asked Sydney if we could get a picture with her. Her family was leaving the next day for a Christmas Vacation in Mexico and so we wouldn't see her again before we left. She was really sad she couldn't babysit one last time but we just didn't have the money or time to go out. She is going to miss our kids a lot and we will miss her. She loved Ella and grew to like Easton. Ella loved her as well, she was lucky to get to sit next to us on our last Sunday! We will miss having our own personal babysitter, I hope we can find a new one!

Peabody Hotel Take 2

After seeing the ducks and how cool they had the hotel decorated I wanted Andrew to see and our only chance was Saturday. We left our ward party and headed downtown. We got there just in time and there was about 10 times more people than there was Tuesday. We still got a good seat though. The kids were really excited to see the ducks again!

 

 

They had an honorary duck master that day, I

don't remember her name but it was her 85th Birthday. They gave her a Peabody Duck, rubber duck and a duck cane like what the duck master

walks around with and a certificate. It was really cute to see, she went with him to get the ducks. The ducks came off the elevator and just as I was about to get a picture one duck freaked out and spread its wings and whacked Easton in the face! It was quite hilarious and I thought for sure he would freak out but he just kind of brushed it off and laughed! The duck master didn't notice what the duck had done either!

We then went and wandered around on the Mezzanine Level. We hadn't gone there on Tuesday. It was pretty to look down and see the lobby.



We went to the Memorabilia room and saw all the cool stuff they had!

I loved this menu they had in there from probably 60 or so years ago, Filet Mignon was $5!

One of the banquet halls, they were setting up for lots of parties for later that night!

We found the phone booth, the phone actually worked, there was a dial tone at least!

We went and saw the ducks in the fountain before we left since it wasn't as crowded by then. Sadly it was raining off and on that day so we couldn't show Andrew the roof!

Across the street from the Peabody is Kooky Canucks. They were featured on Man Vs. Food for their 7 lb burger. I had only been once with a some friends and Andrew hadn't been at all so we decided to grab some lunch. It was really good. We shared a burger and it was just right! It was such a fun day and a perfect way to spend our final Saturday living in Memphis!

Ward Christmas Party

Saturday was our ward Christmas Party, this was probably our favorite one. We had a yummy breakfast of biscuits and gravy and fruit. We enjoyed sitting with friends and chatting and doing the fun puzzles they had on the tables. They then had some fun games to do. Andrew was randomly selected out of the audience for the first game. These guys had to wrap a ball, football or basketball in a minute and put a bow or two on it. It was quite hilarious to watch! Andrew is a perfectionist and wraps presents really nice so this wasn't the best thing for him! We then watched a few more games and Santa came in. At that point we left, we figured the kids have seen Santa a few times already and we had somewhere we wanted to go! It was fun and super sad at the same time, it was our last ward party in the Southaven Ward.

Peabody Ducks

This last Tuesday we ventured out and did something for the first time, we went and saw the Ducks March at the Peabody Hotel in Downtown Memphis. I was starting to feel really guilty because we had never been and we were less than 2 weeks away from moving away from this place forever. It seems like every time the Mothers group would go or someone else would invite me to go I never was available to. Well I decided last minute Monday night to go and invited the Mother's group. No one else showed up which was fine I wasn't expecting anyone to at the last minute. We had a perfect little day just the three of us. I am grateful we went, it was just what we all needed to get out of the messy unorganized chaos that is our house at the moment. We got there a few minutes early and there wasn't very many people which I was thankful for. They have the hotel decorated so beautifully for Christmas! We sat and waited and the Duckmaster gave his speech on how it came to be and the history of the hotel and then he went up to the roof to get them from their room.

 

Waiting for the ducks before we decided to sit on the ground, someday I hope Easton has a picture with his eyes not closed!

 He is only the 5th duckmaster in 60+ years

 They came off the elevator and immediately tried to escape!

 The kids were ecstatic and so excited for the ducks. Easton's excitement was overwhelming. He couldn't get enough! He just kept saying duck over and over again! They would splash water on him and he would laugh!

 

 This cute little Grandma decided she wanted to be my personal photographer for the day and offered to take my picture with the kids and then by the Christmas tree and then a few more, it was really so nice of her! Her husband is in the background of this one looking thrilled!

 We then rode the elevator up to the roof and saw where they live and the beautiful view of the city and overlooking the river!

 They have an awesome gingerbread house display set up. It smelled so good! They used over 250 lbs of Powdered Sugar and 300 lbs of Gingerbread to compile it! Easton just loved the train that went around it all!

We ended the day by stopping by to see Dad on our way home before he ate lunch!

Puzzles

I am going to brag about my little Ella. She amazes us every day! She says and knows things that amaze me. The other night she told me she couldn't go to bed because she had to check her hypothesis! I laughed pretty hard at that one and then realized a couple days later it comes from Dinosaur Train. She says things and does things that I didn't think a 3 year old would know. I love how her imaginative play has changed so much this year, it is fun to listen to her make stuff up. One of her favorite things right now are these puzzles. They are the Dollar store cheap ones but they have been worth every penny. She sits and does them for hours over and over again. Most have 24 or 48 pieces which she can do no problem now. She has one that she got for going potty that is 100 pieces and I used to have to help her do it but now she does the whole thing on her own! She amazes me when she does that one! I bought her a couple other small ones for Christmas but I was thinking I should have got another 100 piece one!

Mother's Group Christmas Party

A week ago Friday we had our Mother's Group Party. It was a lot of fun! The kids started out by frosting and decorating sugar cookies! Easton clams up around people at church and so it took him a few minutes to start frosting and then he never ate it and I found someones child eating it a while later which I wasn't very happy about, but oh well less sugar for him!

 They look so thrilled to be there, like Mom why do you drag us to these things!

 Ella loved putting the sprinkles on with her fingers!

 I ended up frosting his cookie since he just kept trying to spread the same teaspoon!

 Ok now we are happy, we had been there long enough that they figured it was safe!

 And then SANTA came! The kids actually were pretty excited. Ella told him she wants a Jasmine doll (thankfully Aldi had 1 left the next day!) and she wants the rest of the princesses to go with her palace so they can sing. I keep telling her she wants a new baby doll and she screams no I don't each time, we shall see.

 Easton doesn't really know what he wants all he says is Vroom vroom and Ella tells him he wants toys and he gets excited!

 They each played some games to like Pin the button on the snowman and Santa hat bowling! It was a lot of fun! Thanks to those who put it on!



My Pirates

We were out the other night and I remembered I needed something at Joann's so we all went in. I just needed two things and I was trying to make it quick because Joann's + Kids = horrible, so I grabbed what I needed and they all started following me until I got half way through the store and noticed I was talking to myself. They had made it ten steps and found the toy aisle and were taking pictures. I can't take these three anywhere :)!

 

Easton says Rrrrrrrr....