Santa Claus is Coming to Town

Sorry that the posts on our blog are as scatterbrained as I am right now.  I promise I will re-date everything later, but I want to make sure you see all the fun stuff we've done in the last couple of months.

John and I were really excited for Christmas morning this year because it was the first year that Reagan REALLY understood what was happening (I think).  It's so fun to start the traditions, but also a lot to remember.  Somewhere I saw it suggested to create a holiday notebook and write down the traditions/decorations/recipes you did that year so you can remember to do them again in the following years.  Maybe I'll start my notebook next year! 

We arrived home late on Christmas Eve night from our celebration at my parent's house.  Reagan and Dylan had gotten a few hours of sleep before we came home so they were both pretty out of it when we got home.  We sent Dylan straight back to bed, but kept Reagan up to write a letter to Santa and leave out cookies and milk. The carrots were for the reindeer, of course.

The gifts Santa left under the tree.  We knew the kids would be getting a lot from family, so asked Santa to limit his gifts to two per kid (plus Thomas).

Dylan discovered that it was to his advantage to let Reagan do the opening and he would follow her in her wake and play.  She was much faster at opening than he was and all he really wanted to do was play with the new toys!

Reagan was so happy that Santa remembered the Woody doll she had asked for at each visit!

Snow!

Today was the first day that John and I felt the weather was "warm" enough to take pictures of the kids in the massive amounts of snow and do a little sledding.

Dylan fell over in the entryway and couldn't get back up. At least he thought it was funny too!

Standing next to the snow to show how high it was.

There was a layer of ice that made it deceiving as to how deep it was and also made it tricky to walk. For the most part, you could walk on top of that layer, but every once in a while you broke through and sunk to the bottom. Reagan and I were having a hard time getting back to the front.

We went sledding down some of the massive snow piles on the sled and on our bottoms (no camera allowed). Then John decided to make a tunnel for the kids in the snow pile in front of our house.

Waiting for tunnel completion.

Looking at each other through the tunnel.

Another Day in the Life of an Elf

John is home most of this week so we are trying to fit in all of our annual holiday traditions. I was disappointed to learn that the Holidazzle parade has already ended for the year. I thought it went until New Years, but I guess that was before the sponsors got cheap with the holiday fun.

We went and saw A Day in the Life of an Elf, again. At least the kids are young enough that it is a new experience for them every year. It was the same show as 2009 and 2008, but 2007 was the Nutcracker (was that before it became Macy's?). Hopefully they'll change it up soon!

At the entrance.

It was hard to get pictures with the kids because they were so engrossed in the display that they wouldn't turn their heads.

The hot air balloons were floating up and down and again, we couldn't get the kids to look at the camera.

With our third and final Santa of the year! Reagan had to make super sure that Santa will bring her a Woody doll. I'm just glad she's not catching on that all the Santa's are different, although she did say something about Santa wearing his red suit again this time.

Chrismakah

We braved the snowy elements on Saturday to celebrate our annual Chrismakah holiday with our extended family, the Lehmans.

The evening includes a few Hannukah traditions: lighting the menorah, ordering Chinese, playing the dreidel game and then a few Christmas traditions: decorating the tree, opening gifts, taking dorky group pictures with the camera timer. And it's become tradition to conclude by watching Frosty the Snowman with the kids all snuggled up together in their PJs. It's one of our most favorite nights of the year!

The Chrismakah group . . .

Reagan with her 'JoJo.' JoJo and his friend Jackson (Reagan calls him Jason) will make the best babysitters soon. They are both so great with toddlers.

Dylan lacing up for practice (or something. John just told me that the shoes were supposed to be cool because Payton Manning wears them).

No picture of the Chrismakah tree this year, but it was similar to 2008's tree. Except with a dreidel on top instead of a star.

The Big 3-0

The big 3-0 came to our house twice in a week. It was met with both excitement (John - he was hoping for gray hair) and dread (me. I'm not old enough to be 30). But for Reagan it meant two choruses of the birthday song, 60 candles to blow out and twice the birthday cake!

Reagan put 'Happy Birthday' candles on in no particular order.

John invited a small group of friends over to celebrate my big day. It was the perfect day - little work, yoga, a few errands by myself, some coffee and then a wonderful evening with friends!

And just for the record, I am three days younger.

Decorating the Tree

In between all the birthday partying, we were able to put our Christmas tree up. The tree found a new home (it's third and final home) in the small corner formed by the stairs and the bookshelf. The perfect spot finally! We always struggle with moving furniture or taking furniture away to make the tree fit and we didn't have to do any of that!

As you can see, Reagan did the majority of the decorating . . .

But Dylan pulled the decorations off about as fast as she got them on.

Putting the angel on top of the tree.

Reenacting putting the angel on top of the tree because Dylan wanted a turn too!

Snowy December

Seriously, if it snows again tonight, where will it go? I really think we're maxed out on space! Before the "Big One" and the frigid temps moved in, we were able to spend some time playing in the snow with the kids.

D in his sled.

Never too cold for some summer toys.

Jessie, the 'Odelin' Cowgirl

Reagan loves Jessie from Toy Story!

 



$5 costume = Pure Joy!




Jessie watching Jessie





Jessie with her new Jessie doll and her horse Bullseye!







Jessie with her sidekicks: Woody and Buzz.  What good sports these little boys are!  It could be worse.  She could dress them up as princesses!

Special Persons Day

Our favorite 2nd grader, Jaden, invited Reagan, Dylan and I to be her Special Persons at her school!  We were so excited to see her classroom, hear her reading and enjoy a special snack with her!

 Reagan needed to bring her own backpack, complete with a snack!

 Jaden was super worried that Dylan would be upset because he couldn't have a snack.  Good thing I always come prepared!

Cheese!

Curious George Live!

My kids love Curious George, so when Reagan heard Curious George was going to be in town on the radio, she, of course, needed to go!

 Dylan modeling his Curious George train shirt before the show begins.



 Reagan showing off her Curious George wand.

George, the Man in the Yellow Hat and Chef Pasghetti.  The show was about our current family favorite: 'pasghetti and meatballs.

Reagan's Birthday Party #3

This was the birthday that kept on going!  Next up was her party at school.  Two other kids have birthdays the same week as Reagan's, so we had to wait until the next Friday to celebrate her.  She was definitely ready for it to be her turn!

With her BFF at school, Ani, being goofy for the camera!

Reagan's class singing "Happy Birthday" to her.

 So excited!

Mom and Dad with the birthday girl (again!)

Reagan's 3rd Birthday Party

For Reagan's 3rd birthday party, we went with a very simple art theme.  I added some color to the house with big tissue paper flowers and let Reagan paint on two canvases that we displayed on the table and in the entry way. 

I also put out the picture book from Reagan's first year (year two and three are works in progress!)

Our summer helper, Kelsey came to help out at the party. Reagan was so excited for Kelsey to meet all her friends!

We set up a few long tables with different art projects: make-a-plate, stampers with paint and glitter glue with paper, googly eyes and tissue paper.  Instead of setting everything up at once, next time I would just bring one project out at a time. 

We even let the kids color on the wall!

Ella and Dylan have a picnic on the floor.  Thank goodness for these Fisher Price booster seats.  We don't go anywhere without one (or two!).

  Reagan awaiting her birthday cupcake (right before I almost burned the house down when the candles tipped the cupcake over).

The kids enjoyed the cupcakes!

The girls decided to ditch the art projects after lunch and cupcakes and play princess instead!

Noah, William and Gracie all loved playing with the kitchen.

It was such a fun day with all our friends!  Even though the house was a little crowded, the kids had a blast!