A huge thank you!!!!

...to our secret Santa this year! Someone did the 12 Days of Christmas for our family every night for the past 12 nights, and it has been one of our favorite parts of the holiday this year! Every day from the minute it gets dark the kids have checked to see if the "Secret Giver" has come yet. And come they did, dropping off wonderful gifts like a poinsettia, scented jar Christmas candles, festive mugs and hot chocolate, stuffed Snowmen, cinnamon rolls, frosted brownies, boxed chocolates, and tonight: a Disney Christmas CD. The kids danced their little hearts out to it (Ava and Nate are both getting better at ballet).

So, if you are the family who did this for us, or you happen to know who is, please accept/pass along our sincerest THANK YOU for helping to make our Christmas a wonderful one!!!!! You're awesome!

Christmas decorations

In case anyone's interested I thought I'd post our Christmas decorations. I bought a beautiful pre-lit tree this year that I love and a bunch of new ornaments too. I kept things pretty simple and I love it! Usually I'm feeling claustrophobic from all the Christmas "clutter" by now, but this year it feels just right.



A view of the whole "formal" living/dining area.

Nate showing off our new stockings. I have one more for the baby. By next Christmas I'll have our names on them. Clearly the mantle needs more color, but this too will have to wait for next year.

A view into the family room from the dining room.

And our other favorite Christmas decoration. Unfortunately it looks nothing like this now, but Nate found it highly delicious.

Carrot cake recipe

I've had several requests for my carrot cake recipe since I made it for Thanksgiving this year. I wish I could claim this as my own, but all the credit has to go to Southern Living. Don't think about the calories. Don't contemplate how much sugar is in this thing. And whatever you do don't skip the buttermilk glaze, which is THE KEY to this awesome cake. Oh, and cream cheese frosting, which is sent from the gods. I would eat cardboard if it was slathered in cream cheese icing!

http://find.myrecipes.com/recipes/recipefinder.dyn?action=displayRecipe&recipe_id=257583

Ava's Christmas festivities

Ava has been very busy this week (and as a result, so have we!) Tuesday night was her preschool's performance of the Nativity. Ava was one of the "stars" in the heavens. We couldn't take any pictures during the performance, so here are two pictures of her after the fact. As her family knows, Ava loves to sing (which she did beautifully that night) and she loves to pose:

Wednesday morning was her Christmas dance recital and cookie reception. She's the gorgeous little thing on the right (as opposed to that also gorgeous little thing on the left):

Being a ballerina makes one introspective:

She loved having Daddy there:

And today (Thursday) was her preschool class Christmas party. Everyone wore their pajamas and brought blankets, pillows and a stuffed animal. They had a visit from Santa, ate pizza and cookies, and had a book exchange. Ava loved the book she received:

Today was the last of the Christmas parties (Brenna's was this afternoon....pictures to come soon) and I am relieved! They were very fun, and I love seeing my kiddos beaming from ear to ear, but now I'm ready to hunker down and enjoy the family fun!

Nate loves Santa

Mind you, Nate saw Santa at our church Christmas party a couple of weeks ago. Still, he was beside himself when we saw Santa at the mall on Tuesday. Silly woman that I am, I thought it would be enough to "see" Santa from a distance, since Nate had already sat on his lap and told him about his "Chrissums chee" (aka, Christmas tree). Oh no, Nate watched intently as a brother and sister had their picture taken with Santa. The moment those two were off his lap, Nate squeezed through a hole in the fence surrounding Santa's enclosure, ran straight up to the big man, and planted himself on his lap. Meanwhile, although Nate can squeeze through the small fence, me and my 36-weeks pregnant belly cannot! So it takes me a minute to figure out how to get through (and much laughter and assistance from the mothers waiting in line) so I can remove my overzealous child. Thankfully, the other parents were very kind and our mall's Santa was extremely sweet and gave Nate a big hug and talked to him for a minute before sending him on his way.

So then comes Ava's little Christmas dance recital and cookie reception today, complete with visit from you-know-who. Guess who was first on Santa's lap? And guess who went back and saw him again five minutes later? Here's a hint:

And here's big sister telling Santa that what she really wants for Christmas is a Barbie doll. Don't tell her, but she's got two coming to her!

Nate's first haircut

Over the Thanksgiving break we took Nate for his first haircut. Here he is protesting having to wait his turn for the totally awesome car chair:

He settled down as soon as he got to sit in the chair, which apparently was everything he had hoped it would be:

Then came the razor, which felt pretty darn weird:

And finally the trim up top, which was disconcerting, but not nearly as weird as that vibrating razor:

And the final result. So much better than before!

I'm not sure why I waited so long, except I was terribly worried he would no longer look like a toddler, but a little boy, which he does. But he's a handsome devil, so it's okay.

Manipulation

My friend Katie suggested this title for my previous post, but I still stand by my original title, given that Ava hasn't decided to actually put her dad's offer to the test. No, I have a better example of manipulation.

Yesterday Brenna asks for votes from everyone in the house...which of her Build A Bear Workshop animals should wear Christmas clothes? So we all vote, and ultimately decide on her Husky, Mason Superhero.

Fast forward to this morning, when Brenna informs me that we need to go buy Mason his Christmas clothes from Build A Bear. I ask her why I would do such a thing and she informed me that "YOU voted for it, Mom!" I told her nice try, but I had assumed she was already in possession of acceptable stuffed dog Christmas clothes when I voted and would not be purchasing any for Mason.

The funniest part to me is that she didn't argue. She knew EXACTLY what she was doing when she held the family vote yesterday!

Reinterpretation

Scott went up to see the girls after they'd gone to bed tonight and while giving hugs and kisses told them, "I love you and I would do anything to make you happy." Later he asked, "Do you remember what I told you?"
Girls: "You love us."
Scott: "And what else?"
Ava: "You'll do anything I say."

Oh dear. Maybe he should do some serious rephrasing until that one comes back to him the way he intended it to.

Playing at the park

The Saturday after Thanksgiving we gathered up the kiddos and headed to the park. Something to love about central California...it was the end of November and 60 degrees. My little Californians wore sweatshirts and sweaters, unlike my nephew from Utah who wore a t-shirt and shorts and he only has 1% body fat to keep him warm! Okay, maybe I'm exaggerating, but that boy is skinny... I adore his little chicken legs.

Nate enjoyed climbing up the giant playground and sliding down the huge tube slide.

Then he made everyone but his mom nervous by hanging off stuff that 2 year old boys shouldn't. The fact that we haven't had an ER visit with him yet has convinced me that this boy is invincible. Did you ever see that movie "Unbreakable" with Bruce Willis? In 30 years we'll discover that Nate is actually a superhero.

Miss Ava, who was very busy playing with two little boys she met at the park. She makes new friends everywhere she goes, and always calls them that too. "Mom, my new friends and I are playing chase!"

The looker. Holy cow, this is one pretty boy. By the way, how do you like his new haircut?

And this is a new favorite picture of Brenna. It just looks like her to me.

Nate the Great climbing with Uncle Patrick:


And swinging with Aunt Julie:

And my gorgeous niece, Annie. She's got her mom's beautiful eyes:

I found the camera cord!

Probably because I spent more than 3 minutes looking for it. So here are some pictures I've been promising! First, Brenna's tooth before she pulled it out. As with the pictures of her "Mississippi Mamma" teeth, the pictures don't do it justice.

Second, the adorable toothless grin. I love it!

Third, a self-portrait. Someone should clean that bathroom mirror! This is at 32 weeks, so 2 weeks ago.

Finally, Ava and Nate, the 2 good buddies (most of the time). These two party out together for a good part of the day.

Thanksgiving in brief

I'll post more later, but let me just say that Thanksgiving was great! Two of my three siblings and their families came, along with my parents, so we had a full, crazy, chaotic house of fun! I didn't get to take a lot of pictures because I was either working on something (like the big meal or the neverending pile of dishes) or in recovery mode. But I did get some and there are a bunch more on my parents' camera that they'll send to me shortly.

My kids had a blast with aunts/uncles/cousins/grandparents to play with, but I didn't hear any complaints today when they woke up to a quiet house (everyone left early in the a.m.) The girls watched Underdog this afternoon and dragged their stuffed animals all over the house. Nate, Scott and I each took a nap (Holy cow! Thank goodness!)

So on we move to the Christmas festivities. The first order of business was putting our Christmas tree up tonight. Now I need to go rearrange ornaments so that it actually looks good!

Breakfast in bed

Scott was dragged out of bed by a hungry Nate this morning, while I snoozed in bed for another 30 minutes with Brenna and Ava snuggled up to me, playing quietly. I had just roused myself from slumber, feeling guilty for sleeping in, and begun to tell the girls that we needed to go downstairs for breakfast, when lo and behold, breakfast came to us! My sweet husband brought us a tray with cereal, juice and milk and we had the perfect Sunday morning meal, just us three girls! Brenna and Ava were so tickled, since it's pretty hard to score such luxury when you're a kid. That Scott....he's a keeper!

Where is that darn camera cord?!!!

I've been so good about keeping my camera stuff all in one place so it's easy to find and now I can't find my cord to upload pictures to the computer. I'm so frustrated!

Because you've got to see how cute Brenna is without her two front teeth! She lost the second one on Saturday and we are loving the accompanying lisp.

And we're also excited that our Mississippi Mama is no more! I posted before about the two protruding front teeth...well when the first one fell out that left: ONE protruding front tooth. And that, my friends, looked AWESOME! Scott and I would just look at her and get hysterical (Quietly, of course. We didn't want her to know we were laughing at her.) So now we just keep begging her to show us the gap.

Anyway, I'll find that camera cord shortly and post some photos. I took some pics of "the tooth" as well, but they didn't even begin to do it justice.

I remember thinking this way as a kid....

Brenna thinks that you get to do whatever you want as an adult, and that if you do something it must be because you like it. So apparently my great passions in life are cleaning, doing laundry, and painting rooms, because those are the things I seem to spend huge amounts of time on. What a sad individual I am!

The other thing that I love (yes, that's sarcasm you're detecting there) hearing her say is, "Why do I have to do all the work around here?" Just call me the slave master. I actually am cruel enough to require my children to pick up the toys they leave all over the house. I'm sure you'll be calling CPS at any minute. Here's the deal, though....there's a reason why my parents can't stop laughing as they read my post. Once again, Brenna is teaching me the lesson that "what goes around comes around". I fully realize that I am getting payback for my own behavior and commentary as a child.

We've been painting Ava's bedroom in anticipation of the arrival of the new baby, . Ava and Brenna finally agreed to share a bedroom, but Brenna had one condition: she would NOT sleep in a pink room. So we found a paint color they could agree on: golden retriever yellow. Actually, it's just yellow, but the reason for picking it is that it is the color of a golden retriever's fur. My little dog lovers have decided to decorate their new room in a dog theme. I'll post pictures eventually, but right now the room is in such a state of upheaval that no one needs to see it!

Happy Birthday, Nate!

Our Nate is 2 years old (see previous post for confirmation)! His birthday was Saturday, which was a big day at our house between that and the big game (see the college football rankings and any college football highlight show for the details). We celebrated his big day in the afternoon, after nap time, of course!

The festivities began with present-opening, because Brenna and Ava demanded it. Nate loved his new Star Wars guys and fire truck from Grandma & Grandpa K (via Target gift card). He opened one present at a time, taking PLENTY of time in between each one to play with the newly unwrapped toy. Here he is with the fire truck (toy #2):



As you might have guessed, this business of savoring each present before moving on to the next one drove his big sisters CRAZY! Here's Brenna doing her best to exercise patience:



Nate also got a new Geo Trax set, which I'd have a picture of except there was an all-day brawl over who got to play with it. So the pictures would have come out a blur.

Here is Nate simultaneously checking out his cake, playing with the firetruck and trying to score some Halloween candy that has been set on the table.



Ah, sweet success!

We ate pizza, then dove into the birthday cake, which was a train (or "cheen" or "choo", as Nate refers to them). The boy knew exactly what to do. As soon as I got a candle lit, Nate immediately blew it out. We tried several times to get them both lit simultaneously and sing him the birthday song but ultimately gave up. He called it the "fire" and what do you do with a fire? You put it out. And so he did.

Happy birthday, Nate! You're a handful and fast becoming a tantrum flinging 2 year old, but you're the cutest little guy we know and we love you more than words can say!

Anyone want a 2 year old?

Naturally you have to give him back to me when he turns 4 and the tantrums stop, but for the love of all that is decent, I have had enough screaming today! He's yelling because he wants candy from his sister's pumpkins (he inhaled his already), screaming because he wants Spiderman slippers at Kohl's, throwing his body to the ground because he doesn't want to come inside from riding his bike, pitching a fit because it's naptime and he wants no part of it....ay de mi! I'm exhausted and it's only noon.

Just a week ago he was a sweet little boy. Then sometime in the last few days someone told him he was turning 2, and he decided to be as 2 as 2 can be! (Just to give him some credit, he's still sweet....when he's not yelling.)

I'll post the young man's birthday pictures when I settle myself down later tonight! I hope he takes a really long nap today.

This is for you Jenn...

For those of you who went to school outside the Big12, this is the University of Texas clock tower, now with its own personal Red Raider touch.

Smoochies, Jenn!

Halloween

On Thursday Ava's preschool held their Halloween festivities. Ava is thrilled with her candy from the scary witch....


My brother drove down from San Francisco and hung out with us for a day. He took this shot of Nate, me and Ava at her preschool. I love Nate in this one. This is what he has looked like all weekend long...totally preoccupied by candy! At one point last night he had 3 lollipops stuffed in his mouth at one time.

Ava and Nate playing the beanbag toss at the church carnival/trunk or treat.

Brenna in her knight costume. Somehow we didn't get many pictures of her. Actually, we didn't get many pictures, period, and many of her didn't turn out. Oh well...you get the idea.

And another one of Ava:

I wish we had another good shot of Nate, but that boy wouldn't hold still! He loved growling like a dragon and running everywhere.

Check out these chompers

I was so sad when Brenna's two front teeth started to get loose. I crossed my fingers that they'd stay put as long as possible. Well, click on the picture to enlarge it and get a load of these!

Her adult teeth aren't visible yet, but they are pushing her front baby teeth out so far that she has little buck teeth now and speaks with a lisp! I can't wait for these things to fall out....

Our weekend in pictures

Friday night: we hit the pumpkin patch. There's a cute little family-run pumpkin patch just a few miles from our house that has a number of fun things for the kids to see and do. I particularly like this shot of the kids picking their pumpkins in t-shirts and shorts, sitting underneath an orange tree (unripe orange modeling courtesy of Brenna). Very California, baby.


When did this kid start looking so grown up?



Saturday morning: the season's final soccer games and end of season pizza parties, including trophies. Sure, you can argue against participation trophies, but these little ones sure like having bling to display in their bedrooms.

Sunday night: Pumpkin painting and cookie decorating. This one's a little outlaw, you can tell by that look in his eye. We should have known this would turn ugly....

See what I mean? Painting the pumpkins seemed like a better idea before Nate really got going. I had a great time wiping black paint off the blinds and wall, and giant blobs of Nate's favorite color, "lello", off the bench.

I'd include pics of the girls painting their pumpkins, but everyone was stripped down to nothing and Nate's the only one young enough and male enough to allow me to share the pics publicly! We have the same problem with sharing our sugar cookie pictures. Let me just say, the cookies were heavily slathered in festive shades of ultra-bright icing and highly delicious! I should have made a double batch!