Christmas 2014

Christmas Eve we had a lot of preparations we had to do in order to get ready for Santa! We made sugar cookies for Santa and cut up apples and carrots for his reindeer. James got the do the cutting for the first time this year, which made him officially a big boy in his eyes.

 

Every year Nana gets the kids Christmas PJs, so they opened them up on Christmas Eve and she got to watch via Skype.

We had our Christmas Eve picnic under the tree!

And played silly games!

Our neighbors came over for a little bit to say Merry Christmas and let the kids play :)

 

 

James was pretty good about going to sleep this year, thanksfully we were able to put all the presents out by 930 and we were all asleep by 10 - because we knew it would be a busy Christmas day!



 

James was so excited to see that Santa wrote him a letter back.



 



Christmas night we went to our friends house for dinner (well we ordered Chinese!). It was really a perfect relaxed Christmas. The kids had a magical day and we loved every minute of it. However, I think it will takes us months to recover - Christmas is exhausting!



The Holiday Season

The Saturday after Thanksgiving, we went to Barnes and Nobles to look for a new dinosaur book for James. And they were having a lego event! It has a theme that I had no idea what it was, but James didn't care - he just got to sit and build with a bunch of older kids which he thought was so cool. John got the job of entertaining Madeleine... for 45 minutes. He read a lot of books to her while we waited for James to be done.

John and James reading his new dinosaur book. It is a pretty awesome book.

 

The town next to us had their tree lighting on a night that wasn't too cold - so we decided last minute to head over and see Santa!

 

 

James was so excited and couldn't wait to talk to him.



 

Madeline, not so much. She sat for about 2 seconds and decided it wasn't worth the candy cane we tried to bribe her with.



 

Our tree! Its been up for just over a week and already we have had several ornament casualties, a few branches chewed off by the dogs and a kid fall into it... I'm not very optimistic that will last another two weeks. But it looked pretty when we put it up!

On Monday, our good friends had their second baby. James and Hailey have become really good friends at school and the day after the baby was born, Hailey called James asking him to come see the baby. It was the cutest conversation ever. I was a little nervous because James had never been in a hospital or even been around a baby who was less than a day old (not even his sister!) but he did amazing. He was gentle and sweet and couldn't get enough of the baby.

 

James and I have started playing cards on the kitchen floor while we wait for things to finish cooking. Guess who was winning this time?

 

Yesterday was my birthday, and since John was out of town our friends invited us over for dinner and cupcakes. Leila is a brave woman and let the kids decorate all the cupcakes! It was a total mess but they had the best time.



 

It was a wonderful birthday with some wonderful friends. Now James knows that we just have two weeks before Santa comes and he cannot wait!



Photo dump

On Veteran's Day, James' school had their Fall Feast - which is basically a big potluck and the whole family gets to come spend the day at school. It is always a lot of fun and this year the weather was so beautiful and everyone was having such a wonderful time that instead of it ending at 1, many families stayed until 3!



 

At the kids museum down the street, there is a huge art room - which my kids will stay in for hours! They can glue and paint and make a huge mess without anyone getting in their way :)



 

James wrote his first official letter to Santa! "Dear Santa, I really want Lego with the polar bear. Love, James". Cant get any better than that! Now he just has a few weeks to wait...



 

Last week was really cold, the news even said we were colder than North Dakota! That just isn't right. The kids and I spent most of the evenings snuggled under a blanket on the couch watching movies... no one wanted to do anything in that kinda weather. Thanks goodness it is already back in the 70s!  

 

This is my weekly Costco shopping partner, Leila, and her daughter, Rachel. We take the girls together while our boys are at school and make a whole morning out of it. You know you are an adult when going to Costco is the highlight of your week!



 

I watched our neighbor's almost 2 year old boy last week. Madeleine was in love. She would take his hand and lead him everywhere. Poor kid didn't know what to do about it, so he just followed her lead!


 

Last week, Madeleine and I had to go to Hobby Lobby and get two big canvases for a project I'm working on, and decided to check out World Market right next store. Turns out they had a love seat that I just couldn't pass up... and of course this was all right before I had to pick James up from school! I ended up having to ask a friend to drive James home for me.



School pictures from James' second year of preschool at The Children's Schoolhouse

The little man that made me a Mama is growing up way too fast!

 



Photo dump

The weekend before Halloween, a friend of James and Madeleine had her birthday party - and it was Halloweed themed. Which meant all the kids got to wear their costumes! They loved it :)



 

Madeleine loves shopping at Costco with me... cant you tell? ;)



 

This is what James' face looks like almost every day when I pick him up from school. I know he doesn't eat dirt... but I have no idea how he gets his face covered in it!



 

We carved pumpkins - which officially started the countdown to Trick or Treating for James (does he look excited?)! I am a terrible carver, and John is even worse... so this year we ended up using cookie cutters. We let the kids pick out what they wanted and then we held the cutters while they swung a rubber hammer. It worked out actually really well! Much easier and faster - plus the kids got to help which  they loved.

 

 

My friend made us cupcakes last week, which was very nice of her - but turns out they were dairy free cupcakes. They were a little thick and hard to swallow!



 

We went with a friend to IHOP on Halloween and the kids got to make scary pumpkins! They thought it was the coolest thing. I was reminded though why I haven't been back to IHOP since college...



 

We have a new Publix by our house now, I love it! Madeleine does too because they have shopping carts that are just her size. And they actually hold a good amount of food so she usually gets to push the cart on our Publix trips :)



 

I love how she can still just fall asleep in the car. I wish someone would drive me around so I could take a nap!



 

There is this HUGE antique warehouse that John and I love to go to. That's where I get all my fabric and where we find all of our random things we use for projects or knick knacks. However it is so big that they kids get tired and bored when we go - so we have to bring the wagon and things to entertain them. John and I can literally spend hours there just walking up and down the aisles.



 

 

And since they kids are such good sports while we shop, we  hit up Steak and Shake for milkshakes :)