Christmas Part 2

So...we left off at Christmas "Eve", which was Dec 23rd around the Moseley household. hahaha... they'll never know the truth... =)
It was kind of nice to have a VERY laid-back Christmas around here, things were quiet and peaceful for the most part. It was fun that both Elise and Ainsley fully 'got' Christmas. They had fun watching the movies, we talked a lot about Santa AND Jesus, we did lots of little stuff as a family, and they went to bed GIDDY on Christmas Eve. Adam and I were up early on Christmas morning, sooo excited to celebrate with the kids. After making coffee, setting up the last of the gifts, making sure the casserole was ready for the oven, we had to WAKE UP the kids around 8am. Ha! that probably won't happen for too many years.
They came down, raided the living room, and it was a blast. They really had so much fun helping EACH OTHER open presents, explain gifts to each other, play together for a few minutes, etc... it wasn't the crazy free-for-all I'm-more-selfish-than-you-are kind of madhouse. They were actually fairly patient, loving, and joyful. yay. maybe we're doing SOMEthing right... probably not much, but I'll take any little morsel some days. =)

Elise loved her safety glasses for when she's helping Adam in the woodshop. She wore them around for probably an hour and really does love to build stuff down in the basement with Daddy. She's also showing off new lip gloss in each sweaty fist.

Ainsley was ecstatic about a new gymnastics leotard.
She put it on soon after opening it and it stayed on most of the morning, too. side note: it was about 20 degrees outside. =)

These two are little partners-in-crime. Good thing they're so cute, too...

After things wound down a little, Mommy and Daddy opened gifts, we read some books, and just hung out by the fire all morning.
It was a great, relaxing, fun Christmas! We left the next morning (actually December 25th) and drove to Folly Beach, SC to celebrate Christmas with the Martin side of the family...so, that'll be the next post.

Christmas Part 1

So, we 'cheated' this year and changed Christmas by a day... probably the last year we could ever do this...kids will be too smart by next year. We had planned on traveling on Christmas Day to visit my family at a beach house in South Carolina, so we made December 24th "Christmas Day" in the Moseley household and it was fun. It was like our own little secret and we had to sequester the kids for about 2 days beforehand, just so that a neighbor kid wouldn't say, "Hey, I can't wait until Christmas in 3 days..." and then our kids would be confused and wonder why Santa was coming to our house in 2 days instead...so, we planned crafts (the Snowmen from the last post), lots of baking, cooking, wrapping presents, watching Christmas movies, etc... it was adorable and fun and sweet and I loved every minute of it. well, the minutes that I wasn't screaming at a kid about one more spilled bottle of craft paint, another necessary trip to Kroger (really!?! How can one family go to Kroger THAT many times in a week!?! unreal...)... but, I still loved it. Enjoy some pictures...less than 2 months late. =)

They were all sweet and happy BEFORE the Gingerbread house construction began. It got a little cut-throat as we went on...

little-man Mitchell was very curious, but didn't want to sit still long enough to work on it WITH us...
...someone sampled LOTS and LOTS of icing.

They worked so hard on the house. it was precious!

We made lots of sugar cookies. =) the idea was to give them to neighbors, but I can't remember if we did that or not...ha!

GOOFY FACES!

Everyone 'ready' on Christmas Eve with the plate of treats for Santa and Elves!
We ran outside right before bedtime and sprinkled "Reindeer food" on the lawn...just so they would be nourished in the midst of their long night of work... =) and we did have to go back out on "Christmas" morning to see if the food had been eaten by Santa's hooved friends!

Christmas Snowmen...

Just to keep in chronological order, here we go:

I saw this in a cute kid-crafty magazine and it made for a fun activity in that pre-Christmas week off school. I don't remember where Mitchell was during this event... because he definitely would've wreaked havoc on our 'work'.... maybe it was afternoon and he was still napping. Regardless, we had some friends over in "Santa's Workshop" in the basement working on their own family Christmas items from the woodshop, so we set up our craft 'table' in the kitchen and had fun. It will be fun to pull them out next year and remember our sweet little afternoon together. =)

So simple:

Take some plastic bottles and cut the bottom off so they'll sit upright more stable.

Grab a couple kids that like to make messes and growl at the camera:

Rip up a piece of white tissue paper, make a mix of Elmer's glue and water to use as 'paste'.... use craft brushes to attach a layer or two of tissue paper to the bottle, and let it dry.

Use a black marker to color the lid or cover with a piece of fabric or construction paper. Then attach some beads to make the face, a piece of ribbon to go around the middle, and...voila! A cute little craft.

And, remember, I am NOT crafty. But I had ALL of this around the house and it only took about 20 minutes to make and then 20 minutes to dry before adding the beads and ribbon. SO CUTE!!

Add back in the two sweet girls who were SO proud of their creations!

Ainsley's awesome new 'thing'

Geh...I'm so far behind again...but I refuse to get out of chronological order...so before (ha!) I get to Christmas, I'll do the next blog that I've had in the wings for about 6 weeks now.

And it revolves around Ainsley. no big surprise there. She's been the most entertaining one in the house lately. ESPECIALLY relating to naptime/bedtime/sleeping.

This was last month during afternoon rest-time. Ainsley has pretty much given up all sleeping, but still needs to rest quietly for 2 hours in her bed. and mommy needs a break for a couple hours, so we're going to keep this pattern going as long as we can!

I kept watching on the video monitor and didn't see or hear anything for about an hour, so I assumed she was at the foot of the bed, which was out of the frame of the video. I took my camera upstairs JUST IN CASE. I figured that she'd fallen asleep near the end of the bed and I'd go in to cuddle a little to wake her up and get a sweet shot of sleeping Ainsley.

When I opened the door, I heard a little giggle. A "ohh...she's finally here and I'll stay totally quiet" kind of giggle. I put the camera up to my eye and STILL couldn't find her...
and then I did:

look closely. See her? don't cheat and look down at the next picture....








Oh yeah. There she is. Almost-four-year-old Ainsley smooshed up inside her pillowcase and had been quiet and still for AN HOUR...


and she was giggling like crazy that I had found her.
This picture included because you get an idea of how big she really is as she UNFOLDED herself from the confined space. it was like a clown car...
I had to re-hydrate her a bit after that, too. She'd sweated out a couple pounds while in there.
and, ps-Paul... check out the size of her feet in this. sweet baby Sarah comes by it naturally... =)


The next few are also Ainsley in relation to her newest (but not even remotely her only) obsession. Her sheets and comforter. HAVE TO STAY NEAT and TIDY. They have to. She refuses to go to sleep under the covers b/c then the 'system' would be messed up. At first, I was a little frustrated and forced her under the covers...but after a few days, I quit. It doesn't really matter, does it? If she gets cold enough, she'll get under the covers. maybe.
This was last night. She was curled up (once again) in a tiny ball just so she could avoid wrinkling up the top quilt. Also, our furnace is broken. So there's no heat upstairs. And it was 22 degrees overnight last night. But we wouldn't want to mess up the covers...

This was last week. Her new sleeping bag (Xmas gift from Super Uncle Kelly) couldn't be messed up either.
I know I took a couple more pictures, but I can't find them. The kid is awesome and quirky and a total riot.

DISNEY

After a year (or maybe 5) of saying, "we're so NOT Disney-people" to anyone who would listen... we became Disney people and had a GREAT two days there in November. TOOO TOOO TOOO much joy to explain. I would do it again with the girls (Adam... he would probably not do it again). Or at least wait a couple years until Mitchell could enjoy it and kids could actually survive w/o naps or rest-time... although going back to the hotel mid-day was awesome for the adults to rest, too!
We did one full day at Magic Kingdom and it was fun and total chaos. The 'girl-ness' of it all was a little overwhelming. So much pink/princess/sparkle/etc... wow. But, for an almost 6 year old and an almost 4 year old with very low expectations, it was perfect. We didn't tell them where we were goin until we were about 20 minutes away, and Elise's response was, "YAAAAAY DISNEY!" count to four...."Um, what IS Disney?". seriously.

Mimi, Nana and three really happy (and hot and sweaty) kids
Watching the show in front of Cinderella's castle. really cool.


Mitchell actually LOVED the carousel!


She'd just finished an ice cream cone and was even MORE joyful than normal!

Mitchell was a little skeptical of the huge duck, but still wanted to 'meet' Daisy.
Girls were enamored.
We stayed the night at the Military's Shades of Green hotel and it was gorgeous. SOOOO well-kept (I was picturing a Navy Lodge...dirty, smelly, outdated...usually pretty horrible) and I was absolutely pleased with the accommodations. (especially since the grandmas were paying!) We crammed 4 adults and 3 kids (fairly comfortably, actually) in a one bedroom 'suite'... it was actually way fun.

A few quick shots of when we went back to Magic Kingdom later that evening. It was kind of nice being in the winter b/c it was only 5pm when we returned, but fully dark already! WIN/WIN! The Castle was all lit up, but kids were still awake and happy since it wasn't past bedtimes yet.

It really was kind of breathtaking!
An (almost complete!) family picture.

OF COURSE the highlight of the trip for the girls was the 1-on-1 meeting with several princesses. Elise really was speechless. She couldn't stop smiling. it was precious.
Ainsley, on the other hand, was a total chatterbox with the Princesses. She kept telling Cinderella how much they looked like "twins"...blue dresses matched, I guess? =)
The whole Fam Damily with the Worlds most famous Mice. =) Can't you see the joy on our faces at "The Happiest Place on Earth"?

Day 2 was Animal Kingdom and we LOVED IT. Side note: when planning on a trip like this, ask lots of questions, read lots of reviews, but then do what you think is BEST for your family. Many people had said that our kids were too young for Animal Kingdom and they just wouldn't have fun. However, we KNOW our kids and knew that they would LOVE all the animals and the lower-key atmosphere. And they did. We had so much fun on the safari, Elise rode a REAL roller-coaster (loved it, but said she may never do that again!), the food was better there, the overall 'feel' of the park was way more Moseley... =)



Really cool huge huge huge play area! It was set up like a archaeological dig site and was sooo fun.
We went to Finding Nemo show (read:sitting down, indoor, air conditioned!) that was sweet too.

It was a great trip, really. Totally exhausting, but fun and a great 2 days. =)

GORGEOUS WEDDING

Almost a month ago, we went to Florida to be part of celebrating Adam's sister's Wedding and it was FANTASTIC!!! It was a total whirlwind 2 days, but the event was gorgeous. Amanda was a breathtaking Bride, the venue was gorgeous, and it was truly a fun Reception! Ainsley and Elise were both flower girls and they did a great job. They LOOOOVED their fancy dresses, getting to stay up late, and drinking "bubbly juice" (SPRITE, not Champagne) in pretty stemware.


CONGRATULATIONS to AMANDA and LUCAS!!! It was a blessing for US to be part of your day.


Oh yeah, Mitchell was 'kind of' in the wedding. He wore a dapper little outfit, practiced walking down the aisle with the girls, etc.. but at 'go time', he froze and hung out in my arms during the whole ceremony. We're thankful that Amanda had such a laid-back attitude! Mitchell did rock the dance floor, though... dancing with total strangers, spinning in circles... it was awesome.


The girls got to hang out with the Bride/Bridesmaids for a little while and had a blast, apparently!

I'm not sure exactly HOW this happened, but could she BE any cuter!?

One of my favorites from the day...Great, great, great!!!

Adam was honored to walk his sister down the aisle...



RECEPTION

just LOOK at that floral centerpiece!! hand-made by the very talented Brenda Donovan...