New Years Eve

This year for New Years it was pretty low key.  Just our family.  We had fun.  We had lots of appetizers for dinner and celebrated with Martinellis and confetti poppers.

Staples

Our latest trip to the ER was for Parker to get staples.  He and Owen were wrestling in our bedroom when Parks got pushed into the corner of the wall.  Parks was a trooper and didn't complain about pain much.  If they had frequent user cards for the ER we'd definitely be up for a free visit!

(It was hard to get a good pic of the staples - he got three in the top back of his head)

Addie's Cute Nightgown

Scott's mom makes the girl grandkids nightgowns for Christmas.  I was so excited when I had a girl and she got old enough for the night gown!  This is Addie's one from this year.  It's an Ariel gown.  She even made a little one for her doll.  Isn't it great!  I love seeing Addie running around in it.

Notice Addie's bunny.  Addie LOVES her bunny.  Bunny goes everywhere with her and sleeps with her every night.  It's pale pink so it doesn't always stay the cleanest but she loves, loves, loves it.

Christmas Day

The kids were so excited Christmas morning!  This is before the craziness ensued.

Addie Loved her dollhouse!  She also got some furniture and Mommy and little sister doll to go with her house.

I don't have pictures but the boys loved their gifts too.  Parker got an Austin Collie jersey, Duke fat heads (vinyl printouts that you put on your wall of the Duke mascot and Duke logos) and a DS game in his stocking.  Owen loved his Indian Jones Lego set, Percy Harvin jersey and DS game in his stocking.

Aunt Kristi, Uncle Cole, Taylor, Baylee and Layla gave them Marion Kart with is AWESOME!  They played it most of the day.  Scott and I have enjoyed battling it out with them too.  

O got legos from Grandmama & Grandaddy.

Addie and her princesses from Grandmama & Grandaddy.

We kept joking of all the "Christmas Miracles" that happened but one of the major ones was my cinnamon rolls turned out the best they ever have.  Scott's mom makes delicious cinnamon rolls for Christmas morning and I have tried and tried but cannot get them to turn out as good.  I finally gave up a few years ago and started using Rhodes frozen cinnamon rolls (they kind you don't even have to let rise) and they are delicious and so easy but since they don't sell the kind I like here in Ohio I tried my hand at them again.  I used a new recipe and it turned out really great.  I definitely haven't perfected them but at least it's a step in the right direction!

Scott with his favorite part of Christmas!

Probably the biggest Christmas miracle was Scott reading!  It wasn't surprising that Parker went and curled up to read the latest Diary of the Wimpy Kid book that he'd been waiting for but to walk around the corner and see Scott on the couch reading was truly a miracle!  He was reading the George W. Bush book Decision Points that he had asked for.

Scott in his attempt to look intellectual!  Not sure if he's pulling it off!

Another Christmas Miracle was that I just kept dinner low key and even used PAPER PLATES!  Even though no one came for Christmas this year, it's still surprising I kept the meal simple.  It's just not in my genes to have a small holiday meal but it was really nice and relaxing to not do too much.  We had ham, mashed potatoes and gravy, roasted brussel sprouts with pancetta, sweet potatoes, and rolls.  For dessert we had pecan and pumpkin pie.  It was great!   Having a small meal freed up time during the afternoon for me to have a Christmas nap which was a miracle too!

Notice the boys are decked in their Lakers jerseys ready to watch the Lakers game that night with Dad.

Addie got cold during the meal so she ran and put on her coat to eat in.

Our neighbors, the Wexelblatts, brought over their gingerbread log cabin for us.  It was so cute I wanted to take some pictures so I could maybe try and recreate it one day.  The gingerbread tasted really good too.

One last picture.  This is one of my favorite Christmas decorations.  I made it with some of my dearest friends about 4 years ago.  There were six of us who worked on it.  It was me, Carey Baldwin, Sarah Caine, Rebecca Vanden Akker, Maile Wilson, and Kara West.  We made our own tree and then we each made 6 of 4 different ornaments.  I love thinking about those girls when their ornament gets placed on the tree.  

Christmas Eve

This year we spent Christmas Eve with the Huntsmans.  We just kept it casual, ordered pizza, made a few apps., used paper plates, etc.  It was so great.  We ate and then played rock band.  We haven't played Rock Band in a long time and it was really fun.  We had a lot of fun with the Huntsmans.

 Addie and Olivia.  They fight like cats and dogs sometimes but love each other!

 Parker, Owen and Ethan.

When the Huntsmans left, we went and put out the reindeer food.  Owen and Addie put theirs in a pile right by the front door but Parker put on his snow boots and ran around the whole front yard sprinkling it.  We got the kids in their pjs and read from Luke 2 and then read Twas the Night Before Christmas. Parker had a hard time going to sleep but that's normal.  He comes down pretty much every night saying he can't fall asleep.

Parker is such a sweet boy.  This is the note he left for Santa.  I love that he says he hopes Santa is bringing the toys Addie and Owen want and that he wishes "Santa a successful year" at the end!  He also wanted to make something for each of us and put it in our stockings right before he went to bed.  Mine was a sweet poem, Addie's a baby bottle made from play doh, Owen & Scott got their own baseball cards with their name, stats and pics he had drawn of them.

Since Scott and I were really prepared this year, we didn't have much to do so we watched a movie.  It was so great!  When we knew Parks was asleep, we brought down all the presents. We don't put out any of the presents until Christmas morning so it's more dramatic when they come down.  We went to sleep excited for Santa to come.

Parker acutally woke up at around 2:30am.  He came in and asked if he could go down and look to see if Santa had come.  He wanted me to come with him so we walked down and he had already come.  It thought Parks would want to go check everything out (even though Santa wraps the gifts so he couldn't actually see what was in them) but he didn't.  He just let out an excited squeal with a little jump and turned around and headed back upstairs and went to sleep.

Scott loves Christmas.  He loves the tree.  He comes in from work sometime and if the tree lights aren't on, he goes through the house turning on every tree's lights (we have 5 trees) and turning on the lights on the garland.  I love that he loves Christmas so much!  Here's the tree before we went to bed on Christmas Eve.

Christmas Goodies

This year for our neighborhood gifts we gave boxes of popcorn.  I made white chocolate peppermint popcorn and then I cheated and bought Trader Joe's carmel popcorn and drizzled chocolate on it.  We put both kids in the box.  The kids always love delivering it to neighbors and friends.

Holiday Parties

All the kids had holiday parties at school.  Unfortunately, the last two of Addie's and Owen's parties have been at the same time but since Scott's office is so close he's been able to come over and be with Addie.  Parker's party was scheduled at the same time too but his room mom moved it to another date so I could come which was so great!

Here's Addie with her favorite friend at preschool, Naomi.  Addie calls her UmiUmi.

Here's Owen's class with his teacher Mrs. Hastings.  We love her.

This is the snack I found for Owen's class.  I had them assemble them themselves which I might not do again.  It was my attempt at having a healthy snack.  

 Here's Parks table at school.

Here is Parker with his teacher Mr. Williams.  To say Parker loves Mr. Williams is an understatement.  He is such a great teacher, he's so fun and he challenges the kids.  I wish all teachers could be like this.

Roasted Root Vegetables

I love how beautiful healthy food is!  This is right before I popped them in the oven.  They were for a holiday dinner we were doing with the Smiths.  I wish I had pics from the dinner.  We love cooking with them, they are so fun and make yummy food!

Parker's Draw Bridge

Parker's ACT class has been studying bridges and they made a model bridge out of toothpicks and mini marshmallows.  Parker whipped this one up today out of tinkertoys and other stuff.

Scott's Work Party

Cincinnati Zoo

Cincinnati has a really great zoo. It's just right out from downtown, we've gone a few time recently.   Here are some pics.

 The other day Owen declared that he is really into animals now, especially Rhinos.  Here he is with his new favorite.

Owen's Birthday

It's so crazy that Owen is 6 yrs. old!  This year we did a Christmas themed party.  It was so fun.  We decorated gingerbread houses and played some cute Christmas games.  There were boys running everywhere and frosting and candy all over my floor but Owen had a blast.

 Parker & Brett Wexelblatt

Instead of a cake we did snowman powdered doughnuts.

I let Addie invite a couple of her friends (Naomi Stauffer & Olivia Huntsman).  I also got one of our 11 yr. old neighbor girls to come and help with the little girls.  It was soooo great having a helper!

 Addie with her gingerbread house and tree.