HO-HO-HO

We're getting closer to being caught-up:

Christmas Eve:

Super Uncle Kelly ("SUK") and Mimi watched The Grinch movie with the girls (the original 1960's cartoon one, not the creepy Jim Carrey one). Mimi got hit with the nasty, nasty stomach bug that day and was a trooper for sitting here with kids and trying to enjoy the festivities.

I kind of forgot to take pictures of decorations, the tree, etc... so here's a glimpse...
SUK got the stomach bug later that night and spent the whole night (literally midnight until 10am Christmas morning) with gross, gross intestinal issues. poor guy. It took him most of Christmas day to recover enough to leave bed, but he mustered up some strength to come down for a little bit on Christmas night. More on that in a couple days...


The girls opened a gift from Mimi of new pj's, so they put them on immediately and we worked on the plate of snacks for Santa and the Reindeer...


While kids were playing/watching movies/etc... Adam worked on his annual BIG DESSERT project of the YULE LOG...3rd year in a row. It may not look fantastic, but everyone who eats it LOVES IT!


Preview for the next blog... here's the first picture of Christmas morning:

Happy Christmas Eve eve...

Ok, we're making strides toward being up-t0-date on this thing... and that feels good. =) I'm officially one month behind and catching up quickly.

The Thursday before Christmas, my brother Kelly and my mom were both in town so we braved the chaos of the 'Big Mall' (a very relative term, there's not much "BIG" at all in our awesome little city... still, it's the only significant mall around) to get a picture of the kids with Santa. And I figured with them around "how bad could it be? We're now 1:1 with my kids, and we (the adults) can handle anything if we're only in charge of one kid each, right?! "

And we really did fine. The kids were so enamored with Santa (whom we explain is really just a 'helper' of the real Santa. After all, the REAL SANTA is way too busy this time of year to sit around at a mall for pictures). Go ahead, hate us because we let our kids believe in Santa. We're fully aware that some Christian families will wag their finger at us, but we think it's fun, don't take it too seriously, and we still (gasp!) love God and believe that Jesus is more important. We just ALSO believe that a little Santa doesn't hurt anything.

The girls had a BLAST hanging out with "Super Uncle Kelly" (I'm not sure if Elise gave him the nickname or it was a self-proclaimed thing...either way, it's stinkin' adorable and that's the ONLY way she refers to him now.) and Mimi. Man, I love it when my family is in town.

We only waited in line for about an hour, Mitchell was happy people-watching the whole time from the stroller
the girls and Mimi rode the North Pole Express a few times,



and we got a cute (enough!) picture.

Then the kids got to share a cookie from the mall and a ride on the often-begged-for (but oh-so-disgusting-germ-covered) ride in the food court. They were about as happy as they could be.

winter wonderland

We've already had a few decent snow storms this year (I mean, we're not NYC or Boston, but we've had 3 snow days off school and about a foot or so of snow...) and the kids have LOVED it. Last year, Ainsley still HATED (no, really... she DESPISED) the snow and cold, Mitchell was only about 4 months old, and it was the first snow Elise had ever seen.

This year is totally different! And so fun. Elise was jumping up and down about it, Ainsley was excited to go outside and play, and Mitchell, well...he went with us and wobbled around for 20 minutes at a time. He did great.

This was all the first afternoon/evening- we were outside for probably two hours. We have some WONDERFUL neighbors and friends and it was so fun to sled with them, hang out and laugh together. It's fun to watch Elise really have BUDDIES that she just plays with, giggles with, and actually has conversations together.


Mitchell stole a 'very skeptical' look from his cousin Evan as neighbor Mark pulled him on a sweet old-school sled.

oh man, these two are cute.

This was the 'prep time' as I got all three kids ready to go outside before Adam got home from work. It was a 45-minute process, we were all exhausted, Mitchell was ready for a nap before we even got outside and was crying most of the time. =) Oh, they're A-DOR-A-BLE!!!

It's a bird, it's a plane....

Oh wait...that's Superman's intro:

Is there even an intro for Batman?! or just the "Nah-Nah-Nah-Nah-Nah-Nah-Nah-Nah-Nah-Nah-Nah-Nah-Nah-Nah-Nah-Nah....BATMAN!!...." (and, yes, I counted those out and made sure there were the correct # of "Nah's". It's 16 and they're all there...but I have NO idea where Ainsley gets some of her OCD-ness).


Anyway, here is is:
The girls had princess capes on and Elise suggested Mitchell would like one, too. Her buddy Jackson has been teaching her about superheroes, so I guess she knows these things now.

His thighs in this shot are my favorite. And, according to the doctors, he's still kind of puny! what? Really... those thighs are NOTHING compared to Elise's when she was 16 months old...

mini 'blog-ettes' continue...

This is a typical sight after lunch or dinner at Ainsley's spot. It amazes me how messy she can be-ESPECIALLY since she's our 'neat freak/TypeA' child so far... she'll FLIP out over a piece of dirt on her floor at naptime, but THIS is acceptable?!?

Needless to say, the placemat didn't really serve it's own purpose for this meal. Something about the four inches it got moved AWAY from the messy eater... oh, well. As we say ALMOST DAILY, "it's a good thing she's so cute..."

Family traditions...

A couple years ago, Adam and I saw a quick clip from "America's Funniest Home Videos" (or something like that) and we stole a great idea that we've used hundreds of times since then!
In the video clip, the husband ran outside for a second and the wife comes behind him and locks the door. She stands at the door and won't let him in until he does a little dance. It's humiliating and hilarious at the same time. And we loved it. And we started immediately and have kept it up for probably 2 years. And it's funny! Every time.
I can get Adam every time he goes out to start the grill. He's a good sport and does a little jig while the girls and I giggle inside the living room. He'll often lock me out if I run out to grab the mail on the weekend or something. Usually when it's especially cold and I'm barefoot.
After enough time, the girls will instigate the locking the door themselves now. As they do it, they crack themselves up. They think they're SO FUNNY and totally original. So a couple weeks ago, it was starting to snow and Elise and Ainsley ran out on the deck to feel the first real snow of the year and Mitchell and I were left inside to do what? lock them out and force them to dance their way back in.

...and I love it that you can see Mitchell on this one! He was giggling so hard.

Big girl bed...or Squatter?

SO many stories to tell and pictures to share, so I'll catch up with a bunch of short blogs...

One big thing around here lately is that Ainsley moved out of her crib (for cryin' out loud, she'll be 3 next month, so it's about time!). The delay in moving her was just because she didn't seem to care. She was happy in the crib, she (for the most part) didn't ever try to climb out, and we knew she was safe and confined in there. After the few weeks we spent in Cincinnati in November when she slept on a blanket on the floor in the den the whole time and never ONCE even got off the blanket, we knew she was fine to switch. So, the week of Christmas we made a big deal out of her moving into a "Big Girl Bed", and anticipated it being a few nights of scolding, reminding her to stay in the bed, etc... but Ainsley surprised us again. It's been 3 weeks and she's never gotten out of bed on her own, she's still the greatest sleeper ever, and she's adorable. This last week, we did put a regular sized twin mattress in there, but these pictures are from Night 1 and 2 when she still just had the crib mattress on the floor.

Her holding hands with that baby doll is maybe the cutest thing ever. She puts the blanket over her head to play hide-n-seek...and then just falls asleep that way.

I think this was Christmas Eve... we moved her back into the bed soon after we took pictures. =)