Christmas sweets!

Again this year, we did Christmas cookies and a gingerbread house.

I always have MAJOR anxiety when it comes to the cookie decorating - I find sprinkles for DAYS all over my kitchen floor.  But I know how much the kids just love it and I hope they remember these occasions, not for me stressing out, but having a lot of fun! :)

Don't worry, as Colin licked his fingers between every cookie - we won't be gifting any of our cookies! :)

My loves!

Colin... always the jokester!

We did the Gingerbread house a few weeks ago - and are so glad we sprung the extra $3 for a better version of the house.  There was a lot to decorate and the kids had a blast!

I think I had the orange on the table for the kids to eat to make myself feel better.

Gingerbread house making = eating lots of candies!

Little hands, working hard!

Proud of their finished product!

That's Moose in the front (the sideways Gingerbread man) pooping out a green tootsie roll.

The kids have such a wonderful imagination, we're so proud! :)

Ice skating

Yesterday, we took the kids ice skating at this little rink just down from our house.  

It is an area that has sand volleyball in the summers and ice skating in the winters.  Crazy, huh?

Anyway, Brian had been ice skating before, as a child.  Me, nope, never.  And I stink at roller skating, so I had even lower expectations on the ice.

Heck, I tripped and fell the day before while talking Moose for a walk in our neighborhood.

But, Colin had been REALLY wanting to go, and he informed me that he watched a video on how to ice skate, so he could teach me when we got there.  

Brian was a natural, and only wiped out one time while trying to do a fancy "ice spraying" move for Colin.

Colin picked it up really quickly (thank goodness, he must have Brian's balance!)

There were lots of little kids out there learning, so it was a lot of fun.

Maggie and I hung pretty close to the walls and never let go of the device that helped those with little balance keep from falling over.  

She was out on the ice for about an hour - then decided she'd had enough and wanted some hot chocolate.  I was an easy sell - and we went inside.

We had some nachos and hot chocolate to warm up for a bit while Brian did a few more laps on the ice.  Such a show-off ;)

Not a bad outing for our first time - I definitely think Brian should go again with Colin, those 2 had so much fun!

School Christmas Program

The kids had their school Christmas program tonight.

We got there about 30 minutes early to get a seat (it was standing room only!), for a 20-minute long program.  Totally worth it.

Both of the kids did AWESOME!

We had been talking it up for some time now, and even though Maggie was running a low temperature, she still sang her heart out.

 Love these two cuties!

 We even got Moosie Goosie in for a picture...

The kids all paraded down the center aisle for the program, so I got a couple on the way up.

 Colin was a sheep, in case you are wondering about his fuzzy white ears :)

 Maggie peeked around the corner for a pre-concert 'wave'

 Maggie signing "i love you" with her hand

 Love the kid in front of Colin taking his shirt off

And now the parade off the stage...

Maggie refused to be in the picture because she wasn't feeling the best, but I love this picture of Colin and Grammie and Granddad!

Grandma Dee

The world lost an absolutely wonderful lady today.

My Grandma Dee passed away this morning, at the age of 89. 

She was my last living grandparent, and unfortunately we hadn't seen her for 2 years.  We were supposed to get up to Canada to see her this year, but with my two miscarriages, it just didn't happen.

But, I will remember her as the spunky, happy, generous, and thoughtful grandma that she was.

Some things I remember about Grandma Dee:

**Grandma:  "grandma's don't cook!"

**How she used to bake bran muffins for us grandkids when we went to visit in Hawaii

**How she would have clothes laying out to dry all over the house (apparently she wore lots of delicates!)

**How much she just LOVED her great-grandkids

**I thought she was so cool because she gave me a purse hanger to use at restaurants

**How she would fold and re-fold her napkin at the dinner table when we were chatting

**How she lived such a generous life - always giving to those in need

Love you Grandma Dee!

Visiting Santa 2014

We were able to sneak away this week to visit Santa at Crown Center.

The kids were really excited - but not so excited to tell Santa that they have only been "kindof nice, but kindof naughty" this year.  We've been dealing with our fair share of tattling, fibbing, and not listening lately (typical kid stuff, but nothing that Brian and I want to have around the house).

Maggie was explaining to Santa that she wanted a 'singing machine' (think karaoke), and Colin told him he wanted a Nerf bow and arrow gun.  Colin has been wanting one since June and we are so proud of him for being patient while waiting to either save up enough money or ask Santa for it!

Every year Santa does the fist bump, reindeer flying special handshake

Afterwards, the kiddos played on the Crayola-land slides for a bit

Then we made our annual stop by the candy store to pick out some really neat gummies.

Maggie picked out a pink/purple frog, some chocolate covered gummy bears, and a red Christmas tree.  Colin got a GIGANTIC gummy snake.

Such goofy kids!

Dinner was next, and we went to Manny's in downtown KC.

The kids have always loved chips and salsa, and we went all out with some guacamole this year!

Love this one of Colin and I!

Maggie was doing the 'reindeer flying' fist bump we just learned from Santa

We had a great time visiting Santa!

Just a fun tradition we started when Colin was born - we are so lucky to do this every year!

december happenings...

We have been super busy at our house - 

mainly because we added Moose to the mix.

We are still working on training him to go potty outdoors, and we just introduced the wireless fence the past couple of days.  I think he will be a quick learner, but we'll see.

 Our really close friends, Brett and Andy, had their little boy a week ago.

Ben is so cute - he's such a good baby!

 Moose has made his way into our hearts, rather quickly.

Even if he does wake us up in the night needing to go outdoors.

 The kids just love him - after they go to bed at night, Moose just wanders aimlessly around the house.  I think he doesn't know what to do without 2 little shadows following him around everywhere.

After seeing this picture, Colin asked me why Moose's eyes were blue - I responded with... Go Royals!

 I got this new rug for our living room.

The color is a little off in the picture, it is more of a navy blue than a bright blue, but I love it!

 Oh, and St. Nicholas came to visit us at our house this past weekend.

 The kids got a set of walkie talkie's (so much fun!), and some gummy worms and apple juice.  

I got some hot apple cider and some chocolate, and Brian got some coffee, beer, and some cookies.

 Mags had just woken up and didn't like the bright flash, so I took another one without it...

Much better!

Decorating the tree

We decided to put our tree up in a different room this year. 

We wanted to make sure we had plenty of space for spending time together on Christmas morning with a bouncing 70 pound dog in the room, too.

Probably one of my favorite pictures of all time.

I love my precious family!

The 'choke-hold' hug

My loves

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas!  And although it is quite a bit of work, the holiday season is so magical with young kids.