It's December!

24 more days till Christmas! Not only is Christmas my absolute favorite holiday, from the lights to the music and everything else in between, this year the kids are really getting into it and very excited. We have been talking about Santa and lights and all the fun things to come. We got them their first Advent calenders this year.

Of course the are Disney. :) They have the kids new found love in them as well. Chocolate.

Paige having a taste of her chocolate.

Mommy helping Levi open his first day.

He is excited to see what is inside!

Nathan looking to see what is on his chocolate.

I am not sure they quite understand the concept of the advent calender yet. I hope that by the time Christmas is here they will understand. We shall see.

Later in the afternoon, after nap, we decided to go to Perkasie's tree lighting ceremony. They make a big to do with lights ad live music and all sorts of places to shop and such. The kids were very excited to see Santa come. He comes in to light the tree.

Alan and the kids in front of the unlit tree. Paige was trying to crouch down like Daddy.

 While walking around we found some plastic Santa's and snowmen. I asked the kids if they wanted to get their picture taken. Alan decided to take a picture of me with the kids when someone asked if we wanted them to take a picture for us. They did a great job! We have so few of the 5 of us together. I am so happy we got this picture.

We scoped out and got the perfect spot to see Santa arrive as well as the tree being lit. Here we are waiting for him to come!

Santa is here! He came to town on a cherry picker! They had everyone sing Santa Claus is coming to town. It was really neat hearing everyone sing all together.

Getting ready to light the tree.

Going up!

 Counting down to light the tree.

Hooray! The tree is lit!

After lighting the tree Santa Threw candy canes for everyone to catch. The family next to us were old hats at this and were smart and brought their own. They were very nice and gave some to use so that our kids could get some too.

Paige with her candy cane.

When we got home we decided some hot chocolate to warm us up.

With marshmallows!

Levi enjoying his hot chocolate.

Nathan likes it!

Paige thinks it's good!

A perfect way to end our night. Let's hope the rest of December is just as good! :)

Roar!

Turkey day take 2

The day after Thanksgiving (Black Friday) Grandma, Pepaw, and Great Grandma came down for a visit. I of course had to work that morning. I actually enjoy working Black Friday. I keep busy and it is fun to watch all the people out and about. After work I got to do a little shopping and actually got what I want and didn't have to be at the stores at crazy hours to get it! Score! Our visitors arrived later that afternoon. We were going to have our own Thanksgiving the next evening. My first ever Thanksgiving that I cooked! Ah!

I picked up our Turkey at Giant the previous Sunday. It was a little 11 pounder. Perfect for our little Thanksgiving. I used my Giant points so it was free. Gotta love a good deal! The kids each took a turn holding our turkey.

Helping Mommy clean for our company. I figure I need to have them help while they still think it is fun and no bribery is needed. I know some day it will be like pulling teeth to get them to help clean. Fortunately I have proof that they used to willingly help me!

Nathan decided to try on Pepaw's boots. A little big but who knows.....he may grow into them some day!

Of course one boy can't do something without the other needing to do it as well. Levi attempting to walk in Pepaw's boots. He didn't make it very far. I think they may go back to just walking around in my shoes instead. lol.

Saturday afternoon we are relaxing a little after shopping the morning away. They brought down an entertainment unit for us that was left to us by Alan's other Grandmother. That will be a whole different post though so stay tuned!

While the trio napped Daddy and Pepaw put together the entertainment unit. Grandma, and Great Grandma looked at photo albums of our first months with the trio. How time has flown!

Watching some tv on our "new" tv according to the kids!

Great Grandma having a snuggle with Paige :)

Alan carving our Turkey. The rest of dinner is cooking on the stove. Yum!

Aunt Stephanie stopped by to say hi. She got a back massage of hot wheels cars. Lucky girl!

The kiddie table at dinner. I made Mac and Cheese for the kids. Not because it is a Thanksgiving food but because I wanted to eat my dinner somewhat in peace. Since the kids don't really care for meat, or mashed potatoes, or really any Thanksgiving foods mac and cheese it was! They do eat corn bread though so they had some of that too.

The adult table full of yummy goodness.

Here we are all crammed together.

We had a great time with our visit. I also must say that I think for my first Thanksgiving it came out pretty good. The food tasted good. I wouldn't mind doing it again sometime. Perhaps next year we will do it again!

Giving Thanks

Happy Thanksgiving to all! We have just gotten home from a delicious Thanksgiving dinner at my parents house. I am extremely full and ready for the turkey coma to take full affect. I see my bed in the near future! We had a casual day today which consisted of playing with kids, cleaning, laundry, and Alan worked on our roof some. After the kids napped we headed to Grammy and Pop-pop's house for dinner. Yum.

This would be the kiddie table. I gave them a little of everything. They ate Their corn bread, their cranberry sauce, and that's about it. Levi tried the mashed potatoes and a bite of turkey but that is about it. After that the commenced with being noisy and playing with everything they could find. Eating with 3 toddlers is fun! (insert sarcastic tone here) lol

 Here is the adult table. This year Thanksgiving is with the other side of the family for most of us and Christmas is with the whole extended family. Dinner was great with some good company and fun conversation.

 During clean up the kids and Daddy were playing with a box. Isn't this a nice package they brought me?

And then came another one.

And here is a little girl in a box. We made sure we all had a turn. We ended the night with a really good "pumpkin cake" that my cousin Jamie made from a recipe she found on Pinterest. It was so good! Then Jammies and home to bed.

I am so thankful for my family. I don't know where I would be without them. I hope everyone else had a great Thanksgiving and are recovering from the turkey coma nicely. If you are shopping tomorrow on good Friday good luck and be safe. I will be at work watching all the crazies out shopping!

I met a Nimo!

Now before you start questioning my sanity let me explain.

When we were planning our wedding I used a website called The Knot. After The Knot came The Nest which I didn't really use. When I got pregnant I discovered The Bump. I also discovered the world of message boards. Since then I have become a member of several message boards. I only really post on 2. About 2 years ago or so a group of ladies from The Bump formed a chat room on Chatzy. Since chatzy we have moved to a facebook group and have about 16 members.

Today I got to meet one of these wonderful women in person for the first time. It is pretty neat when you can meet someone and talk to them for years and feel like you know them. So when I took the kids to see Jenelle today it was like going to see someone whom I have known forever! I told the kids they were going to meet a new friend today and that is all they have talked about since. They loved playing with their new friend Riley and seeing baby (Emma). We had a great time and we can't wait to do it again! They live a little over an hour away so it's not that bad to go see them!

Miss Emma hanging out and taking in all the toddler madness happening around her.

Nathan offering Emma a toy.

Paige being true to herself found some purses and was carrying them around everywhere with her! She also loved the different seats they had around. She was very excited to sit on the giraffe chair.

Paige was lounging in another fun chair. Riley took a purse from Paige. We are working on our sharing! You have 1 I have 1. :)

Levi playing with Emma.

Riley and Levi are playing with the kitchen stuff. "What's this Mommy?" Which is Levi's current favorite phrase was asked here a couple times.

Levi decided that Emma needed a new toy to play with. So he gave her Simba which is bigger than her!

Turns out Levi was right. She just needed some covers so she could take a little snooze! lol

After a while we went down to the basement to explore. This is the perfect toddler area because there is lots of running room! Levi lined up the pillows here so they could play "nigh nigh" which is a crowd favorite around here.

Run!

We tried to get a picture of all the kids together. The girls were not having it. Ideally I wanted to get a picture of Jenelle with all the kids and then me with all the kids. Well we were trying to wrangle the kids who did not want to be wrangled. I was holding Emma which I did for most of the time I was there. I went to put Emma down and it happened. Baby puke all down the front of me! Yea I was not about to be in any pictures after that!

Here is the best picture I could get of the 4 kids together. Paige was making her escape. Levi looks good though! lol

And then Riley looses it. It is rough to be a toddler I tell you!

Are we done yet? lol

We had a great time and we can't wait to get together again. Jenelle has a gorgeous house and I have decided I will be moving into her tub. :)