Christmas Eve and Cookies for Santa

Christmas Eve started out as pretty regular feeling day until about 2pm. While the kids were napping Derrek and I started to get ready for church. We were headed to the 4pm children's service at our church. This service is great because it is of course kid friendly and doesn't last nearly as long as a regular service. They even had cake at the end of it in honor of Jesus's Birthday! It was a great service and the kids did a good job staying close and relatively quiet :)

When we got home Derrek's mom and brother had been busy cooking dinner. I have a thing about dressing up for Christmas Eve and everyone was nice enough to humor me. We also ate in the dining room on my Spode China. We dont get fancy very often but it really is so much fun when we do. After eating our fabulous dinner of prime rib (YUM!!) I changed the kids into their jammies and they got to open all their presents from their Aunts, Uncles, Grandparents etc... We do these gifts on Christmas Eve so that we can keep them separate from Santa gifts on Christmas Day. Everyone was also nice enough to humor me with a photo shoot too :)

My gorgeous girl (this dress was so cute b/c it had a little bell attached to the bottom inside and every time she moved it jingled)

Me and my babies

My little family

Derrek, Mason and Wesley (Derrek's brother)

Not sure why I have no pictures of them opening their gifts that night but oh well. After all was said and done and Samantha was in bed, Mason and I got to work on making cookies for Santa.

Here we are on the kitchen floor getting it all set up

Separating our cookies (they were actually brownie bites) heehee

Mason was in bed by the time they came out of the oven so I put them on my Spode Cookies for Santa plate and left them out for the big guy. We had a great Christmas Eve with family and hope eveyones was just as good.

Boot Camp Christmas Party and a Train ride in Manvel

Here I am again running WAY behind on my blogging. Ah well :) This past summer (aka summer 2010) I was invited by my friend Amanda to start working out with some mommies she had met at a playgroup at Womens Hospital. They call it boot camp (and for good reason heehee) and it is done in the garage of one of the mommies. First of all let me just say that I LOVE this group of ladies!! They are so sweet, so easy to get along with and just all around FUN! Since school started I have not been able to attend boot camp very much b/c they start at 8am and Mason has to be at school by 8:30am. However, since I am still considered part of the group I still get invited to all the extra things that they do, thus our Boot Camp Christmas Party. Amanda graciously hosted and even recruited her brother to play Santa. All the kids in this group are Samantha's age so we knew that having Santa in the house was risky but I have to admit it turned out to be the most hilarious moment of the entire party (you will see why in a bit). We even had gifts for Santa to hand out and they still were not having it. Anywho, we had great food, great company and a great party all around.

The favorite toy of the night was the purple ball

Our attempt at trying to get a picture of just the kids haha

All the Boot Camp mommies and their babies. I am the only one with 2 kids but hopefully by the end of 2011 that will no longer be the case :)

Samantha's ruffle butt bloomers are so cute I had to post a picture

Mason with Santa

Samantha with Santa HAHAHAHA!!! This is basically what ALL the kids looked like when they were up there with him. All we (the parents) could do was laugh uncontrollably. I hope we haven't damaged them for life :)

The next day I took the kids out to the Manvel Library b/c they were doing a Polar Express Day. First we went to story time where they read The Polar Express and then they had a little train for the kids to ride out in the parking lot. Our good friends the Smith's met us out there to ride the train and fun was had by all. Well almost all!

Here they all are waiting for their turn

Here is what the little train looked like. I think its pretty cute.

Mason and Samantha in the Caboose of the train. See how Samantha is trying to make a get away? She is the "almost all" in the above fun statement.

Taking their 1st ride

Barrett and Mason taking ride #2.

A big thanks to my moms group for letting us know about this cute little event. We had so many fun things going on this holiday season. It was nice to stay busy and have the month pass quickly to get us to the big day :)

Christmas Train

My goodness I am so behind on my blogging :) On December 16th Derrek and I took the kids down to Alvin to ride the Christmas Train at Living Stones Church. To make this event even better our good friends The Smith's went with us. Mason was so excited that he was going to get to take a train ride (kid loves riding trains heehee). Anyways, it was a cute and inexpensive christmas activity for us and fun was had by all. When you got there they had snacks that you could purchase and a little ( i do mean little) shop that you could browse through. In the back of the buildign they had Santa's wonderland set up for pictures with Santa.

Here is my attempt to get a picture of the kids with the pretty decorations. Samantha is very hard to photograph these days. Child does not want to stand still.

We went and bought our tickets and waited for our color to be called (all the tickets were color coordinated to specific times that the train ran).

Here is Mason showing me his ticket

Hunter, Mason and Barrett standing in front of a decorative train holding their tickets.

We were the second train ride of the night so once we realized that it was almost our turn we headed outside to wait for our color to be called. It wasn't long after we got outside that we were able to get on the train, but how cute do they all look waiting patiently in their rocking chairs?:)

This is the one and only picture I have once we got on the train b/c my camera died but here they are all excited and ready to go :)

The train ride was about 12 minutes long and it drove us through a bunch of light tunnels and scene set ups of gingerbread homes and nativity scene's. The kids loved all the lights and made it a point to scream out every single thing they saw. haha.

The church has a pizza parlor on site too so after our ride we all went over and had some pizza. It was a great family fun night with great friends. We will definitely be going back next year :)

Hope you all had a safe and happy holiday!!

Attending our first Christmas program

Now that Mason is in Pre K-3 its a little bit more like real school instead of just mothers day out. So this year his class got to participate in a Christmas program. Wahoo!!! I was finally getting to attend my first program for my son. I was so excited!! Would he sing? Would he cry? Would he pick his nose? haha I was very pleasantly surprised to see that he did sing and he did all the hand motions that went with the songs. They only sang 4 little songs b/c lets face it, when you are trying to get 20 or so 3 year olds to stay still and sing while their parents are watching you gotta make it short and sweet. I have yet to figure out how to get my video camera to transfer to my computer but here are some pictures of the day.

He was actually front and center

Giving a little wave :)

Smiling it up

The best I could get of the two together

My handsome boy. I was bit shocked that he agreed to wear the reindeer sweater but I am glad he did b/c he looked so cute!!

Happy Holidays!!

Our new Winter trend

Now that it has gotten a little bit chilly outside we have had to cover some little heads. But dont worry it has not stopped me from still putting bows on Samantha's head :) Thus our newest winter trend

Funny thing is that I thought that everybody did this, but we have gone multiple places where people have commented about what a great idea it is to get a hat that you can still attach bows too. Look at me starting a trend that I'm pretty sure already exists. haha :)

Stay warm friends!

Where's Samantha?

I was sitting at the dinner table talking to my mother in law the other night and we were lost in conversation. Mason was up stairs and I had seen Samantha walk into the den and didnt think much of it. So in the middle of our conversation my mother in law asks "Where's Samantha?" my first response was that I had put her to sleep but then I remembered that I hadn't so we get up b/c it was really quiet in the whole house and I say " I saw her come into the den" and low and behold she was going through my whole wallet and pulling EVERYTHING out.

(i had pictures but you could see on of my Credit cards and my license which is not safe on the internet :) )

But, oh what fun rummaging through mommy's wallet can be :) I kid you not she was perfectly silent for like 15 minutes just going through all of this stuff. I have to admit that it was pretty funny. So if ever want to entertain your child...j/k this is so not my recommendation of how to do it :)

A family photo shoot

We have never had a family photo shoot (crazy I know) so needless to say it was definitely time. Lucky for me I have two talented friends who were running a holiday special. A full session with Amy Garret of Sweet Pea Photography and a christmas card created by Julie Melancon of Sweet Petite Designs . Both Ladies did an amazing job. I loved them all but here are some of my most favorite shots.

The picture at the top of the blog is also one of my favs. Thank you again Amy and Julie!!