Christmas 2010- warning- it's a long one!

This Christmas went like this:

A Gingerbread house was constructed and decorated, apparently the decorators uniform was clothing optional!

Mary made an appearance again, this time wearing mommy's sweater riding on a unicorn - uh I mean donkey.

There was an ugly christmas sweater party that either of us could have won first prize in. Can you read James' sweater? It says Feliz Navid. Clearly it's maker (our neighbor) has issues with spelling. It should say Feliz Navidad. Can you also see the burro dressed as a reindeer? Seriously, this was a quality christmas sweater.

(ummm while at this party I was talking with a few of my younger girlfriends when some dumb teenage boy walked up and asked if I was their mother????!!!?? Yup, I was having babies at 12. Maybe the sweater threw him off? )

Some of us wore wigs while pretending to be Rapunzel, courtesy of Aunt Harmony.

We put on our Christmas best and stood nice for Mommy in front of the tree.

Group shot!

Our only family shot of this Christmas.... well at least we tried.

The Grinch made an appearance....

and someone got a new bike!

Someone else's dreams came true in the form of a tower. She prayed for God to shrink her so she could go in.

This lucky boy's Christmas dreams came true in the form of dragons. He's pretty excited.

There was a wedding,

that one of us was in. Isn't he handsome?

My newest girlfriends... aren't they cute??

Our big girl lost her front tooth right after Christmas !

We spent some time listening to music....

And saw a 3D movie!

And that's a few highlights of our Christmas!

Next, Happy New Year!

Mermaid

With all the rain passing through here that last few weeks, I know someone who was quite giddy to break out her new rain gear. Oh, did you not recognize Capri? You thought it was a mermaid didn't you? Nope, silly you. She's just wearing a mermaid raincoat, boots and umbrella!

Hurt, plus Christmas news

My poor baby got hurt.

She was standing innocently on the kindergarten playground for Capri's class Christmas party when a little girl accidentally knocked her down. Onto her face. Let's repeat that for dramatic measure. Onto. her. face.

James rescued her immediately and began first aid..... cleaning up the blood off the bad scratches on her nose.

After a while, her cheek/eye area started swelling up. So, my poor baby had to take a trip to the school nurse. This picture does not do the injury justice. The school nurse said she might have black eye tomorrow! Poor baby!

But, that poor baby of mine is one tough cookie. She has not complained or cried since the incident. She shook it off fairly quick.

She looks so much like her brother here it's freaky....

Well, in other happier news, Capri got an EZ bake oven for her birthday. She loves it! I let her stay up late to use it so her siblings couldn't barge in & try to take over (they do that to her a lot).

Along the Christmas related front, Capri played the part of "sheep" in her class' production of the Nativity. The rules were that I had to "make" her costume from things we pretty much already had. Harder than I thought, but it turned out good enough.

Here she is practicing her perfect "baaa".

Then, the aforementioned Christmas party today.

JD joined right in with the Kindergarten boys... playing tag, running around, eating, etc. He even addressed the teachers and was asking them for help with stuff.

Clearly my kids think school is primarily for raising your hand. Every time they had to sit down they both put their hands in air as if they had questions. This happened like 4 times.

Capri had to stand on the center table for her classmates to sing "Happy Birthday" to her and the rest of the December birthday kids. Not sure she loved that.

Like I said before, JD made himself at home. He even got the teachers to teach him how to use chopsticks.

Last on the list before Christmas vacation was a story. Tella tried to work in, but she just couldn't make it last. She faced the wrong way, and was bored immediately.

JD was rumored to have made some Kindergarten boys mad because he took their spot on the carpet. Didn't bother him much, he just wanted to be in on the action. The good news is at this point he decided to keep his hand down!!

And lastly, Happy Birthday to my FIL Jeff! Hope it's a good one Dad!

A Photo Shoot for Grandma

A photo shoot for Grandma.

It's only fitting, since Grandma supplied the outfits. Literally hand-making their shirts in fabric from our favorite Christmas movie, and in record time to boot!

I threatened to withhold doughnuts for non-participants. It worked, somewhat....

Somehow we ended up on the floor....

But look at the pretty face I captured.

Eventually, I gave up on the baby. She was the problem all along.

Thats a Squinkie in Capri's hand. She got it for her birthday.

How cute is this one????

And, here's that trouble-causing baby....

One last one of the birthday girl....

who loved her boots, in spite of the oppressive heat wave she wore them in.

THANK YOU GRANDMA!!!!!

Those are pretty good looking kids, if I do say so myself!

Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving 2010.

Capri's party at school. She is thankful for her bed, bunny, and toys.

Her Thanksgiving party was the first time I got to see her interact with her classmates. All the girls kept calling her over to play, but in typical Capri fashion she blew them off to play her own game! She does have one little boy that she really likes to play with, Ethan R. They're quite a pair, those two!

The night before Thanksgiving we drove up to Big Bear to my parent's cabin. Here we are for breakfast on Thanksgiving day. The kids love the cabin.

Nevermind the fact that it was freezing inside...... the heater broke the night before!

We did manage to stay warm, by layering,

having a fire going at all times, and a small but powerful space heater. Did I mention the kids love the cabin, and the snow?

They also love sledding! The cabin is on a double lot so there's lots of room to sled and play!

We made snow angels....

and tripled-up on the sled.

I tried to get a picture of me & James since it's dawned on me that we have NONE. Well, we have one. But I was pregnant with our first baby and that was 6 years ago. We've, um, aged a little since then. And I'm sporting a new hair color since then too .... but this is the best I got.

I like it.

Six things I'm sharing on Saturday

1. I have new hair! Hooray! My MIL gave me the gift of "new hair" for my birthday and I just got around to getting it. I spent a lovely day in Newport Beach, lunching with my MIL at Panera, having great conversation, and coming out looking way better. Now if you'll just look past the lack of lipstick in this picture.

2. The rain today caused us to pull out our Christmas decor just a few days early. Usually we wait and wait. But this year, we'll be gone over Thanksgiving. We're going to the cabin in Big Bear to have our feast. So, we pulled it out early. And it kept us busy most the day. Eventually it looked like this.... watching the Grinch.

3. Rudolph is a big deal here. I've posted about that before. I hesitate to tell you this, but at Build A Bear they have Rudolph, Clarice & the Humble Bumble...... with all the clothes, shoes, accessories, AND THEY TALK TO EACH OTHER! Soo cute. I didn't want to tell you in case you buy them all out. Unless, you are one of our grandma's, then of course you have permission to buy as many as you like! Ha ha!

4. Capri's always loved hats. She's been wearing them for years now. I find that hilarious.

5. Tella grabbed this Christmas babydoll immediately. Doesn't my baby look big suddenly?

6. A Christmas preview. Bought these stockings last year after Christmas from PBK. LOVE 'em. They are perfect for my kids and I've been dying to put them up. Starting at the bottom of the stairs, the reindeer with the hearts is for my valentine baby Donatella. Perfect. Hanging in the middle is a reindeer football player. No explanation needed, clearly it's JD's. Perfect. And hanging at the top is the princess reindeer, for our resident princess, Capri. Perfect again.

Happy Saturday!