A few more Christmas pictures

So Indiana is under a perpetual blanket of snow and ice...known in kid-speak as school-stopping-snow-man-medium-sledding-weather...and they are loving it! (And I'm loving my ancient tracker with the fantastic four wheel drive!) The kids and I are going skiing with my step mom and sisters this weekend and I can't wait! Finally am going to have two little skiing buddies just like I always wanted.
Here is picture of my princess Ava on Christmas day. She got a flute, new clothes and boots, a million toys, a new sled, and a kitten that she named Angel Frost. I'm pretty sure Angel Frost is deaf because she is calmly sleeping through the two wild Stegosauruses that are currently feuding through my living room...
I don't have the heart to tell my kids that a Burly Forest Nymph actually puts presents under the tree...not Santa....
The "before" picture...another year of breaking the "we will not go overboard" promise...
Eli got a train set for Christmas (among many other goodies) and it has bought us all hours of peace! The kid can spend hours putting that thing together and actually has enough track to stretch from his bed room all the way into the kitchen. I always have to check with the "engineer/conductor" before making my way through the train station...um...living room.

By the way, I am back in grad school to finish my clinical hours...so if my posts are a little sparse...that would be my excuse! And now...off to put my little dinos to bed and crack down on some homework:)

We Miss Florida Already

First off let me say that it was a big eye-opener to return to Indy and feel the 12 degree/snow covered reality that we have here. But it just makes one appreciate the beauty that is Florida. A BIG THANKS to Grandma and Grandpa (aka mom and dad) for being such wonderful hosts! But there is so much to tell about our trip I'll not bore you with lots of reading. So here goes ...

Great Grandma came too! It was really nice having her come with us :)

The kids enjoyed their 5th Christmas of this season! I think by the end of this one they were finally X-Mas'd out.
Funny story. We went to an Elementary School that had a fantastic play park. Now ... it was available all summer when we last visited but upon arriving at the gates we saw this. So I tried finding a different gate in when I turned around and saw THIS ...

Yes ... they climbed the fence. Ava was over it before I could even blink. These are pics of getting back over cuz they were both playing before I knew what happened. So I figured we'd all do some B&E. (Great parenting I know)
This BTW is Daphne. Ness and I gave her along with her sister Chloe to my parents since we couldn't take them with us to England. Daphne is loving life in Florida. And without 2 kids chasing her everywhere she has FILLED OUT!
Of course we took a trip to the Jacksonville Zoo and of course the kids had to see the snakes. I liked the Mambas but Ava thought this Python was pretty cool!
The kids got the opportunity to feed giraffs. Pretty cool, huh?
I must admit but it was creepy seeing the gorilla because he just stared at you. And you could totally read his mind. It said, "You are so lucky you are behind that gate because if I ever got these hands on you I'd rip your arms off." Not kidding. Also, a neat story. Before we could see the gorilla Ava had to wedge her cute self in between a group of 5 large very in-shape men wearing Florida State gear. Turns out that Bobby Bowden (coach) gave his team the afternoon off on the day before their Gator Bowl. The WHOLE TEAM was at the zoo. One guy with a #3 on his jacket was asked for an autograph right in front of Ava. The next day we're watching the game and I mentioned to Ava "You remember that guy who was being asked to write his name?" "Uh huh." "Well there he is!" Quarterback. Player of the Game. And yes Ava thought it was super cool that the nudged him aside to see a gorilla :)
Here's grandma making M&M cookies with the kids while dad was out on errands with grandpa. Apparently, letting the kids have cookies and dough for lunch is a grandma's privilege and there's nothing I can do about it! Well, I was alright with it until about one hour after this pic. Use you imagination.
A BIG THANKS to my Aunt Laurel who is just about the coolest great-aunt these kids could ask for! Always giving of herself. She also mentioned that Jacksonville does a PolarBear Plunge every New Years Day. In a fit of insanity ...
I did it. No I don't know why, but it was actually fun.
Grandma got Ava a jewelry making kit where you can write messages. Ava insisted on making a bracelet that said I LOVE YOU and a choker that said I MISS YOU for her mom. What a wonderful girl.
Both kids went to the beach on the last day. Although the water was only 50 degrees they got soaked up past the knees. And they loved every minute of it ... until it was time to go and they realized that they couldn't feel their feet! Don't worry. After a little love and a hot shower all 20 toes were saved!

So a wonderful time was had by all. And I can't wait to go back (but maybe in the summer). Thanks again to all the family, friends, and airline pilots who made the trip a complete success!

Making every moment count

Between jobs and school and all of those other "have to's" in life, it can be hard to find time for those "want to's" that make life so good. We may not have as much time as we would like to enjoy all of our holiday traditions, but I think we did a pretty good job of enjoying our favorites...especially the Decorating of the Christmas Cookies! And thank you Kiley for letting us destroy...no utterly massacre...your kitchen!
My pretty little cookie designer/icing taster/sprinkle sampler extraordinaire
Brooke and Ava enjoy some candy coated happiness!
The next morning I woke up to find that I had been invaded by kitchen monkeys. Beware of these creatures, they crawl all over your counter tops and sneak inside your cupboards looking for tasty snacks.
Saturday we visited the Children's museum to see the Jolly Days of Christmas. And what kid doesn't love a nice long ride down the Christmas slide?
Good for Momma's too!
Unlimited carousel rides! What fun!
A rare shot of Eli's "real" smile....what a cutie pie!
Every time we go, the kids (Ava) has to listen to Buckey talk about finding his T-Rex on his farm in Montana. She knows the answer to every question he asks and the story by heart. Yet she must listen every time! Eli was hungry and wanted Ava to leave the presentation and go have lunch. She said "please be patient Eli" and gently pulled him onto her lap where he sat quietly for the rest of the talk. What a little Momma she is!
Later the kids and I made Christmas wreathes and more cookies to take to all of the neighbors. My little Elves had a ball and Ava insisted singing the 12 Days of Christmas to each household we visited. The whole thing. Start to finish. Now every house in our neighborhood is decorated in Griswold type fashion, except for one. When the kids asked about it(weeks ago), I explained that the man that lived there had lost his wife this year and did not much feel like decorating. So, imagine my mortification when Eli greeted the man with "are you sad about your wife dying" instead of Merry Christmas. Fortunately the man was very understanding about the Bluntness of Children.
The wreathes that the kids and I made. Not too shabby eh? Their crafty grandma's would be proud I think...
In order to squeeze in all of that holiday fun, Ava and I were up late making snow men by the light of the neighborhood Christmas lights. I believe a recent argument with Eli may have inspired this...
Having dinner with my old friend Sah who just graduated from nursing school. Way to go girl!
Kids digging for dino bones at the children's museum....and I will have another post up soon about the newest addition to our family...

It's Beginning To Feel A Lot Like Christmas

Yes Christmas is certainly just around the corner now! And so life has been very busy! But with each successive Christmas the kids seem to get it more and more. And the Christmas songs get louder and a little more accurate! (But "Deck The Halls" still goes fa ra tooo la moooo ba shi sha shooooo!)

Who's that coming to the window? Whoever it is certainly has the kids attention! These four are 2nd cousins BTW but I think they're more like best friends after only one overnighter.

That's right. Santa was in town. Here Ava is telling Santa to give her a trumpet. Luckily, a parental intervention has that changed to a flute ... maybe. But I think she was also negotiating a level of naughtiness that would still entitle her to presents.

I'm not even going to joke about Eli- because he was one serious dude up on that lap! He sat there very comfortably and told (yes - told not asked) Santa everything he wanted. He was very emphatic about it too. Cracked me up. Hand gestures were involved and everything. When he got off Santa's lap he was obviously very confident he got his message across!

This, everyone, is Ava's 2nd cousin Mackenzie. After one day together they were absolutely inseparable. They spent the night together. They got their ears pierced together. They laughed. They cried. And when we had to go Ava WAILED for almost a whole hour about missing her. And she is already counting down the days until their reunion. 9 days and counting!

Did anyone ever tell these people in Indiana that it gets COLD here?!?!? But with the cold weather come some perks like playing in snow and then having hot chocolate with marshmellows. Almost makes the sub-zero wind chill worth it ... almost.

Here's the tree. It's real so it smells very nice and the kids dressed it up real pretty. So here's Eli after finishing the last touches. (I believe Ava is very closely analyzing the composition of the wall in a corner of the house somewhere.)

It's not a fireplace mantle but it'll do.

And what would Christmas be without a children's Christmas concert. I was very impressed with Ava and her fellow first graders. They sang 3 songs and it was honestly pretty good. And poor Ava tried soooooo hard to stand still while performing! Wiggled the whole time. That one has so much energy it must have been hard, but she did it. And the whole evening went off without a hitch.

And so Merry Christmas to all, Happy Holidays, and Happy New Year. And get ready for the next post early next year when the kids and I will attempt to see how tan we can get spending five days in Florida.

Countdown to Christmas!!!

So, in case there is any confusion, four and six are the BY FAR most fun ages ever! The kids are sooooo excited about Christmas! We count houses decorated in lights every time we drive anywhere and the kids turn lights off as fast as I can turn them on so that the house is dark (so as to enjoy the full effects of the Christmas tree and Christmas village). I braved Walmart on Black Friday and have already made Christmas wreathes and planned out this years baking agenda...so I guess the apple doesn't fall far....
Just a cute random shot of the kids reenacting trick-or-treating (why they are tied together by a jump rope is anyone's guess!)
Eli had taken a looooongggg nap at daycare on this particular day...so (at 930pm) he was up holding a dinosaur meeting. He assured me that it was highly important that he empty the game closet, toy box, and his sister's underwear drawer in order to do this.
Yet he was full of, um, something by 630 am the next morning. Mommy's little insomniac! Kids sure are exhaustingly delightful, huh?