dora and shoes

She loves Dora.  She loves shoes.  When we received these hand me downs which are two and a half sizes too big, she couldn't get them out of her mind.  She wears them around the house all the time.  She searches for them.  She puts them on and wears them all day.

Santa

Truth be told I didn't want to see Santa at all.  I mean if you really think about it, its a really odd tradition.  Forcing your kid to sit on some random man's lap.  I wasn't going to do it, but jake asked and really wanted to tell him he wanted a play do pizza shop.  Then I started thinking about how I had no desire to stand in line at the mall.  Enter breakfast with Santa.  It was sweet.  Mostly because theSanta part took like 2 minutes.  Brunch was awesome.  Basic brunch stuff with the addition of salmon, filet, pork tenderloin, shrimp, cheese cakes, dozens of sweets and so much other stuff we didn't get to try.  It was a bummer.  We had no idea it was going to be so good.  We didn't adequately prepare our appetites.  Talk about a bummer.

slumber party

The weekend before Christmas, Trev headed up to Cleveland for a night out with the boys.  I stayed home with the kids.  We ate pizza all day then headed out to see the Christmas lights at night.  anna fell asleep about 5 minutes into the drive to the lights so it was kind fun to have an outing just me and jake.  When we got home, I was hoping anna would transfer to her bed but, she didn't.  We all ended up hanging out in my bed watching tv and cuddling.  It was fun.  I was tired the next day and totally respect single parents that never get a break but, I cherish the memory of our little slumber party.

Christmas Crafts

We did a lot of Christmas crafts before the holidays.

I had the kids make wreaths out of paper plates.  jake was anxious for the paint to dry and for the opportunity to glue and stick stickers on it that I didn't have time to cut the hole in the middle.  By the time they were done, there was not room for the hole.  In the end it was a Christmas plate.

We made gingerbread houses out of graham crackers.  Its really the only way to do it in my opinion.  That was a popular craft.  Eating it was especially popular.

We also made our yearly ornaments for family.  anna did a handprint.  Its the same ornament I had jake make for his second Christmas.  jake made little Christmas trees out of popsicle sticks.  Well, they were supposed to be Christmas trees but, now that I think about it, I forgot to add the little tree trunks so I guess they were Christmas triangles.

Seems as though I tend to forget important details when it comes to wreaths and trees.

Christmas Party

We were lucky to attend two different Christmas parties.  The first was hosted by my mom's group.  It was fun for all the kids to hang out and enjoy face painting, crafts and Santa!  It was the first time this season that anna saw Santa.  She wasn't exactly thrilled with his existence.  She did love herself some face painting, though.  jake, on the other hand, got right into the thick of it and asked for a play do pizza shop.  It was so weird that a play do pizza shop was his focus.  He wasn't shy about the face painting, either.  Looks like I need to break out the face paint to get the kids to calm down.

vacation snuggles

Just for me...

disney

While in Florida, we took the kids to Disney again.  Just for the day.  They did so well.  jake wanted to ride on almost every ride.  We were able to have anna on our laps for most of them.  I think the only one she didn't go on was Dumbo.  She had about 5 million character stop and wave at her during the parade.  jake was like a kid at Disney.  Ha!  We're excited to take them again next year.

These were what little pictures I got of the day.  I left the camera at home and just took pictures with my phone.  I wanted to enjoy the day with my family and not worry about taking pictures or the camera getting stolen.  I'm glad I didn't take it.

ice cream lunch

Everyone deserves an ice cream lunch with her favorite little boy in the whole world.

the beach

The trouble with vacations is you have to go home.  I mean how wonderful would life be if you could could just have daddy home all day to help with the kids and just head down to the beach for the witching hour?  This was one of the first days we were in Florida.  We needed to kill some time before dinner so we headed down to the beach.  I wasn't on the edge because I had help all day and the kids weren't cah-razy because they were able to run and be wild.  I miss vacation.

jake was his usual self and loved the beach.  He loves to build things in the sand and does really well in the water.  It always takes him about a day to warm up to the waves but, he usually gets in after that adjustment period.  The boogie board is hard to get him on, but that's because Trev let him wipe out back in May.

anna wasn't too crazy about the water and the waves.  She'd just yell at them.  She'd definitely yell if we got too close to them.  She'd yell if Trev and jake went too far into the waves, too.  We found her happy place, though.  We'd fill up a bucket full of water and set it next to her.  While the boys played and mommy lounged, she'd play with the water bucket and sand.

our thanksgiving

one morning, one moment

Trying to figure out the right balance between living in the moment and documenting the moment is something I struggle with all the time.  Sometimes when I'm behind the camera, I feel like I'm not really living the moment.  I'm watching the moment.  At the same time, I am constantly saying to myself breathe this in and remember it.  Remember this moment.  Problem is, you rarely ever remember.

Every morning, after we eat breakfast, the kids and I head upstairs.  I flip on the tv and take a shower.  Usually, they sit for about 5 minutes then I can hear screaming, yelling and lots of footsteps as I try to quickly wash my hair.  One morning, they actually just sat in my bed and watched tv.  When I got out of the shower, jake hopped up and ran to his room.  He got Raspberry, his stuffed snake, and a bunch of books.  He got back into bed and said he wanted us all to cuddle in bed, watch tv, and read books.  He crawled back to his spot next to anna and told me to get in.  I quickly grabbed the camera and took a few pics so I'd remember the moment.  Ideally, I would've set up the camera so I could get all three of us but, I didn't want to take the time.  Part of me wishes I wouldn't have taken the pictures at all.  I should've just laid down next to them and enjoyed the full moment rather then just a fraction I got because I took pictures.  Would I have remembered that moment if I hadn't, though?

thankful tree

I've been really trying to make sure the kids have an idea what being thankful is and appreciating all that we have in our lives.  We have a lot.  Not just things, but family and friends, too.  The other day jake was being a three year old and totally frustrating me on the way to soccer.  Ugh.  I went into this whole lecture about being appreciative and how not every kids gets to go to soccer.  I wish I had a picture of his face at the end of that lecture.  It totally was a my mom is a lunatic face.

So maybe my lecturing was a bit above what a three year old is going to tolerate.  A thankful tree is not.  Around Thanksgiving, I decided we were going to have a thankful tree.  It wasn't the prettiest tree out there but, it was a symbol and a talking point.  I grabbed some branches from around our yard and stuck them in a pitcher filled with rocks from jake's old fish bowl.  RIP Bobby and Lil Bill.  We talked about being thankful for things and people in our lives.

I asked jake what he was thankful for and he told me garbage trucks.  I asked him what else.  He said, "dumpster garbage trucks."  I asked anna what she was thankful for and she just looked at me.  I asked jake what he thought anna was thankful for and he said, "the Fresh Beat Band."  There you go.

My intention was to keep the tree going until Christmas but, unfortunately, a little thing called our family trip to Florida distracted me.  Sigh.  Loved that distraction.