Remember|Baby Curled Up on Daddy's Chest

Sitting with Santa

We went to my cousin Ami's house on Saturday. She lives about an hour away but we don't see them nearly as often as we should. It's always lots of fun when we get together. You can read how my brother feels about her here. Here she is trying to win over my baby. It didn't take much effort. Everyone loves Ami. Especially babies.

We went to her son Aidan's Christmas performance. He is 8 years old and in this little singing and dancing group. It was really cute. Santa showed up at the end so our kids waited in line to sit on his lap. Mostly so they could get a candy cane.The Hottie only got a picture of Rockstar. Cowboy wouldn't sit on his lap but he did ask him for a candy cane. I tried to get him to tell Santa to bring his mom RockBand but he was just too shy.
So Santa, if you read my blog, PLEASE bring me RockBand. I've been good, I promise!

Superhero?

Cowboy ran into the room and said, "Look out Dad, I'm a super hero!" It's the first time I've seen a super hero with flashlights on his toolbelt. Do super heroes even have tool belts? He difinitely has BIG muscsles. And it looks like he traded in his tights for footie pajamas.
Go for it! Save the world Cowboy! And thanks for wearing eye protection!

Oh Christmas Tree

Maybe I just have a lousy camera but it was really hard to get a good picture of the tree. I finally unplugged the lights and took one. I figured I should get a picture before the baby wrecks the whole thing. We decorated the tree the day after Thanksgiving. I love getting out all the ornaments from years passed. I get the kids an ornament every year and it's really fun pulling all of them out and remembering what they were into from year to year. Here's some of my favorites.

Since Caveman is the oldest he has quite a collection of ornaments. This Batman one is from 2000. He was four. It's still a favorite.This little bear is Sassypants first Christmas.This is from 2005 when the Rockstar was into bilingual cartoon characters.

The Cowboy has been doing the cowboy thing for a while now. He was one when we got this one.

I try to get the Hottie a Santa ornament every year. (I actually usually buy them after Christmas on clearance.)

The last couple of years we've made some ornaments together. Something to keep the kids busy while they're out of school. We made these snowflakes. We've also made icicles, candy canes and Christmas trees.

I haven't gotten any new ones yet this year. I'm looking for a super cute first Christmas ornament for Baby, a skateboard for Caveman, a piano for Sassypants, a John Deere tractor for the Cowboy and something rockstar-ish for the rockstar.

Yeah, our tree may look a little crazy but I love it. And I look forward to presenting each of them with their own box of ornaments when they have a home of their own.

A Year of Birthdays

We have two cameras. One is kinda big and takes good pictures (most of the time), the other is much smaller. I can throw it in the diaper bag and it's a little more convenient for day to day use. Only problem...we didn't have a USB cable to download the photos. The Hottie picked up a memory card reader the other day and we were able to put the entire summers worth of pictures on the computer. So for my next few posts, I'll be playing catch up. We'll start with birthdays...

The girls both have summer birthdays. Three weeks apart. Rockstars is first. She had a ballerina birthday. She and her friends made pink tutus and danced and played like only little girls can do. They were so cute! She wanted pink cupcakes and helped me decorate them. I did the roses, she did the sprinkles. She blew out all the candles on her first try. And was quite proud.

She really wanted a gameboy. I don't know where she came up with that. She isn't usually interested in video games. But that was all she was talking about, having a birthday and getting a gameboy. So she got a gameboy and a Lizzy game. She was THRILLED. And has been wearing that thing out! She also got some webkins, some princess things and littlest pet shops. She had a great day!

Sassypants birthday was next. She wanted a girlie party. They made bead necklaces and bracelets, did mani/pedi's and had a fun make-up class. The girls loved it. They all looked fabulous!

Her purple cupcake cake. So much easier than decorating a cake!

Make a wish!

I was the make-up lady. With Cavemans help. You can imagine how great I looked when it was over. The girls laughed and laughed.These girls love their webkins! She decided she liked her sisters gameboy and requested a DS. She even offered to pay for more than half of it with her birthday money. So she got a DS. And lots of other great stuff from her friends.

Cowboy and Cavemans birthdays are just four days apart. Caveman wanted to have an airsoft war with a 007 theme. The Hottie helped him build some bunkers in the back yard and those boys played capture the flag for hours. Airsoft pellets EVERYWHERE! They had a great time and no one wanted to leave. We had to kick them all out at about ten so we could go to bed.

Those boys take this airsoft business very seriously. They crack me up!

Caveman turned 12 so his Nana and Poppy and Grampy came down the next weekend when he received the priesthood. That was a great day and we were so thankful that both of his grandfathers could be there to share it with him.

And now for the cowboy party. They did lots of cowboy things but BOTH of my cameras had dead batteries. The Hottie got the batteries changed out in time for the cake and presents. He wanted night vision goggles. What does a four year old know about night vision goggles? And more importantly, WHY does a four year old WANT night vision goggles? His exact words..."So I can sneak up on people!" Okee dokee Cowboy. He got lots great stuff, swords, transformers, planes, trains. You know, boy stuff. And of course, night vision goggles.Some very cute cowboys and cowgirls.

And my birthday post wouldn't be complete without including a picture of the actual BIRTH day that happened in our family this year. Here's our baby on his birth day.

Black Friday

The Hottie and I looked through the Black Friday adds and decided that this year, for the first time in the history of us, we would get up at the crack of dawn and brave the crowds to save a buck or two. We won't do it again.

Our first stop was Wal-Mart. Not one of my favorite places ever. We were able to get two of the three things we wanted but it was complete craziness. Someone got in a fist fight over the last Wii. When we got to the front of the store to check out I looked at the Hottie and said, "this is NOT what Christmas is about." It just made me feel icky. That's right, icky. The lines were SO long with people pushing and shoving with their carts piled high. We paid for our two items at the jewelry counter and took off to our next stop.

We went over to HHGregg. We drove in front of Target on the way there. They weren't open yet and the line wrapped around the back of the store. There were also people standing around in the parking lot waiting for the doors to open. We happened to be right in front of the store when they opened. Everyone ran for the door, then there was this roar, yes we heard it in the car with the windows closed. Hottie put the window down to hear everyone yelling things like, "ya'll get back", "you weren't in line", "get outta my way". We decided later we should have yelled out "Merry Christmas ya'll!" or "Happy Birthday Jesus!" Anyway we finally made it through the sea of people to HHGregg. They didn't have what we wanted.

We made a couple more stops and we got some good deals. But decided it would be our first and last crack of dawn Black Friday experience. I love a good deal but, to me, it just isn't what the season is all about. Oh and by the way, I went home and ordered what I wanted from HHGregg online. It came on Tuesday. Maybe next year I'll black Friday shop on-line.

Thanksgiving 2008

So, I'm way behind with this post. It's been a busy week. The Christmas season is in full swing so the blog has been neglected. But my Christmas shopping is almost done! But anyway, Thanksgiving. We had a great day. We spent it with two of the Hotties brothers and had a Yankee Thanksgiving right here in the south. No cornbread stuffing here. Go figure. We had so much food and it was all DELICIOUS. I, of course, forgot my camera and didn't get a shot of the spread but it was all so yummy. We fried two turkeys, had a ham, mashed potatoes and gravy, green bean casserole, carrots, squash casserole, special potatoes, corn, spinach souffle, stuffing(which was really yummy by the way), cornbread and rolls. And the best part...we had almost as much dessert.

We have always lived pretty far from the Hotties family and haven't spent a lot of holidays with them. Now two of his brothers and their families are close and it was great to spend the day with them. The guys fried up the bird, the kids played and played and the moms mapped out their black Friday shopping plans. It was a great day!!! Hope yours was too!