Christmas Joy

I hope everyone had a Merry Christmas!  We sure did!  The last week has been filled with family, joy, laughter, food, drinks, presents, food and more presents.  I am actually looking forward to things calming down and getting back to a routine.  Here are a lot some pictures to document our family Christmas.

Christmas Eve 2013

with my brother's family and second set of twins!

Santa came!

Max and Claire LOVED opening presents.  They were spoiled rotten.  I am in the process of cleaning out playroom to make room for new toys.

Aunt Darcy got them drums and a microphone!!! payback is hell!  jk.   they love them!

Getting ready to open their big present from Nanny

Balance bikes!!

attempting to take a pic of four toddlers under three...

my favoritest little people in the whole world!!

So, now it's time to put away decorations and start fresh in 2014.  It's going to be a great year - I just know it!

Christmas Pictures

We took Christmas pictures when we were in Atlanta for Thanksgiving.  I've been waiting to post until after the Christmas cards went out..... which took forever.  Shutterfly was so far behind on printing, and as usual, I did not order enough and had to place more orders.

One of my favorite pictures!!

Claire, the photographer.  

Max and his buddy, Mike

We are getting so excited for Christmas.  I am having a hard time waiting.  I can't wait to see their excitement Christmas morning!!

Oh.. We have been talking to the kids about Christmas and that we are celebrating the birth of Jesus. Claire randomly said, "I wonder if Jesus wants a Monster cake" haha.

Santa: Past and Present

I really had high hopes for Santa pictures this year!  We've been talking about him, reading about him and even went to see Mrs. Claus.

But little did I know, they would turn out the same as the past two years!

2011

2012: Claire was kicking so I immediately picked her up!

2012: Where is Santa?

2013

Claire was on board and was so close to sitting and telling him what she wanted for Christmas, then Max started crying.  The moment he started, she started wailing!  Santa made sure to let us know that they (especially Claire) had a nice set of lungs!  We finally tricked some of the kids by hiding Santa behind the curtain, setting the kids in the chair, then bringing him back out behind the chair.  Worked much better!

much better!

Today I finished up all but Justin's Christmas stocking.  It feels good to be finished, however now I'm going to have a hard time keeping my mouth quiet.  I love giving gifts - can't wait to see the kids on Christmas morning!!

Joyful

I LOVE time of year!  I love the lights, decorations, smells, happiness, family time, Christmas music...
It feels so cozy to be sitting next to the Christmas tree.  This year we have four!  Well.. two bigger ones, a little for the kitchen and one for the playroom.

Our real tree is in the family room and has colored lights and a random assortment of ornaments.  I'm not happy about our lights on this tree, but I am not redoing it!

The tree in the living room is a pre-lit that I put my nice ornaments on. Hands off, kids!

I thought it would be fun for the kids to have their own tree.  I got a little four foot color pre-lit tree for their play room.  They decorated it themselves!

And a little tree that was my grandmother's sits on our butler's pantry.

Our trees

After looking at this picture... I am positive I'm fixing our color lit tree.  It's hideous!!

I've almost finished shopping - - now it's time to start wrapping :)

Toddler Wish List

I am so excited for Christmas this year.  Max and Claire are starting to understand Santa and are already looking forward to Gary the Elf to make his appearance!  I've started some of their shopping, but still have more to do.

Claire's wish list:
Hello Kitty Doll

source

All things Princess
Baby Stella accessories
Rain Boots
Princess Beauty Tote
Dress up clothes
Princess movie

Our Diva!

Max's wish list

Rain Boots

Tool Set  I've already bought him a tool set at Costco, but now I'm leaning more towards the work bench.  He loves helping Justin "fix" things in the house - especially if it involves tools!

Super heroes

Police Car

Guitar

Books

Peter Pan movie

Some other items we are looking at include:  Nabi2 and a Balance Bike

I'm trying to be more organized this year to keep track of what I've bought and how much I've spent ;)

Lately

I've been meaning to catch up on Max and Claire posts.  I've been awful at taking pics lately - hoping to change that!

Claire:  Such a priss and full of attitude.  Justin says she gets it from me....
She is very bossy. And hilarious.  I want to write down the funny things she says, but most of it is funny because of her facial expressions or hand movements.  One could often find her walking around with her "phone" having a conversation or taking pictures of her baby dolls.  I love watching her be a "mommy" to her dolls.  She will be a great Mom one day!

She loves to dance and sing.  I am amazed at all the songs she has learned and can sing on her own!  She can count to 20, although she says "fiveteen" instead of fifteen!!  She is great with letters.  She usually recognizes the first letter in most words. "C" is for Claire.  "M" is for Max.  "T" is for Trevor.  "G" is for Grandpa.....  She also likes to match colors and play memory games.

She is potty trained!  She still wears diapers at nap and night, but does great during the day.  She has been doing great since September (32 months).  Does a good job sleeping in big girl bed.  Goes to sleep by herself at nap, but wants me to lay down with her at night.

November 2012
What a difference a year makes!

November 2013

Max:  Still a Mama's boy!  He can be the sweetest little boy or crazy temper tantrum toddler.  He loves to cuddle with me.  Playing with daddy is a lot of fun.  He likes to build forts and hide and try to scare me while playing with daddy.  Loves to be outside.  Collects leaves, finds bugs, play ball and ride his bike.  All boy except when he wants us to paint his nails like Claire.  Barney is a part of our everyday life.  Morning time routine must include Barney and we watch the same shows 284957 times.

He likes to sing.  Last night he wanted to sing our nighttime prayer, along with our other bedtime songs by his self (and did a great job)! Sometimes I don't recognize how much he knows because he can't get a word out around Claire.  He is also great at counting, memory games and ABCs.  I'm very proud of him.

Just last week he started going to school in big boy underwear! (34 months) We have had a few accidents, but that usually happens when he is playing and doesn't want to stop.  He even goes pee pee standing up.  It's the cutest thing.  (yes, I just said that was cute!)  Nap and Bedtime can be tough.  He doesn't like to sleep by himself.  I lay down with him 95% of the time.  That is something I swore I would never do.....  It was so easy to let them cry it out (CIO) when they were in cribs.  You knew they were safe and couldn't go anywhere.  Now, he (they) can get out of bed whenever.  I bought child locks for the door and he figured them out!  Work in progress!

November 2012

Oct. 2013

Nov. 2013

While this age has proven to be a struggle (for me), it is also so much fun.  I love watching them grow and learn everyday.  So proud of them and the little people they are becoming!

Wine and Design

Last night I participated in my first "Wine and Design".  It was so much fun.  Basically a lot of women, wine and paintbrushes!
You sign up for the picture you want to paint and are then instructed how to paint it step by step.  I was so worried about my color choices.

Beginning steps

was struggling with the highlighting and, at this point, scared how it was going to turn out!

The instructor had said to do little squiggly circles in the middle.  Um.....  lets just say I painted over mine!

Much better!!

Great night!

They have some cool Christmas paintings coming up.  I think I need to sign up for another.  This was so much fun!

When Claire saw it this morning she wanted me to take a picture of her next to it!

Now I just need to find a place to hang it!

Girls' Getaway!

A little late on this, but last weekend, me and seven other girls (moms) had a weekend away!  It was glorious!  We went to Beech Mountain, NC.  Liz's family has a place there and it was perfect!
This was my first girls' weekend since the kids have been born.

We went to wineries, ate, hiked, drank wine, ate, shopped, slept in, and enjoyed no schedules!

Banner Elk Winery was my favorite, not bc of the wine, but I loved the fire pit!

Saturday morning we went for a hike.  And when I say hike, I mean walking straight up a ski slope.  Thanks, Liz! The view made every step worth it!

After the hike, we got makeovers (thanks liz and brit) and headed to lunch.  Somehow we managed to take the scenic route which meant extra windy roads.  Most of us were feeling a little queasy and two actually got car sick.  Ick.  We had to pull over on the side of the road!
We finally got to Blowing Rock and had a delicious lunch, then hit up the outlets.  We were only at the outlets for a short period of time before we decided to go to one more winery.

Sadly, my camera was dead so I didn't get any pics on my own and I haven't saved our group pics to my phone.  I'll have to update with group pics soon!

We all decided that since the guys (and parents) did such a wonderful job, we need another weekend SOON!!

Barney and a Fairy Princess

Halloween is over, but I can't let it go without posting some pictures of my cuties on Halloween!  We spent most of trick or treating hours at our friend's house.  We had pizza and let the kids run around.  At the last minute, a few of us decided to take the kids to a few houses.  It was the cutest thing I've seen!
They were very good at saying "Trick or Treat" and "thank you".

A little fun before costumes

Family Halloween pic 2013

First house for trick or treating!

Getting the hang of things!

At the end of the night we let them choose one candy.  Both of mine chose organic gummy bears!  Now lets just hope I don't get into all their candy!