Christmas Eve Eve Eve

Usually, we open presents from out of town relatives the night before Christmas Eve. But, since we already have plans, we had a Christmas Eve Eve Eve celebration. The hubby and kids made one of their favorite treats, Puppy Chow, to start off the evening.

One of the sweetest moments was when Sugie passed out the gifts she bought her daddy and Buddy at the Santa Shop at school. She was so proud that she shopped on her own for them!

The kids had so much fun opening their gifts. Sugie even squealed with delight while opening her gifts. It's going to be a great Christmas!!

A Magical Road Trip

Last weekend, we took the kids on a short drive to Santa Claus, IN for some Christmastime fun! We had a BLAST! It was so much fun for all of us!

Our first stop was to the Lake Rudolph Land of Lights. They were so amazing! We've been the to Ritzy's Fantasy of Lights each year, but they pale in comparison to this. As we drove through the campground, Sugie read us the story boards that accompanied the lights. The lights told the story of how got to be Santa's lead reindeer. The kids started singing "Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer" while driving through. It was too cute!

After the lights, we drove to Kringle Plaza and visited Santa's Christmas Store. It was very crowded, so we only stayed long enough for the hubby to get some goodies! Outside the store, was a huge Christmas tree made out of lights. We watched the tree light show in awe! It was pretty cool!

We went to Christmas Lake next. The neighborhood decorates their streets in different themes. Santa and an elf were at the gate passing out candy canes. The kids loved this! The lights were neat, but we eventually grew tired of them and tried to find our way out of the huge neighborhood. It took awhile since our GPS, Garmina, left us down. Our favorite streets were Shephards Lane and Frosty's Corner.

Since it was getting late, our final destination was to Santa's Lodge. Santa was sitting in the sleigh visiting with children. (The hubby found his black gloves disturbing and I thought it was weird that he gave the "I'm number 1" sign for each picture!) We hadn't planned on seeing Santa Claus so many times this year, it's just kind of happened. I don't want the kids to notice the differences between them.(One even stopped into Buddy's classroom last week.)

After visits, Santa and Mrs. Claus read the kids "Twas the Night Before Christmas". Buddy was a little mischievous, so the hubby pulled him out of the room. Sugie was very good and enjoyed it. Then, they sang a few Christmas. We were treated to wonderful chocolate chip cookies and milk after storytime. It was one of the best nights ever!

Family Pictures

It's been a tradition ever since the hubby and I got married (11 years ago!) to get family pictures taken each November. It's kind of scary to look back and see how much we have aged! Here are the 2009 pics!

Jumpy!

The Baby loves jumping in his jumper! It’s the cutest thing to watch! He just smiles and laughs the whole time!

Stories with Santa

We spent Thursday evening at the library with Santa Claus! He was there to sing songs and read books with the children. He is the best Santa ever!! Our kids thoroughly enjoyed singing with him and even attentively listened to his story. Little Buddy sang along and never took an eye off of Santa. He seemed mesmerized by the whole event. Sugie liked it, too, but was mostly excited about seeing her best friend there. For one song, Santa chose Sugie to ring the jingle bells!!

After the songs, each child has their special moment with Santa. Santa wanted the babies to go first, so we were the second people to visit with Santa. I liked that!! Buddy told Santa that he still wants the Batcave. Sugie requested a roller coaster, HOMEWORK, and a pogo stick. What kid asks Santa for homework???? Little Baby didn't have much to say!

Sugie's Fun at School

It's been a fun week at school for Sugie! On Tuesday, her class made chocolate chip cookies. On Wednesday, Sugie made this gingerbread house! She was so proud of it! She also brought home gifts for us - an angel ornament, a paper wreath, and a gold Christmas tree ornament.

Buddy's First Christmas Program

Buddy's first Christmas program was a success!! I was a little worried because he's not always the most focused child, but he did great! His preschool class performed one poem and one song about Gingerbread boys and cookies. Their teacher got the stomach flu earlier in the day, so she wasn't there to lead the class.

The kids were pretty soft spoken, but at least Buddy said all of the words and did the motions. I was a little fearful that he'd do his "exercises" or tackle one of his classmates. (You'll have to ask me about the exercises later - I won't blog about that!!)

I'll post the video later! Great job, little Bud! We're so proud of you!

Lights & Live Animals

We had a sick little Baby all weekend long, so we had to limit our fun activities. (Baby had over a 103 degree fever!) After some brief shopping and dinner, we went downtown to a Live Nativity. Last year, the kids enjoyed petting the animals. Buddy was a little scared of touching the animals this year, but Sugie didn't mind at all. They really enjoyed the candy canes and hot chocolate we received!

After that, we drove the kids thru the park for the Fantasy of Lights, a December tradition for our family. This was probably the best year ever! Buddy really enjoyed the lights and made us stop at almost every one so that he could take it all in.

The kids have enjoyed Christmas lights in general this year. They always ask us to drive around neighborhoods to look at the different decorations. The are at such fun ages!

Our 1st Gingerbread House

I thought it might be fun for the family to build our first ever gingerbread house! The kids had a great time with it. Sugie, of course, was very methodical and placed every piece in a straight line. (She's been lining up things for as long as I can remember!) Buddy kind of attacked the project and just put candy whereever he wanted. He mostly wanted to place then candy in his mouth!!

Each kid decorated one roofing panel and we all decorated the front. The hubby took charge of the backside. The kids are very proud of their house and keep asking, "When can we eat it????"

Sugar Whiskers

The other night, Buddy had a very sugary treat for dessert. When he was finished, the sugar on his face looked like little whiskers!

6 months old

Our Baby is already 6 months old! Where has the time gone? At 6 months, his greatest interests are:

• watching Buddy and Sugie play
• eating cereal and bananas
• sitting up and playing with his toys
• chewing on his fingers

He's such a precious little angel!

Bath Time!

Baby loves his bath time! He recently started sitting up in the tub. He's not quite sure what to think about his toys and the water. The one sure thing is that he loves to splash, chew on his washcloth, and kick his legs!

Snuggled Up!

We try to sleep in as much as possible on weekends. In order to convince the Baby to sleep a little later, I snuggle with him in his room after his morning feeding. It usually seems to work! Little Boo loves this snuggle time! Now, if we could only convince the older kids to sleep in.....

Send your own ElfYourself eCards

Which list did Sugie make?

Click here to see if Sugie made Santa's Nice or Naughty list this year. (We're still not sure about Buddy. His status changes almost hourly!)

http://family.go.com/santas-list/video/107197-__cooljule__/

Me and the Boys

It was a big weekend with just me and the boys (hubby included). Sugar Bear attended a birthday party on Saturday night, so the boys and I went out to dinner and did some shopping. The Baby was his perfect self, of course. Little Buddy was so good, too! He’s such a different boy when his sister isn’t around. He still cracks me up with some of the stuff he says!

On Sunday, Sugie surprisingly didn’t want to go shopping with us. So, we dropped her off at Grandma’s house and headed out with the boys. Once again, it was a perfectly pleasant shopping experience.

At one store, the hubby and Buddy ran in while I stayed in the car to feed the Baby. After a while, I started wondering where the boys were. It turns out that Santa Claus was in the store and Buddy found him! He got his picture taken with Santa and told him again about wanting Batman’s house!

Buddy was so sweet this weekend. I’m glad that he got some extra-special fun. You’re a little treasure, Buddy!

Supper with Santa

For the past 5 years, we have spent the first Friday in December having supper with Santa. This year was probably our last year for this. We arrived 15 minutes early and then stood in line for dinner for almost 2 hours!!

Luckily, they had crafts for the kids to do during our long wait. The colored pictures and made a reindeer, candy cane, and snowflakes. Then, Buddy got a sword balloon (it popped shortly after him receiving it) and Sugie requested a flower balloon.

We also visited with Santa. Sugie was shy at first, but was excited about seeing him. Buddy, who did not want anything to do with Santa last year, surprised us. He sat on his lap, talked to him, and even gave him a hug! Little Baby sat on Santa's lap and smiled. He did look at him a lot, but didn't mind visiting with him. He's such a good baby!

After our late dinner, we drove the Winter Wonderland at the 4H Fairgrounds to look at the lights. The kids enjoyed the lights and wanted to go into Santa's workshop to visit with him again!

The Batcave Picture

The kids love looking at the ads with me on Sunday morning. In one Black Friday ad, Buddy found a Batcave with Batman and his friends. He loved it so much that I cut it out and let him have the picture.

He has carried that picture around with him everywhere for almost 2 weeks. It's ripped and tattered, but he still loves it. The hubby printed out another picture of it just in case the original gets lost. He can't wait to show Santa this picture and ask him for it for Christmas. I sure hope Santa doesn't disappoint him! :)

Blankie Baby

Little Baby is so precious. Since birth, he has loved to suck on 2 fingers. Now, he sucks on his fingers and holds a blankie to his cheek with his other hand. It's so cute to see!

We've never had a blankie-loving-finger-sucking baby. Sugie was a pacifer, or "pluggie" as we called it, baby. Buddy chewed on a washcloth, aka "chewy", since he was 4 months old. I love that each child has favored something different.