Christmas Part 2

Christmas morning makes Micah happy.... really happy...

Jane's ok with it too...

As for me, any day with homemade salted caramel cheesecake is a great day....

Janie loved her new sippy cup SO MUCH that she sucked on it empty... for a solid 20 minutes

Christmas Ribbon 101...

Ok, this was awesome.. Janie chose to unwrap her presents standing up! She would reach down and grab onto the paper, then stand up ripping off pieces of paper as she went. She totally got the gift unwrapping concept and was completely on board...

Micah with his magnetic me...

Liz hearts cars.... a lot.

Janie is getting a peek at Memaw's Christmas present...

And begging for scraps from Pa...

Nate's sisters gave the kids matching PlasmaCars...

They were a teensy bit excited :)

Finally, Lizzie finished Christmas morning with some special Memaw snuggles...

Christmas Part 1

There are certainly a lot of hard things about having baby/toddler/preschool aged children, but of course, there are also a lot of great things...

On Christmas morning, they don't run into your room at 4 in the morning wanting to open presents...

They calmly come downstairs and wait happily...

They even wait while the adults get coffee (not me ;-), prepare a great breakfast and eat the whole thing..

They don't complain AT ALL and they even help you make the food...

 And of course this patience all comes from the fact that they really don't understand what is coming, so they can't be impatient for it... love it :) I figure this was probably our last relaxed year though. Even so, I fully intend on enforcing the breakfast before presents thing every year.. I'm just aware that the amount of complaining will probably increase by a factor of 2 every year from here on out. And with that, I leave you with a picture of Lizzie not really feeling like getting her picture taken...

Twas the day before Christmas

Woo hoo for getting caught up! I mean, I'm only a month behind, right? :) It's ok though because not much happens in January, so being behind has given me something to write about!

Janie absolutely loves her Pa!

I love these pictures... so sweet~

Micah and Lizzie were being super cooperative for a Christmas Eve picture~

Sweet girl~

My kiddos~

Sweet sibs~

Cousins 6.0

I'm looking forward to all of the kids being at an age where they will reliably look at a camera and smile. Until then.....

Remove baby, try again...

Try to get Lizzie to smile...

And finally, resignation. I present to you the cousin picture from this Christmas ;-)

Pick and Choose

Did I mention that it was a busy December for us? Well, when my mom heard about a new pick your own strawberry farm out west of Katy, we decided to add one more thing to the schedule. Micah and Lizzie had SOOOOOO much fun!

I loved it too because, unlike the normal strawberry picking experience, this farm grows them hydroponically. So no kneeling in dirt required! This was particularly good for me since I seriously injured my knee the week before (this was also why I couldn't do the ice slide at the Gaylord Texan... boo!). I'm doing physical therapy for it and it's getting better. But you just have to expect this sort of injury when you are a Wii Just Dance champion like me. Not even kidding... that's how I hurt it :P Anyways, Lizzie and Pa partnered up and had a great time....

I love their identical expressions here!

They were so proud of their haul...

Sweet girl was being contrary that day, but if she didn't know you were snapping the picture, you could get her smiling...

Me and the bubs...

Memaw carrying a very non-impressed Janie... she'll be more into it next year :)

Merry Preschool Christmas

Can I confess something? I love school parties. I loved them as a kid and I love attending them now as a parent. I somehow think this comes from the same gene that makes me enamored with gift shops.. but I can't be totally sure about that. Anyways, Micah's party was up first in the day and he was kind enough to give me a big chicken nugget smile~

And, of course, pose with Weston...

And, wait for it........ a good picture of me and one of my kids! Hallelujah....there is hope!

Micah's party was at lunchtime and Lizzie's followed that afternoon. Now, here's the thing with the 2 yr old parties... they throw them at 2 pm instead of midday because kids that age won't normally be ok with Mommy coming in for half an hour and then leaving them again. It's smart, but it also means that nap time gets cut short. I never remember that being an issue with Micah's class at that age, but Lizzie is in a class of big sleepers. It was kind of hilarious because when we got there all the kids were dazed and still in a nap hangover. NOBODY could get them to smile...

So we administered sugar and waited....

And waited...

HA! I got one...

But at the sound of my triumphant cry, she went back to this...

Oh well, I got one and that was better than mos the parents did! I even got Lizzie to hold up the ornaments I hand sewed for all the kids as party favors...

I also made the drawstring bags they came in (you can see the bag in the bottom of a lot of the pictures). Basically I'm nuts and I may have a problem with volunteering too much... maybe. But the parties were great and the kids had a good time!