Another one in the books...

Christmas of 2011 has come and gone.  There were many stressful moments leading up to the big day, there's always too much to do and not enough time.  Add to that parties and budgets and you end up with days going by in a blur, as you scratch your head wondering how it's all going to get done.  Through the years I've learned that it won't all get done, that the perfect Christmas that lives in my head will never come to fruition, and I have to accept that what gets done will get done and that must be good enough.  And you know what...  I am fine with that.

I love to get some pictures every Christmas Eve of us, I don't often get family pictures with us all:

This year we like the last few Christmas Eve's we spent Christmas Eve in Rhode Island.  We picked up my Grandmother and met my family at a little Chinese restaurant we used to go to as children.  The kids were super excited for Santa the next morning and went to bed that night without any complaints.  I snapped a few pictures before they headed up to bed, I love that they leave Santa cookies and the reindeer carrots.

The next morning (Christmas morning) Juliana woke up first and had to wait for the rest of us to get up.  She woke Tyler up with a kiss on the cheek (does it get any better then that) and we headed downstairs to see all that Santa had left.

Posing on Christmas morning before opening presents is always expected in this house, it's not questioned, I think the kids actually enjoy it, they are always coming up with something new.

This one cracks me up:

They then proceeded to go through their stockings and open their presents, it was a glorious morning, everyone enjoyed their gifts and we made more family memories.  Santa was extra good to me this year as well, I got an Ipad!

And my favorite picture every year, they give each other gifts and are so happy to with their choices:

Yes indeed, we are a blessed happy family.  Another Christmas has come and gone and I didn't let a second of it get by me without putting it into the memory bank and making note of how very lucky I am.

Merry Christmas 2011...

2nd annual Christmas Party....

On Saturday we had our now (since this is the second year in a row) annual Christmas party at our house. We invited our neighbors and close friends that live in town.  There was so much food, drinks, and great conversation, it was perfect.  I worked all day to get the house clean, I always say I am not going to wait until last minute, but I always wait until last minute.  There were over 60 guests including children, and I really think fun was had by all.  The highlight of the night was when Mr. & Mrs. Claus showed up bearing gifts for each child.

The kids patiently waiting for their turn with Santa:

All the grown ups were watching, it was so sweet to see each parent smile as their child sat on Santa's lap:

Poor Charlotte was so nervous with all the people:

I looked over and saw all the "tween" girls feet:

Juliana telling Santa what she wanted (although when I asked her later what she told him, she couldn't remember):

I caught Tyler telling his friends how big he thought his present would be:

Silly girls:

Tyler's turn with Santa:

And off they go on their sleigh:

To be 8...

I love kids, I love the innocence, I love the excitement in the little things...  Tyler has always liked dressing up.  He's gone out dressed like a soldier, a super hero, or just a boy who doesn't care to match.  A couple of weeks ago we went to the mall, he dressed like a police officer.  Even had a fake gun and tickets in his pocket in case anyone was unruly.

I love this boy:

Holiday card time...

Been working on our 2011 Christmas Card...  I wanted to go funny but in the end we decided on a more serious card.  I will not be showing the actual card we will be sending out just yet, but the funny one that didn't make the cut...  Here it is!

An academic museum?

Our last couple of days in Florida we decided against another day at Disney and decided to try out Legoland!  Of course for an added bit of fun we chose not to tell the kids that we were taking them there (although they had said how much they would like to go), in stead we told them we were going to take them to an academic museum!  Their faces were priceless when we told them this, they really didn't want to go, but were good and we all loaded in the car and headed off to expand our minds.  As we were pulling into the parking lot Juliana noticed that we were across the street from Legoland, they started asking and begging if we could go there in stead of the museum (I was shocked they were asking I thought for sure they would of figured it out).  We did tell them we were really going to Legoland and it was all a trick to fool them.  They were super excited!!!  I often think that there aren't enough good surprises in life, so I love when we can pull off a good one!

Legoland was really neat, the kids loved all the Lego creations and rides.

A little bit of Disney...

After visiting Steve family in Naples, FL we headed up to Orlando to spend some time at Disney.  I know many families that love Disney and can't get enough, we all love Disney, but definitely get Disney'd out quite quickly, so we usually just do a couple of the parks each time we go.  This year we went to Epcot first, we went there on our last trip, and the kids liked it so much they wanted to go back.  My Mother and Grandmother met us and we spent the day going on rides, walking around, and eating.  It started off a beautiful day, but by afternoon it started to pour on us.  We all purchased ponchos and carried on with our day.  I never got a picture of us in our ponchos... lets just say we weren't making any great fashion statements.

This is four generations:

My Mother headed home that night and my Grandmother stayed the night with us.  We only had two beds so she slept with Juliana and Tyler... he's such a trooper, he opted to sleep in the tub, he said it was very comfortable!  How many people can say they've slept in a tub?

My Grandmother headed back to Springhill and we had a down day.  But of course when your traveling with us it's never boring.  In the past we've had super high fevers, vomiting, flat tires, missed flights, and so on... this time Juliana cut her leg in the hotel room which caused a "party" as she put it in our room of security & maintenance workers, then on our off day we had to find a doctor because both kids had double ear infections.  Luckily finding a doctor and pharmacy was easy and the vacation continued.

The following day we headed to Magic Kingdom, it's my favorite and what you envision when you think about Disney.  It wasn't busy at all and we got to go on so many rides, the longest line was only 20 minutes, it was great!