Christmas 2010 Sum-Up

Christmas this year was................Christmas. What else is there to say :) I got the Christmas spirit early in November, and unfortunately it wore out about a week before Christmas. So all the dang Christmas music was getting on my nerves and all the dang snow too, and I'm ready for Spring. But this is all very BAH-HUMBUG of me. Let me highlight how much fun we all had!!! The picture above shows that this year, we opted for a smaller more reasonable tree. Plus it was free since we already own it. Last year's "Big Bertha" was a one time gig, and from now on our Christmas trees will be a little less........intimidating. Although I have to mention that our little six foot tree is puny.

Christmas morning I had to leave at 8am to visit a home health patient. The kids woke up around 9:30 and waited "patiently" for me to get home before they could come out and see what Santa left them. They were so excited for their pillow pets! Riley got Magformers (really awesome magnets) and the movie How to Train Your Dragon. Malia got a vacuum and a pony, although each child thinks ALL the presents are theirs alone. It gets a little dicey, but Riley is good at sharing and Malia is............learning :) After they saw what Santa brought, they unwrapped the presents that Ben and I take credit for. Santa can't get ALL the credit!
And I musn't forget to mention the entertainment that flew in for Christmas. This is my special Mom, with one of her special expressions. She is doing exactly what HER mother does for pictures......pulls a face but you don't realize it until you look at the picture because she does it RIGHT before it takes the picture.
Malia LOVES her pony. It whinnies (I think it sounds scary) and makes lot's of horsey sounds, plus wiggles it's tail and snout and head. My Mom bought this for her. Riley has sort of laid claim to it as well. What's his is hers, and what's hers is his. This should go flawlessly, right? Riiiiiiiiight.

This was so cute! Riley bought some heart shaped earings for my mom with his own allowance money. Mom put them on right away. I told her to thank me for steering him away from the big chunky pink hoops he originally wanted to buy. It was so fun having my Mom here for Christmas.

This is probably the first Christmas EVER that I haven't run around picking up every little piece of trash right away. I just sat back and let it all explode everywhere, and it was kind of fun.

Hanging out at my Dad and Laurie's house doing a little gift exchange. My kids love being at Grandma and Granpa's house!

At the Cook's, where we are forced to cover our heads, just like the picture of the ten virgin's in the background. Then we are FORCED to smile and laugh like we are having a good time :) We got these beautiful scarves from Roger and Marianne and thought we'd have a little fun.

Ben fixed Malia's hair this day. I think she looks a little rough :) I love how Ben is trying to do bunny ears on her. Poor picked on child!

My Mom, umm, being funny. She got to ride in the back with the kids. Riley talked her ear off, and Malia yelled a LOT, something she just started. She has no volume control, and is very embarrassing in restaurants because she just loves to see how loud she can say "Eeeeeeh!" or something similar to that. And make no mistake, she is VERY loud. If you are in a restaurant with her, and sitting seven or less booths away, you will jump in your seat each time she hollers out. If this doesn't stop soon, I am going to look into some sort of operation. Do you think insurance covers noise reducing surgeries for toddlers?

This is such a perfect shot! The kids were about to tumble off this sled as it sped down a hill....they almost ran over me. Malia is so stressed and Riley is loving it.

We have had a LOT of snow this year. It's fun, sort of.

Gosh I'm glad we took the trampoline down! This snow was SO deep Malia couldn't even walk around in it.

Buddies in a box!

This child is not known for her patience. Before I could stop her she had hopped in the tub with her diaper. By the time I ran to get the camera and was done taking pictures, the diaper had swelled to nearly exploding and I could barely lift it!

SO THERE'S THE SUM-UP! NEW YEARS EVE POST COMING SOON.

We are SO hot!!!

We went out and played in the snow one night in our backyard, and decided to pull out these awesome snow suits my Stepmom Laurie bought for us. They came in handy but both of us felt a little overweight when it came time to zip them up!

Swingsets can still be fun in winter. Poor Malia doesn't have her snow clothes yet. The next day I went out and bought her some (see below)

My handsome boy! Luckily all his snow stuff should still fit for one more year. Phew! Kids are expensive :)
And here she is, all decked out in her snow gear and too-big boots. I LOVE the coat and all the purple. If you've ever seen her room, it is pretty much all purple. By the time she's five she will probably be sick of purple. But until she's 18 I get to decide what she wears so just watch, she will have a purple prom dress :)

I got these as a white elephant gift. Riley got the "angry Scottsman" eyebrows, and Malia the "unibrow". Everytime the unibrow would fall off, she would come running to us to put it back on. Then she would just wear it around like it was perfectly normal.

Riley's Kindergarten class had a Lua Christmas party. Here's Riley taking my order. Ben and I are SO enjoying watching Riley grow and learn. It's like experiencing the school years all over again.

Here's Riley with his awesome teacher! I am SO glad that he is in her class. She gets him, and has known from the beginning how to guide him and it is amazing how far he has come. I have also been trying really hard to help him in certain areas, such as not getting his feelings hurt so easy and not being embarrased so easily and he has come leaps and bounds. He really is SUCH a good little kid, a big helper with Malia, and his sensitive side is turning into a real sweet trait of his that makes him conscientious of other kids' feelings. LOVE this boy!