New Years Eve

Our family had a nice, quiet evening at home on NYE and it was perfect.

The kids have been shuffled all over the place the past 1.5 weeks since they are off school but yet Brian and I aren't off work.  Their routines are all up in the air, and they definitely haven't been sleeping as well at nights.  

We thought that a little game night at home following some snacks would be the best option.

We also really enjoyed some sparkling red grape juice (that Colin pretended was his "beer", funny kid!)

We watched The Croods (a really cute movie that we got for Christmas) and played some Jenga.  Maggie didn't really play too much, since she always seemed to knock down the tower with her foot, or knee, or elbow while she was roaming around the room.

Colin really enjoyed himself and I think Brian did, too!

 Look at that concentration!

 I love the big grape juice mustache on Colin's face

 Meanwhile, Maggie is still being her crazy self.

Some days I really hope she is just going through her terrible two's, cause I'm not sure how much longer I can handle some of her temper tantrums!

Happy New Year!

We've had a great year at the Teson's house.

And quite honestly, I am another year closer to graduating, which makes me smile.

Can't wait to see what 2014 has in store for us!

Couldn't ask for anything more...

A White Christmas

A couple days before Christmas Kansas City got some snow.

Brian got to use his new snow blower and the kids got some good playing time in.

 Silly face snow clothes picture

 Colin is in heaven outside in the snow...Mags on the other hand, lasts about 5 minutes and wants to come in.  I don't even bother to bundle up myself any more since I know i will be coming inside with her soon.

Colin and Brian cleared the driveway, did some sledding and came in with very rosy red cheeks, requesting some hot chocolate.  Sounds like good snow playing to me!

 Since the kids are on break from Pre-K, Meemaw came in early this week to watch them for a couple of days.  Too bad Brian and I don't get any time off for Christmas break!  At least we have family around that is ready and willing to help out.

We went to Christmas Eve mass at 2:30 at the downtown Cathedral.

The timing worked out great, even if we could hardly get  spot to sit.  

I was totally stressed getting there with both kids (Brian was meeting us all down there), but it all worked out and mass was beautiful and we were home by 4:30.  We had the rest of the evening to enjoy and that worked out perfectly.  The kids opened one gift - some new pajamas, and we had snacks and veggies for dinner.  They had a great time setting out cookies and milk for Santa and wrote him the cutest note.

 Silly face picture

In case you couldn't tell, Colin's silly face was him "burping".  He's such a boy!

 Our beautiful family

We said goodbye to Buzz the elf on Christmas Eve.

Maggie was fighting a temperature and was already headed up to bed, but Colin wanted one last picture with him before he went back to the North Pole.

Our Christmas morning was great.  Colin came into our room at 6:45 and we headed downstairs a little after 7 when Maggie woke up.  We opened our stockings and had cinnamon rolls and breakfast casserole.

Santa brought the kids Ninja Turtle and Hello Kitty sheet sets, dream lites, and a bounce house for the two of them to share.

Colin got a few more Ninja Turtle toys and Maggie scored with a clock and some Hello Kitty accessories.

The kids got a few more movies and some books.

We had a wonderful Christmas and spent some time with Brian's family in the afternoon.

We really do have such good kids - they continue to amaze us daily.

Merry Christmas everyone!

cookies and parties

Maggie got invited to her REAL first ever birthday party. You know, the one where she goes to that isn't because the kid's parents are friends of ours...

Her friend Zoey from school had a party at Fun Run in Liberty.

Maggie was pretty hesitant at first, but she had a blast and really enjoyed herself.

 Maggie with another classmate friend, Janelle

 Cowgirl Maggie

 Maggie with birthday girl Zoey and Janelle

Maggie and Zoey are the 2 youngest kids at their school (Maggie is the youngest by about 6 months)

 Climbing the ladder so she can...

 SLIDE DOWN!!!! 

One last ride before we left to head home before the ice storm!

The weatherman is predicting 5-6 inches of snow tonight!

Luckily, I bought Brian a snowblower for Christmas and he's got it all unboxed and ready to go for tomorrow.  Can't wait to use it!

And now for a few random pics...

 Maggie at Meemaw's house right before Tiff's baby shower a few weeks ago

 We had a work party for the holidays and we all had a lot of fun.

Here I am with my now-retired coworker, Rich and the exercise lab medical director, Mark

 We had some crazy wild turkey roaming around in our back yard. 

There were about 6 of them and man, they are fast.

We had a fun time watching them walk around in our backyard.

We did our annual cookie making for Santa (and it was as messy as ever!)

 Cutting the cookies out, we made reindeer, trees, stars, snowmen

 Hard at work

 Colin really enjoyed this part, he's such a good kid

 Maggie's ornery flour-covered grin

 Sprinkles were EVERYWHERE.

The kids' hands are permanently blue and I'm pretty sure they ate more decorations than ended up on the cookies, or they were all over the floor.

In any case, the kids had a blast (and I'm so glad we only do this once a year)

The finished products.

Yummy, great work kids!

Christmas program

Colin and Mags had their Christmas program at school tonight.

We didn't know what to expect, other than to show up right when the doors opened because the gym fills up fast.  We did, and sat about 5 rows back.  I sat on the floor in the middle of the rows so I could see the kids better.  

Just as expected, Maggie did great and Colin was pretty shy up there.  He was hesitant to even walk up on stage, and didn't move much while up there.

Maggie did some dance moves, jingled her bell, and was smiling and having a great time.

 Before we left, such a cute pic of the 2 of them all dressed up

 Silly smiley faces

 Grandad and Grammie came to watch, too!

Good thing they got there on time, cause the whole production lasted 10 minutes...

 Maggie looks so little up there, but she held her own!

 Poor Colin will never be my performer...but he looked really cute up on stage!

 Baby Jesus sleeping in the manger

 Swinging her dress around (I love the kid next to her, he was doing that the whole time, and the cute girl on the end never uncrossed her arms!)

A cute family pic before we left the gym

We are so pleased with how the kids are doing at Christ Lutheran.

It's such a wonderful Pre-K program.

Gingerbread House

We had a blast decorating our gingerbread house this year.

I learned from last year and got a few more "decorations" for the house, because it seems like the candy the gingerbread house kit includes just really isn't the best for decorating.

The kids did great taking turns putting on the candies and, just like last year, ate way too many of them in the process.  We made sure to brush their teeth extra well that night! :)

Sweet Maggie

Daddy was the frosting-expert and helped guide the candy placement.  We thought it looked great!

An action shot, Maggie on the left and Colin on the right, pushing on some candies

The finished product (with the beginnings of a "snowman" in the back of the house)

They were so proud of their house

The frosting-expert caved on the requests for a squeeze of frosting in the mouth

2013 Visit with Santa

We went to Crown Center again this year to visit Santa.  The kids love playing on the Crayola playground and this year there were NO TEARS while sitting on his lap!

For the past week or so I have been talking to Maggie about the plan for visiting Santa.  They would sit on his lap, tell him what they wanted for Christmas, smile for a picture, then hop off and go play.

Both of them followed through, asking for Ninja Turtles and Hello Kitty dream lites.

Santa made sure to remind them to pick up their toys and go to bed when Mommy and Daddy say so.

 Successful Santa picture!

 Discussing their wish lists for Christmas

 Doing the "santa fist bump" with flying reindeer action afterward

 The kids played a while after the Santa picture, and Colin was taking such great care of Maggie.

He really can be a sweet big brother when he wants to!

 Silly faces in the distortion mirrors

 Colin heading down the slide backwards

Afterwards we hit up Fritz's for some mediocre hamburgers and awesome atmosphere.

 Love these 2 cuties!

 My little sweetie

When we got home, Colin decided to label the hats so we knew which one was Colin and which one was Maggie's...

He has really come a long way in Pre-K this year.  

We are pretty impressed considering we couldn't even get him to sit down to color before school started, and now he is writing names all by himself.