"Four Christmases" has nothing on us!

Here's Volume 1 of our Christmas 2009 Extravaganza. I'll upload pics of each event. We have a gazillion pictures so I'm just posting a few of us and you can imagine the rest! We started Christmas out with a little time with Aunt Margaret before she left for TX and Robbie was soo excited to open a few gifts. Then off to Christmas Eve morning at Rob & Lisa's (Rob's parents). They go a little crazy at Christmas and we had such a blast hanging out with the family, having breakfast, and opening presents. We still get spoiled like little kids. I can't really explain to you how fun Christmas is unless you have your own kids. Watching your kids giggle and oohhh and ahhh as they open their presents and then jump up and down and scream when they finally get the last wrapping off is so magical.

Christmas Eve night we had some good friends over for dinner. It was a lot of fun to just relax and spend time with our best friends that we don't get to see very often. All five kids were so good and played together really well so Cindy and I could actually have a conversation! A Christmas miracle if you will.

Christmas Morning we got the kids up around 7 and they got to see what Santa brought. Robbie got a new bike and a custom kids set of golf clubs (Which of course every almost-four year old needs.) Elise got a little car to ride (be pushed) in. Along with loads of gifts in the stockings and under the tree from us and my mom and stepdad. Then we headed off to Mona and Papa Boo's for breakfast ....and you guessed it! More presents for the kiddos (and us).

Christmas day we drove down to Tucson to spend a couple days with Pam and David (Rob's other set of parents). And...yes, more gifts. A delicious prime rib dinner and playing the wii. Little Robbie, Rob and David went golfing the day after Christmas and Robbie got to use his new clubs!

From Tucson, we went straight to Flagstaff (yawn...long drive). Rob had a business meeting here Monday and Tuesday and we've been hanging around in our pj's ever since. Monday night we had dinner at my Dad's house with them and....wait for it....more gifts!

Wednesday night we're off to my Mom and stepdad's house for dinner. No more gifts. We're done with that! But Four Christmases has no idea how many Christmases it could be. I think we're up to six. Overall we had a great Christmas vacation celebrating with family and friends and most of all Jesus.

Zoolights

Watching the music/light show.

Rob came home at midnight Thursday night (or Friday morning). We were all so happy to have him home. Saturday night we picked up Aunt Margaret and we all went to Zoolights at the Phoenix Zoo. My mom and her husband bought us a family pass to the Zoo for Christmas and it came with 2 tickets to Zoolights and we also got a discount on additional tickets.

We had a fun time and then got lost in the hood on the way home. Robbie was afraid of the komodo dragon but once again got super excited about the talking giraffe.

Are we there yet?

Rob's gone for another two weeks. Yuck. I'm sure if I was married to someone that I didn't like very much it could be a nice thing that he travels. But I do like him. So it's not a nice thing that he travels. We all miss him so much. This time I made a paper chain for Robbie on the fridge so he could take a link off every morning and count down to the "sleeps" until Daddy comes home.

Today is the first day that I reeeeaaallly feel like, "Are we there yet?" I don't even think I really like my kids anymore. I'm sure deep down I still like them, but just not warm fuzzies. (Don't worry, I still love them--but that's different)

Anyway, the picture above is kind of representative of what Robbie has been up to since his dad has been gone. Shenanigans. That's what. The other day at naptime he colored all over himself with what is supposedly a washable marker because he wanted to be a "bad guy". He was pretty impressed with the results, which is good because it took three days of scrubbing intervals to get the blue marker off.

Three more sleeps people. We can make it.

"Winter Holidays"...whatever

Today I stood in line for what seemed like an hour with my two kids to mail a box to my sister in-law and buy some stamps for the Christmas cards I was about to unknowingly send out with no return address labels...which is just an unfortunate set of circumstances if you ask me. Oh, and I would also like to add that Robbie spilled a cherry limeade in that time AND peed his pants a little bit and then hobbled around the last ten minutes holdiing his crotch because he had to go potty. Oh, and Elise screamed the majority of the waiting period. I LOVE going in public with two kids.

When I got to the counter the woman asked if I'd like the forever stamps or the Winter Holiday stamps. Well, shucks. I'll take the winter holiday stamps of course. Ho Ho Ho! As I looked over the supposed "winter holiday" stamps I was a bit surprised to see a gingerbread man, snowman, nutcracker, and a reindeer. Hmmm...seems to me that I got the CHRISTMAS stamps.

Now, I am not one of those people that is offended by every person, commercial and checkout girl that says "Happy Holidays" to me during the Christmas season. Because I understand that lots of people aren't Christians and don't necessarily celebrate Christmas during the season and there are several other holidays in the same time period. So "Happy Holidays" is cool with me. BUT, if the government is going to deem Hannukah and Kwanzaa holidays that are important enough to necessitate their own books of stamps, then I think it's ok to call the blasted Christmas stamps what they are.... Christmas stamps!!! For the love! I mean they're making a gabazillion dollars off of people who are shipping boxes of CHRISTMAS PRESENTS!

Oh and PS...why the H*#! isn't there a restroom at the post office?

Happy Freakin' Holidays

Elise is juuust loving the Christmas festivities as you can see. This picture just makes me laugh out loud every time. Robbie looks like a little angel (bribery worked), Santa is a picture of Christmas Cheer, Elise looks like I took her birthday away and cut her pinkie toe off as well. The joys of Christmas. Ho, Ho, Ho!

Kids Pics

My friend has a photography business she's just getting started up and she does it in her free time (whatever that means...she has three kids!) So I set up an appointment with her a couple weeks ago to get the kids' pictures taken. I've been meaning to get pictures of Elise taken since she was born....just never got around to it until now. Sarah did a great job with the pics even though Elise wasn't very cooperative, little stinker kept sucking her thumb and pushing Robbie away when he tried to sit by her! Robbie just needed a little bribing because his buddy was there waiting to play on the playground with him and he smiled like a champ.

Check out SEH Photography if you need an affordable family photographer!

Thanksgiving

Happy 2nd Birthday Avi!

Eating and drinking before the real feast.

Well, I guess there's no time like the present. Since Thanksgiving was only a week ago I guess it isn't terribly tacky to upload the three pictures that we took the entire weekend. We had so. Much. Fun. Seriously. My cousin and her husband are in the Marine Corp and they are stationed in Yuma right now so they were able to come, Margaret, my brother and his wife and kids, and some of my mom's friends. My mom and I had done most of the cooking the day before so we actually enjoyed the morning and had very little chaos and stress getting the meal done. We had a great day.

Then came Black Friday. I usually enjoy that. This year I did not. Apparently the economy being in the crapper brought out every single cheap and grouchy person that isn't usually willing to get up before the crack of dawn to get the deals but this year they had to or else their kids weren't getting gifts. The lines were ridiculous. The people weren't very nice and Wal-Mart was a really pointless venture...at least in Flagstaff. However, I did get almost everything on my list and we managed to have an ok-time at it. I am officially done with my sho[pping and now have several projects to complete but that's it.

Friday afternoon we went to the cabin to spend the rest of the weekend with Rob's family. We had so much fun with everyone. Robbie and his cousin Sierra had a blast together and didn't even have enough time away from their fun to bug us or whine which is always a lovely thing to me. Overall the entire weekend was great. The only trouble is that when other people are being responsible and taking pictures of my kids...I don't. So these are truly the only pictures I have of the five days we spent in Flagstaff. My mom and Rob's mom Lisa took lots of pics so maybe someday I'll remember to get the copies from them.

Love

They just love each other. I know they're going to fight and bicker, but I hope they never stop loving each other. It's so much fun to see your kids enjoying one another....and even liking each other. Hmmmm. Makes me happy just thinking about it.

Neighborhood Fun

Elise and "Pickles" playin' around. They're only a couple months apart.

Owen and Robbie strapping on the pads for a 10 second skate!

Aunt Margaret stopped by too.

We have great neighbors. They all seem to have kids our kids' age. Or kids a bit older who like to play with our kids and dog...it works out great! Lately Rob and Jason (next door) have been into doing bonfires in the front yard, which seems somewhat whitetrash-ish but it's really fun and everyone comes out and roasts a weenie or a marshmallow and the kids tire themselves out. Last Friday for the first time....since I can't remember Rob was home early so he took a lawn chair out and Robbie and his bud Owen next door rode bikes, attempted to skate, and did scooters together. Before you know it---the whole neighborhood is out so we all ordered pizza and did another fire. It was fun. I'm thankful for our fun neighborhood!

Happy Birthday Elise!!

Her two favorite gifts!

LOVING the cupcakes!

Swords and guns, what else?

Little Jane. She and Elise are only 2 days apart in age!

Sean and Brecken got these little sequined pink converse for Elise.

Abigail, she's just a couple months younger than Elise.

Cousins. Almost a year apart. They will have so much fun growing up together!

Robbie LOVES "Annianna"

Elise is one today. One year ago today I was in the hospital having a baby, now she's not so baby anymore. I can't believe it. In some ways she seems like just a baby and how in the world can she be one year old already! In other ways I can't really remember life without her. Wierd. She is such a sweet, happy baby and we just adore her. All of us. Robbie looooves his baby sis. Especially when she has a birthday and he gets cupcakes and to play with her new toys! Our neighbors/friends got Elise this little tea set and it is adorable and makes pouring noises when you "pour" your tea and Robbie loves it! He carries it around making me coffee all the time.

We got Elise a little stroller for babies that she can sit on the floor and play with or "walk" behind. However the walking part isn't coming along very well. She will NOT stand up. If we try to hold her hands and help her "walk" she just holds her feet up. She won't put weight on her feet. So, oh well. No need to rush the baby into growing up!

Last weekend we had a little birthday party for her. Or at least it was supposed to be a "little" party. It ended up being a bash with tons of people. I'm not sure our house has recovered yet but it was a lot of fun hanging out with family --and friends who are like family. Sean and Brecken represented the Laizure side. And Margaret and my sister-in-law Ariella and neice Avianna represented the Allaman side. It's so cute to see Elise's "cousins" Zach and Nate who are girl-phobes fall in love with her. They treat her differently than a boy. While Elise was opening her gifts Nate stood there the whole time just watching her and he was so concerned that we weren't going to sing Happy Birthday to her! So, just so you know--we did. Sing, that is.

I made food and we just hung out and it was complete chaos but I think it was fun.

Today, on her actual birthday we aren't doing anything special. She doesn't know yet, so I can get away with nothing. My dad's coming for dinner so I'm sure she'll show him her tricks of rubbing pasta in her hair. Happy Birthday Elise, We love you so much!

Spaghetti

Well, apparently I've been on an un-planned blogging hiatus. I don't really know what has happened to life but it got busy. And now here I am trying to catch up on all my pictures and recipes. Check out my foodblog if you haven't because I just posted the BEST mac-n-cheese recipe.

Anyway, back to the spaghetti. Every American baby is entitled to their crazy spaghetti pictures so here are Elise's. She was having a ball and needless to say needed a bath afterwards! Her favorite thing is clapping her hands so she would take a big handfull of spaghetti and then clap her hands together and then rub them in her hair. Too funny.

Of course Robbie needed to have his picture taken too while eating his spaghetti!

Almost One

Our baby girl is about to turn one. It seems shocking that it's almost been a whole year! But then wierd that she's only been in our lives for a year too. We love her. She is such a happy girl. Now that she's crawling she is basically dusting the wood floors with her belly all the time because she just drags herself along, so her clothes are impossible to get clean. I can't wait for her to walk because she so badly wants to play at the park and go outside with Robbie! BUT then I know I won't get any rest for a looonnng time once she does. These are just a couple pics of her being her happy little self.

Halloween-palooza

The neighbor gang!

Go Go Power Rangers, Joey & Elijah

Hannah and Jesse stopped by too!

Here's one for the wedding video

Lady's Man

Rob and I dressed as Super Heroes for an adult party the week before. Robbie wanted to join in too.

Grandma and Grandpa Trick-or Treating

Nothing but the healthiest of snacks for my kids.

The happy little fairy

Spiderman was a very popular costume this year!

Halloween week was really something to count down for. Every day we kept track of "sleeps" until the big day. On Thursday Robbie was talking to my mom on the phone and he said, "Grammy what are you being for Halloween? Just Sheri?"

Halloween was a grand celebration this year. It's always a drag for everyone when the day finally comes and then the kids have to wait ALL day to put on costumes and do trick or treating and then go straight to bed. So, my friend Cindy had an idea to do a little Halloween Carnival for the kids during the morning to help kill the day. It was so much fun! Leading up to the grand event Robbie kept asking "When's Aunt Cindy's birthday party?"

She went possibly a tiny bit overboard but it was adorable and she had so many great ideas of cute little Halloween games. Then the kids got a "prize bag" when they completed all of the games and ate lunch and decorated cookies and ate cupcakes and ran around the cul-desac like a bunch of wild animals AND most of all, took reeeaaallly long naps on a day when they would've talked through their naps out of excitement!

Thanks for the par-tay Cindy!

Then Grandma and Grandpa came (Rob's mom Pam and her husband) from Tucson.

Then we had a block party.

Then we went trick-or-treating.

Then we had a bonfire and the kids ate entire buckets of candy.

A little much I know, but hey--it was fun and we got to meet some new neighbors and hang out with the ones we already know! The kids all looked adorable. At one point while trick-or-treating (to a whole five houses) Robbie said, "Hey...there's a train!" Ran up to a kid he'd never met and said, "Hey dude! Nice costume!" Pretty hilarious