Christmas in Bella Vista

To avoid the brain-numbing display of our children opening endless gifts, I'm going to try to capture the fun they all had during our time in Arkansas instead. Julian and Elia spent time with their cousins, Sarah and Ethan, on Christmas Eve during our family Christmas. This is what happens when too little girls sneak into the kitchen...a plate o'chips!
Why not have a party near the front door?
One word: Cupong.

I still crack up when I look at our "goofy" family picture! Classic.
Looking at this does not get old for me!!!
The girls!
Rapunzel, let down your hair!
These profile shots tug at my heart every time.

Are you getting an idea of this girl's personality now? That's her response when I said to say, "cheese"!!
This was the only photo that I was able to get with Elia sitting still!

On Christmas morning, just as the children were about to open their gifts, it began to snow! Elia ran to the window and said, "I wished it would snow, and I just knew it would"!

There are 95 more pictures just like the one above, but I will spare you! Let's just say it was chaotic, fun, and over way too fast!

It was a light dusting, but they were thrilled!
While Julian and his dad rocked out on the Wii's DJ Jam Party Thingy-magig, Elia just HAD to "play" in the snow...

Food at Christmas Time!

Food is a major part of the holidays for most everyone, and our home is no exception! Here is just a sneak at all the baking and making that went on at the Tellez home!

This was Elia and her cousin, Alexa, making chocolate mint and almond candy.
When Isaac's mom was down for his graduation, she made our our "favorites"! This was the night of chile rellenos!

Christmas Bags

Well, I have a little time on my hands (finally) so I'm catching up with all of our events over the past few weeks. One of the things Elia and I most enjoyed (but that I may NEVER do again as they were so time consuming!!!) were her bags for teachers and classmates.

I decided to go "green" this year & use good ole recycled brown paper bags (simply because I had an abundance and they were super cheap!)

Despite my obsessive tendencies, I wanted Elia to be creative and decorate each bag herself. Ok, I may have helped just a bit, but for the most part she was the artist! Then we filled them Christmas goodies!
We used card stock, a square dye cut punch, ribbon, stickers, and ornaments to embellish our finished product!
As if the 3 year olds wouldn't be satisfied with simply a bag full of candy and trinkets, I decided to make each child an ornament with their name and the school's name, along with the year, and Elia's name. I'm sure it will be passed down for generations (it better be after all that hard work, ha!!)
What I do hope & pray is that even if the children don't remember every "project" we do, they can look back on our pictures and know that I wanted to cherish each and every moment with them. I try to make even the smallest task a major "event" in our home so that we can create precious memories that the kids will take with them throughout their lives.

Spelunking

Ok, not exactly, but it's a dream I've always had. Beth, the cave explorer! Just before Christmas, we took Julian to Bluff Dweller's cave in Missouri (the state of caves, fyi) just north of my parent's home in NW Arkansas. This is what we uncovered (ok, ok. Let a girl dream!):

These are views looking back from where we walked in, and a bit up so you can see just how big this place is!



This is a spring that I zoomed in on, and it goes back further than I would ever want to go!
Isn't God cool?

Celebrating Family

It was Isaac's weekend to celebrate all of his accomplishments, but it was also time to celebrate family. We live far from Isaac's family, so we squeeze in a lot of special moments in our short time together.

After the graduation festivities, we headed to the Galleria on Saturday for a bit of ice skating and window shopping (because that's all the shopping this gal can do at the Galleria! No one was paying attention when Elia and I busted on the ice (hence no picture, ha!) but I did walk around the 4 story mall with my jeans soaking wet for the rest of the afternoon! We had a great time.

Elia is not sure about this.
You can imagine mom's back was SORE after this day!

This was Claudia's first try on the ice, and she did great!

A Day to Celebrate

This past weekend, Isaac received his Associates Degree in Law Enforcement. His mom, sister, and neice came to celebrate with us! After walking the stage, our family met with beloved friends who have supported Isaac through this journey.

Isaac's neice, Alexa, and his sister, Claudia

Wendi and Richard

Coby and Kelly

Marla and Ross

My mom and dad

It doesn't stop here, and there are more hurdles to jump, but I could not be more proud of him. He's worked full-time, been a dad full-time, and a loving spouse full-time...all while juggling his course work. Congratulations, Isaac...I love you!

Let the festivities begin!

This past weekend I went to an annual cookie swap. It's really a nice start to the month-long Christmas festivities! I was pooped this year, so opted for peppermint bark as my contribution.

But then at the last minute I discovered this incredible mint and toasted almond (crack) candy. WOW! I decided to make it as a hostess gift, but really I just wanted to keep eating it at her house! See, a gift that keeps on giving (to my belly!).

We had a really nice time, and brought home a few brilliant sweets to put under our pillow (I'm not sure what that means, but it was in Steel Magnolia's so I figure it's relevant).

Someone's little hand moved in for a steal just as I was taking this shot! Classic.