Who Are We?

This is what we love about museums...trying on new identities.

Shark cage divers (OK, except I think maybe Owen didn't get the message, and thought he was in jail. What a sad face!).

Fireman.

Cow milker. (How funny! Probably the closest they will ever get to milking a real cow...)

Bee woman.

Don't ever say I don't let them have fun...

Final Christmas Recap

How far are we into 2012 and I'm still posting about Christmas? Apparently the new year hasn't made me any faster.

The top picture is the Christmas finale shot, after we took Grandma and Grandpa back to the airport. Owen was so sad.

Some of the other pictures are just typical of what was going on during the holiday. Liam building legos, Natalie reading, Owen boxing with his new boxing gloves (brilliant idea, don't you think? Except I need a punching bag now...), Jim passed out in a chair (ha ha, OK, maybe that doesn't happen all the time), Liam playing Nintendo.

And a picture of our treats for Santa. Santa doesn't get homemade goodies at our house. A couple of peanut butter cups and he's good to go; plus a carrot for the reindeer. I have it on good authority that he prefers peanut butter cups to my homemade cookies anyway. Owen thought that Santa should share those treats, because sharing is nice, after all. So Santa cut one peanut butter cup in half and left half for Owen. He (Owen, not Santa) is still talking about how nice it was for Santa to share that treat. Bravo, Santa!

There were surely many holiday moments that I should have captured and did not, in pictures or in words. I am clinging to the small things before they fly by with the passing years. The way Natalie calls them snowflags instead of snowflakes, for instance. Not that we had any snow, but she likes to make paper ones. Just this week she was reading a story and came across the word snowflake, and she narrowed her eyes and said, "Hey! It's not snowFLAKE..." and I tried to break it to her that she actually says it wrong. She gave kind of a "Hmmph" and I've noticed that she continues to call them snowflags. I am completely fine with that! It's much cuter that way, anyway. Long live childhood!

Christmas Eats

Tigger: Where's Christmas dinner? I'm hungry!

Liam: Is this my wine? I'm thirsty.

Christmas cheers! (And those are ribs; not turkey. Who knew that Costco runs out of turkeys by the time it is Christmas Eve day? So much for my Just-In-Time method of procurement.)
Spreading reindeer food and glitter. The deer will be drawn to the house by the glitter, see the food, and then we all know Santa won't pass us by because the animals always get their way (see Tigger, above).

Sprinkle, sprinkle.
Maybe I should grind this food into the ground a little. Or at least run my fingers through the dirt and grass - sometimes in the winter my fingernails don't have enough dirt jammed under them.

More Holiday Fun

Instead of our usual Christmas-themed hotel visit, we decided to stop in Outdoor World. OK, maybe not the most Christmasy thing in the world, but the kids all want a gun and an ATV now, not necessarily in that order. I expect someday in the future I'll see that look on Owen's face again when he is riding an ATV in real life.

Did I mention that Owen got hand/foot/mouth disease right before Grandma and Grandpa came in town? Poor little guy. His face was unsightly, but the huge blisters on his hands and feet just looked very uncomfortable. Luckily, no one else caught it.

Pre-Christmas Festivities

Matching outfits from American Girl Store. Grandma and Natalie both love that place so much. She used birthday money to get the doll's ears pierced (they seriously do that in the doll salon, along with giving them fancy hairstyles), and then they picked out matching outfits. I really couldn't tell if she wanted the matching outfits or not, so I was a little hesitant, but oh my goodness, once we were home! She wore it for two days straight (and would have longer I imagine if I hadn't put it in the wash), and was on cloud nine the whole time. I wonder if having a matching outfit with me would make her that giddy?
Did I mention that Grandma and Grandpa came in town? Staying home might not be as much fun as Christmas in Canada, but we do love it when we have grandparent visitors. Grandma Helen lent us her expertise with gingerbread house making. It turned out quite nicely.

Just today I caught Owen breaking off a piece and eating it when he was not allowed to have a snack because he didn't eat much lunch. Hmmm....it's been at least a week since we made that house now...doesn't sound tasty to me, but I guess if you're desperate it will do.
Natalie had a little holiday dance show for her dance class. She was very excited about it, and the song was very peppy. Unfortunately, they weren't on a stage and there were so many people that I couldn't see even the slightest bit of Natalie during the dance. I tried to get her to dance it for us at home, but she got super frustrated when she forgot the moves (or my version of the song wasn't quite the same as the one they used, perhaps). Then Owen tried dancing to it, and that made her super annoyed. Oh well, I think she had a good time during the show.

More Christmas stories soon to follow...

Christmas Card Pictures

Christmas card Spoiler Alert: The new header picture on the blog is the same as the Christmas card photo. I think it's cute. It's not perfect, and it's not professional, so I don't think I'll be making too many people jealous with it's utter perfection. But let me tell you one thing that should, if you have any envy in you at all, make you jealous. It took a total of about 7 minutes to get. Start to finish. Including getting the kids dressed and ready. The boys aren't wearing socks. Natalie's hair was a mess, with old syrup stuck in it still from breakfast, and looking like a rat's nest. I grabbed whatever we had red left over from last year (except Owen's shirt, which I just bought at Target). They sat and complained for a minute, I snapped about 3 pictures, and we were done. 1-Hour photo cards at CVS done online and picked up the next day. Whew. It's the express train to Christmas preparation.

Side note: Ooooh, to be young enough again that I could run a brush through my ratty hair, throw on a dress or a sweater and look beautiful. Well, maybe I couldn't even do that when I was young. I'm not sure how they do it. And I'll leave you with one more photo from the shoot. I liked it a lot, except for the fact that it makes Liam look a lot smaller than Natalie because he's bending down. She's looks like a mother tending to her two boys.

Santa

Wow, what a Christmas already! This marks the first Christmas EVER that any of my children came within 10 yards of the Big Guy without crying or running away. Not entirely true. Owen has been fine in past years with shouting to him from a safe distance, but being on his lap was a different matter. And okay, Liam I guilted into sitting on Santa's lap, saying that it would make Owen feel better. Turns out, this year Owen was not afraid of Santa. I think he overcame his mistrust of the hairy beast in order to lobby hard for presents. He was quite the chatty chatterbox (which is not unusual, except in regards to Santa).

O: Santa, my name's Owen. Are you going to bring me presents?

Santa: Have you been a good boy?

O: Ye-ess (with only a slight hesitation). Yes. I've been good (feeling more positive about that now.)

Santa: What would you like?

O: Hmmm. A dinosaur. And a playdate. I want to have a playdate with you. I have boy toys. (Maybe if I share my toys with you, you'll bring me more...)

Santa: Well, those are my favorite kinds of toys!

O: Santa, I love you (hug).

That wasn't the whole conversation, but I couldn't hear it all. Owen also "crashed" other people's pictures about 3 times, trying to go back and talk to Santa a bit more. It never hurts to cover all the bases, I suppose, when it comes to making an impression on an important person.

Natalie was hiding around a large post the entire time.