Christmas Card 2011

Finally, a picture of all 5 of us looking at the camera! We took this one in Gulf Shores over Thanksgiving.

Christmas 2011

We had a very blessed and happy Christmas this year.  Steve's fiscal end of year for EMC is December so he had to work quite a bit and truly only had the weekend of Christmas off and the following Monday.  Despite that it was still a great Christmas. On Friday, I made 3 batches of Christmas cookies.  I made my first Turkey for Christmas Eve and slaved in the kitchen all morning making a feast and the famous "Sour Cream Apple Pie" for dessert.  We ate dinner early and opened presents from our family that evening. We read "Twas the Night Before Christmas" with the kids and put out plenty of cookies and milk for Santa and carrots for the reindeer.  Santa delivered a lot of presents at night.  We heard him fill the stockings and accidentally drop one of the heavy silver stocking holders.  Thank goodness this did not wake up Luke, as his bedroom is the next room over.  He chose some interesting wrapping paper this year :) 

Christmas day, everybody slept in, until about 7:15am or so.  The first one up was Ava (as usual.)  When we walked downstairs, Ava went and woke up Luke and the kids tore open their stockings.  Luke proclaimed it was the best Christmas ever as he opened his stocking stuffers.   We put together toys and played all morning.  We wore our jammies all day and felt very blessed by God to have a happy, healthy holiday season this year.

Sydney's beloved "Bitty Baby"

One of Mommie's (and the kids) favorite toys.

One of Luke's favorite gifts... Squinkies!

Morph's.... we all love these!

Santa Pics 2011

Ahhh.... so I had this picture called before it even took place.  I knew Little Miss Sydney would not be happy on Santa's lap.  It took us an hour of waiting in line to see Santa and the kids did great with the wait.  I am sure next year we will have 3 big smiling faces instead of 2.  Luke is convince that this is the real Santa and all of the other random Santa's he sees are just his helpers. 

It's Santa, no, it's Luke...

I have been so busy getting ready and celebrating Christmas that I have not had a lot of time to blog.  Luke has been over the top with everything, it's cute.  So far this month, he has "wrapped" about 20 presents of his own. Most packages consist of found books, random toys and cards.  He wraps them creatively, ties them with a bow and has used up all of my tape and a least a roll of wrapping paper.  Today, he put some reigns on his reindeer, put on his Santa Hat and filled his pillowcase with toys and was pretending to be Santa.  Gotta love his Christmas energy... he puts me to shame!

 Here he is in his sleigh...

Something exciting...

Steve and I made our first offer on a new home today!  We are in negiotiation with the builder and probably will be for the next couple weeks.  We have been looking for a home with a yard for a while now.  While we love where we are at and have such wonderful neighbors and friends, we have really been missing that extra space for the kids to run around.  We found something special and we are in the beginning phases of making it a reality.  It is only 1.3 miles away from our current home and it is surrounded by a farm, which we love.  Hopefully everything continues to fall into place and if it does we will be moving in, in 9 months.  We will be building our new home from scratch!  And the most exciting part of all is that we are laying down some roots here in Seattle :)

This is the same house we are building but they are changing the elevation. This will be our neighbor.

 

Ava's Birthday Bash & Pop Pop's Visit

Ava had such a great time at her birthday party!  It was at Jump Planet last sunday, the 11th.  There was about 50 people there including parents and kids.  The kids jumped for an hour and 15 minutes, then we went upstairs to the party room that was decorated with Strawberry Shortcake.  We ate Pizza and cupcakes and had so much fun with our friends!  Pop Pop was here to celebrate and made the day so special!  Happy 3rd Birthday to our little girl!  Ava's favorite gifts were her pink dollhouse, her bitty baby with matching snowflake dress, Strawberry Shortcake Dolls, Berry Cafe and My Little Pony remote car!

Happy 3rd Birthday to my dear, Ava!

My little girl turned 3 today. I am so proud of the dainty, sweet demeanor she has. Her strengths include: her lovibility, her imaginative mind when she plays and acts out her favorite toys (Strawberry Shortcake, Olivia, Loving Family), her independence, her sense of humor (she gets that from Daddy), her maturity compared to others her age, and last but certainly not least....her hugs!! She gives the best hugs!! She loves to snuggle up on the couch or in bed and watch movies. She calls this "getting cozy" and it always involves a soft blanket. As much as I thought I would not have a girly girl, she definitely turned out to be and I love her for it. She has in a way brought out the girly girl in me. We love to do our nails, pick out outfits, do our hair, and put on makeup.... yes, she gets the pretend makeup :) She is smart. She is spelling her name and even writing it with help. She sings her ABC's and counts. She knows when she has been naughty and goes to room when asked to think about the way she has been misbehaving. She never fights it.... she knows when she needs some alone time and comes downstairs when she is ready. She shares well with her brother and Sissy 90% of the time. She LOVES her Wukey and Baby Sydney and we all love her so much!

We celebrated her birthday on Saturday with Pop Pop. We did presents and dinner at Red Robin. On Sunday was her big birthday bash at Jump Planet. She had a BLAST! Pictures soon to come...

Ava's Snowman

Ava made this clicky sticky snowman on the Ipad the other day. I especially love the snowball legs she gave him!

The spirit of season and giving...

These kiddos of ours are lucky to have to have all that they do and sometimes as parents we get worried that they are not thankful enough or that they take their good fortune for granted. Last year I spent some good time with Luke having him deliver gifts with me hoping that he would experience the joy of giving. I don't really think he got a lot out of it at the time but maybe he did...

Both Luke and Ava have these enormous lists for Santa this year but they have spent a lot of time the past week wanting to give too. Luke creates presents out of construction paper and secures each package with a rubberband. They found my stash of wrapping paper and started wrapping books up and delivering special presents for me and each other. Luke especially, is loving to give. This is one of those proud and reassuring moments I am having as a Mom that I am raising my children the right way. Yes there is paper and open markers all over my house but I don't even care because they are getting so much out of it!

We had such a great time at Gulf Shores with everyone!  All of the Lasses were there to celebrate.  The temperatures were unseasonably warmer than usual and we had the whole beach to ourselves.  Sydney took her first steps the day before Thanksgiving and has been trying to master walking ever since.  Ava and Luke had so much fun playing with all of their cousins!  The trip unfortunately ended in a stomach bug and since so many of us were under one roof, pretty much all of us got hit with it in some way.  It could of been much worse though.

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