Update: December Posts

I have been working hard to finish up all my posts related to December... See the links below for all the posts I have added this week.

#1 - My baby is FIVE
http://www.ourlittlehornedfrogs.blogspot.com/2011/12/my-baby-is-five.html

#2 - KK's 5th Birthday PAR-TAY
http://www.ourlittlehornedfrogs.blogspot.com/2011/12/kks-5th-birthday-par-tay.html

#3 - KK's Christmas Program
http://www.ourlittlehornedfrogs.blogspot.com/2011/12/kks-christmas-program.html

#4 - 3rd Annual Gaylord Staycation
http://www.ourlittlehornedfrogs.blogspot.com/2011/12/3rd-annual-gaylord-staycation.html

#5 - Visiting Mr. Clause
http://www.ourlittlehornedfrogs.blogspot.com/2011/12/visiting-mr-clause.html

#6 - Twas the Night before Christmas
http://www.ourlittlehornedfrogs.blogspot.com/2011/12/twas-night-before-christmas.html

#7 - Merry Christmas!!!
http://www.ourlittlehornedfrogs.blogspot.com/2011/12/merry-christmas.html

Now... if the week keeps going as it is, I might even have November and October updated before the New Year!

Thank you :-)

Merry Christmas!!!

While visions of presents danced in our heads all night, one of our little sugarplum fairies wasn't quite ready to wake up like her brother was... but at the first mention of seeing if Santa left anything, both KK and AJ were running to the living room...

We couldn't believe our eyes at all the presents (mommy and daddy wait to put all their presents out the night before Christmas too to keep prying fingers away)... Santa left four presents wrapped in "Santa" paper and a mysterious ribbon that led from our chimney to our back door...

Upon following the ribbon outside to the back door, we discovered a TRAMPOLINE! 

Needless to say the kids were jumping up and down one minute and starting in awe the next.  (Sorry the picture is in the dark, we took it later that night as we forgot in all the excitement to do it in the moment).  While poor Santa and a special elf built that trampoline in the freezing rain, we never heard a peep!  Way to go Santa!

After one last look in the freezing cold at our amazing gift, we rushed back inside to tend to our other gifts... KK and AJ had met Santa earlier this week and asked him o' so sweetly for a Trampoline, a monster truck and tinker toys.  Wow did Santa deliver! 

 

We couldn't believe how he got it just right! 

Of course, Mommy and Daddy did a great job too... plasma cars with our names on it, tonka trucks (that really dump)...

Daddy got lots of TCU gear.. in fact every present Daddy received had TCU on it somewhere :-)

 

Mommy got such sweet gifts from Daddy and KK and AJ!  PJ's (a fav gift of mine), a beautiful necklace with earrings, and books (a love a good book).

There were lots of smiles and hugs as we dug into to see just what each gift held...

 

AJ was pumped about his "bad guy" cars.  A few weeks ago he was playing with his McQueen and Finn McMissle and looked up and proclaimed "I need some bad guys to chase".  Well little batman, now you have them!  He was so excited he just yelled "Yea Bad Guys"!

KK surprised daddy by picking out a gift all by herself... a little something for his dresser :-)

Daddy surprised the family with a Wii - wowsers!

AJ got a few other awesome things, such as a "guy" doll cause there were too many girl dolls in the house - another quirky comment that made us laugh recently.  He also got some great shirts with Batman and Superman on them that he was excited to have.

KK was also happy - she got a Taylor Swift dress up dress with a dvd of her last concert tour.  To go along with the theme of singing, she also got her favorite movies High School Musical 1, 2 & 3!  And of course, my girly girl got some new clothes :-)  Her favorites!

 

Please don't think these pictures were our entire day or our day's focus, just some highlights while I remembered to grab the camera in between presents.  The rest of our day was spent talking on the phone and computer to our families that were far away and sharing moments with them.  We went to church and got to spend time on Christmas Day celebrating the birth of our Savior with our church, singing songs that we have been singing for the past few weeks.  Somehow this morning, knowing what happened 2,000 years ago in a cave in Bethlehem, the songs just seemed more.  More sweet, more joyous... more!  We ended our day having a Christmas dinner with our awesome cousins and their extended family: eating treats, laughing and watching the kids chase each other around.  To sum it up, a great day spent loving one another and enjoying and appreciating one another. 

Here is our Christmas picture for 2011 ~ a little scruffy but happy.  And really, what else can you ask for?

Merry Christmas from our family to yours!  May the Joy we feel this day for our Savior's birth stay within us every day of the year!

Twas the night before Christmas...

And all through the house, our family was busy getting ready for Mr. C to visit our house...

Our family is usually flying through the month of December, with KK's birthday following Thanksgiving travels.  Then its school parties and programs, spending time celebrating the season with our friends and their families... shopping, wrapping, somehow keeping presents secrets from a  little two year old who remembers just enough to give it all away haha... its a busy time, but still our favorite season of the year.  This year was even more special, as I got to hear many times from KK how its "not about the presents under the tree, but the gift of baby Jesus"!  That melts my heart and makes me so happy that despite our list for Santa that we will recite on the spot if you request it or not (AJ!) and the parties and excitement, that maybe just maybe my babies understand the real reason we love this time of year:  The Savior of the world was Born for US!  It's amazing just typing it here!  And while Christmas Eve was upon us so quickly this year, we did take time to read the Nativity story from our bibles and sit together quietly as a family to pray our thanks for Jesus' birth.

As any Mommy, I thought while we are in our pretty church clothes, let us attempt a picture to remember our night this year... let's just say that AJ had other plans.  If you see the face he is making here, I think that says it all:

KK and Daddy were ready for some camera time though!

We were able to capture one picture where we were all smiling (boppy free)... but somehow off center...

And after wishing for a tripod for Christmas, another attempt in which AJ decides fish faces are required...

If I have learned anything as a mother, it is that perfection is rare and unneeded.  I find the silly pictures are more remarkable and to be enjoyed.  The same goes for cookies for Santa.  If you wait until bedtime the night before, you just have to let the flour fly, let the sprinkles fall to the floor and let the kids run the show.  Santa prefers cookies made with love more than cookies that actually look like something... I mean he is in the kid-business.

So after our photo shoot, we got into our jammies and started getting things ready for the big man in the red suit.  First things first, cookie 101: roll out the dough and cut up some cookies

The kids did great

While they were baking, Batman came to town for a visit and showed us his "moves":

  This is batman looking strong with is cape and PJ's!  Below is a video of our batman showing his moves:

Once batman settled down, it was back to those cookies and decorating them with some green and red frosting.  We made four for Santa and one for each of us as a reward for working so quickly.  I should mention while the kids and I were baking for Santa, our sweet Daddy was making an amazing Christmas Eve dinner that we shared together.  Yum!  Ham, baked potatoes, asparagus (and maybe french fries for Batman and our Snoopy girl).  Here are the pic's of our decorating (yes we licked our fingers a couple times, that was part of the fun):

After cookies were ready, it was time for our Christmas Eve tradition: to exchange ornaments with the kids.  Each Christmas we pick out an ornament for KK and AJ that is theirs alone.  Someday, far far far away from now please Lord, they will have their own families and when they leave our house, they will take with them a box of ornaments from each year of their childhood that hopefully will remind them of fun Christmas's gone by.  As the softy that I am, I try to pick something that reminds me of something they loved during this last year or something they did. 

For sweet KK I found a precious moments Santa ringing his bell for "Joy at Christmastime".  As I mentioned earlier, her joy for Christmas and her constant reminder to her brother about how Christmas isn't just about presents seemed to fit her. For AJ, we found a fire truck.  His year was filled with being a "boy" through and through, and he loves himself a good fire truck.

Daddy has been getting a "Santa's Sweet Ride" collection from us, and this year we delivered again with a hot air balloon Santa.

 And of course me: all I want is to capture capture capture these moments, so I got a perfect picture frame ornament with the phrase "Santa we've been good" on it.  It fits as that is exactly what my kids proclaimed when we met the big guy personally this week.

So after hanging our ornaments, reading our Nativity story, saying our prayers, we got Santa's milk and cookies ready along with the reindeer's carrots (no ranch for them said KK, they don't like it ~ I'll have to ask later how she knows such things, maybe Santa told her)...

And then we pondered one last time, how a big guy in a red suit can land on our roof and climb down our chimney... how special it is to be a mommy who gets to see the utter belief in magic as KK once again tells AJ that Santa will fit and presents will arrive... and the joy on their faces every Christmas morning when they wake up...

 Stay tuned for pictures of that magic on our next post!  To all a g'night!

Visiting Mr. Clause

While at our annual Gaylord Staycation (see previous post), we took KK and AJ to visit Santa Clause.  While AJ will recite his wish list to anyone who so much as says Merry Christmas (just ask the door greeter at our church), we hadn't officially given our wishes to Santa. 

The kids waited so patiently in line for their turn.  When it was time, they both walked up hand in hand and stood in front of Santa Clause.  The man they had been talking about for weeks, the man who makes reindeer fly and brings presents if you make the nice list...  They both smiled, and sweet Mr. Clause immediately pulled them close and asked them their names.  Within moments both AJ and KK were sitting on Santa's laugh, whispering to one another and smiling so big. 

Daddy and I hear snippets of the discussion.  Yes we are nice.  Yes we mind our Mommy and Daddy and share our toys.  Then we heard the famous Christmas wish list from AJ.  "Monster Truck and Trampoline".  I mention loudly "please" as any mother does without thinking... Santa just smiles and turns to KK.  She says "Tinker toys and a trampoline.... please".   Whew, dodged that one.

The talk ended with pictures and then a discussion on if Santa really likes cookies and milk.  He confirms with a laugh, of course!  Then KK asks about the reindeer, do they like ranch with their carrots?  With a twinkle in his eye, Mr. Clause doesn't hesitate but says "no they don't".  KK and AJ left very happy... and so did Mommy and Daddy.  That was our first visit without one of them in tears and screaming... it was so cute! 

3rd Annual Gaylord Staycation

We woke up this morning and were ready to hit the road for a day of fun with our sweet cousins! It was the 3rd Annual Gaylord Hotel Staycation ~ a tradition started by our families to have some fun time with just us.  A mini break in the middle of the holidays.  Well I'm not sure break is a good word, we barely sat down all day, but we did have fun!  Here is a shot of the cousins, all together and ready to see Ice!

Shrek the Halls : ICE at the Gaylord

For those of you who don't know what ICE is, it is an annual event at the Gaylord hotel in which they bring in men from northern China and they sculpt millions of pounds of ice into shapes.  Our first year was the Grinch, last year Charlie Brown and Snoopy.  This year we had "Shrek the Halls".

The boys hanging out with Daddy while we waited in line.

Here is my favorite shot of us - right before we went into ICE and froze our little booties.

As they keep the temperatures at freezing or below, they give us big blue parkas.  They keep us warm, but they sure don't do much for your figures ladies hehe. 

(our Elf on the Shelf, Flynn, gave KK and AJ some new winter hats and scarves for our adventure today.. he is so thoughtful)...

After a slight wait, we were in sub zero temperatures and enjoying the amazing work of those craftsmen.  Everything looked just like the movies!  We did have a group shot that the hotel took and I did purchase.  Here is the scanned version, not the greatest quality but our only group shot.  I love it, we are all happy and smiling... and we look like fat smurfs.  Party on!

They weren't small sculptures ~ see our sizing chart using AJ and Daddy he-he.

A group shot of our cousins with Shrek

Family shot!

Lol - Shrek apparently hid in the outhouse in the movie.  So they not only had a real life size example in Ice, they allowed you to sit and try it out.  The girls thought this was hilarious... We didn't take many pictures of the other characters or of the kids, they started freezing pretty fast and we did our best to enjoy the sites and take it all in, while trying to keep the kids as warm as possible.  It was a lot of fun and we can't wait until next year to see what they do next!

Our cousins were brilliant and booked a reservation for lunch following ICE.  We warmed up with some yummy Mexican lunch and good conversations.  Afterwards, we parted ways for a little while so naps could happen for the littlest one (and his daddy, lol cuz).  We took our kiddos to visit a man in a red suit... I think you know him:

Visit to Santa

More on this on my next post... this was KK standing in line waiting patiently for her turn :-)

Gingerbread Cookie Decorating

As we did last year, we returned to let the kids decorate homemade gingerbread cookies with icing and candies.  The kids had a lot of fun picking out just the right candies and doing the icing themselves.  AJ wasn't as picky as KK, his goal was to eat it as soon as possible.  KK went for a more of an artists approach, as is her nature :-)

Search for Santa's Reindeer

GK and KK were adamant that they were going to search for all of Santa's reindeer's that were dressed up and hiding throughout the hotel.  If you have ever been to the Gaylord, you know that there is a lot of ground to cover!

Comet & Cupid

We loved Cupid: the domestic engineer... so adding that to our resumes :-)  We had to snap a shot of that with the best domestic engineer I know!

Hmm... why can't I remember all the reindeer's names?  I blame exhaustion...

Dancer & Prancer of course

  

Donner & Bliztzen

And our favorite: RUDOLPH!

We ended the night in PJ's, snuggling a moment before parting ways.  Us for home, our cousins spending the night at the hotel for more fun.  It was a day of walking and we were all exhausted, but the memories and fun were worth it all.  We love our sweet cousins!  Spending time with them made it the Best.Day.Ever!

Sweet dreams cuz's!