Other Holiday Fun, Catching up

Somewhere between Daddy's surgery, my Mom's surgery(she is doing well, by the way), and all the craziness of the Holidays approaching us, I have forgotten to do a post or two.  I am going to take a moment to blog about all the fun things I had forgotten to share.

Our Niece, K, had her Fourth birthday party earlier this month.  We all went to Funtastics to celebrate with her!  Many of our family members have had birthday parties here, so Little Big Foot and Baby Long Legs are well acquainted with all the fun things there are to do, to somewhat of my dismay.  I'm glad that they have become adventurous and confident, but I do worry about this place and some of the things there are to play on.  I make sure that Daddy, myself or an Aunt is close to make sure they don't severely hurt themselves.  Despite all of my nervousness, we all do have fun!  Another benefit is that my kids are always exhausted after we play there!

 Everyone playing in the foam pit.  Daddy got himself stuck in here and I would be lying if I said that I didn't think it was somewhat hilarious! ;)

 Time for cake!!

Also, a week before Christmas, we had a Christmas Party with our SAHM's group.  Unfortunately this was the only photo from that night, as I was at Daddy's beck and call because he had only been discharged from the Hospital a few days before and on crutches.  I was a busy Mommy that night!  We still had fun and this Santa was the best I've seen, ever!  We also were able to enjoy a great dinner provided by the group, which after a couple weeks of fast-food, this meal was what our family needed.  A HUGE thank you to all the Families that helped to make the food, set up for the party, plan and clean up.  You all did a fabulous job!

Also a bit of fun this month was the Lunar Eclipse on Winter Solstice.  Yes, we stayed up just so we could see it!  And of course, I had to take a picture :)

Last week we had the opportunity to attend a PAT event that a Mom in our group volunteers to put on for our group.  With the help of our Organizers, there were fun crafts for the kids to do.  I unfortunately didn't get a picture of my kids with theirs before they were destroyed, but I did get a quick snapshot of their gingerbread(aka graham cracker)houses.  LBF decorated his all by himself this year!  He did an awesome job!  BLL had quite a lot of help, as she was more interested in eating the candy rather than decorating with it.  Thank you to Heather for volunteering to do these events!  My kids certainly enjoyed themselves and they were so excited to show Daddy their hard work.

Also while we were at this event, BLL managed to hurt her toe.  I had to put her in a time-out because she was being a bully(I know, certainly not sweet little BLL!).  I took her out into a hallway where we were by ourselves and placed her on a bench.  Then I decided to go back into the main room to check on LBF.  When I turned around I say her little fingers between the doors, I went to keep the doors from shutting on her fingers only to open the door on her poor little toe, of which she was barefoot because in a fit of rage she had decided to tear off her boots and socks.  So there you have it, I'm a mean Mommy.  Its looking like BLL toe nail will be falling off any day now, let us hope for a speedy recovery!  Poor kid.

This wraps up all the fun we had before the fun of Christmas was upon us!  I just love the excitement of the Holidays and I look forward to next year!  Hope everyone has a fun and SAFE New Year's Eve and a Happy New Year!!

Christmas Morning Part 2

Christmas Morning Part 1

Merry Christmas!

I know it's a day late, but YouTube isn't cooperating on the uploading of our video of Christmas Morning.  I had  attempted to blog yesterday, then decided to wait until I could get the video.  I still am not able to upload the video at this time because we now need to reformat it.  So much trouble just for a 10 minute video, but I promise I will get  it up on here as soon as possible!  I know there is lots of family out there just biding time to enjoy it ;)  Until then, I will share the few photos that we snapped of our big day.

Christmas morning started like most do!  We heard the pitter patter of four little feet going through the hallway.  Once Little Big Foot had a good look at the tree he declared, "Santa came!"  Then he pointed at the plate of cookies we left out and said "Look Mommy, Santa ate cookies and egg nog all gone!"  He was super excited!!  The look on his face was of pure surprise and happiness.  LBF also said "Santa left stuff in our socks!  Look Mommy, look!!"  This Christmas, I finally get it.  That magical feeling that you get from the look of excitement on your child's face.  It's one of those moments that makes all the hard work of being a Parent, worth it.  It can only be described as, magical!

Check out the stuff Santa left in their socks :D

After we finished opening the presents(all of which is on the video of course), it was time to open all that wonderful packaging.  And by wonderful, I mean miserable.  Why can't Santa pre-assemble?  It would help all the Mommies and Daddies if he could just fit that in to wrapping gifts ;)

Baby Long Legs wanted to open her first Cabbage Patch Kid from Aunt A and Uncle H first!  This was a surprise Cabbage Patch Kid, you had to open it to find out if it was a boy or girl.  This one was a..........

 A GIRL!

 BLL couldn't wait to get her outfit on too!

Even BLL was starting to grasp the idea of Santa and presents this year.  She had even asked a couple days ago, "Mommy, who is Santa?  What he do?"  BLL is definitely a thinker!  Always full of questions!

LBF could not put the book about Planes down after he opened it!  He and Daddy talked and looked at this book for about an hour(no exaggerating)!  I would say that their Second Cousin H was right on the money when she picked this book.  Thank you H!!  I also learned that Daddy has a lot of knowledge on aircraft.  I suppose it makes sense that he works in the Aircraft Industry ;)

Later that morning, Grama and Cousin A came by to bring a couple of gifts for LBF and BLL.  LBF got his very first bike!  He was so excited, he couldn't wait to take a ride!  Too bad it was freezing outside with a slight dusting of snow, so we let him test it out in the hallway.  BLL couldn't wait to get the baby doll out of hers.  I think for the time being, that was her only concern when it came to her gift.  BLL loves her babies!  I have no doubt that she will be a little Mommy herself one very distant far off day.

After all of the fabulous gift opening and receiving of the morning, it came time to pick up toys and debris and get ready for our special Family Christmas Dinner.  I just had to share a little snapshot of our table after is was set, as I thought it was just exceptional for us this year!   This Christmas was good to us despite Daddy's surgery and all.  Our dinner was made even more special by Grama making all the dinner and bringing it over to us.  We had one very full table of food and family.

Once we were all full from dinner, Grama convinced Cousin A to take LBF out for his first ride of his bike.  She had to help him at first, but............

He did get the hang of it and was proud to ride by himself!

Now BLL can ride her trike :)

Soon it became dark and too cold for the kids to be out, so all came in and we enjoyed some Pumpkin Pie topped with Cool Whip!  Then Grama and Cousin A departed and it was time for two very tuckered out children to go off to bed.

Hope all had a wonderful Christmas full of magic and memories!!  Happy Holidays!

Merry Christmas Eve 2010

What did we do on Christmas Eve to prepare for the big day?  Well I'll show you with pictures!  We started with watching a few movies and not all were the typical Christmas movies.  We watched Toy Story 3, A Bug's Life and..........

How to Train Your Dragon.  The kiddos also did their fair share of lazing about, as you can see.

Little Big Foot and Baby Long Legs had some fun playing with Daddy.  They had the advantage being that Daddy was confined to the sofa this morning ;)

Then we had some fun picking on poor Jill here.  She didn't seem to mind.  She generally doesn't as long as she is getting some attention.  Cute huh?  LOL!

While the kiddos were occupied with their movies, I setup the table for our special family Christmas Dinner.

I also cleaned up our special Dinnerware for Christmas and have it setup for tomorrow!  We are all so excited for Dinner tomorrow!  Grama is preparing all the food and then joining us for our special dinner.  

Then we setup for the Rice Crispy Houses while LBF and BLL took a brief nap.  When they awoke, we all got ready to go see the lights at Heartsprings!  They were beautiful!!  I unfortunately don't have pictures of those, I was driving.

After our lights viewing, we came home and we started frosting LBF's and BLL's rice crispy houses.

Once Mommy finished frosting, LBF and BLLs started sticking their little candies onto their houses(or in BLLs case, eating their candy)

Once the candy was placed, we decided to take a moment to let the frosting dry and have LBF and BLL open their special Christmas Eve gifts from Mommy and Daddy.  Sorry the video cuts off at the end, our camera ran out of space.  Something I will remedy before tomorrow!

After LBF and BLL enjoyed opening their special gifts, we headed outside to put down the Reindeer Food!  

Santa's Reindeer will be well fed this year!

Once Santa's Reindeer were taken care of, we came back inside to finish our Rice Crispy Treat Houses.  It is now time to paint their houses, with their new buddies of course!

Finally they finished!  Here are the end results.  They both did a GREAT job, all by themselves this year!  They are growing up too fast(I know I say that a lot, but seriously it just amazes me how much changes from year to year!)

Then we changed into our PJs and relaxed.  LBF and BLL enjoyed watching Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer.

While the kiddos were watching Rudolph, Daddy whipped up some more cookies for Santa.  After the show was over, LBF and BLL were more than happy to help set out the cookies and egg nog for Santa.

A quick snapshot of their matching Christmas PJs.

And now that brings us to the end of our evening, time to read our special Christmas books.  LBF and BLL were so excited to read their books and then they were off to bed with Rudolph and Clarice in tow.  They are still chattering back in forth and it's now midnight!  Lets hope they settle down soon so that Santa can come for a visit and enjoy these tasty cookies and egg nog ;)

I wish everyone a very Merry Christmas Eve and a very Merry Christmas!  Hope the morning brings many happy memories for all!!