Christmas 2010

Allison and Mom before the chaos! HA!

The 4 of us :)

Let it begin!

Last gift...what did Santa bring?

WOW!!  An LGB train set!!

One happy boy!!

Best Christmas ever...so far!

Cookie Exchange 2010

My annual cookie exchange was amazing as usual.  We missed a few of the regulars, but gained a few new faces!!  I made a ton of goodies and the others brought yummy treats too!!  I made sugar cookies which I vowed never to do again since the 1st cookie exchange, but it ended up not being as time intensive as I had thought it would be and everyone loves a sugar cookie (and no one ever makes them!)  Thanks to little Emma for taking this cute picture just in time!!! Everyone totally forgot to take them until the last minute! Opps! 

Friends

Every girl should have friends this amazing!

Inspired Post...What I didnt do

I read a blog tonight that made me smile. It summed up exactly the way I felt this holiday season. Its about all the things that the person DIDN'T do this holiday season. I was feeling the same way and guilty about it, but after I read this I remembered that sometimes most of my stress comes from doing things that I think I NEED to do versus the things I have TIME to do. I get this picture in my head about how things should look, how much I should bake, what I should cook for who, what to buy who and then the fiasco of planning who's house we go to on what day/time is enough to make me want to cancel the celebrations altogether! So here is my list of things I didn't do:

I didn't make sugar cookies from scratch for Santa. But I did let the kids roll pre-packaged dough out and cut out any shape they wanted without my help. And they didn't know the difference and Santa loved them!

I didn't write a long letter for each child to Santa, and no-one knew better or complained and Santa still came through!

We didn't buy $15.99 matching Christmas pajamas for each kid this year and drive across town just to pay another $15 to drive through the parade of lights. And yet we still had fun driving around town every night and looking at all the decorated homes.

I didn't wrap one present until Christmas Eve. Not one. And I got Jeff to help wrap and it wasn't overwhelming!

I used a Sharpie instead of fancy sticker'ed name tags to write to and from on. And it was fine.

I let the kids stay in pajamas all day Christmas day and only re-dressed them in clean ones before putting them to bed.

I didn't take a million pictures on Christmas, I may regret it, but I was enjoying the moment and trying not to get so caught up in "recording" it.

I didn't buy every single gift brand-new out of the box and the kids enjoyed them the same.

I didn't put up every single box of decorations in the garage and I have already taken the tree down. I have to say: it's nice.

I hope to be more organized about Christmas next year. But, if I'm not, I hope that I don't feel guilty for not doing the picture-perfect Christmas I see in my head. Life happens.

Holiday Pictures 2010

My Mom wanted Christmas pictures of all three Grandkids. I have been watching Brett (a.k.a "Little Mister") on Monday's while Krista is in school so I got all three kids bathed and dressed and toted them all to Sears to get pictures. It was horrible. The photographer was a male, so Allison shied away the entire session, Hunter mis-behaved and that Little Mister cried every single time I set him down!!! I finally gave up, called it quiets and scheduled another session for the next week with a woman photographer. The next week I bathed, dresses, and hauled kids to Sears again and still didnt get very good pictures, but decided it was good enough. Sometimes you dont win...I needed to accept that! Ha! Anyway, I snapped this picture the very first day and I have to say that its defiantly the best shot of the three of them!

Coffee Break!

I love this picture of us. Enjoying a cup of coffee on the way home from Cedar City, kids fast asleep in the back :) Life is good!!

Reece's go to Cedar

We took off and drove up to Cedar City the 2nd week in November. Jeff and I decided it would be a perfect time to go since he still isnt working and we needed a break. We had fun, and even got caught in a snow storm on the way there. When we woke up the next morning my car was covered in snow and the kids were really excited! They played in the snow forever...its crazy how long kids will play in the cold!!

Markers+Allison=BIG MESS!!

When we were at Talias for Halloween, Allie started coloring with markers. I said to Talia; "I wonder what she is up too, she is being way to quite"! Boy was I surprised to see her like this!! It took quite a long soak in the bath tub and I had to google how to remove marker from skin, but I got it all off before she got into her costume later that night. Note to self: Allie's not ready for markers! HA!

Halloween 2010

The kids in front of my Grandpa Antoninos house

We went to Utah again for Halloween.  The kids just love to hang out with all those cousins that they dont get to see very often.  We have a ton of fun.  The Moms get together and bake all day while the kids play, I usually get my hair and toes done, and we eat pumpkin shaped pizza!!  On Halloween night we usually hit up about 3 trunk-or-treats and visit all the Grandparents.  Then we go back to Talias, eat something warm and hit her neighborhood for at a couple of hours!! The kids totally score and its sooo much fun!  Hunter was Batman this year and Allison was a 50's poodle skirt girl! They were adorable, and I love watching them run from door to door screaming "trick-or treat"!