Santa CAME!!

The girls were ecstatic about Santa coming a day early! Nobody even noticed until breakfast was over and Big A headed downstairs to let the cat out of his night room (AKA the laundry room). She came running upstairs with out-of-breath excitement. Notice that Pom was even checking out the gifts Santa left. The shock and amazement on their faces was absolutely priceless!!

E felt she needed to join in all the noise making ooo's and ahhh's! Too cute.

Santa left an enormous doll mansion for little A - she can't even reach the fourth floor nursery.

Big A got a karaoke machine which has been super cool fun.

What on Earth was Santa thinking?!

E likes it too!

E spent most of the Christmas gift openings with paper of some sort in her mouth. Forget the toys!

MERRY CHRISTMAS

Forgive me...

I'm taking bloggy "break" due to the holiday craze, and plan to catch up with December happenings in the next week or two. Have a wonderful Christmas - pray for better traveling weather this year!

I leave you with a precious photo of my 5-month old niece from today (had the day off and babysat while my sister was in town for work). Isn't she sweet?!

Christmas Program #2

...this time for our 3 year old at the daycare. A's at a good age where the programs are enjoyable and even humorous. Here, they are parading up to the front of the church. Notice the little girl in the white sweater and blue dress walking with her in the next several pictures...

A and her little friend were singing their little hearts out!

Really belting it out, their mouths are the widest I swear!

And still singing away...

Yes - new scenery - she moved to be with other friends

The grandparents drove to town to watch as well

The Cat Survived One Year

December 13, 2009

December 2010

A COLD Day in Omaha

Happy birthday, Uncle Nick! The traditional annual trip to Omaha for the Westside Christmas Pageant was today. This church puts on a fabulous production complete with live camels, sheep, lambs, goats, donkey, "flying" angels, snow, etc. Following the show, we headed to my sister and bro-in-law's place for dinner. It was a good time despite the FRIGID weather! I just love these pictures!! Christmas card worthy! I found these adorable corduroy matching Christmas dresses for the little ones.

The sweetest baby I know...

Cousins!

Cousins - first Christmas for both of these babies!!

Christmas Party in the Hospital!

St. Elizabeth, the wonderful hospital where our three children were born, hosted an Old Fashioned Christmas on this snowy Saturday morning. It was the first of it's kind and a huge success! In fact, the 2-hour long line for pictures with Santa (or so we heard) proved just that. The morning event included a free hot breakfast buffet, REAL reindeer and sleigh (if you wanted to brave the cold and snow), free professional pictures with Santa, free arts & crafts and tours of their cyber knife, operating room and birthing centers. Along with the utilization of their birthing center and emergency department on various occasions, we have given them lots of our money. SOOO we thought it was fun to get a free, interesting, family morning with the two little ones!

There were LOTS of people

We all needed to wear surgical hospital caps during the operating room tour.

El was super cute in hers!

A wasn't too sure of hers, but she did get to take it home, along with a mask to go with her doctor's medical kit

Winter Concert

A Nervous Nellie

Grades 3-5 choir

Alexis performed in her school’s winter concert last night! She played her trombone (first band concert!) and sang very well. The little girls enjoyed watching as well. :) It was really cute when E spotted her big sister sitting with the band and squealed with delight from Nana's lap and waved to her. It’s hard to believe A is about half finished with her last year at the elementary school. An open house informational meeting and tour is planned this week for fifth grade families at the middle school in our neighborhood.

Of course, life has been busy with the holiday season upon us. Gift buying and wrapping and dealing with a sick baby on top of working can get a bit stressful. Add on top of everything writing the annual Christmas letter (may or may not get done), reassessing annual insurance options and benefits and refinancing our home. Small things really... I know, I know, that's the Christmas spirit...just saying... But, we continue to move on and see the calendar days fly by all too quickly. We are anxious for a Christmas celebration weekend as we attend some events on both Saturday and Sunday this coming weekend!

Black Friday Poll

Do you shop Black Friday? Unfortunately, I got stuck working a full shift today. Ugh. But, another Black Friday is in the books and time to gear up for the Christmas season and shopping (which I'm pretty much dreading this year). Cyber Monday, here I come. Oh, but first we get to partake in another Thanksgiving dinner over the weekend! We're finishing with the seasonal decorating in the house tomorrow. I'm also working a making a tree skirt since we had to throw the old one out last year. Should be interesting... Note: It has been one week that the tree has been assembled, and I'm happy to report that the cat and baby are doing a fairly nice job leaving it alone!!! This is my first poll, so please vote! (I want to see if it works!)

Happy Thanksgiving

Shortly, we are headed out of the city on this crisp morning to my parents in the country for the traditional Thanksgiving noon dinner. Looking forward to seeing the family again! E is excited about her first holidays especially since she turns 10 months today and 11 months on Christmas Day. :) What a special time! Safe travels and Happy Turkey Day to all of you!!

Wordless Wednesday

TGIF!!

What a big girl we have!

The time change has been kicking us in the behind this week! We’ve all been dragging in the darkness of the evenings, and the girls have been in bed before 8 and we have rarely seen 10! Little A ate a HUGE supper last night, plus two pieces of halloween candy (still lots left), then she sobbed for an hour about her tummy hurting. I felt so bad for her and told Chris to never give her an entire meatball sub for fear that she might actually eat it all again. I was almost sure she would get sick from the looks of her sad, pale face. Chris took her into bed about 7 and told her she might feel better if she lay down, which she completely agreed to do. They read books for about an hour, and I heard her perking up by then. E was asleep by 7:30. We normally see bedtime fits from A, but not this week! Gotta love that time change!

Welcome to the chilly weather… **Update - we are getting our first snow of the season this evening! An inch of snow = no Dish satellite signal...what?! Hope everyone’s November is treating them well! We have plans to drag out the Christmas tree and totes next weekend. Gosh, did I just write that?!?

Halloween in Pictures!

We headed back "home" to spend the festive evening with other family. It's fun for the grandparents to see the girls dressed up and a chance to be a part of the annual fall festival at my parent's church. Complete with games, balloon hats, food, bounce houses, oh and candy, this free event can't get any better being indoors out of the chilly weather. The girls had a blast too!

Trick or treating at grandparents house

The girls with Grandma R

Our strawberry

Our friendly ghost

Camp director?? - hahaha , too funny



E with Papa G

Boo!

My favorite was the last minute hair creation!

Niece M

Mom, what the heck?!

Niece R - 3 months

My sister and niece

A loved the bounce house!

Checking out the delicious goods!

Hope you all had a fun and safe Halloween!!