Holiday Happenings 2011

Whew - the holidays were so much more relaxing when I was a kid.  Sleeping in, watching tv, eating, and napping...those were the days (that I don't get anymore).

Christmas 2011 is gone but not the memories.  Dad and Bev came and visited us this Christmas - again it was so nice to have some of my family here with us.

Christmas Eve we went to Mike's Mom's house and had a Mexican feast (although at that point a siesta would have been just fine with me).  We ate enchiladas, pico, salsa, tamales, rice, and beans.  Everyone brought a little something so Pam didn't have to do it all herself this year!  I stayed up all night making the tamales ;-)

All the cousins

 Logan and Travis opening gifts

Ian opening his gift with Aunt Jessie helping.

Lauren loving her new Vans

Ian getting crazy with the wrapping paper!

All the kids in their pj's ready to decorate cookies for Santa

Getting the cookies ready for Santa

Let the chaos begin

Lauren with her ring Aunt Brenda made her.

Travis (I think he has pants on here)

Mamma helping the boys (Ian and Travis) put their track together that Bev and Papa gave them.

Logan wasn't feeling well again but he participated as much as he could.

Dad and Bev ;-)

Ian with his Mater sucker/teeth.

Travis and Logan playing at the table.

Papa and Bev teaching Lauren to play poker. She recd the poker set as a White Elephant gift.

Look at that smile on Travis

Mike and Jessie just hanging out.

Ok folks I did it.  The last day of the year and I updated the blog.  It's been a nice few days here and I have pics of us (not me) in shorts, but that is another blog post.  2011 has been great for us and cannot wait to see what 2012 has for us.  Till next year ;-)

The boys Christmas program

The boy's school Christmas program and Lauren's first band concert were being held on the same day and at the same time. I asked Mike if he would go to the boy's program and I would go to Lauren's. 

At the end of the evening we both came home and hung out for a bit before we put the boys down for bed. After the boys settled down, I saw the pictures that Mike took of the boys program.  While he was taking pictures he had someone else take video.  I looked through the pictures and was anxiously rewinding the tape to watch the Christmas program where the boys got on stage to sing and to say their names.  Imagine my surprise when I saw only bits and pieces of the program, a ton of video of the carpet, and only one of the boys saying "Merry Christmas, my name is Travis."  It was not a good night - I don't think I said anything to anyone for about 30 minutes. I know we will look back at this and laugh....but I'm unsure how long it will take me to get to that point ;-)

I've put out a request for any of the other parents to burn me a tape of the program and I'm keeping my fingers crossed that I can see all three of my boys in the program singing the entire two songs and hearing them all say "Merry Christmas, my name is..."

It looks like a cute little program; hopefully I can see next year!

 

Dance

A couple Friday's ago Lauren went to her very first middle school formal.  I didn't know anything about it until that Wednesday before.  I asked her if she wanted to go and she said "meh, I don't think so."  But when she saw everyone posting on facebook that they were shopping for new dresses, I think she changed her mind - Thursday evening.

Luckily she has a couple of dresses that would work for the requirements of a formal (and in retrospect jeans and a tshirt would have worked just fine - based on some of the outfits I saw).  She picked a purple dress from last Christmas and wore a pair of my black sandals and she was set for a good time.

My goodness...my little girl is growing up!

Aunt Brenda's annual Thanksgiving visit 2011

As usual my sister, Brenda, came to visit during the Thanksgiving holiday.  We host Thanksgiving dinner at our house, but other family members bring dishes to make it complete.  I'm not sure what I would do without Brenda making the gravy each year as well as the cranberry sauce...Ok I do know what I would do and it would include using canned products!
Once November 1st hits both Lauren and I are counting down the days before Brenda arrives.  And the visit is usually over way before we are all ready for it to be.

Aunt Brenda and Ian painting faces BEFORE professional pics.  I wasn't too worried....heck it's not my face!

 Lauren and her cousin Brenna

 Travis and Ian - not sure what's going on here.  We might need to ask Aunt Brenda

 This is a picture that Lauren took of Travis...I think it's too cute.

 Ian playing on Daddy's Ipad and Brenna on her Iphone!

 We had a sick baby on Thanksgiving. Logan had an ear infection and was not himself that day.

 Loving the look Mr. Logan.

 I think this was taken the day Thanksgiving.  Brenda and Lauren were making raviolis...I jumped in only for the picture ;-)

 And that concludes my post about the happenings in November.   I believe the Christmas tree will be going up tomorrow and there will be lots of help.  We have a band concert, choir concert and the boys Christmas program at their MDO within the next two weeks.  I will have some blogging material ;-)

Buzz, Woody, Bullseye, and a zombie referee

Halloween 2011...the boys were so anxious for Halloween to get here and perhaps we shouldn"t have given them the countdown, because on Monday it was "I want to go trick or treating" ALL.DAY.LONG. I'm so proud of myself for getting everyone ready before our friends/family got here so that I could get pics...and boy did I get pics! We even had time to go to our neighbors house and show off our costumes. Ms. Sue makes sure that she gets the boys and Lauren special candy..last year was cotton candy, this year it was suckers-huge suckers!

The story on the boys costumes is that I was going through a bin of clothes and came across Buzz and Woody costumes.  They are a size bigger, but they worked.  I was on the hunt for a Bullseye costume...which they no longer manufacture.  Ebay and I were best friends for about two weeks before I realized that I wasn't getting a Bullseye costume for less than $70.  Luckily I found a mom on one of my selling sites that had a the costume - $45 plus $10 shipping!!  Yeah buddy!

Logan as Woody  Travis as Bullseye  and Ian as Buzz Lightyear

These are the kids that came to trick or treat with us. Cousin Ava is little red riding hood; Ava brought a couple of her friends too. Kenzie is batgirl and her big sister and Lauren didn't want to be in this particular picture.

Lauren and her best friend, Kayla

"c'mon cowboy" was often heard throughout the night from batgirl.

Look at this crew!

We had a great night with friends and family! Bring on Thanksgiving and a visit from Aunt Brenda!

The boys room is done!

We put the boys in their toddler beds in mid July and I'm finally done transforming their baby room to a big boy room.  It takes me forever to decide what I'm going to do and make sure that I get a good deal on what I've decided on and then I'll decide on something different and then decide that it the first choice was better than the second and then I'll say it doesn't matter and then finally I'll pull the trigger on my first choice! ;-)

Vinyl names on the wall should help the babysitter at bedtime!

 

I was eyeing these canvas prints at Target for months.  When I finally decided to buy them, they were on clearance.  See, taking forever to decide has it's advantages.

I even made the boys curtains for their window!

Now we are thinking what we are going to do when they graduate from toddler beds. I'll need more brain cells for that transition and I'm not looking forward to it for numerous reasons!

It's time for the pumpkin patch

Now that we are getting some cooler weather (mid 80's) I've tried to schedule Sundays for outside family time.  Last week we went to a carnival in a nearby town.  It was small enough for Mike and me to watch the boys and not use a stroller, harnesses, etc.  There are no pictures other than a video since we had our hands full with keeping all three going in the same direction.  They had a blast though and we can't wait for the spring festivals to come by next year - they are finally old enough for mom not to lose her mind at an outing!

This Sunday we decided at the last minute to go to a local pumpkin patch.  I think I might have said this last year, but we have been going to this particular pumpkin patch since Lauren was a toddler.  After hanging out for an hour we headed to lunch and the boys did great at the restaurant...I can see more eating out ;-)

Ian and Logan

Travis

Look how big everyone is getting (I don't think that chart is to scale ;-)

Whoa - another picture of Mike and me (taken by Ms. L)

On our way out the boys got Simba masks - they didn't last long - we didn't even make it out to the car before one was torn in half.