Christmas Day

After an easy two hour drive to my dad’s house, the kids were more excited about opening some more presents.  Erin helped everyone open their presents. And Will had fun playing with their new toys.  Once they found the Goldfish crackers in their stockings, nothing else mattered.  We had some brunch and then hung out for a while before heading to my Aunt Kathy and Uncle Ron’s house for our annual Christmas Day dinner. 

 

 

 

 

As always, we enjoyed our time visiting with our family.  Aunt Kathy cooked another delicious dinner too.  The only problem was that I forgot to bring the kids highchair seats. 

 

They were sitting by the backdoor, but we went out the front door. Whoops! I’ve only forgotten them one other time since Christmas.  Erin and Will had fun playing with all of their big cousins.

  Erin loved the fact that the bigger cousin’s had cell phones.  I walked into the back room and Kylee (3^rd grade), Erin and Will were all laying on the bed playing with phones.  It was a funny sight to see.  We hope to see everyone this summer and not have to wait a whole year to get together again.

Christmas Morning

Santa had made a stop at our house and we were sure that Will and Erin would be excited to see their new toys.  But, we were we wrong.  We had to wake Will and Erin up around 7:00 so they would have time to open their presents before heading to my dad’s house.  They wanted nothing to do with being woken up early and opening presents. 

 

 

 

Will sat on my lap the whole time and didn’t care about the new roller coaster toy or presents under the tree.  He just wanted his blankie and mama (which I was okay with).  Daddy was able to coax Erin off of my lap and onto her new roller coaster.  I don’t think that either child opened a present on their own.  Mark opened a few for them and we ended up leaving the rest until we got home from my dad’s house.  Santa didn’t leave many presents because he knew that Will and Erin would get spoiled by all of their family members.  He looks forward to next year when the kids will be a year older and hopefully more excited (and awake) to open their presents.

 

Christmas Eve

We always spend Christmas Eve with my mom and sister and this year is no different.  The kids were great during 4:00 mass and then we headed to my mom’s house for our traditional Christmas Eve dinner.  Will and Erin had fun opening all of their presents.  Aunt Krysten had fun helping the kids open their presents.  Of course, they had fun playing with all of the wrapping paper and boxes too.  After the fun of church, dinner and presents, we headed home so the kids could go to sleep before Santa came. 

 
 
 

 
 

 

 
 
 

 
 

 
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Making Christmas Cookies

O Christmas Tree

I bought a Groupon for a you cut Christmas tree farm near our house. It was a beautiful Saturday morning so we loaded up the kids and went shopping. It didn't take us long to find the perfect tree for our house. We've had a fake tree for about 6 years and last year we had a 3 foot tree sitting on the table in the corner of our living room (because the kids were crawling and getting into everything and there wasn't room foe a tree). But, now that we have a big living room we wanted a big tree. Which came with a big mess when the needles started falling off. Oh well, the tree looked nice and we all had fun hunting for the perfect tree.

Visiting Santa

Grandma Pam wanted to take the kids to see Santa while we were in Milwaukee.  We went shopping and found the perfect outfits.  Came home, dressed the kids and headed to the mall.  Mark came with us to help out.  We knew that the Santa pictures were over priced so Mark brought our camera with us.  
While we were waiting in line I suggested to Mark that he go to the second floor and take pictures from the balcony.  He obliged and headed up the elevator.  As Grandma Pam and I approached Santa, the kids started getting a panic look on their faces.  Erin started shaking her head no and held on to me very tight.  We had to sit down next to Santa with the kids on our lap.  As we were getting our pictures taken, I looked up and saw the mall security guards talking to Mark.  I immediately begin to 

panic.  We finished up and as we headed to pick out our pictures I over hear a lady say to her friend, 'Can you believe that there is a guy taking pictures of children sitting on Santa's lap?'  At the same time I watch Santa's elf walk over to Santa, whisper something in his ear and then point up to where Mark was sitting.  At that moment, I just wanted the floor to open and swallow me up. I quickly told Pam to pick out the pictures and I would meet her somewhere. I started calling Mark's phone and he wasn't picking up.  Needless to say, I was in full panic mode right now.  I spotted him and just kept walking towards the door. I didn't want Santa or the mall cops to see us.  We got to the door and then turned around to wait for Pam.  We didn't see the mall cops so we headed towards Santa while staying out of his site.  I went over to get Pam and when I returned Mark told me that the Sheriff had just walked past him (like 6 inches away) and there were about six mall cops all 

around the Santa display.  We finished up and nearly ran to the door. I was laughing nervously and hopping that Mark wouldn't get arrested for trying to save $27.00.  We made it to our car and will never return to the Mayfair Mall to see Santa again. We've had many laughs about Will and Erin' first trip to see Santa. I have a feeling that Mark will forever be on Santa's Naughty List.

Happy Thanksgiving!

We loaded up the van and headed to Milwaukee, Wisconsin to celebrate Thanksgiving with Mark's family.  It's always a fun to spend time with everyone and to see how much the cousins have grown since we saw them for the 4th of July.  

The day before we left, Will had injured his foot while sitting on my lap and going down the slide at the park. He wouldn't put any weight on his foot and had to be carried the whole weekend.  He just wanted to hang out with me and suck his thumb.  On a side note, we took him to the emergency room and there wasn't a break.  The doctor said that he just had a bad strain.   

Erin had fun running around with everyone.  We went to the children's museum, shopped and visited Santa. As always, we ate too much, played hard and had fun hanging out together.