Christmas Thus Far

We've had a great Christmas so far. My siblings finally made it on Monday after two canceled flights, and Joe came on the same day. It's so fun to be together again. We have a special sense of humor in our family, and it's nice to be able to express that again without any hesitation. My kids are starting to get in on the humor, too:

Two "cute rollups." Bryan's got the special touch with swaddling my kids.

This was our third visit to Santa, this time at the library. Dottie progressively made her list longer with each visit. I tried to tell her that Santa had already packed his sleigh, but she still had things that she had to let him know about.

Like Jared's shirt? It's because he's secretly Jacob from Twilight.

Elliot escaping from his high chair during Christmas Eve dinner.

My family reenacts the Nativity every year. We really enjoy the dressing up part.

Mary trying to swaddle the Baby Jesus. Baby Jesus isn't sure about that . . .

Elliot changed from Baby Jesus to an angel.

My crazy son. He was torturing Carrie that night. She loved it.

Elliot gives the best hugs. He's my snuggler.

During the Nativity, we received a surprise visit from the incomparable Amanda.

We have a tradition in my family of getting Christmas jammies on Christmas Eve. The kids loved theirs. Although they still didn't want to go to bed.

Christmas morning! My kids got so many fun things. Elliot's laying down on his Zooby toy, one of those stuffed animals that has a blanket inside of it.

Dottie literally played all day with her new toys. The biggest hit was her Strawberry Shortcake Cafe from Uncles Jared and Bryan.

I hope you had a Merry Christmas! Today, my family is picking up the significant others of two of my siblings. We're so excited to get to know them better!

From a Different Perspective

My dad has been taking pictures since we've been here of the kids that are very unposed. In fact, I think he likes to take pictures when they're being naughty or something chaotic is happening. Anyway, I think some of them are good, because they give you a different view of my kids than what I may typically post. In no order, here they are:

When Elliot eats soup, he picks up the noodles and puts them on the spoon.

This is a car trip. Elliot wants something that Dottie has. See my typical mothering face? I'm probably going to say next, "Dottie, stop teasing Elliot with that toy."

"Mom, leave me alone."

Bedtime story with Grandma. One of the perks of being home: more attention for Dottie.

Elliot's singing, "Once There Was a Snowman." He's singing the "tall, tall, tall" part, but his arms don't reach very high.

I can't tell if Dottie's sharing with Elliot, or taking popcorn from him. Let's give her the benefit of the doubt and say she's sharing.

Elliot's really good at getting out of his high chair, standing up, and scaring everyone. This is why he's smiling.

Elliot at the mall: he's already got the bored look down.

This is one of two advent calendars that my kids love to play with. Dottie spends hours with this thing.

Elliot started to get annoyed every time he saw my dad with the camera. This is one of those moments.

"Grandma, get off the phone. Pay attention to me."

"Now I'm just bored."

Do your kids ever look like this in front of the TV? Unfortunately, mine do.

Dottie cut her finger. Oh, the pain.

"See, Grandpa?"

Patiently awaiting lunch.

Whenever I cook, Elliot keeps himself entertained by playing with the measuring cups.

This picture illustrates one of Elliot's "systems." He always is putting things in order. Then, he'll put them back, get them out, and start the process over again. He loves order.

The mastermind of these photos? My papa.

Our Home Away from Home

Yay! We're at Grandma and Grandpa Weed's for Christmas! I came extra early because Joe had a conference, and I thought to myself, "I might as well be with my family longer!" So here we are!

My kids are thrilled to be back. This is probably what they think of as "home" now, since Colorado is now a distant memory in their short lives. We've been in Texas for less time than they lived in Pennsylvania, so things here are much more familiar for them. It's good to be back.

We just got in on Tuesday night. So far, we've lounged around and gone to the mall to visit Santa. I'm excited to have my camera functioning again, so I thought I'd share the pictures of our return:

By the way . . .

I left my camera's charging cord in Pennsylvania. I'm going there in two weeks, so there will be no pictures until then. I probably won't even post unless I have something really exciting to say. I trust you all had a good Thanksgiving?

It was our first one alone. We missed family, of course, but it was kind of relaxing to just kick back in our own house. Except for the waking our children up at 4:30 in the morning part on Black Friday. Yeah, don't ever do that to your young toddler children. Lesson learned.

I did, however, score several good deals. I read an article once on how hitting good sales makes endorphins rush to your brain, giving you a high. I think this is definitely true, for me anyway. I am a sales junkie. I can't give up Black Friday. I can, however, hire a babysitter next year to watch my kids. That'll improve things for sure.

SeaWorld!

We found out from my friend, Heather, that military can go to SeaWorld here in San Antonio FOR FREE once a year. We decided to take advantage before Thanksgiving, Christmas, and more importantly, before the New Year started, so we can go again sometime in 2010. We had such a good time!

There were actually a lot of cool-looking adult roller coasters. But I'm not really a roller coaster fan, and since we had the kids, Joe decided to not ride them as well. Maybe next time . . .

Pink flamingos in the background. Dottie was excited about them. Incidentally, did you know that pink flamingos are pink from eating shrimp?

This is my favorite picture: Elliot with his perma-point on as he looks at the fish.

This was probably the kids favorite thing, the squirty water toys. Isn't crazy that they were able to swim in the middle of November? We brought Dottie's suit, but we didn't think the kids would actually swim, so Elliot just played in his diaper and t-shirt.

Our most memorable experience? We went to a 3D show with special effects at the end of the day. The kids were a little emotionally undone after a full day. So, you can imagine the screaming and crying that happened when they were squirted with water in the face and neck four or five times during the show. Instead of being good parents and removing our kids from the show, Joe and I just laughed.