Santa Visits Estates Trail

Tonight we enjoyed a Christmas gathering with some neighbor friends. Imagine the kids’ surprise that as they were all doing some arts and crafts in the basement, down walks Santa Claus with a big “Ho, Ho, Ho”! Annie RAN and stood behind Brian as fast as she could, it was hilarious. I think she was just so shocked she didn’t know what to do.  About five minutes later as all the kids were gathered around him listening to his special talk about “doing good and being good”, Annie shouts from the back “I Love you Santa!”.  It was pretty darn cute.

All the kids got their turn to talk to Santa.  Of course Kate and Annie knew it was the real Santa because he knew so many things about them from our elf “Willie”.  Just mentioning his name made them a believer!  But he also knew about the girls arguing recently, Annie’s love of pickles and candy (she cracked up at this!), Kate being a fashionista with a love for glittery and twirling clothing, Kate’s American Girl doll, her soccer goals and her first year in Kindergarten.  He also surprised Annie with his knowledge of her Rainbow class in preschool and all of the items on her Christmas list!

James was not a real big fan of Santa this year.  While we didn’t have big tears, we didn’t get any good photo ops either!

Needless to say the party was a huge success with the kids having a blast and the parents enjoying every minute of it as well.  I also pulled a little “Martha Miracle” and was able to get some of my holiday cake pops to turn out – well enough to be edible that is.  It was a little ambitious of me considering it was only the second time I made them but none-the-less they turned out alright.

I love creating new holiday memories to last a lifetime!

Sibling Fun

These past few weeks have been so fun watching James start to really engage with the girls. They love playing with him (well, actually being rowdy with him!) and he laughs and laughs! I told Brian the other day that I would love to be able to freeze time and have him at this stage for longer than I know it will last.  Some of the things he is doing that we love include:

- Saying “Hi” repeatedly in a super sweet soft little voice

- Reaching out to give hugs, wrapping his arms around you and patting your back.  He mostly loves to do this while he is eating so of course we end up with lots of food in our hair and on our clothes but I will take that any day!

- Gotta love those open-mouth kisses!

- He has some killer dance moves!  Just like the rest of his family he loves to participate in our dance parties by bopping up and down and waving his hands in the air.

Reading this blog post makes me remember each day is a blessing and that I cherish the time I get to spend with my family!

First Snow Fun

Last night the girls got to enjoy the snow by playing with our neighbor Allyssa. They were going to do a snowman but decided they needed to wait until it was a little stickier. I even got Jamesy all bundled up in his snow gear and he got to experience it for about 15 minutes.  He hates his boots and his mittens kept falling off but we still got him to sit on the snow bank.

I have a feeling we will be spending a lot of time outside enjoying the weather (hoping for not so cold or freezing) and sledding!

Party Time…again!

Today was Katelin’s friend birthday party and she was so excited! She kept waiting and waiting for this day and it finally arrived.  We had 15 girls attend a pottery painting party. I was a little nervous about whether or not the girls would be too young to enjoy it but it turned out to be a hit!

Of course she enjoyed getting a big loot of gifts to enjoy. She was honestly excited about all of them! (She is of course my girl that literally wants everything she sees!)

My lesson learned is I don’t need to try and be Martha Stewart and save a few bucks at the same time! I ended up spending about 4+ hours on homemade star cakes as well as cake pops.  I will say for my first attempt at cake pops they were really good (and fairly easy to make).  

Oh and I can’t forget to mention that we got about 3+ inches of snow making travel really slippery.  What is with Kate and snow on her bday?  Last year her entire party had to be cancelled because of a blizzard that hit! Luckily this year everyone made it and I think had a fun time!  I know Kate did and that makes us happy.  The birthday celebration is officially over until next year!

Dear Santa!

We started what I hope to be a yearly tradition this week.  The girls wrote out their Christmas Wish List to Santa.  They have been going through magazines for weeks circling all the things they want/need so trying to put only a few on their list was difficult.  There are many new additions that we had not heard of earlier like a zebra from Annie! It doesn’t surprise me that Katelin has two purses and a wallet on her list.  She wanted to add two more bags but I told her maybe she should expand her list beyond accessories (as I am pretty sure Santa is going to bring 4 purses to our house!).

Annie said something funny the other night that I should share.  Her and Brian were talking in bed and the conversation went as follows:

Annie: “Guess who my favorite person is?”

Brian: “Me!”

Annie: “No, Santa! Because he brings me lots of presents!”

She also informed me that Santa is her favorite “Christmas person” and she doesn’t really like the elves (I think she is a little afraid of our Elf on a Shelf)! Then the girls had a play date last weekend and I overheard Annie telling her friend that Santa was her favorite person.  Apparently she is trying to get on his good side!

Luckily the girls have been pretty good this year so I am fairly certain Santa will be good to them! (However, try explaining to a 6 year old that just because it is on your list doesn’t mean Santa will bring everything!)

Happy Thanksgiving!

Another wonderful Thanksgiving weekend has come and gone (boo).  I love this weekend as it is a time to think about and give thanks for all of the blessings we have in our lives, get together with family, indulge in a wonderful meal (a few times!), and put up all the Christmas decorations! I wanted to do a little Black Friday shopping but decided against it as I remembered what I told myself at Toys R Us two years ago “I will never do this again!” (Besides, I didn’t have any lists yet so I didn’t want to venture out blindly as I would have likely bought things I didn’t need.)

Here are a few pics of the fun time we had on Thursday.  It was extra special as we celebrated Katelin’s birthday with family too.  My mom, Scott, Grammy Myrt, Dad, Nancy, Libby, Mikey, Kim, Corrie, Mike and Sam were all together.  It was a very nice day and reminded me how lucky we are to have a wonderful family (we missed my Aunt, Uncle, cousins and of course the entire Clemens family!).

The Newlyweds!

The guys and their football watching!

Little Man!

Katelin opened presents for her 6th birthday!

Annie and Gramps!

The only family photo we got!

The girls playing Wii Kinect…and LOVING it!

Katelin Turns 6!

It’s hard to believe that my little girl is 6…going on 13! It is amazing the difference one year makes.  She acts so much older by the things she says and does than just one year ago.  She is also one of the tallest kids in her Kindergarten class so she looks older than 6.

I think it is pretty safe to say Katelin had a GREAT birthday.  Katelin, Annie, Brian and I spent the entire day together doing fun things at the MOA for her special day. Probably the most exciting part for Katelin was opening her much wanted American Girl doll when she woke up!  She was SO excited!

Then we went to American Girl where she picked out an outfit for her doll (from Annie), we had lunch at American Girl (the girls loved it but I would say it is not a place we will be frequenting often…$$$$!).  Annie even got to “borrow” a doll for lunch which made her day.

Then we saw the new Muppet Movie and all agreed it was really funny.  The rest of the day we spent going on rides! Katelin is now tall enough to go on any ride she wants at the mall.  Annie is also FINALLY tall enough to go on the “big Orange coaster” and LOVED it! They truly had a blast together. 

Oh, and I can’t forgot to mention she also got her ears pierced! Wow, was that a production.  I have never heard one girl scream so long (and loudly) over something she wanted to do! I also had no idea that it was going to cost us $50 for the starting earrings.  She now has more expensive earrings than me!

Katelin got to celebrate her birthday on Thanksgiving the next day with our family.  We enjoyed a great traditional turkey dinner and then she opened more presents.  She was truly in awe over the fact that she got her pink “K” pillow from Justice she wanted.  She kept saying she had no idea how Grandma and Grandpa knew just want she wanted! What a joy it is to see the excitement on little faces when they get gifts they want. 

Then yesterday I took the girls back to MOA where Katelin spent some of her birthday money from cousins Mikey/Kim and Grandma and Grandpa Clemens picking out matching clothes for her and her doll.  (A lot of money will be spent in American Girl in the future I have a feeling!) The pic of Annie is because she wanted her photo taken too and I think it turned out adorable!

Next Saturday is her “Rock Star” birthday party at Manic Ceramic where she is having about 15 girls help her celebrate again.  It goes without saying she is counting down the days.

Happy Birthday Katelin Lily!  We love you!

Ear Infections…Be Gone!

Or at least that is what we are hoping! Yesterday James had his surgery to get tubes in both ears.  If that wasn’t enough for the little man to go through, he also had his clogged tear duct cleaned out.  Double Whammy!

Prepping for the procedure

He was a trooper.  The procedures only lasted about 25 minutes total but they still had to put him under. When we came out of surgery he was pretty groggy and confused about how he was feeling.  I am happy to report that he did not vomit like his big sister after getting her tubes. He barely even cried in recovery.  We were told that infants can become unruly when they wake up because they feel funky.  There was a little girl next to us that screamed for like 30 minutes straight so we were a little nervous hoping James would not have the same reaction.  Luckily, he only had a few tears and seemed to handle the transition really well.  By the time we got him dressed he was playing with his balloon the nurses gave him.  Both Brian and I stayed home with him yesterday.  The nurses said to watch him closely the first few hours as he could be a little unsteady on his feet from the drugs.  Oh great…considering he just started walking two days before he doesn’t need to have anything make him more unsteady!  By noon he was basically himself already.

Snuggling with Dad after as the drugs wear off (notice his purple marker dot above his eye to ensure the correct one got done)

His tiny little hand with an IV in it

So let’s just hope this helps ward off those nasty ear infections he was averaging monthly (in fact he had an infection on 11/1 and again when he went in for surgery yesterday).  Poor guy.  It will also be nice to not have “pirate eye” which is what I call him when he wakes up with his eye shut due to goop.

Proud of you buddy…you were a STAR Patient today!  We love you!

Looking exhausted but holding on tight to his new balloon!

Big day for James!

You probably guessed it already, but James started walking yesterday! We've been working with him on taking steps this past week and he could make about 3-4 steps between the two of us and then he'd fall into our laps laughing as of Friday night. He was loving it! Yesterday though, he started out the day like any other day crawling and propping himself up on stuff but as the day went on he started to get more daring and then he did it; he just took off from the TV cabinet to the middle of the room making about 9 steps on the way! We erupted in laughter and clapping and lots of Yay James! screams much to his delight as he laughed and clapped with us! There's no stopping him now! Welcome to your new found freedom James! All of our lives will never be the same again! We're so proud of you buddy! Check it the video from last night and some pics from today!

Look guys! No hands!