December in a pinch

As usual- December was a blur..

Lets see if I can stuff an entire month into one post, while keeping everything in order.

Girl & I started off the month with a trip to the mall, and for some odd reason- Dan & Luke didn't want to join us.

Towards the end of the trip - girl was wishing she stayed home as well. When I stood in crazy lines, girl found a peaceful spot to take a break. She also sat down after my numerous requests to PLEASE NOT TOUCH THE CRYSTAL!

Boy stayed home & traumatized the cat in his newest hiding spot.

It seemed like the trip to see santa was going to turn out ok.

***INSERT PIC OF BOY SCREAMING ON SANTA'S LAP HERE***

After a terrorizing first trip to Santa - I thought it would be best to take a little breather before our second attempt. We got some candy - hit up build-a-bear - and tried again.

Much better this time -- and the kids are really starting to enjoy a good bribe.

ON TO THE COOKIES!
We made an obscene amount of cookies -and some obscenely bright icing - and spent the entire Christmas-eve-eve coating the kitchen in sugar.

If girl has taught me anything - it is to put her hair up into a ponytail because icing/sugar in hair creates THE WORST hair-brushing experience for everyone. Please pardon the crazy girl hair-do.

Boy has his collar popped at all times

**INSERT CHRISTMAS EVE DINNER HERE**

fun times had by all - too much food had by all.

and on to the REAL Christmas eve!!

Santa was quite a slob with the cookies.

and who ever heard of a reindeer that couldn't finish a baby carrot?!?

Christmas morning - we picked up the wrapping paper as we went - and put everything in nice piles of Girl toys / Boy toys as we went.

And mid-morning- we put everything BACK in the nice piles...

but after a while -we just let the stuff sit out, figuring it would be easiest to just make a path after they went to bed.

LEFTOVERS BABY!

Boy was VERY happy to have an entire bucket of veggies all to himself!

and girl attacked the pepperoni & salami like it was her job


Next was the snow.

Fred was less that pleased. This was as far as his adventures took him. Poor guy is getting old and quite frankly, can't be bothered by much.

SNOWDAY!!

for some reason - all these pictures look like they were taken at dusk -

when actually -it was a bright sunny day.

?

who knows

The first snowball of the year

(I think it goes without saying that boy got hit with it..)

When we finally put the kabosh on the snowball throwing -

girl decided to throw sticks..

...which quickly got the kabosh also.

Now, considering we live in the middle of nowhere - we had a few snowdrift issues..

Parts of the yard still had grass visible.
Other parts of the yard had three feet of snow

the kids insisted on scaling the big mounds of snow - regardless of how snow-coated their feet were INSIDE their boots.

Knee deep

Thigh deep

Girl discovered the beauty of a slick icy slide

and the pain of an icy slide

proof of the time of day -

Boy continued his snow-sprints while girl gave daddy a back-to-work-after-lunch-smooch

I guess boy didn't see the snowbank coming.. and took a spill while girl tried to figure out how to get around it

Happy boy

You can't really tell.. but the little blob of arm that is sticking out between boy's jacket & glove... was the brightest red EVER

If I thought his cheeks were rosy - oye - the wrist chub was crimson!

girl found the end of her snow tolerace purty quick

and when I say purty quick...

it was a FAST transition from

'Let's go in now'

to

absolute pathetic 'I'll just die if I don't get inside this instant'

COCOA!!
with marshmallows of course

see previous statement regarding girl & a ponytail when food is involved

While boy tries to say cheese for a nice picture - girl stuffed a gigantic mallow in her mouth

delicate baby sips..

...which quickly turn into piggy bites

I really like the way the sun glistens off the snot dripping out of the boy's nose...
just lovely

Girl - as quickly as possible- downed her cocoa & sprinted into the other room to play with her toys before the buzz was gone -

while boy slowly enjoyed the moment.

I had to get a dry nose picture to make up for the other one...

From the evening of leftovers:

Boy was telling me how he's not scared to try new foods now that he's three.

I didn't know it was so frightening - but whatever -

if we can expand his menu to anything beside chicken nuggets, toast, broccoli & hummus

I'LL TAKE IT

the actual birthday

I know these are a little bit grainy.. but this is the boy's birthday dinner!

my three year old reindeer

WHO'S THREE??!?!

We had boy's birthday party this weekend -

and boy, did my guys have a blast!!!

Girl got to grab onto her favorite bunny as soon as we got there -

and didn't put it down the whole time

Boy wouldn't sit still long enough to pose for a picture -

we got this one of him saying "CHEESE" -

but he wouldn't stick around for a retake

I was so happy to see all the Ivans there -

even happier to see Rob really working the slides

I really don't know who had more fun..

we even got Brent & Nate to come all the way out for a little kid junctioning

girl had her first attempted kiss..

alas - she also had her first shut-down

so she rode the tractor instead

a little motorcycling

and then it was time for pizza!!!!

Girl was SO HAPPY there were other girls to play with at the boy party!!!

my 3 year old reindeer

and cake

I think Josh was a little concerned about crumbs on the floor

(and I think Nick may be a south paw!)

Sorry for anyone who left before us -

I don't know why the girl that felt the need to hold my PEANUT FREE goodie bags ransom behind the counter - refused to remind me she had them..

so I'm sorry to say - I made about 10 random kids really happy

sorry I couldn't say that much for 85% of the kids in attendance

oh well

Hope everyone had as much fun as we did!!

THANKS FOR COMING!