Christmas Eve 2014

Every year we do something different on Christmas eve. I would love if this would turn into something i could create a tradition my kids could expect but after 5 years I've learned its drastically unrealistic. so this year we went to the Dotson's side of the family for lunch and  few games. Every year we play a few games and win gift cards. We always play win, lose, draw and usually bunco too but there weren't enough people and its really hard with the little kids. so we only played win lose draw.

 Then headed back home to have our own special Christmas eve dinner. I precooked the ham before we left. and then made the rest when we got back.

we let Madison stay up pretty late like 9:30 and then me and Anthony went out into the garage and finished painting Madison's Christmas present. a brand new, home made dress up closet. and we wrapped way to many pictures

After                                                                                                     Before

Sugar Cookie Decorating

A Christmas tradition we have been doing since before Madison was born is to decorate sugar cookies. every year I get better and better at making sugar cookies. this year i cheated and bought premade dough all i had to do is roll the dough out and cookie cut out the shapes and bake. this year my cousin Lynn joined us.

 

he hates when i take pictures can you tell?

 Messy Hands and all the frosting on her face

 showing me her creation

 my cookies

 anthony's cookies

 Madison's Cookies

Lynns cookies

 I may have let him eat a sugar cookie while the rest of us decorated our cookies.

this is still my all time favorite things we do every year. I can't wait to do it for the rest of my life with my kids and then my grandkids.

Polar Express

Caleb is still a little too small to change his schedule in some crazy manor so we decided to run the polar express instead of walking the Christmas lights like we usually do. so we geared the kids up in their pajama's, got Madison some chocolate milk, and we were off to ride the polar express to see the fantastic Christmas lights.

This was super fun and the kids had a ball ...Caleb even stayed awake the whole time and we were all really surprised.

New Tooth

I'm not sure how well it can be seen but caleb has a new tooth! he is starting to get his bottom tooth and that little stinker is sharp. its fun to see him do things faster than madison now that we know there was something wrong with madison's developement from the beginning. Her first tooth didnt come in until she was over 9 months (which is considered very late they should get them between 6 and 8 months).

I'm one lucky mama. neither one of my babies have done anything crazy when it has come to teething. doesn't cry, still sleeps through the night, most of the time i don't even know its there until they bite me and it's more than gums. happy 7 1/2 months Caleb!

Playgroup Christmas Party

I love this playgroup I joined! They really are an amazing group of ladies. They are easy to talk to, fun to be around, nobody gets left out or ignored, nobody gets treated with disrespect, and most of all the kids have a great time together! They did a little Christmas party for the kids with snacks, a craft, and then santa came and brought them all presents with their name on them! I wonder how he knew their names :)

 She did a really great job on the Christmas ornament! Mommy was really proud of her

 Our group needed a Santa really bad and no ones husband was really available so i asked (i didn't even have to beg) Anthony if he wanted to and he said he would as long as someone provided the suit. One of the ladies had a suit so Anthony agreed. Madison clearly has no idea that anthony is behind that suit! I love that Caleb couldn't have cared less about Santa this year he was more curious about the beard then he was freaked out.

 Madison getting her gift from santa

 all the kids that came that day

 still completely panicked about Santa

Caleb is my favorite in this picture...just staring at Santa!


**My favorite side story that has nothing to do with my children. One of the ladies was having a few issues with her little girl. she asked "santa" to talk to her and gave him a few details and told him what the name of the elf was that visits their home. anthony gently (i was impressed) talked to the little girl and told her that chippy was not reporting good things to him and that she needed to be good until Christmas to be on the nice list. When she walked away from anthony her eyes were huge and she was speechless. the mom told me the next morning that she is suddenly sweet as pie!**

Logan's candy cane making

This has become a must tradition in our family. I love taking Madison and now this year Caleb to logans candies in Ontario to watch how candy canes are made. last year we had to stand out in the cold and watch the presentation but this year i messed the time up so we were there really early and got super good seats and inside where it was warm too. One of my favorite things they do is to bend the warm candy cane into your own shape at the end of the demo. its sooo fun.

 cooling the candy

 Shaping the candy cane layers together

 Starting a new batch

 My favorite part...warm candy cane samples

 caleb is ready to get in on the action (he's rolling the candy canes and measuring them in the background)

 Watching the candy canes being made

 the striped layer

 stretching the candy

 eating a warm candy cane

Anthony and Caleb made their own candy cane shape (costs $1.45)

Disneyland With Auntie Amanda

My sister had a one year season pass and so she asked me if she could take Madison to Disneyland one more time before her pass expired of course I said yes, who denies their kid a free trip to disneyland!

It was a great day and Madison passed out when she came home. she talks about the princesses all the time.