Tuesday, December 28, 2010

Ornaments!

Each year we get the kids an ornament for their Christmas trees for their bedrooms, and it is usually a pretty easy task.  But this year we really struggled!  Trying to pick out the perfect ornament that really sums up the year is kinda difficult.  And then once you decide what you want they are super hard to find.  We have done really well for 5 years now finding nice glass ones, but this year we just had to take what we could get!

Wyatt Cade got a mouse ornament!  He is rather difficult to pick stuff for, cause his interests have stayed the same the last 2 years.  Balls and pucky dogs!  Well, he already had those ornaments.  I'm not sure if it has been mentioned on the blog, but he was a bit obsessed with "mouses" this year.  By mouses he means zhu zhu pet hamsters, which he insists are called mouses.  What 3 year old pics that out when he has his choice of a whole toy store?  My little Wy Wy.  He was so super excited about it that he immediately had to show it to Annie girl.
Noah J was also kinda hard this year because there are just so many things that he loves.  And who really wants an iron man ornament?  I just think about his future wife and how much she will appreciate me handing down these tacky ornaments that I'm sure Noah will insist be hung on their tree.  But I guess if she marries Noah she will have a healthy appreciation of Darth Vader! :)  We tried to find him a dinosaur ornament, since he has been majorly into becoming a paleontologist, but couldn't find one.  So we went with the standby - Star Wars!  He got a tiny Boba Fett and a Han Solo frozen in carbonite.  Classy, right?

Annie girl was a bit easier to shop for - we knew we wanted a muffin for her!  So we found this Santa cupcake that we are calling a muffin!
She was actually quite excited about the whole affair!  Her first ornament on her lonely little tree!

She then immediately tried to eat it.

My goal is to make a nice scrapbook for each kiddo with a pic of each year's ornament with an explanation on why we picked it.  We'll see when I get around to that! ha! :)

Christmas with G&G

We spent this Christmas Eve with my whole family, as usual, and we had a great time.  The kids were all well behaved and the evening was actually relaxing and enjoyable, instead of stressful.  Yay!
We took a ton of pictures, but still hardly got any where all of us are looking.  Why can't we see to get that right?  And why am I so white and my mom so tan?  Its really not understandable.
We got there a bit early and it started to rain so the boys got to do their favorite rainy day activity at my parents house - get under a blanket on the back porch and watch some cartoons!  They watched a bit of the grinch!




And this is my husband making fun of me.  I told him he doesn't look sincere when he poses for pictures, so he asked if I wanted him to laugh and look natural.  Of course not, but my Dad snapped  a pic of us and its just too funny to me, cause I am seriously laughing and I look just like him fake laughing! :)
The boys got tons of great gifts - I think Wyatt's favorites were his own Leapster and a marble tower thing.





Noah really loves his Boba Fett ship and also his Rock 'em Sock 'Em game from Aaron and Christy.
I really didn't think Annie would appreciate any gifts this year, but she is such an active little bug she has been really into everything she got.  She was snuggling with her dolly that Joseph got her.
And then she really loves the mirror snail thing my parents got her.
If that thing is around she is searching for it and grabbing at it.  I'm so glad she loved her first Christmas!

Most of all, we enjoyed hanging out with our favorite people in the world, even though we were sad Josh had to leave early to go to work.


The night ended with our new Christmas jammies, of course.  And if you're wondering, yes, that is a tutu on Annie girls sleeper.
And then off to bed to anxiously await Santa's arrival!

Monday, December 27, 2010

Christmas at Granny's!

This year we celebrated Christmas over 3 different days, due to Josh's crazy schedule.  It was kinda nice to space it all out and gave us a little breathing room.  You can see the boys had so much fun - this was their first chance to open presents this year and they were quite happy, if you can' tell!
We also tried really hard to get a couple of nice family shots and pics of the kids - really just anything we could edit to make nice.  It is harder than it sounds!  Here are just a few of the unedited shots...
There was seriously not a shot of all three of them looking at the camera with a nice face at the same time!  So frustrating!  If we could get good enough at our software we could stitch together a pic with the best of each person! :)  Not sure that will ever happen!  The kids were pretty tired of the whole thing - completely evident on Noah J's face!
We did have lots of fun getting to dress our little muffin up in some Christmas attire!  She got a sweater dress while the rest of us all got sweaters - if I had my act together I would have gotten me one too.  There's always next year!
We had a really great time!  Josh's mom was overly generous with her gift giving and Josh got some great camera stuff and I got a Kindle!  So excited.  Now if only I could decide what book to buy first!  I'm so stingy it is really difficult for me to pick - it has to be just right! ;)

CHA Christmas party!

Last week we took the kiddos to our homeschool group's Christmas party last week at their favorite park.  They were so happy to be there with their friends!  It is in Tomball so most of the time folks don't like to drive out that way, so this was a nice occasion!

We played on the playground and had a picnic lunch, and then headed over to meet the rest of the group to do some Christmas activities.

  We got some reindeer food to take home,which Noah was just not sure about.  In the van on the way home he asked me if that was really what reindeer eat.  I assure him it is, to which he replies, "You're telling me that reindeer like to eat glitter?"  :)  He's just too smart.  I then explained to him how the glitter just works as an attractor so it glistens in the moonlight so the reindeer can find where we sprinkled the food. lol :)
The kids had tons of fun rolling down this teeny little hill, and then down the steep hill at the back of the picnic area.  They also got to have an exciting leaf/pine needle fight with their friends.  Poor Jacob seemed to get hit the most! :(

This next picture cracks me up - he thinks he is so big and that everything he does is so fancy.

They also got to decorate and eat cupcakes, which is always a hit.
Annie was so sad she didn't get one that she had to eat her thumb instead!  Of course that is what she does 90% of the day anyways, but the boys were certain she wanted one. :)
Fun was had by all!  And yes, Josh was there, he was just behind the camera the whole time!

Sunday, December 26, 2010

Cuddling up with a good book!

Noah James has really been into taking care of Annie, which now includes reading to her.  I put her in the glider to get some stuff done in her room and he came in and asked me if it was OK if he got in with her and read her some of her books.  Of course!!  This is why we homeschool, right?  So we can have lots of good cuddle time with books in our jammies!

What was great this time is that she actually, really listened!  I was shocked!  She usually just looks at whatever is interesting her in the room at the time, but she was totally into the books.  And on top of that she usually freezes up whenever the camera comes out, but she was just so spellbound by the pictures she couldn't take her eyes off them.
I'm praying they stay this close for a lifetime!