Christmas Day

I am a little behind. So many get togethers, so many parties, so little time for blogging. Alas, Christmas morning was so fun! As most of you know, my kids get up early. Like 5 a.m. early. Every. Single. Day. I have gotten used to it, and like every other day, Morgan woke up at 5. Tessa, on the other hand, slept until 6 - a Christmas gift in itself. Her face lit up when she saw the princess bike, and she continued to show enthusiasm for each subsequent gift.
Morgan liked the bike as well, but was most enamored with all the choo-choos! That boy sure does love his trains! The train table was a hit!

After the Santa festivities, Tessa tried on her ballerina ensemble from Grandma and Steve. She looks adorable - can't wait for dance to start next month!After naps, we headed to my mom's and spent the afternoon playing, eating, opening presents, and visiting with each other. It was so relaxing!
Baby Elliott :)
Tessa and Elliott with Grandma.
Morgan was MESMERIZED by Grandma's Santa hat.

Another great day full of memories!

'Twas the Night Before Christmas

It was the night before Christmas, and all through the house, the children were filled with glee. With "snowmen" in their bellies,

and homemade doggy treats for Lucy (it was her 6th birthday on Christmas Eve),
We all hung out in the kitchen to bake cookies for Santa.
After a (short) winter's nap, these two dressed in their finest and posed in front of the tree before heading to church. Morgan had to give Tessa a hug first.
This one is a bit better.
Then after church we headed to Grandma Carol's and after the presents were all finished, Morgan spent a good thirty minutes climbing in, and then out, of this shower. Fun times...
We headed to Grandma Mary's and Grandpa's Steve's next for more presents! The kids did a great job, and even Morgan was interested in the unwrapping.

Santa must have came too, as when we woke up in the morning, we found this note. Such a great day for these two!

Two More Days!

My goodness the excitement is building for Christmas day! Tessa asks me constantly how many more days until Santa arrives, not to mention the birthdays! Today is my Dad's birthday, tomorrow is Lucy's birthday (Any suggestions for how to make a cake for a dog as that is what Tessa really wants to get her). I'm thinking of molding rice with small round cake pans and/or cookie cutters? Could be an interesting project...

Tuesday was my last day of school for 2011 and to celebrate, each of my four periods had a party of sorts. My last class had an "Elf" themed parties where they brought in various foods to recreate Buddy's syrupy pasta. At their request, I tried some. Not too bad.

Tessa helped me assemble one of those gingerbread Christmas tree kits yesterday morning. It turned out quite cute! And I sadly just realized my phone has some editing features, so I experimented a bit with this one. I took both kids to daycare on Wednesday so I could get all the presents wrapped, grocery shopping done, clean the house, assemble a princess bike and train table (one hour for each - glad I didn't wait until Christmas Eve), etc. So glad I did. Now, I am completely free to enjoy my break with them without trying to get a million things done at once.
This picture is a tad random, but the other day the kids were playing by themselves in the basement. They will occasionally do this for 15-30 minutes each day while I cook dinner, but they were abnormally quiet. When I went down, I discovered why. Tessa was climbing onto the slide and laying on her belly and Morgan was climbing on top of her; then down they went! Probably not the safest activity, but they sure did love it. They were cracking up after each slide down and it was nice to see them playing together as opposed to fighting over the same toy. (There's been a lot of that lately, mostly due to Tessa).
These next couple are from last Saturday. We went to Krohn Conservatory with my mom and then out to dinner with both of my parents. Morgan LOVED the trains, especially the Thomas one. His vocabulary is pretty outstanding these days. It's kind of surreal to believe that two months ago we were recommended for speech therapy and now the kid probably has over 20 words. Some of his new ones include: book, thank you, please, Tessa, Lucy, hello, train, choo-choo, and more. It is so nice to finally hear words and not grunts. Alas, back to Krohn...

Tessa loved the nativity scene. She could have stood there and stared at baby Jesus for an hour if we had stayed. I am so looking forward to the next few days. It is such a great joy to see your kids excited about things and this year I think both kids are old enough to share in the magic.

Merry Christmas, everyone!

Musical Chairs and More

We've had a great week! The kids are getting excited for Christmas and it's hard to believe we'll be celebrating in less than a week! A few highlights from the week: Tessa boobytrapped the bathroom door so Lucy couldn't get her toy from inside. Fairly clever if you ask me...

Both kids had holiday parties at school - Tessa's was a blast. Morgan came as well and he was the life of the party! Tessa showed him how things work in the Frog room.
And then engaged in a fun game of musical chairs!
Morgan LOVED musical chairs. He totally played the right way, sat down and stood up at the correct times. Every adult there was just howling at Morgan. (It was pajama day too in case you are wondering).
And at home, we've been doing a lot of playing. Morgan has discovered the princess shoes.
And he also managed to finagle his way into this doll stroller of Tessa's yesterday.
which prompted Tessa to push him all around the basement for quite awhile.
We rounded out our Saturday with a trip to Krohn Conservatory and Dewey's Pizza with my parents. Pictures to come...

An Annual Thing...

Anyone who knows my mother is aware that she is the cookie baking queen when it comes to Christmas cookies. She makes a ton of different kinds and her freezer is filled with cookie tins bearing dozens of goodies. Yum! I helped growing up and Tessa has "helped" in the past. This year is the first year I would say she actually did much real helping. The kids and I headed over for the day on Sunday while Daddy painted the bathroom (pictures to come). We stayed most of the day. Morgan pretty much napped (in a big boy bed!),
while Tessa helped with sprinkles and other various tasks. I loaded the cookie press, my mom put them on the sheet. All together, we were a finally tuned machine!

We also made chocolate-dipped pretzels. Man, were they labor intensive! Morgan spent a lot of the day playing with my dad and eating, hence the shirt:

Can't wait to do it again next year! Our other cookie baking tradition is baking cut-out cookies for Santa on the morning of Christmas Eve. I already have the dough (I bought the rolls this year) and the decorations. I'm sure it will be fun this year with Morgan to help as well!

Then One Froggy Christmas Eve...

My phone has a front-facing camera. Fabulous! We just discovered it and Tessa could have taken silly face pictures all afternoon. Here are a few...

Love that silly face girl! She is expanding her vocabulary at a rapid rate. I am so impressed by all she knows and not even four. Last night we were reading a book and she pointed to the word Boat and said, "B-O-A-T. That says boat!) Really, are you starting to read already? And how do I teach you? English may be one of my skills, but not necessarily that age...

Morgan has still been loving his trains. Grandma Bullock gave Morgan these pieces from when Uncle Brian was little. They are in great shape and easily his favorite toy right now. Hope he still likes the train table!
And I know I already shared some video, but I am still such a proud mama. Here is one more picture of my singing gal. Some of my favorite things she said leading up to the Christmas concert:

1) We were practicing in the basement and I started singing along and doing the motions with her. Tessa says, "Mommy, you are NOT a singer. I am. You cannot sing." Ha!

2) Singing Rudolph: Tessa: "Then one froggy Christmas eve..."

Me: "Tessa, it should be foggy not froggy."

Tessa, "That doesn't make any sense. It is froggy."

3) And one more lyric mishap: Tessa: "Glad tidings we bring to you and your kid."

Me: "Isn't it kin?"

Tessa: "No, it's kids. Miss Kristina said and she knows all the right words."

Have to love preschool Christmas concerts! Can't wait for another one!

Jingle Bell Rock

Loved the first of what I'm sure will be many Christmas concerts. Tessa did an awesome job - she did all the motions and sang along. We were so proud of her! Thanks to both Grandmas and Papa for coming to see her (and keep an eye on Morgan)

Week(end) in Review

Morgan has learned how to throw something away. Not the most useful life skill, but fun for the time being. He thoroughly enjoyed throwing away several pieces of trash, napkins after dinner, etc. yesterday evening once he had mastered the skill. Perhaps we praised him too much; by the end he was clapping for himself each time he successfully threw something away.

It was also fairly warm, at least warm enough for a walk and stop at the neighborhood playground in the morning Sunday before he rain hit.


And now we backtrack to Saturday. I took the kids out for most of the morning so we could grocery shop and finish our Christmas shopping and leave Nate to work in peace. Nate stayed home and worked on the bathroom; the wallpaper is now all the way gone and the drywall is patched. Up next, priming and painting...it is our neverending project...

Saturday was apparently a long day for our little buddy, who curled up on Daddy and fell asleep rather early Saturday evening.
Meanwhile, Tessa was partying hard at Kendall's birthday party. Kendall is a girl from her daycare and she had a 4th birthday party at Kids First. It was great fun! Tessa was a bit shy at first and nervous about the gymnastics instructors, but after I came in to the area for a bit she was fine.


It was a super cute party idea that I'll keep inside for at least another year. I think we'll do one more party at home before we have a big kids party for five. Happy work week!

Hello, December!

We kind-of-sort-of started celebrating December a week (or two) ago when we decorated for Christmas! I love the holidays and the kids make it so special. Tessa especially. Morgan I'm sure will in time; right now he is more focused on taking down or breaking the decorations...

On another note, Lucy reverted back to her old days of an upset digestive tract. She vomited mucus three times yesterday morning before we left for work, twice on carpet in case you are wondering, and was super lethargic. After work and school, the kids and I headed to the vet with our pup.

Two hundred dollars (Happy holidays to us!) and an hour and a half later, the kids looked like this:

Morgan was NOT happy. Still not sure why it took so long, but we waited FOREVER yesterday at the vet and there was no one there. 90 minutes in a 5 x 7 foot room was not working out for Morgan. Alas, Lucy is medicated and hopefully just ate a little piece of a toy, or something along those lines. No episodes since.

Lastly, our new house has this awesome chalkboard painted on the wall in the kitchen. The former owners used it as a monthly calendar and I have adopted the idea. I put up December's calendar last night. It's looking like a busy month for us...

Next Tuesday is Tessa's school Christmas concert. Her class will be singing and signing six different holiday tunes and she's been doing a lot of practicing at home. I can't wait. Hopefully I'll be able to get a good video to share!