Ella | the paquettes

Archive for the 'Ella' Category

Dec

edible Nativity!

Categories: Asher, Christianity, Ella, parenting and Rilyn
Tags: edible manger, edible nativity scene

Tonight we made an edible Nativity scene! I saw this idea on another blog and couldn’t resist trying it with our kids! The ingredients can vary, but this is what we used:

We used food coloring to dye the coconut flakes yellow for hay.

We built our nativity scene on top of an empty box. This helped in that James could cut slits in the box so the graham crackers could stay up better and the toothpick/gumdrop people could stand upright.

Rilyn was pretty excited to use the decorating bag with frosting!

finished!

Mary, baby Jesus, Joseph, a shepherd, lots of sheep and 2 donkeys

Fun family time!

yummy GOODNESS!

Dec

sea world!

By Julie P. Leave a Comment

Categories: Asher, Ella and Rilyn
Tags: sea world san antonio

My dad and James took the kids to Sea World on Saturday. We told Rilyn she was sure blessed to be able to go somewhere so fun on her half birthday! (She is 7 1/2 now!)

James said Asher refused to touch the dolphins.

my kids loved all the rides, but James said, “It was no Disneyland.” 🙂

I feel the need to say this is not my camera. 🙂

Asher refused to take pictures with any of the characters. He has lots of fears. 😛

Dec

lights!

By Julie P. Leave a Comment

Categories: Asher and Ella

I love Christmas lights!

We had hoped to add to our outdoor lights this year by getting a light up nativity, but the one I wanted sold out everywhere! Oh well, we did add “candy” hanging from one of our trees from an after Christmas sale at Target last year! 🙂

I love that I got flagged over driving in the neighborhood yesterday evening from neighbors that live blocks away, saying they were walking over to watch our house! I say, “watch” because it plays music and the lights blink on and off to the beat! Yes, it may be tacky and gaudy, but my kids’ expressions every year when we light it up for the first time is so worth it!

wow!

Hopefully next year, the nativity will go right in the center of the yard! We have an angel announcing the Good News!

The candy tree!

Whoa! I caught a major hug (or kiss?!) between Ella and Asher!

And true to form, we keep our tree gaudy as well! And I love it! I added 2 ornaments this year. One hula girl from Kauai and one Disneyland ornament!

*Rilyn was feeling sick during these pictures. Turned out she got strep the next day! 😦

Nov

decorating time!

By Julie P. Leave a Comment

Categories: Asher, Ella, Julie and Rilyn
Tags: Christmas tree photos

Last Friday, while we were in Temple, the kids and I helped my parents decorate their tree! We do this every year right after Thanksgiving. This year, it was finally Asher’s turn to put the angel on top of the tree!

grandpa lifting Asher up

Thanks to my sister, I got in a picture!

Rilyn peeking at me

ella

Nov

Thanksgiving x2

By Julie P. Leave a Comment

Categories: Asher, Ella, James, Julie and Rilyn

We hosted Thanksgiving for James’ family again this year. We celebrated on Saturday and had 15 people here! It was a great time had by all and I think we can call our dessert portion a success when we had 6 pies/cakes, cookies, and chocolates! We all ate some vegan dishes too, thanks to aunt Mandy and Allen! James said the vegan strawberry cheesecake made the list of the top 3 cheesecakes he has ever had!

yummy

the kids table

Rilyn’s beloved aunt

Our guest of honor for 2 years in a row is James’ maternal grandmother. How special is it for my kids to spend the holidays with her?

great gramma

I started a new Thanksgiving tradition this year at my house that I found on another blog. Here is the link if you want to print the banner flags for next year. Every year I plan on making another banner and so each year, I will accumulate another banner to decorate my house! Each banner will be full of all the things we were thankful for that year! By the time my kids are grown, my house will be FILLED with banners during Thanksgiving time!

I made each person write what they were thankful for . (Asher really told me those things!)

2011 Banner will be hanging up next Thanksgiving 15 flags long!

Nov

an afternoon at the park

By Julie P. Leave a Comment

Categories: Asher, Ella and Rilyn

We spent Thanksgiving afternoon at a local park in Temple. The daddies were going to the Aggie game. (So, so sad.)

cousins.

This park had the old school dangerous merry go round. My kids loved it!

And I mean what I say when I say “dangerous”.

rilyn!

ella

They had a high merry go round that the girls could sit on and spin!!!

They loved it!

Asher jumping off a “climbing wall”

Nov

Thanksgiving 2011

By Julie P. Leave a Comment

Categories: Asher, Ella, James, Julie and Rilyn

We celebrated Thanksgiving with my side of the family on Wednesday! I believe this is our first posed group shot since Jessica’s wedding 2 years ago.

Eric, Jessica, James, Julie, Jeff, Becca

Ella, Grandpa, Caden, Grandma, Asher, and Rilyn

Of course, we always do the “around the dining room table” shot!

Thanksgiving meal

Grandparents with the grandkids! I love Asher and Ella’s faces in this picture!

Nov

school in november

By Julie P. Leave a Comment

Categories: Asher, Ella and Rilyn

The girls had movie night Thursday evening at school. They loved going to school at night in their pjs to watch Rio with all their friends! Asher loved it too!

Rilyn watching the movie

This afternoon, the girls had Thanksgiving feasts in their grade levels. Rilyn’s was buffet style. Look at Rilyn trying to get Asher to come in line with her to try some food!

come here little brother!

And this is what Asher was doing. Sigh. Is there hope for this one? 😉

Asher just being Asher

And in the kindergarten wing, they ate “Indian style”! Literally, dressed as Indians and sitting Indian style! 😉

Why does my child want to smell the deli meat?

She isn’t a fan of deli meat at home, so I was impressed when she took a bite!

and I figured this reaction would be coming!

Nov

signs of mercy

By Julie P. Leave a Comment

Categories: Ella

Mercy: a blessing regarded as an act of divine favor or compassion (Webster’s Dictionary)

I love when God gives us signs of mercy to remind us we are in His will. Yesterday, Ella came home from kindergarten (public school) and gave me this.

(Cell phone pic) I love how she misspelled “God” with “Good”. He is a good God! Phil. 4:6

This is the girls’ Bible verse to memorize for the week. I immediately asked Ella if she wrote this in class and she said she did. She told me that she finished her seat work early and asked the teacher if she could practice writing her verse (she has a card with the verse on it in her backpack.) I said, “Did daddy tell you this idea?” (Because he drove her to school that day.) She said, “He just told me I need to practice my verse.” So then I called James and he said he didn’t tell her to write the verse at school. This was all Ella’s idea.
I just love that she came home from public school with the Truth, the Power, the Word. And I’m thankful for a teacher that let her do it in class and understands how we are raising our children.
Thank you God for signs of mercy.

Nov

Halloween 2011

By Julie P. Leave a Comment

Categories: Asher, Ella and Rilyn

I’m going to say that this was the most fun Halloween we have had as a family. I have no doubt this is because our kids are getting older!

I’m happy to say that all my kid meal toys disappeared by the time we finished

trick-or-treating!

Every year, the neighborhood kids (and some extra!) meet up on Jen’s lawn for chili, cornbread, and pre-trick-or-treating pictures!

lots of friends!

Super Why vs. Captain America!

cousins

I can just imagine the boys saying, “Who invited Super Why? Is he even a real super hero? Ooooooo, I’m so scared of his ‘power to read!'” 😉

Spiderman, Thor, Batman, Super Why, and Hulk

Belle and Rapunzel!

Ella and Anna

When it was time to go trick or treating, the big kids took off!

speed=more candy!

Asher stayed behind with the little guys!

One of Ella’s friends from kindergarten had a haunted house in her garage. This friend also has 3 teenage brothers. This haunted house was going to be scary! But Ella wanted to see her friend, so in she went! (Even though I told her she probably wouldn’t be in there-and she wasn’t.) Ella tried to be brave at first, but you can see the fear in her eyes-and tears!