Christmas 2010

This Christmas will forever be remembered as the year of

The "Sing-a-majigs"

The Tools

And the Glass Tea set

The Best Christmas Guest

This year we were honored with a very special guest on Christmas eve. The "real" Santa visited us this year! It was very exciting for us all. Especially Emmie, who was so excited she screamed with fear.

I heard a rumor that Santa would be stopping by for a surprise visit a short while before he came. And I was very grateful he was coming because Ainsley's cousin had told her that our Elf on the Shelf "Jingle" wasn't real. Ains has been struggling with this and I just wasn't ready for the magic of Christmas to be over for her. This was the perfect opportunity for Santa to tell Ainsley that he knew Jingle and had heard she had been good.

The moment when the door flew open, the bells rang loudly, and Santa called out "ho ho ho!" the kids eyes were wide with excitement. But things only got better when he was able to call them by name and recall the report that Jingle had given him. I will never forget the look on Ainsley's face when he started talking about Jingle. It was priceless. He chatted with the kids for a bit. He even told them that Rudolph was a bit naughty. Owen was a little nervous but sat on Santa's lap and gave his Christmas request like a pro.

Santa only stayed for a minute. It was a busy night after all. But the excitement it brought to our night was incredible. I wish we could have the real Santa visit us every year. There's just something extra cool about having Santa in your house.

And here are the kids in their new pj's. Anxious to get to bed knowing that Santa was in the area and they needed to be in bed soon.

And here's our family picture for the night. Don't we all look happy!
And last but not least. A little announcement.

How far along do you think I am? By the looks of it I'd say 6 months. With a food baby. John's amazing photography skills were able to capture my food baby and my double chin. In one shot. I swear I don't look that bad. I hope! At least there's no doubt that I enjoyed the holiday food this year!

(Sorry for the mean trick! But John and I were both amazed at this picture and how I legitimately look pregnant. Gotta have a little fun with the pregnant trick every now and again right?! And for the record, there are absolutely NO babies in the plan for this family. I think we may be calling it quits :)

A few things I may have missed.....

Here are a list of things I should have written about already...but haven't.

Ainsley's Christmas program. Not to brag or anything, but she got a speaking part and got to play the xylophone. Just sayin'.
Not sure why I like this picture, but I do. It's Owen and I waiting for Ainsley's Christmas program. I'm not embarrassed to be trying to clean my shirt with my own spit.
And not that I should have written about this, but I have a picture so I'll share.

The bulletin board that Ainsley's teacher had me make this month. (I made Ainsley stand in front of it after her music performance.) I'm not at all crafty, so when her teacher drew me a sketch and requested a 3D fireplace in 45 minutes, I created this. Kind of weird looking, but huge. And hard to do seeing as how kids were on the computers I was climbing over as I was making the darn thing.
The ugly sweater birthday party I assembled (I can't say I planned it because it wasn't my idea.) But I "coordinated" it. Plus I looked good. Especially because I wore a green jumper and crazy boots. But I still lost the prize to my friend Katie who showed up with a Christmas tree sweater she had duct taped a strand of lights and battery pack to the inside. It was awesome.
Owen's Christmas program. His class sang at a nursing home for people with Alzheimer's. Owen was a little scared of the man sitting next to him. I think Owen thought he looked a little scary. But the performance was adorable. And it even stirred up controversy among our children over whether the old people should be called grandmas and grandpas or senior citizens. Guess who thought each name was appropriate?

Emmie also got a HUGE goose egg on her head. This is the only -sort of- picture I have of the aftermath. The goose egg looked awful. But it was funny that she got it because I put her in her first pair of semi-restrictive pants (jeans) and she had trouble walking in them.

Emmie also sat in a pot this month. It was a big day in our family.

Did I say I wasn't crafty? I guess I meant I was crafty. Because I totally made this. All by myself.

We also had a snow day! I have no pictures of the kids playing in the snow. But I promise we had more than this picture shows. I shoveled over a foot of snow off of our drive way. And when snow like that falls in Boise the schools close. Because people here haven't heard of snow plows. Or rather, no one has bothered to start a business of running snowplows because it wouldn't be profitable to work 2 days every 4 years.

And last but not least. John and I had our 10 year anniversary. We did a mystery shop for lunch at the Cheesecake Factory with Emmie. She really liked the anniversary date. John has some big surprise plan for the week after Christmas, as per my request. I told him a date after Christmas would be much more enjoyable. But for not being flashy, I have to say that I really enjoyed our anniversary. John stayed home because both of the kids had music performances. We had a relaxed morning, watched kids sing, did a little shopping, ate out for lunch AND dinner (who does that if they're not on vacation!?) and hung out with the kids that night and squeezed in a movie. It was the type of day where you just enjoy your family. Which doesn't always happen. So I'm glad that it happened on a day 10 years after we tied the knot. (And I'm posting a picture of Emmie to go along with this because we take pictures of her...not ourselves.)

3 things that have made me smile

1. Emmie and her patting. I love it when I pick her up and she pats my arm with her little hand. It's adorable and always makes me smile.

2. Today as I was rushing Ainsley to get ready for school (there may or may not have been a bit of yelling:) Owen came into the bathroom wearing Ainsley's glasses, coat, and backpack and said, "I'm ready!" Had I not been so annoyed with my firstborn at the moment I would have appreciated the hilariousness of it all at the time, not 10 minutes later.

3. Ainsley came to me very seriously, almost in tears, and asked if we could talk alone. When I asked her what was going on she explained that she had been looking at some presents that Grandma Dinger had left at our house.

(The gifts that were hiding in my bedroom because of a certain one year old who won't leave wrapped gifts wrapped. And apparently this certain one year old had still managed to tear one of the gifts a bit.)

Ainsley explained, while holding back tears, that she had seen one of the gifts to her and was so upset by it that I just had to smile and ask her if it was a good one! At least I know I have one honest child! Because unfortunately the other one that is old enough to talk struggles with telling the truth.

By the way, she loved the gift, but asked that I keep it a secret so that her dad and Owen would still think it was a surprise.

What's up with my kids?

The holidays are in full swing. So much so that I feel like I don't have a moment to catch my breath. Last year I was organized and had cute Christmas activities for us to do every day. This year we'll be lucky if we do more than 2 Christmasy things before Christmas! Whether it's school, Christmas parties, or primary, I seem to never have a minute to catch up.

And then yesterday I was forced to slow down.

I took Owen and Emmie to the doctor.

Emmie has rectal strep. That's about as pleasant as it sounds. Apparently babies don't get strep in their throats...they get it elsewhere.

Owen's tonsils are so large we've been referred to an ENT to see if they need to be removed. What's odd though is that he doesn't have strep. Just big tonsils. Crazy big. It's a little scary. I guess we'll find out in a couple of weeks if it's worth taking them out. Our doctor told us that for some reason large tonsils and bed wetting are linked. We've been dealing with bed wetting for quite some time now. So if taking out his tonsils will solve our bed wetting woes....I think it might be worth it. (That's my selfish take on the whole procedure.)

And Ainsley has an appointment this month as well with a gastro-entonologist (that may or may not be the actual word or actual spelling...I'm too lazy to look it up). Although now that we have an appointment scheduled she hasn't thrown up in over 3 weeks. But you can bet that if I were to cancel the appointment she would throw up that very same day. So we'll keep the appointment. Although I'm guessing that they tell us that either nothing is wrong, or that they want to do invasive tesing, which I don't think I'm willing to do.

So there you have it. Each of my kids has a health issue. Which is rare. We're usually a pretty healthy bunch!

Hat

Emmie refuses to wear all hats. Except this one.

It's the top to a shape sorter her Grandma Dinger gave her for her birthday.

I think it's my favorite thing she does right now. I just can't help but laugh when I catch her walking around with it on her head.