Magic Elves!

They're back! Santa sent a couple of his elves (named Tinsel and Twinkle) to visit us last year and they had so much fun they have come back for another visit! We found them on our doorstep this morning, along with their passport, their report forms for Santa, and a note from Santa himself. The last part of the letter said that Santa would be picking up the Elves on Christmas Eve and if they said the kids had been good then he would leave something fun. Kaitlyn piped up, "Then we'd better be good!"

Kaitlyn had actually been asking about them last night and wondering if they would show up again this year. She is now very excited to see where they hide each night and what trouble they will cause. She has even voluteered to clean up any mess they make. And Tyler, well, if Kaitlyn is excited, Tyler is excited!

It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas

This year (as I do most years) I decided not to join in the Black Friday Craziness and instead stayed home and started on the Christmas decorating. The Santa hats were a very happy find for the kids - Tyler is really into hats right now and put one on right away. Katy quickly followed his example and the hats have been off and on for the last 2 days. Do you know how many times I tried to get them to keep those hats on long enough for a Christmas card photo last year?!!

Trying on the stockings. Nope Ty you can't actually wear those!
Kaitlyn helped me place some of the odds and ends around the house but we had to wait until Sam got home from work to put up the Christmas tree. The kids were so excited and all over the place - we could hardly stand it and almost cut the activity short. Tyler kept stepping on the tree branches and hurting his feet, then would come to me for a hug before wading back in among them to get hurt again. Kaitlyn, thankfully, finally settled down enough to eat some dinner while Sam finished the assembly. Then we got them distracted with a movie while I worked on the lights. Sadly, by the time I got to the decorating part Tyler was already in bed and I was so tired the ribbon placement looked horrible and I decided to quit for the night. But Katy had been so patient about waiting for her turn to put on the "jewels" (ornaments) that I let her put on five ("my age!" she said) before putting her to bed.

This morning I was wide awake at 5:30 (not unusual for me since my aerobics class starts at that time) and got back to the tree decorating. By the time the kids woke up (45 minutes later? I hate it that they don't sleep in EVER!) I was ready for them to add the ornaments and snowflakes. Kaitlyn was happy to do so and pretty much finished up the tree by herself since Tyler wouldn't let go of the first ornament we handed him. He carried it around with him for almost an hour using it as a "trailor" for his backhoe, among other things.

Ugh, I'm thinking maybe next year I need to ask Santa for a new camera! This picture is awful, but that's the best I could get of the tree in all it's glory. The other settings just wash out the lights so...

I am still congratulating myself for curbing most of my perfectionist tendencies, making only slight adjustments to all the ribbon that got knocked out of place by the kids before we got the fence up, and even more so for not adjusting anything Katy put on :)

It was rainy and dreary today so we have to wait until tomorrow to put up the outdoor lights and garland. But we did finish up the day with pizza and games with my family - including my uncle, aunt, cousins, and Gram - before Bon and Larry head home tomorrow.

Thanksgiving

Well, the time for Thanksgiving dinner did finally arrive. My family was happy to let us experiment on them with most of the dishes - our first time making cranberry sauce, oyster stuffing, smoking the turkey, and my first ever attempt at completely home made rolls. Everything seems to have turned out nicely, though we were secretly afraid the turkey wasn't done enough and we'd all go home with food poisoning! :)

But I think the turkey was ok, as well as delicious. Good job Sam! (Don't worry, the skin is supposed to look like a crispy critter when you smoke it)

The funny part of the night was when Tyler spotted the lighted candles. He decided they just HAD to be blown out and stood up on his chair to try to reach them. He kept blowing and blowing (spitting on my food in the process I'm sure) until we finally just blew them out for him.

Kaitlyn (our picky picky eater - well, one of them) was very brave and tried turkey with cranberry sauce - and liked it! Oh I'm so happy that she's getting to a point where she is willing to try new things once in a while. And Tyler, well I think his dinner consisted of potato chips and Oreo pie.

Mom made the yummy pies - Oreo, eggnog, banana cream (ok, I helped her with that one the night before), and of course pumpkin. We were all completely stuffed after trying a bit of each kind.

We finished up the night with Grandpa on kid duty watching Ice Age and the rest of us playing a card game. All in all a good Thankgsiving seems to have been had by all. I hope yours was just as enjoyable.

Now bring on Christmas!!!

Being Prepared

Isn't he cute?! :) That's their favorite way to torture their Daddy (and sometimes me) lately - clinging to his leg while he tries to walk around.

I'm blogging today because silly me, I did too much Thanksgiving prep ahead of time and am now sitting around with nothing to do. I guess I deserve the break but I'm not enjoying the down time. I feel like I should be partying NOW instead of still having 3 or more hours to go before people arrive.

How did I manage to end up this way, you ask? Well, we spent all day Sunday super cleaning the house. We also picked up all the groceries then - giving us plenty of time to run back to the store twice this week when we realized we were missing something. I made the floral arrangements Wednesday (they're really no big deal anyway - I don't think I'm "into" Thanksgiving decorating). Did the regular house cleaning yesterday. And sent the kids to Mom's house this morning because they were too hyper to allow us to get anything done :) Oh, and though we usually have the Thanksgiving meal for lunch it has been pushed to dinner this year so Bonnie and Larry could make the long drive from CO today.

Anyway, I will quit babbling and wish you all a Happy Thanksgiving. So - HAPPY THANKSGIVING! Enjoy this last photo of Ty - I took it this morning after finding he had climbed into the sink and was using the sponge on everything within reach.

Popcorn!

It's been a few days since I've had anything to blog about so I decided to grab the camera this morning and give myself something to blog :)

Popcorn! In my family this is at the top of the list of favorite snacks (and isn't Mommy glad that it's healthy-ish!?). The kids request it almost every day, combined of course with a movie. Usually they get to pig out on the couch but since Sam and I spent a good part of the day yesterday cleaning carpets, couches and much more I am going to try to keep the crumbs at a minimum for at least the next week. I know - good luck to me on that! :)

We also got family photos taken this weekend so I'll be posting a little sneak peek of those (no spoilers for those of you getting Christmas cards from us though) when I get the prints back.

One last photo - the Double Handed Face Stuff

CHEESE!

Cowboy Pirate Diva??!

Whenever Tyler spots a camera in my hand he says "Cheese!" It's so funny - mostly because he doesn't stop to pose, he just likes to say cheese. So when he said it today I decided to snap a photo and this is what I got. Cute huh? He picked out his clothes this morning and was obviously playing dress up too. He is in love with that pink cowboy hat so we are getting him one of his own (in blue I think) for his birthday (shhhh don't tell!). I love that kids are so easy to shop for! Since I'm knee deep in Christmas prep, it makes my life just that much easier.

Thankful

"Mom, do you know what I'm thankful for?" Kaitlyn says out of the blue tonight (though it's possible Sprout had just been discussing it - I try to tune out the TV as much as possible). "I'm thankful for my brother. Because he's going to have a birthday soon."

Can everyone say "awww..." :) She then proceeded to ask the rest of us what we were thankful for, including Tyler who answered her by stuffing his mouth full of goldfish crackers.