Christmas Festivities

Well, my vision of having a million Christmas themed outings this year as a family of four got ruined by Nick's job. We (and by we, I mean I) had Christmas parties planned, nights of looking at lights in our PJs and a parade or two in mind to celebrate the upcoming holiday. But.........on December 10th, Nick's boss told him he MIGHT have to go to Mississippi for 10 days. But they didn't know for sure. And wouldn't until the next morning, which was when he would have to leave IF he was going to leave. Needless to say, December 10th was not a good night.

But December 11th was worse. They told Nick at 7:30am that him and a coworker were going to have to leave at 3:30pm that afternoon and wouldn't be back until December 20th. I MIGHT have cried. A lot. Looking back, it seems a little ridiculous, but I was so bummed that Nick was going to miss out on everything.

We had already scheduled a Christmas party for our family and Michael's (my brother in law) family at our house. I decided to go ahead and have it and I'm so glad I did. It was a blast!! "Santa" came to visit .

 Tessa got a purse with a cute little dolly.

 Tommy got a harmonica that he LOVES!

It was a great time of family and fellowship! It would have been the perfect night if Nick had been there!

 I wanted to keep busy while he was gone too so the days would go faster. I heard about a tree lighting in Andover. I was going to try to brave it by myself with both kids, but my bestie ended up going and helping out and I'm so thankful because it would have been a disaster if she hadn't!

There was a little train that I thought Tommy would love, but it was SO stinkin cold that he cried the whole time. He finally started liking it towards the very end.

 Then we headed inside to make some sugar cookies. Great idea. Horrible mess. But they loved it! I actually didn't mind it either since the supplies were free and I wasn't the one cleaning up the mess! And the sugar cookies were actually really good :) If you could get through the inch thick layer of frosting and sprinkles the kids decorated with!

Hannah and Sam had a good time too :) It was his first sugar cookie decorating event! Will he remember it? No. Will I always claim that I took him to his first Christmas party? Yes.

 They had such a good time! Love those cheesy smiles! While I was sad that Nick was missing out, I was glad to get to spend some time with Hannah. And can I just say that I LOVE that she loves my kids? True best friend.

They had a huge, beautiful Christmas tree all lit up. I couldn't pass up a picture in front of that!

To end the night, we went to see Santa....again. I just couldn't help myself!! I wanted to see if Tommy would do any better the THIRD time around. Yeah....this is how excited he was..........

 He got a little more enthusiastic when he showed me his list that he was going to give santa--a choo choo, a car and a pencil are what he was asking for.

 But his enthusiasm wore off by the time we got up to Santa and this was as close as he would get....

 Tessa stared him down for a good solid minute. Like, she didn't blink. At all. Just stared.

 Then she looked at the camera, took her picture and said, "buh-buh!"

It's amazing how different my kids are.

I feel like these are just a few of the pre-Christmas festivities we did. But they were definitely two of the most fun!

Seeing Santa 2013

Things have been a little quiet on the blog front. My time was too busy taking these kids to do millions of holiday related things!

We went to see Santa pretty early in December. He flew all the way from the North Pole to Towanda, KS!! We told Tommy that and he said (with a lot of disgust in his voice), "Why?! Why did Santa come to Nuh-wanda?!?" Seems my son has already figured out that Towanda is not exactly a place people migrate too. You almost have to have been born and raised there to appreciate the great town it really is!!

 They were so excited to go see him! Tommy kept telling us he was going to tell Santa he wanted a BIG engine! He talked about it the whole way there. When we got there, there wasn't anybody in line. I was so glad! When we went last year, we had to wait for awhile and the kids got restless. But it was a cold, snowy, icy night, so I don't think a lot of people wanted to get out.

As much as Tommy TALKED about Santa........he wanted nothing to do with him. This did not surprise me. My son is SO shy and timid around new situations. He gets that from his momma! But THIS little girl..........

She had nooooooo problem sitting with Santa! I had to hold her hand for a second and then she was hamming it up! That didn't surprise me either :) She's more like her daddy.

The only way I could get Tommy to take a picture with Santa was if I was in it. And I could NOT stop laughing over his face in this picture. He looks like he's miserable. So funny!

We did manage to get a semi decent family picture.......

Overall, it was much better than last year!

Wasting my time

It's that season again! I know there are a lot of scrooge's in my life that find my love of Christmas a little annoying (especially the scrooge that has to haul our 9 foot tall, 6 foot wide Christmas tree out of storage...hi honey!). But Christmas truly is the most wonderful time of the year.......try to tell me you didn't just sing that song in your head!

And since Christmas time is upon us, that means it's also time for this........

I love the bell ringers. Granted, the bell itself gets a little annoying, but I LOVE what it means, what the money does, the fact that somebody.....LOTS of somebodies.........have volunteered hours of their life to stand outside in the freezing cold and ring a bell. It might not look like they're doing much, but they're sacrificing their time--maybe they have a family they're not eating dinner with. Maybe there's a party with friends that they're missing. Maybe they're giving up a warm, cozy nap.

Our family made a visit to Hobby Lobby last night. On the way in, Tommy saw the lady ringing the bell and said, "What is dat lady DOIN?! Why is she ringin dat bell?" I smiled awkwardly at her  while trying to get Tommy to stop gawking and get inside. I was really excited because I wanted to start a new tradition.The kids were each going to get a little miniature tree and then got to pick out two packages of ornaments for their tree. I'd been planning it for weeks! Of course, Hobby Lobby was packed and it's full of breakable stuff, so I was kind of nervous because the cart was only big enough for Tessa, so Tommy was walking. They were pretty good overall, but I was getting frustrated because...1) It wasn't going the way I'd planned where my two sweet little angels were in awe over the new tradition I was starting and oh so thankful that they got their OWN tree and their OWN ornaments--TOTALLY acceptable expectations for a 1 and 2 year old, right?.....and 2) It was turning out to be a little more expensive than I thought it would be. Not a huge deal, but again, not what I had planned.

Tommy kept wanting more than two packages of ornaments. He had some picked out and kept grabbing more and knocking stuff down. I would explain that we could only get two, he would put them all back except the two he wanted and then a few seconds later, the process would start again. Tessa was just grabbing at anything and everything she could get her hands on. It was KINDA a big mess. I finally got it pared down to two packs for each kid and we hurried to the register to pay (and get the kids as far away from Hobby Lobby as possible!). As we walked out with our cart, I heard the bell again. I just happened to have cash (which is a small miracle in itself), so I pulled a dollar out for each of them. Tommy got excited to have money until I explained to him that we were going to give it away. He kept asking WHY. I got all excited and saw this as a great opportunity to explain to him that when we have the chance, we need to give stuff to other people to show them God's love and because other people don't always have the stuff they need and that since Jesus gives to us, we need to do the same......but the whole time I was talking to him, he was dancing around, pulling on the cart and running toward the entrance. It felt like I was wasting my breath and my time. But we headed outside and put our dollars in the red bucket. Tommy got excited and I said, "See buddy?!? Doesn't it feel so good to give to other people?" He stared at me for a second and then said, "I want some CANDY!!"

Yeah.

I was disappointed because sometimes I feel like nothing gets through his head. Like I'm talking to thin air. Like I'm wasting my time. I was disappointed but tried not to get too upset because he's only two and how much can I expect a two year old to understand, right?

We headed home and started putting our Christmas trees together. I got all the ornaments out of their package and they were both so excited! We started hanging them on their little trees. In typical toddler fashion, we had a few fights over which ornaments belonged to who, where they would go on the tree and just about anything else one could think of to fight over. I was getting so discouraged. I felt like we were totally missing the holiday cheer and the true meaning of Christmas. Nick came in the room to see what we were doing. Tommy told him we were "puttin up our 'missmas' trees." He also told him we went to "hobby dobby." And then he said this.......

"We gived money, Daddy! To dat lady ringin da bell. Jesus helps us, so we give money to udder peoples!! Right, Mom?"

I almost cried.

He hears me.

Every. single. word.

I'm not wasting my time.

Road Trip!

We made a short trip to Stockton, MO last weekend with Nick's family. It's about a 3 1/2 hour drive. Nick and I both took half a day off on Friday. Our master plan was to drive during the kids' nap time so they'd be sleeping for the whole drive.

We got off to a bad start......... I realized half way to Towanda (to pick up the kids) that I had forgotten to leave out a few props for my friend to borrow for pictures she was taking for a friend. I felt horrible, but was getting ready to text her and let her know when I started thinking about where MY camera was. I realized I had forgotten it. I begged Nick with my saddest sad face to go home to get it and VERY reluctantly, he did. Even though it added 30 minutes to our trip. But I'm SO glad we went back. I got lots of great pictures from the weekend AND I got to set out the photo props for my friend. Thanks honey!

The kids did good. Tessa fell asleep pretty quickly and slept almost the whole way there. However, this guy..............

.....stayed up for the whole drive and LITERALLY talked the whole way. Literally. Exhausting. I was so looking forward to a nice quiet drive, but that didn't happen. But at least he was happy!

We went out for dinner when we got to Stockton and then settled in for the night. The next day, I wanted to explore a little bit. Nick and Tommy had been there over the summer, but I missed out on that trip, so there was lots to see. We drove down to the dam. The kids loved it! But it was really chilly, so after I played with my camera a little, we headed back to the car.

After we left the dam, we drove around to see what else we could find. The scenery was awesome!

We found a little playground area and the kids were getting restless, so we stopped to let them play for awhile. The wind died down and we had the perfect weather!

I think the picture of Tessa above might be my favorite picture of all time!

Nick found a little ledge that had me scared to death admiring the beautiful lake. I've developed a fear of heights in the last 3 years and this drop off was at least 30 feet (probably more, but I'm horrible at estimating distance and time :). I felt nauseous the whole time, but it WAS gorgeous.

The whole ledge was covered in lady bugs. They kept flying and landing on me and Tommy. He was SO happy about that. I was a nervous wreck, imagining him plummeting down the cliff because he was trying to catch a stinking lady bug. We got off the ledge after the kids had both thrown a few acorns into the water (from the death grip safety of their parent's arms). The lady bugs followed us and Tommy was mesmerized.

We decided to head back to the house, but we passed one last AMAZINGLY beautiful tree that I HAD to take a picture of.

Go ahead and try to tell me there's not a God. Who else could have created THIS kind of beauty? LOVE the color, LOVE the size, LOVE it all. So refreshing to the soul. I hadn't gotten my camera out in awhile, so it felt really good to take some pictures of things that make me so happy!

We spend the rest of the afternoon relaxing with the family. Tommy got plenty of play time with his cousins.

They all had a blast together and it was fun watching them interacting. They're all finally (mostly) to the age where they can play together and have fun! We headed home late that night. It was a long drive, but the kids slept the whole way and Nick and I got to enjoy each other's company (in the moments I was actually able to stay awake!). It was the perfect ending to our mini road trip.

Halloween 2013

Let's just start by saying I was SO hoping this year was going to be better than last. I vaguely remember Tommy having some massive meltdowns and their costumes being a ridiculous mess because I had waited until last minute (which is SO unlike me.......yeah). We started the morning in pumpkin shirts--can you tell Tessa was excited for her first REAL Halloween since she was so young last year? And can you tell she loves her brother juuuuuuuust a little bit?!

 


This year, Tommy INSISTED on being a chicken. Like, talked about it for 3 months until I finally broke down and bought one on E-bay because nobody in Wichita stocks a CHICKEN costume on the shelf (insert eye roll here). Tessa was a ladybug because that's what I happened to pick up at Goodwill a year ago with this year in mind! Both costumes turned out SO much better than last year!

We started out the evening at Brooke and Michael's. They were a zombie mechanic and a pirate :)

Tommy and Tessa were both in pretty good moods, so I was stoked to see what the evening held!

We went to Tom and Esther's and decided to start Trick or Treating around their neighborhood. As expected, Tommy was a little hesitant. And as expected, Tess was practically running from house to house to get her candy. 

 After we hit a few houses, we stopped for chili and macaroni at Grandma and Papa's. But only after we got some candy from them first!

 After dinner, we did Trick or Treating with the Kirkpatrick's for a little while. Poor little Tessa just couldn't keep up with her cousins and brother, so she spent most of the time with Aunt Christi just trying to get from one house to another as fast as she could!

Then we stopped by to see baby Chas (and in Tommy's words, he is "da dutest baby I ever, ever seen!) Tommy and Tessa LOVED baby Chas! And he was definitely the most handsome Mickey Mouse I've ever seen! Tessa kept "helping" aunt Kendra feed the baby.

We happened to run into Tommy's best buddy, Mal, while we were visiting Chas. I was so glad because I wanted a picture of them together! And she was the prettiest Minnie Mouse I've ever seen!

Nick had to work (why is he always on third shift at Halloween?!?), so we ended the night at Nana's house. She dressed up like a French maid. We stopped and Trick or Treated there and then Nana went to a few other houses with us.

After that, we headed home. With NO fits and NO incidents of any kind! It was amazingly fun and non-stressful. Tommy and Tessa both had great attitudes the whole time and I was so, SO happy about that. I LOVE holidays, but I love watching my kids enjoy them even more!

Happy Halloween from my two bucket-heads!