Merry Christmas 2012!

 MERRY CHRISTMAS, 2012!

We had a wonderful, relaxing and happy day yesterday... It started with the usual excitement and chaos of early morning gift-opening...

 HUGE smiles from these kiddos all morning as they opened and played and felt thankful.  So nice to have such appreciative little ones at our house.  Everyone was thrilled with their gifts- mommy and daddy too.  It was simple this year, and that proved to be just as good... no, BETTER.

 After a restful day of playing and moving watching and eating and napping (by daddy and David and Max!), we headed to Grandma Karen's for Christmas dinner with our awesome grandma, auntie, uncles and cousins!

 Grandma Karen even played some Christmas carol's on the piano as we sang along... although we are requesting words sheets next year :)

 These guys don't see each other enough, and they had a blast being wild together!

 My mama and her babes!

 Grandma Karen and her grand babies!

Mom and her children-in-laws :)  

So glad mom hosted us all--- a wonderful way to wrap up a beautiful day!

Christmas Eve Dinner with Dad and Marlene

We were very thankful to spend Christmas Eve dinner at Dad and Marlene's with the kiddos, David, and Marlene's son, Adam.  It was so nice to be with them and enjoy some time together.  Our beautiful dinner and chatting were frequently distracted by the two youngest in attendance--- they ran around almost the entire time, unable to contain their excitement that CHRISTMAS MORNING was so near! :)

Christmas Eve, Eve!

 Sunday night we had a Christmas Eve, Eve feast!  

We had our traditional chili dinner- my mom grew up having chili each Christmas Eve at her home, and I grew up with this same tradition and it is something we have continued to make each Christmas Eve at our home too.  But since my mom was singing on actual Christmas Eve and we were going to be at my dad's that night, we made it Sunday night instead.

 After a wonderful dinner with our family (minus Max), Grandma Karen and David & Sara, we exchanged gifts.  Grandma's gift this year was for all three kiddos, and too big to wrap so we made the kids close their eyes...

 David hauling in the anticipated gift: A NEW BASKETBALL HOOP!

 They were OVER THE MOON... this should provide hours of fun for our little hoopsters!  And luckily daddy was kind enough to build the hoop the next day... not an easy task!

We also exchanged gifts with David and Sara--- so grateful for all these people!  We are blessed with incredible family indeed...

Pre-Christmas Sickness...

 We were attacked, bad, but a major pre-Christmas sickness!  This is a picture of Luke right after school on Tuesday.  He came home, cranky as ever, burning up with a fever.

 The next day, Ava woke up with the same sickness...

The kids were devastated that they missed the last day of school before Christmas break.  The meant they missed their Polar Express parties... and even worse, they missed PAJAMA DAY :(  The day looked like this--- windy and snowing all day.  Very cozy for our day of rest.

 Sad they were both sick, but kind of nice to have each other to play with at home too.  Luke and Ava played with some play dough- a real treat since I don't get this messy activity out too often :)

 LOTS of snuggle time...

 And of course playing on the ipad...

 We ran out of medicine!  I am very fortunate to have a friend who dropped off a fresh box of cold medicine and even gatorade for my babies so I didn't have to take them out! 

 It fascinates me how dogs somehow know when people are sick---

 Love.

 Yesterday was day 4 of this never-ending sickness and while the kiddos were still sick, they were also getting a little restless after being stuck inside for days!  They started to get creative by building a fort and "lego camp" :)

 Then it was nail salon time.  Patient Luke got purple and black... he wanted purple and gold (Husky colors) but we didn't have gold :)

 Daddy got in the mix (he got hit with "the bug" too and was out Thursday and yesterday!)...

 Daddy now has blue and green tosies!

Getting better--- hopefully we will be 100% tomorrow, just in time for Christmas!

First Snow of the Season!

 We had a 2-hr delay/late start for school this am... kids were thrilled to get out into the fresh layer of beautiful white stuff!

 Not too much to really play/sled in, but they tried!

  And were all smiles while doing it :)

Hoping to get some more snow tonight/later this week!  It's just TOO PRETTY and TOO FUN and SOOOOOO CHRISTMAS-Y :)

2012 Nutcracker!

 Ava and I attended our third annual Nutcracker together yesterday!  Such a fun mommy-daughter tradition.  "A special gift to ourselves" as so well-put by little Ava as we drove to see the annual performance yesterday.

 Why so special this year?  Sofia Almy was performing!  We could hardly wait!

 She did an amazing job as one of the party girls--- we sat at the edge of our seats (I even got teary-eyed) as we watching our sweet friend on stage.  So proud!  After the awesome Nutcracker we met up with Sofia for some congrats, pictures and loves.

Congrats, Sofia!  You were AWESOME!

Friday Night Celebration- Snowflake Lane Style!

 Friday night we went to a fun dinner with Papa Dick and Marlene, then off to our favorite: SNOWFLAKE LANE for the second time of the year! 

 Luke can't get enough of this place :)

 We switched up locations and stood outside of One Lincoln (where Papa and Marlene live)... Luke was THRILLED to be under one of the "snow makers" (bubbles) and had a ball chasing the bubbles while the music blasted and everyone else watched the dancers and drummers!

 Ava was fascinated with the Rockette-inspired dance team performing in front of where we stood.... new to the Snowflake Lane line up this year!

 Max and David and Sara went into the mall instead--- it was COLD out and Max wanted to check out Champs sports :)

 Afterward we headed to the beautiful condo and the kiddos opened presents...

 Happy girl!

Some VERY thrilled kiddos with some VERY cool new shoes.  Such a fun and special night with family to kick off this Christmas season!

Close To Perfect... Close...

Meet Rambo, our angelic puppy.  He needs to be told something only about two times before he learns.  The dog is seriously smart, and minds, and is loving and adorable.  Potty-training was a breeze (Rocco, not so much- still craps in the house!).  But this dog has ONE flaw.  One MAJOR flaw: he loves to DIG!  And he's as WHITE as a cloud.  We call him our little truffle pig, always digging for treasures!  His favorite time to dig?  When it's raining and muddy.  I can't help but get so irritated and then laugh.  He's lucky he's otherwise perfect....

Sunday, Fun-Day!

 We had a WONDERFUL weekend... other than our baby girl being sick :(  Thankfully she was feeling much better by Sunday and we were able to have a great, fun-filled day!  We started our Sunday by going to see Grandma Karen sing in her Christmas choir performance.  Such a treat to get all dressed up and listen to the magical music!  The kids were very well behaved too- added bonus!

 After some errands and lunch, we got crafty and even made some cut out cookies.  This was the first year Luke was really into the decorating and I had a blast watching him concentrate and over-decorate the cookies by packing on as many sprinkles as he possibly could :)

 Of course Miss Ava is a professional decorator by now :)

Yum yum!

Cookie decorating was followed by hanging out and Sunday night dinner with David & Sarah and Grandma Karen.  Ahhhhhh, love our Sunday, FUN-DAYS- especially this time of year!