Christmas Eve

What does Christmas Eve mean to you? Do you remember it as a child? I hadn't really thought about the anticipation and excitement until this year. Rory really gets it, Arden was old enough to be excited and understand what was happening, and it was Canyon's first Christmas.

Our Christmas Eve was a night (whole day actually) filled with anticipation, excitement, and love. It was really cool!

Mom decided that there would be no naps today. Aren't I nice? The boys thought so! (Believe it or not it wasn't b/c I wanted to be nice. It was a calculated plot to make sure that Rory actually went to sleep and stayed in bed, Arden too.)

At 5, we ate dinner with our neighbors, who really have become a part of our family. There are times that I think I would go nuts without the love and support that Deb offers us.


Then we tracked Santa on the computer to see where he was, and at 7, it was time to go to Christmas Eve Service. Which was the first service our boys have sat through... it was... well... long for the boys, but absolutely beautiful for me. Our minister has an amazing voice that I hadn't heard before, and the church members are all so loving and accepting. It was nice to spend Christmas Eve there remembering what the holiday truly is about.

Christmas Eve also means that the boys get to open one present, specifically picked by mama, but from MamaAnn. This is Canyon's first present,


and the boys were excited to open them:



What was it you ask?


Matching footie PJs for Christmas! Thank You MamaAnn! We know they were hard to find!

Aren't they adorable?


After this, it was time for everyone to go to bed and wait until daylight to see if Santa actually came...

Santa Claus, Popcorn Balls, and Critter Holes...

That was our morning! We had a blast this morning. We got up early to head to the park to go see Santa Claus.

Santa must have had a late night, because he was 45 minutes late in arriving to the park to meet and greet the crowd of children waiting to take their photos and sit on his lap...

The boys passed the time well. We found Santa's mail box and deposited our letters...





While we were waiting, Rory and Arden climbed on the rock fixtures, ran around, and met other children. It was really fun for all of us...


Canyon hung out with his dad:


A nice elf even handed out popcorn balls to the kids:



I think that the "critter holes" Rory found were more of a hit than the old man himself!


But here is Jolly Old Saint Nick in all his glory, with my 3 beautiful boys.

Mommy Wants to Kiss Santa Claus...

Underneath the Christmas Tree...

Can you blame me? Look at this Jolly Ole Elf! He is just totally kissable (and sitting on his own I might add):




By the way, how on earth does one sleep under a Christmas Tree?

Holiday Photos!

I took a few, I'm not overly please with any, but I figured, what the heck.

What Else?

So today was one of those days.

It started with Carl needing to have a quiet house so the boys and I were going to run around and do some things. So on the way to the bank, my phone starts power cycling.

No big deal, it is new, under warranty, and I had a few questions about it anyhow, so why not go by and ask right? I run by the house, grab a snack for the boys and get my other phone to transfer the info from and go. I needed to go to the discount store next door to get cinnamon for Rory to make decorations, it will all work out perfectly and we will be home in an hour...

Or so I thought.

We go in to the cell phone store, and it is looking good, no one is in there, no lines, quick and easy...

Nope, didn't quite happen that way. It took 3 hours.

My old phone is FRIED, nothing is recoverable from it. The new phone is a Friday at 5 model, and is crappy. Arden had a melt down, the baby has his first poop in 5 days (which went EVERYWHERE), and then Arden pooped, and then I had to get a loaner phone while mine is sent back in.

Then we had to go to the store next door still, that took a while b/c Arden was refusing to walk, and throwing a fit... we were completely melted down freaking out by the time we got home.

Ugh, whoever said having 3 kids was easy, is full of it.

Shhhhh... I Have a Secret

I got Rory a pass for the local nature center for his birthday!! Today was absolutely beautiful and we are expecting rain (YEY) over the next week or so, and that meant we had to go today if we were going to go this week.

We used his pass today (but he didn't know that, lol) to go and see the Christmas display, which really was just Camels. Their names were Blue and Glory. (I'm not sure which one this is).


The hit of the day ended up being Oscar the Otter and the not camels. Oscar and his girl friend (Olive?) came out to visit us and kept posing and flirting with the boys:


And here are a few otters that I brought home with me...




Here are 2 more shots, we had a blast!

Christmas Tree, Oh Christmas Tree...

We went tree hunting today, Mama Ann helped us pick out the perfect tree...

Here are some previews; we aren't decorating until Carl gets home from Cali. (Canyon slept the whole time, so no pics of him with his first tree just yet.)

The Holidays are coming...

And that means presents for little boys and girls...

We got our first international custom Lil' Hucker order this past month.

I packed this guy up and shipped him overseas this morning:

Cold December Nights...

The temperatures have dropped, the snow is falling, and the frost is showing up in the mornings... that means it is December!

Cold weather means hot meals! I made chili (a staple at our house) with my first attempt at skillet corn bread! Not too shabby for a vegan meal!

Gobble Gobble

Turkey, Potatoes, Gravy. Stuffing... mmmmmmm the smell and taste of the holidays.



Thank you Val and Carl for the wonderful dinner and everything.




Dinner was great, the women rocked at Trivial Pursuit and Scrabble... although the guys held their own...

We enjoyed going to the park, and hanging with Tom and Dena too.

Happy Thanksgiving!

We had a small Thanksgiving tonight but will be having our "real" Thanksgiving on Saturday when Carl's brother and his girl friend/partner, Dena, arrive.

But today we stuffed ourselves (pun intended) on ham, rolls, potato salad and beans. It was delicious. Val did an awesome job!

After dinner as we were sitting here, I mentioned that I was "full". Rory quickly responded with "full of what mom?" Where the heck does he get this?????

I forgot my camera.

Yup. Me. I forgot my dang camera today.

Grammy and DadDad took us to Pittsburgh to the Carnegie Museums. It was a blast!

Gruncle Dave met us, we had a great lunch, and saw Dinosaurs!

Grammy took some pics, I hope to upload them soon.

6 Months

Where has it gone? The last 6 months have flown by and I am sitting here looking at my "newborn" who is now over 6 months old... my baby Arden is now 2 and a half... and my first baby will soon turn 5 (yeah, 5 FREAKING YEARS OLD) how did this happen?

They are growing like weeds! If Rory doesn't stop growing soon, he is going to bankrupt me on shoes and clothes... and Canyon, geeze-o-peeze. he is already in 12 month clothes and quickly approaching the end of that size.

I took a few pics of Canyon to share... I will be posting some of Grammy and DadDad, and of our trip soon! Enjoy.