Family Christmas Fun

Here is one of my all time favorite things to see:

These are Samuel's sweet little hands helping me bake in the kitchen. I can never bake alone and I don't mind. Samuel is always there to help me and he's good at it! I just love to see his little hands press down the pie crust.

Of course one of our family's main Christmas traditions is to pay a visit to Santa Claus. And let me tell you, we met the real deal this year. St. Nick's eyes even twinkled! I was pleased because for the first year in TX Doolittle history, none of our kiddos were afraid to sit in Santa's lap! Wooooo Hooooo! Props to Grant who was so tired for being a trooper and letting mom get a pic of you with the Big Guy. We headed down to Bass Pro Shops again this year for free pictures! with our good friends the Zufelts. All the kids always have a ton of fun together. Here is all of them waiting in my car while Ashley ran in to Sam's Club. (Sometimes I feel like a crazy lady walking in to the store with all these kids and only Ashley and myself to man them) We did get a nice compliment though from an elderly couple as we rode up and down....and up and down....and up and down in the elevator. Something to the effect of bravery, and adventure on our part. Ain't that the truth! It was a fun afternoon and I'm glad our family has such great friends!

Lillie had her first ballet recital 2 days before we left for CA. I'm really glad that she didn't miss it. She was excited to have her hair done and be able to wear so much make-up. And I was surprised by how nostalgic it made me.... since performing was such a large part of my life growing up. It was really neat to be able to get her all thickly make-up'd and gorgeous to be able to go on stage... cool to share the same thing with her like that. No pics of the dance b/c we weren't allowed flash photography but here are some before and afters:

Lillie and her teacher Ms. Cindy.

And here she is holding a Twix. I think by the time it was all over the candy was her favorite part of the whole thing! And I don't have any pics of the complete outfit. The skirt was a rental and they had the girls give them back before we came on stage to pick them up.

And of course the kiddos on the Sunday before Christmas dressed in their Holiday ware. I had to take about 75 pics I think to get this one. Fun times.
Somewhere we have a picture of Samuel putting the star in the tree. It was his first year doing it and he had a lot of fun. This was a great first Christmas season for Grant. He slept through a lot but that's pretty typical!