White Christmas

What a wonderful Christmas we had with our family! It began snowing Christmas Eve morning, and didn't stop until this afternoon. I can't remember the last time we truly had a white Christmas. It was magical! This year brought new joy to the season as we watched Christmas unfold through the eyes of our children. And it brings back so many wonderful memories!

Paul and the kids got to make a snowman on Christmas! Charlie named it Frosty, and the kids LOVE him. They hug him. Charlie says we need to go to the store tomorrow to get carrots for his nose. (I also forgot to leave carrots out for Rudolph last night, and he was very distraught about that)

We started out our holiday celebrating with Grammy Carol and Papa Tom for brunch yesterday. They barely made it up the hill to our house with all the snow! Thankfully Papa had chains to put on his truck. The snow was so bad that we ended up running a "shuttle" from our house to the store so that nobody had to get stuck in our neighborhood. There must be at least a foot and a half on the ground!

The view out of my kitchen window yesterday

Sadie enjoyed her first Christmas! Next year she'll be creating all kinds of chaos, no doubt.

Avery opened her presents with such concentration I thought she would burn a hole through them. She is very pleased with all her new dolly's and clothes! Dora was definately the theme this year...

Uncle Craig and Sadie... the girls love their uncle and enjoyed spending some qt with him today. I think Avery has a crush on him.

Grammy and Papa braved the snow and headed over this morning and spent the whole day at our house. We had so much fun spending the day with them.

Christmas Program!

Today was the kids Christmas program at church. Charlie and Avery have been practicing their songs for two months now, and today was the big day!

Being the responsible mom that I am, I have been planning their little outfits for weeks. This is a big photo op, so of course my little girl had to look perfect. Grammy even bought her a new pair of ruby red patent-leather mary-janes specially for today... which of course, we forgot at home. So miss Avery made her stage debut in her tights.

Leading up to today, when we would be practicing their songs, Avery was quite the little song bird. However, as you can see, today she decided to take a seat on the stairs and let the rest of the class do her singing for her. Of course bunny had to come too.

Charlie, on the other hand, who was not a fan of praciticing at home, was excited to participate and sang all the songs and did everything he was supposed to. I was so proud! He is the biggest in his class of 2 and 3 year olds, but will be graduating to the 4-K class after his birthday at the end of the month.

So proud of himself!

This was the first time Grammy and Papa got to see the kids program, and they were tickled!

Sadie enjoyed the view from Grammy's lap.

Fun Friday

What a fun day we had today! We started off with Stroller Strides, then headed to Molbacks with Elizabeth, Autumn, and the kids. This is a tradition that we started when Charlie, Ava, and Benjamin were almost one, so this is our fourth year... and four kids later! Although Benjamin is missing because he is enjoying Disneyland with his grandparents.

On the way home, we realized that Grammy was at the mall, so last minute we decided to quick get some Santa pictures in. I can't believe we actually got all three of them to look at the camera, nonetheless sit with Santa. Charlie and Avery were initially leary of him, but warmed up as soon as they saw the candy canes! Of course Sadie didn't mind him... We had so much fun with Grammy, and I was so glad to have her there to help with Santa pictures.


Charlie, Sadie, Ava, Shepherd, Avery, and Luke in front of the pointsettia tree at Molbaks

We had such a fun day enjoying the holiday spirit with some of our favorite people. It's beginning to feel alot like Christmas!

Project Update

1. New picture wall I've been talking about doing forever

2. Charlie staring adoringly at our...

Beautiful Christmas tree! (that took me a week to do...)

3. The kid's Christmas tree... notice ornaments clustered randomly. They love redecorating it every day.

Avery- 4, Sarah- 0

The morning began with her smearing the entire contents of a jar of Vicks Vapo-rub all over herself. "Medicine, mommy".

Two hours later, during a mid-morning snack, I turned my back for two minutes, during which she smeared the entire contents of her container of strawberry yogurt all over the kitchen table, chairs, and floor.

At nap time, we had a 3 1/2 hour standoff. She thinks she doesn't need naps anymore. I think she is two. And she doesn't know what is good for her.

At 5 o'clock, otherwise known as "the witching hour", I found her sitting at the kitchen island, and she had dug out a solid shimmer palette with her fingernail and smashed it to smitherines all over the entire island, barstool, herself, and left a trail into the pantry where she was apparently looking for a snack. Shimmer everywhere. Hours to clean it up. Who knew you could have too much shimmer???

Does anyone else have days like these?

Four months old

I can't believe little Sadie is four months old already!!!!

Quote of the Day... Thanksgiving Edition

This morning, as the kids are watching the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade:

"Mommy, why not Kermit stay on that stick forever?"

(On the Muppet float, with Kermit the frog sitting on a fake log)

Translation:

"Mommy, why can't Kermit get off the log?"

I guess we'll have to explain what a puppett is.

More Cute

We've had a fun weekend. For once we had nothing on the calender... so we took advantage and have been catching up on some house projects before the Christmas season is upon us. Paul has most of this week off for Thanksgiving, so we are looking forward to some family time and our yearly tree farm outing on Friday! I love this time of year... I have such great memories of being pregnant with Charlie, just having Avery, and now this new little munchkin has joined our clan. This Christmas season is going to be one to remember!

Turkey Trot

Today I ran my first 5k!

It sounds really ambitious, but it is actually only 3.1 miles. Still, it's the most I've ever run! I finished in 34minutes. A bunch of girls from Stroller Strides started running together this summer (joined by some girls from the neighborhood), and as a group decided to do 5k's periodically. This race was in our neighborhood, the first annual Turkey Trot benefitting the local elementary schools. I figured what better way to get back in shape than to get on the wagon!

These are all my friends from the neighborhood that ran. Paul was the only hubby who got dragged along by his wife! From left to right, Vicki (this was her 1st 5k), Andrea, Megan, Stephanie and Elizabeth (who, by the way, ran the race in 25 minutes!), myself, Paul, and Mollie (who ran pushing her 4 and 2 year olds in the stroller... incredible!) We had so much fun, and it was such a beautiful fall day. Now on to the Jingle Bell Dash in December where I will attempt to beat my time!

Two Years Ago Today...