Christmas Day

**To turn off the music scroll down and click pause.**

The girls were so excited last night. They finally fell asleep around 11:00pm or so. They woke up around 7:00am this morning and Haley came running into our room to wake us up. She was ready to open presents. Allie was still sleeping. We had to wake her up. She was a little dazed and confused and wanted to open presents, but also wanted to sleep. She didn't understand completely the concept of Christmas, Santa, and presents or she would have perked up faster. She's alive and kicking on all cylinders now.

Christmas Eve

This is our first Christmas Eve in our own house. We decided to create some traditions. This year we invited Papa and Grandma over for supper and a special celebration. Laura cooked a wonderful meal. After we ate Papa and Grandma helped the girls decorate cookies. Allie and Haley ate most of the icing and decorations. Later we read Luke 2 while the girls acted it out. Haley was Mary, Allie was Joseph, and Emily was baby Jesus. Emily did an excellent job. Haley won an Emmy for best actress for her "pregnant" walk. Allie ate off of the stable floor and contracted a rare disease, typical Allie. To end the tradition Papa read, "Twas the Night Before Christmas" and the girls listened intently. They loved it. We had a wonderful Christmas eve. We all had a lot of fun.

Thanks Grandma and Papa.

Papa made the eyes. Look at the concentration.

Haley and Allie ate the icing. Yes, they double dipped.

Grandma helped ice the sugar cookie gingerbread man. Haley designed her own outfit, nice huh?

Enthralled.

Thank you Papa.

We always knew Papa had a Green Thumb.

The girls wanted a sad gingerbread man. Papa made a frown.

Haley's Message to Nana & Grandpa

Haley insisted on sending Nana & Grandpa a message.

I recorded her message and you can click here to download it.

Hope you enjoy it.

Haley's ABCs

Click here to download Haley singing the ABCs.

Allie's Dangerously Tasty Cookies

We have drawn up a waiver/release form for eating cookies at our house.

Click here for the release form to consume Allie's cookies.

A Strange Man...

A strange man has been creating posts on my blog...something about boats for Christmas and football scholarships for Haley. Readers beware! (I have to say he is handsome!)

Where's Emily?

Some of you may be wondering what Emily has been doing while Haley, Allie and I have been decorating the tree, making cookies, and decorating the gingerbread house. I just wanted to show you that Emily has been busy getting cuter! Not that she really needed to work on it, but she is a Helms after all.

Cat Costume

Like Haley's cat?

Like Haley's treasure map to her Cat Costume?

Haley is definitely a character. Rather than ask Santa for a cat costume for Christmas she decided to pray for one. She commented that heavenly Father would help Santa more than a letter. What intelligence! According to her kin, she is "the smartest child in the world", and this only solidifies that belief. Luckily Grammy is taking care of the cat costume. See, it's amazing how the Lord answers our prayers.

That said, I have been praying for . . .

"Is it Christmas When We Wake Up Tomorrow?"

Here's Haley and Allie adding candy canes to our Christmas tree...

And here they are with the cookie they made. I have to admit that I did most of the work on this one. We're going to make one more of these and I'll let the girls do most of the work now that I know how to do it myself. I think the girls did a great job deorating him. They decided how to dress him and put on the frosting. I think the suspense of Christmas is almost more than Haley can handle. She keeps asking, "Will it be Christmas when we wake up tomorrow?" She's tired of hearing "no." We've tried to help her count down the days on our family calendar, but the impact lasted all of ten seconds. Only Allie has tried to open some of the presents. Now they carry the gifts around the house hardly able to bear the anticipation. This is the first Christmas Haley has really anticipated Christmas day. I'm not sure she'll survive it. Only two more days!

Haley's Recruiting Video

Dear Nick Saban,

This is Haley Helms' recruiting video of her football highlights. Please feel free to contact her father, Brent Helms, about scholarship information.

Thanks,

The Helms Family

Six Days 'til Christmas!

This post is supposed to be about the gingerbread house Haley and Allie made today, but aren't these the cutest little girls you've ever seen?

Decorating gingerbread houses is a tradition in our family. Each Christmas all the cousins from Grandma and Papa's family get together to decorate gingerbread houses and cookies. Haley and Allie missed the party this year because they were sick, but Grandma saved their gingerbread house for them.

In case you're wondering, the gingerbread house came assembled. We've learned in years past that it takes a lot of talent and patience to put a gingerbread house together.

I told the girls that we needed to put windows and a door on the house first before we decorated the roof. They insisted that they only wanted to decorate the roof. You can imagine that's not what happened. We ended up decorating the house backwards. I thought Haley was so creative for lining the pitch with gumdrops. The funny part was Haley putting the little dots on top of the gumdrops. Each time she put a dot of frosting on the gumdrop Allie would place the little dot on the gumdrop before Haley could set the frosting bag down. Haley was pretty frustrated about it. I think she only put about three of the little dots on the gumdrops. We had extra candy so we put a wreath on the back of the house. The green things are little trees that Allie glued on the house with frosting. I was impressed with the placement. Needless to say, we had a lot of fun doing this. The girls did a great job sharing the candy and frosting. We've had so much fun this Christmas season making things and being with our friends and family. I know these are the things the girls will remember, not the presents. Tomorrow we're making a giant sugar cookie boy and decorating it. I'll be posting that too. Stay tuned...

Our Christmas Tree

I mentioned before that Haley and Allie made our Christmas tree ornaments this year. Here's our finished product. The girls did a great job! This is my favorite ornament! Allie accidentally glued the gingerbread man's smile on upside down. Too cute!

The hearts and stars are finger painted. Here's another gingerbread man.

Haley and Allie made the candy canes out of red and white beads. Obviously we didn't make the princess ornaments. They're a gift from Grammy.

Here's our Christmas train. I had to hide the remote control last year because Haley and Allie wouldn't leave it alone. I hid it so well that I can't find it this year.

Merry Christmas!

Emily Live!

I thought everyone would like to see live footage of Emily. I tried to get her to smile for the camera but didn't have much success. She does look happy though.

Last night Emily sat on the couch with Brent and me. We were waiting for her to get sleepy so we could go to bed (we have the flu). She started cooing and babbling at us and wouldn't stop. It was really funny to listen to her go on and on. I guess she discovered her voice and was trying it out last night. It was so cute!

Popcorn and an Elephant's Memory

A couple of years ago Haley, Allie, and I were driving over the mountain in Huntsville, AL on our way to the YMCA. Haley kept telling me there was popcorn in the sky. It took me about a week to figure out that she was talking about the clouds. Haley called clouds "popcorn" for the longest time. I had forgotten all about this until Haley pointed out the "popcorn" in the sky while we were driving to the park today. She must have remembered. Don't be surprised that she remembers! Haley never forgets anything unless it's convenient for her (like not to double-dip her spoon in the peanut butter jar or run with open umbrellas in the house). One time while playing with a basketball with her cousin Connor, Connor accidentally knocked the ball out of Haley's hands. She insisted that Connor snatched it and talked about it for the next year any time we mentioned Connor's name. Haley remembers our apartment in Huntsville, people she met a long time ago, and songs we taught her a long time ago. She also knows the songs of all the Disney princesses. She likes me to sing her one before she goes to bed. She has the memory of an elephant. Brent says whoever Haley marries better stay on his toes or he's going to be in big trouble!

Christmas Preparations

I thought it would be fun for Haley and Allie to make their own Christmas tree ornaments this year. The entire tree is decorated in ornaments they made. They were very excited to decorate the tree this year. The tree actually looks really cute in their home-made art. Haley and Allie tend to cluster all the ornaments on one spot of the tree, so I go behind and rearrange a little. I'll post a picture of our finished product once all the ornaments dry and the girls hang them. We've had a lot of fun. This might be our new family tradition!