We've had snow this week and so the munchkins got to play in it on Friday morning!

James enjoyed it (until he came in and his fingers were so cold they were tingling) ... I thought Bekah would love it but she didn't seem so sure... maybe it's her californian blood coming out??

It was COLD!!!

James decides a bit of hula-hooping might warm him up!!

We had quite a competitive game of "who can throw the snowball highest" ... ;0)

Daddy gave Bekah snowman building lessons ...

The snowman was HUGE!!!!!!

... or maybe not!! Dan was sitting further back in a sad attempt to make Snowy (James' named him!) look bigger ...

Nanny and Grandad have had snow too ... we are heading here on Wednesday - don't know if any snow will be left by then though!

[Thanks, Grandad for sending these pictures!]

The time is coming for Mummy to improve her hairdressing skills ...

Some days Bekah decides she wants a clip in her hair and picks one out herself ... The other day they just kept coming!! I decided to keep putting them in as long as she was handing them to me ... Needless to say none of them where still in less than an hour later!

It's not going to be easy ... she was doing this 2 seconds after I took those photos!

Photos to go with the previous video ...

Bekah has trouble making decisions ...

This video is a bit long but it's pretty funny!

James' (and Mummy's) singing debut ... and we thought he hated singing! ;0)

James has a Christmas show at pre-school on Friday and so he's been learning lots of new songs. He normally HATES singing (not sure who he takes after ... Daddy ...) but just lately he keeps spontaneously breaking into song. It's been very sweet to watch/hear ... He even WANTED me to do some video the other day. Please excuse my TERRIBLE singing ... (you can hear why I never joined the choir ...) but James always seems to like to have some backing vocals (as you can hear from his request in the next video). I think Bekah looks really sweet in this video clip too as she rocks her baby. ;0)

Jingle Bells ...

Decorating the tree ...

Last weekend we bought a fake tree and decorated it. We needed a fairly small one to go in the space under the stairs as we wanted to keep space at a maximum now that our house is up for sale (anyone interested??? Let me know!) Both the munckins were quite interested to start with but it didn't last long ... once Bekah got bored of destroying the ornaments! I think it's really pretty though!

Playing with the nativity set ...

Last year I bought this wooden nativity set in the sale after Christmas and had completely forgotton about it until we unpacked all the Christmas decorations. Bekah has loved playing with it. She was really sweet getting the angel to keep kissing baby Jesus!

Counting down to Christmas ...

I made this advent calendar with James. The idea is that you put a star over each number. I haven't been able to get a photo of James doing it yet but Bekah quite enjoys splatting the stars wherever she fancies. I think Daddy's chocolate advent calendar has been more popular though!

I've always suspected they are part-monkey ... now I have proof!

Uncle Adrian's Surprise 40th Birthday Party

Last weekend we went to Adrian's surprise 40th Birthday Party. Caroline has been planning it for a year and it was brilliant. Since none of the kids were there Caroline got all Adrian's neices (2) and nephews (4) together the week before to makes some winter-y pictures to display by the cake. (The party had a winter wonderland theme), I realize now that I don't actually have any photos of the birthday boy ... am going to need to steal some from my sister's facebook page!

With my VERY glamerous little sister! She looked STUNNING!!! :0)

Caroline put soooo much thought, effort, energy and time into this party and it was a big success.

Do we look fancy or what??? The FOUR of us ... me, my Mummy and my two sisters!

Strutting our stuff on the dance floor - haven't had a good boogie like this for ages!

At home before we went out!

It is very rare that we have opportunity to dress up these days (much to Dan's delight!). Bekah seemed to like Mummy's sparkly dress and James said Mummy looked pretty ... it's at times like this that I love my kids! ;0)

Christmas Shopping at Legoland!!

Daddy found out that Legoland was open for free for the last few weekended in November ... so guess where we went?! It was basically a ruse to get you in the gift shop (and it worked!). Most of the park was closed but there were some christmasssy models around and a few things were open (like the 3D Bob the Builder movie). We were there for an hour or so and it was quite good fun as something different to do.

There was a great view of Windsor Castle ...

Funny conversation in the car on the way back ....

Daddy: Look, there's Windsor Castle where the Queen lives.

[PAUSE]

James: Look, Daddy! There's a VW Golf [car]!"

Rebekah: Puff!!!! (Bekah was eating Cheese Puff snacks ...)

Our American kids!!! ;0)

Bekah even got to write a letter to Santa while we were waiting for Daddy and Big Bro (on a ride!)

(I'm kind of surprised she wasn't more interested in the lego motorbike behind us since she is clearly a biker chick!)