Merry Christmas

Well....the cookies are in place, the gifts are wrapped and my kids are tucked in bed waiting for the man in the big red suit (aka SANTA) to come. They're soooo excited...especially Brennan. I'm hoping they'll sleep till at least 7:30 - that's early for them - or else the rest of the day will be filled with whiny, sleepy children!! I can't wait to see their faces in the morning and I hope they're happy with everything they're going to get.

From our family to yours, I hope everyone has a healthy, happy and safe holiday season. I will post pics from Christmas Day as soon as I can - we're going to be super busy with family over the next week so I will have lots of photos to share.

MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!

Holiday Fun!

The day started off with David & I tackling the (dreaded) basement!! That's basically the kids "space" and neither of us go down there very often. Well it was that time of year again...cleaning out the basement and getting rid of toys that they don't use anymore. Every year my mom's volunteer organization holds a "Christmas Store" where people like me donate toys and then next Tuesday the needy can come in and "shop" without paying. They take new and gently used toys that still have all the parts and are in working order. This year I said I was REALLY going to gut their toy boxes and boy did I!! Surprisingly enough, they were really good about it. So we went from 2 stuffed toy boxes to 2 that aren't even 1/2 way full now. It felt so good to declutter. While I was doing that, David was dusting, vacuuming, cleaning out the bathroom closet and getting all those yucky cobwebs out of the corners. We now have one clean and organized basement that's ready for Santa to arrive! After that I still had more energy, so I headed upstairs and cleaned the kids rooms and David followed by vacuuming the entire upstairs. I did our bathroom, cleaned our linen closet and then helped David make another batch of chocolate chip cookies. Whew I am tired! So I'm sure by now you're wondering why I titled this post Holiday Fun?!! After dinner, as promised, I helped the kids make a gingerbread house. Each morning we put our neighbor's daughter on the bus so as a thank you she gave us the gingerbread house kit. We had a good time and they worked really well together. The girls did one side and Brennan did the other....and I of course took photos....see below! This is where the holiday fun came in and now I am relaxing and watching Saturday night football. Go RAVENS!

Ready to decorate - such concentration!

Brennan's working hard on his side

Almost done...

The finished product....great job!

It's the beginning of our holiday week and tons of holiday fun -I can't wait to see their little faces next Thursday :-)

Breakfast with Santa & the weekend

On Saturday, the kids school hosted Breakfast with Santa.

Ready to go!

Of course Santa was there handing out pictures and books and they had crafts for the kids to do, wreaths that each class had made that you could bid on and coloring stations. Alyssa & Brennan chose to do the same 2 crafts - making a wooden snowman measuring stick and doing a letter to Santa ornament. McKenna picked the beaded snowman pin and the gingerbread house picture frame.

Brennan & Alyssa with their snow measuring sticks

McKenna with her beaded snowman pin

McKenna, Megan & Alyssa with Santa

Brennan with Santa

After they finished their crafts and got their picture taken with Santa my mom picked them up for the night. She joined my MIL, niece Alexis and my SIL with niece Megan & nephew Trevor at the Swim with Santa event. Yes, Santa is swimming and they take underwater photos with the kids. For those that don't want underwater - like McKenna & Brennan - they do photos of them sitting in a chair inside the pool. Unfortunately, I don't have any pics to share of this event, but they had a BLAST!!! Next year I have to go to this, but this year David & I were finishing our shopping and enjoying a belated anniversary dinner. We had a great day and we think we are done shopping - think being the key word :-)

Today, David and I embarked on a bake-a-thon!!! We made chocolate chip cookies, pecan snowball cookies, double chocolate chip toffee cookies, chocolate covered peanut butter balls and english toffee.

Alyssa helping me make cookies

Everything, but the toffee turned out ok - David tried twice, but both batches made it to the trash. All we have left are peanut butter cookies with hershey kisses and then we'll be done! These are for us as well as the kids teachers, bus driver and our trash men. I'm baked out....'tis the season!

Huntin' Buddy?

Saturday was Alyssa's turn to try deer hunting with David...it wasn't nearly as successful as his day with McKenna :-) We both knew the chances of her really liking it were slim, but thought we needed to let her decide for herself. Well she has NO intentions going again!!! It was extremely cold yesterday - I mean VERY cold - and she was frozen by the time they got back. Her poor little cheeks and nose were so red and her hands were like ice cubes. David said she tried to think of every excuse she could to come back early and all he kept saying was "she is definitely YOUR daughter! She is sooo you!" Nothing wrong with that right?!!

They didn't see any deer - just squirrels - and she was more than happy when it was time to head home. Here's a pic of her & David before they left...she looks happy here!

Brennan's turn is next...if he decides he wants to go still. He changes his mind a lot. He's supposed to go Tuesday - it's early dismissal day - so we'll see what he decides. For now, the only kid who qualifies as a "huntin' buddy" is McKenna!

Thanksgiving Weekend Highlights

I'm a little late in getting this post up, but I hope everyone had a Happy Thanksgiving. We had a nice, relaxing day surrounded by our family and tasty food! David's cousin hosted and was sweet enough to invite my mom so she wasn't alone on T'giving Day. I truly appreciated her hospitality! Just like everyone else, we had a HUGE spread of food followed by lots of yummy desserts. The kids had a blast playing with their cousins and even spent some time outside playing baseball. Here are a few pics from our day.

McKenna, Megan, Alexis & Alyssa

Trevor & Brennan

On Friday my mom and I braved the crowds and went shopping. It actually wasn't that bad - crowded yes - but we didn't find a bunch of rude people. We did find several good deals and I was happy to get some Cmas shopping accomplished. Back at home, David managed to get 2 of our 3 Cmas trees up so I could decorate on Saturday.

Saturday was McKenna's big day! That afternoon David took her deer hunting and although they didn't get anything, she had a BLAST!!

Her little nose and fingers were soooo cold when they got back that night, but she really enjoyed her time in the woods. Up next - Alyssa - this outta be interesting :-) I'll let you know how that turns out after this weekend.

While they were gone, I got both trees decorated with Alyssa & Brennan's help and started putting out the rest of our decorations. I'm still not done yet! The girls stayed at Maw Maw Barbara's Sat. night so David & I took Brennan to Carvel for ice cream and then we had popcorn and watched Fred Klaus. He had fun spending alone time with us!

Sunday I went to the RAINY Redskins game - which they lost - but I did get to take part in the Sean Taylor memorial celebration which was touching and beautiful.

All in all it was a great weekend....now I have to focus on finishing my shopping and getting ready for December 25th!

Random Updates

We've had random things going on lately so I thought I'd share an update on our family happenings!

Alyssa

Well her and Tristan "broke up" and although she's sad, she was over it in a day! I'm sure this is just one of many break up's to come in her life - let's hope they're all this simple :-) HA...wishful thinking I know. She IS a drama queen after all, but she's my drama queen and I do love her.

McKenna

Today was a BIG day for McKenna...she finally (after 8 months) had the appliance taken out of her mouth that was in there to help her stop sucking on her fingers. It worked pretty much the same day, but because it was such a strong habit they decided to leave it in there extra long just to be doubly sure it would work and the habit wouldn't return! Well let's hope 8 months was long enough. McKenna sure was happy to get it out and the first thing she wanted was bubblegum! Of course I obliged...it has been 8 months since she last had any and although it's not something she (or they) chew all the time I had to let her enjoy a piece tonight.
Here she is attempting to blow big bubbles.

Other big news for McKenna is coming up on Saturday, Nov. 29th - the first day of deer hunting season. As petite and cute as she is, my beautiful daughter LOVES to don her camo gear and go "act like a tree" while hunting with her daddy...oh how proud that makes me (can you "hear" the sarcasm here?!!). David bought her new camo pants and a hat which she adores. Seriously - how can she possibly be related to me?!! ha ha He also bought her a very trendy hunting hat shown here - this is actually acceptable by mommy.

Model turned hunter?!!! Boy does she love to pose!

Brennan

Not much is happening with my lil man. He has been much better at school lately and has been staying on his "green light" daily. That makes me happy! He is learning to read more and more each day - I just can't believe how fast they learn. Today he looked especially cute for school so I had to snap a few pics of him. It's always nice to have him wear Skins stuff on Monday's - it means they WON!

On Saturday the girls and I went to see the Beauty & the Beast play with their Brownie troop. Kerry & Jayci joined us for the show. It ended up being pretty good.

Ready for the play

After it was over, Taylor (one of their friends) came to spend the night. They had a good time dancing, playing games and dressing up. Unfortunately they woke up at 6 A.M. (OMG) - needless to say last night McKenna was asleep before the lights were out.

Thanks for bearing with me and my long post....my random updates took longer than I thought.

Grandparents Day

Last week the kindergarten classes at Brennan's school held Grandparents/Special Person's Day. My mom and I went down and were treated to 2 very cute songs by the three kindergarten classes. Brennan only sung about 1/2 of the first song, but he BELTED out the 2nd one called "Mimi Mouse" - a video is below. They use songs to teach them a particular letter and that week they were studying the letter M. He just loved that song.

Singing was followed by cookies and punch -certainly his favorite part - and then my mom and him made a family tree. It was a quick little program, but very cute.

Birthday celebration!

Yesterday was David's 34th birthday - Happy Birthday honey! We had a pretty lazy day - his mom came over with a card and homemade pound cake (yum) and then Lauren came to babysit so we could go out to dinner with friends. Alyssa & McKenna picked out his cake and the kids couldn't wait to tear into the ice cream cake....it was good! The girls made him some cards and they each picked out a gift for him.

McKenna got him golf balls - always a good pick.
Brennan got him boxers - he just thought this was HILARIOUS!

Alyssa got him a golf glove- another good pick
I got him chest waders and gloves for duck hunting. Thanks to my dad - he helped me understand the "science" of choosing the right waders!!!

We went to Jasper's American Grill for dinner - it was pretty good. It was us, Robert/Wendy, Mike/Theresa, Jimmy/Melissa and Dale/Kay. We hung out at the bar and even got to enjoy Melissa singing "Bust a move" during Karaoke. We finished out the night at our house with a few more adult beverages!

Happy Birthday David - I hope you enjoyed your day!

So pretty

As promised, here are a few pics of Alyssa before school this morning...all prettied up with her hair done!! I simply can't believe clothes and hair are already important...yikes! I must say - she looked pretty darn cute :-)

And they call it Puppy Love...

Yes my friends, my daughter Alyssa is in "love". This is the text message David sent me on my way home from work "it's official...Alyssa & Tristan are an item"!!! Earlier this week she informed us at dinner that Tristan told her she was HOT....WHAT???? She's in 2nd grade - they're 7 years old - and he's telling her she's hot - O M G!!! On Monday she claimed she didn't like him...tonight is a totally different story.

So I asked her if she kissed him and she said no (shew - thank god!), but went on to tell us that her friend Taylor kissed her "boyfriend" Brandon. Again - O M G!!! Are you KIDDING ME?! At that point David had his eyeballs popping out. I quickly told her that she's WAY too young to be kissing boys and it's fine to have him as her boyfriend (if that's what you wanna call it), but no kissing. Good grief - I know they start young - but SECOND GRADE! Lord help me!

As I was getting her clothes ready for school tomorrow I picked out a super cute outfit my mom bought her and had her try it on...and I jokingly said "I want you to look cute for Tristan tomorrow" and she was bowled over by that. I overheard her & McKenna talking in the bathtub about how she thought it was "so cool" that I wanted her to look cute for Tristan....I think the next 11 years of my life will make me gray for sure :-)

Puppy love already...boy do they grow up too fast. I'll share pics of her outfit tomorrow...and her hair since she told me I HAVE to make her hair pretty too. That's where David ended our conversation...hehe!

Soccer finale

Brennan had his last soccer game of the season last week followed by a little pizza party...in the cold!!! He really enjoyed playing this year and has decided to play that again the spring instead of tball...which I can't blame him...tball is slow and boring :-) I think he'll play baseball once he's older, but for now, soccer is much more energizing and he needs that. Here are some pictures from his party.

Enjoying his pizza

Getting his trophy from Coach Brianna

He loves the trophy (and goodie bag)!

Such a cute cake

Halloween Fun

The kids got lots of treats and not too many tricks on Friday. The day started off with a parade at their school. My mom, David's mom and I attended. Brennan was very excited to have me in his classroom and by golly, my baby has a crush :-) Here's the little girl who's captured his attention!!!

I must say she is a little cutie, but jeesh, he's only FIVE. It's so funny when he talks about her...he gets all shy.

McKenna & Alyssa at their school

Brennan headed out to the parade

Anyhow, after the parade the parents are kicked out (in a nice way) and the kids have a party in the afternoon. That night, we headed over to his mom's to trick or treat with Megan, Trevor & Alexis.

Ready for trick or treating!

Alyssa's ready to get some candy!

We covered almost the entire neighborhood and by 8 p.m. every kid was worn out and complaining that their legs hurt - HA - go figure! Needless to say, everyone had a blast and we have entirely too much candy in our house.

Alyssa, Megan, Trevor, Alexis, Brennan & McKenna

The kids with Maw Maw Barbara & Pop Pop Henry

Hope everyone had a Happy Halloween!

Belvedere Plantation

Tucked away in Southern VA is an awesome place to visit in the fall called Belvedere Plantation. It's a huge farm filled with fun things for kids to do. Ziplines, slides, trails to drive tractors on, a huge corn maze, hay rides and of course, a great pumpkin patch! David,the kids and I were joined by Kerry , Jacyci and Connor for several hours of entertainment. They got their faces painted, tried to climb the "moving" ladder, swung on the rope swings inside the barn, drove the pedal tractors and took turns leading us through the maze. Here are some pics of our day!

Preparing for the fun

McKenna trying to climb the ladder

Exiting the great pumpkin slide

On the hayride to get our pumpkins

McKenna waiting to get her face painted