Yeeeee Haw!

Elia recently had Western Week at school. She wore cowboy boots and a hat each day, although the bandana never made it past the front door. She was NOT excited about the forced-fun square dancing show they put on at the end of Western Week. I have the evidence in the photo's below...

Is this not the saddest Seniorita you've ever seen?

At this point, only sitting with her class because I am RIGHT behind her on the floor (and not sitting with the rest of the parents in chairs!!)
BEGGING me to rescue her from the forced-fun event. This is her crying out "mommyyyyyy". Breaks my heart!

Oh, being 3 is SO HARD! Notice she refuses to get in line, and just wants this miserable day to be over! No worries though, she had a great time with her friends as soon as they returned to their class. I'm with Elia, I'm not a fan of forced-fun either. Poor kid.

Cabin Fever!

Overnight we received a blanket of ice covered in beautiful snow. It was terrible to try to drive on (speaking from experience), but made for another great day together as a family. What to do when cooped up all day? Cook, of course! I was going to make cupcakes, but didn't have my cake mix, so we made cookies from scratch! I've never made the Nestle Toll House recipe from the back of the morsels bag until today, and they were a hit!

Elia paced back and forth with her hands folded behind her back in anticipation of the timer going off.

Still waiting...

First batch done!

Elia asked to put cookies in the muffin pan, and may I just say they were delish!
With a wind chill below zero, we bundled her up for a VERY quick snow angel.

Our daughter is in there somewhere, I promise.

Ready to collect the snow for a little snow ice cream! (She wanted to put it directly in the Radio Flyer, but mommy insisted on the zip lock bag)

Paula Deen's recipe is the best I've ever had!

She approves!

Happy Birthday, Nana!

Nana and Poppy came over to celebrate Nana's birthday with homemade pizza and "Better than you know what" cake! Nana received a Night of the Museum DVD from Elia (did she get that for hersel, or for Nana??!!) and The Pioneer Lady's cookbook. Happy Birthday, Nana!

Nana opening gifts
Laughing at mommy doing "tricks" to get her to look at the camera.
It's a party everyday in Elia's world!
Gifts!
Let's eat!
Although not her party, Elia is always willing to help blow out the candles.

First snow of 2011

Huge snow flakes fell on this second weekend in January and we just had to pull out the sled and the (too small) snow suit! Elia just wanted to go down the driveway in her sled, and make a snow man with her daddy. Now, a fire and hot chocolate! Love that this happened on a weekend.

This was the successful slide. Most of the time she landed in the snow face first!

This is her snow man. See his tiny head? That was her contribution!
This is very serious work for daddy.

She was thrilled to finally be outside!

Just got hit by daddy's snow ball!

Happy snow day!

The Boys

Christmas Eve

Dinner on Christmas Eve-Eve!

Bluff Dweller's Cave

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!