'twas the night before Christmas and all through the house not a creature was stirring, not even a mouse!



We are all set for a very merry christmas in the morning! I can not wait to see Kendall and Beckett's faces as they see what Santa has brought them!



I am also so very excited to help sing Happy Birthday to Baby Jesus with Kendall tomorrow. Sometimes, the true meaning and reason behind Christmas gets lost with the jolly old man in the red coat. Singing happy birthday to Jesus is now a family tradition that I hope my kids will never be 'too cool' to do.
I am incredibly blessed for everything and everyone I have in my life. I am so thankful. I hope every one of you who takes the time to read this blog about my family has a very merry Christmas and an even more joyous new year full of love and laughter.
Cheers! And Merry Christmas!

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

In need of a clothes line, I guess.

Shamu came with gifts tonight - though he could have put them away in a closet or drawers or someplace other than the dining room chandelier! Crazy guy! He came with a letter from Santa which requested the kids wear them on Christmas Eve. Hopefully since Santa has made this request, our opinionated and stubborn 3 year old will happily go along with this...only because santa said, of course!



- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Direct from Santa

The other night, when Shamu went back up to the North Pole to give Santa the daily report, Santa actually gave Shamu something to bring back to Kendall. Somehow Santa knew that Kendall had not received her Christmas ornament for this year. (family tradition - new ornament every year for everyone.)
So, Santa wrote Kendall a letter and sent that letter and the ornament back to our house with Shamu.
Kendall wasn't quite sure what to think of this early gift from Santa, but she was excited to hang her new ornament on the tree!



- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Where's Waldo? How about Where's Shamu?!

For the very first time, we have introduced Elf on the Shelf to Kendall this holiday season. She named him shamu. Silly girl.
Today was the second day she got to look for him. She didn't totally understand yesterday morning that she was suppose to look for him. But today...was so cute! I happened to be downstairs making coffee when she woke up and instead of going in to our room as she usually does first thing, she came right downstairs and started calling for Shamu! She totally got it!
And this is where she found him hiding out...



I'm looking forward to all of the other places Shamu finds to hang out in each day!

Happy Holidays!

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Beckett's First Birthday

Beckett turned 1 on November 16!  I cannot believe it has been a year having Mr. Beckett in our lives!  He is such a true joy - LOVE HIM!

We had a very quiet day on his actual birthday - as we were saving all of the excitement for Saturday when we had the big celebration! 



This was taking on his birthday morning.  He LOVES balloons.  His entire party was about blue, green, balloons, circles/polka dots - so it was necessary to give him some green balloons to play with on his actual birthday day ;)







 Photo Garland I made.  Turned out awesome!

 The birthday boy having fun at his party!

 

It was so fun making this collage of Beckett!  So fun to reminisce!

 He did NOT like the flame or cupcake!  (But hopefully it's not because I made them!)

We love you SO much, Beckett Wayne.  You teach me something new every day.  You've been really focusing a lot lately on teaching me patience, too - so hopefully we can move past that one soon.
Happy Birthday Bud. 

Last night of being 0

My baby boy turns 1 tomorrow!!! What a year we have had! He is such an amazing little boy - we are so blessed to call him 'ours'! I can't wait to celebrate his big day tomorrow and at his very 'first' birthday party Saturday.



Last night as a 0 year old!


- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

The Past 2 months...

Clearly, I have not been very good at updating this thing recently. I had a little extra time on my hands tonight so I'd thought I'd post a quick (or rather long) montage of our past 2 months. They have been busy - that's for sure!

We went to San Diego for 2 weeks in September. It was an amazing trip. We went with my parents, which was so great for MANY reasons! This is a pic of the kids during their first bath on vacation...

One of the many cool and cloudy days we had down there. This was in Del Mar, I think.

Kendall was so brave on all of the rides we went on. She kept wanting everyone to do "no hands".

We took Kendall up to Disneyland for a special trip - just the 3 of us. It was awesome to spend such quality time with her where she was the ONLY one we had to focus on.

No Hands

Daddy's future in about 12 1/2 years. Scary.

We celebrated our 4 year wedding anniversary while down in CA. Date night!

Kendall turned 3 years old just 3 days after we got back from our long vacation. This is now one of her prize positions...her very own cell phone - from who else - but her GM/GF Emily and Sam.

We gave her a Balance Bike as her 'big' present. She hasn't had a lot of time to practice, but she loves to ride it when we can go outside.

Beckett turns ONE next Wednesday. Can't believe it. This was the picture I used for his party invitations. Can he get any cuter???

Kendall is in a "Dancing with Disney" class. Loves it.

Kendall just started swimming lessons, too...

Halloween morning. Beckett's first ever Halloween. Beckett is not sure what is going on. 'Why is Big Sister Kendall in my crib and why is she wearing Christmas jammies when I'm wearing the appropriate spider web jammies?'

I'm an Aunt! My brother and Sarah had my niece, Veronica in October.

Beckett's favorite thing to do. Play with the granola bars in the pantry

We have been busy busy busy! Looking forward to a rather quiet Thanksgiving and getting the holiday season in full swing. I love this time of year!

I hope it was be another 2 months before my next update.

Because I am writing this on Veteran's Day, I would like to thank all of you service men and women past, present and future for all you do for my love ones and myself.