Christmas Day 2009

Drew was a really good sport Christmas morning. He woke up around 6:30 and waited until 7:30 (we had to wake Jillian up). I told him we had to wait for sister to wake up or for the sun to come up. Jillian is really excited for the Mickey Mouse on the gift bag and wrapping paper. Drew is excited about every thing, but uhm, I never even wished for that long caterpillar. He is so funny. And by the way I apologize for my annoying voice, it even annoys me.

Taking it all in.Stockings first and yes Jillian's stocking had a feather boa in it. We may be creating a diva. Christmas candy - sooo exciting.

Santa even brought them bubble gum. He must have known that the minty gum it too hot for Drew.

Jillian dumped her stocking out. Drew was emptying his out piece by piece. "A kiss!" then he would eat it, reach in and with the same excitement as the first "another kiss!"

......and another. We might not get past stockings before lunch. Finally convinced him to dump it out. He got the red massager that he wanted. When picking out a friend's birthday present Drew saw this red massager and wanted really badly for some reason. He didn't even know what is was, but he did know when you press the button on top it makes noise and moves around the floor. It was the best thing in mommy and daddy's book that Santa brought him, because he loves to run up and down our backs. Ahhhhh!

New hooded towels! Drew's was Buzz of course and Jillian's was Tinkerbell.

Same trip, same kid's birthday and Drew had a hard lesson on buying things for others, not just getting what he wants. It was a rough one. He wanted this Megatron so bad. I told him he could get it for his friend or we weren't getting it (we didn't get it for his friend). It was hard for a almost 4 year old to understand. It was definitely worth the wait though. Drew has at least 2 pieces of bubble gum in his mouth, grossed me out because it kind of looked like chew in his bottom lip.

This is a good one!

Sister reaction to the Minnie and Mickey wrapping was better than her Minnie Mouse toys. At least she called her Minnie, we argue because she always calls Minnie, Daisy. Just to be a stinker I think. Then of course Bailey was in my face. The dogs had to be put up for a little while, they were just as excited as the kids.


Daisy! I mean Minnie!The Megatron, out of the box. It is a transformer. We have never watched or talked about transformer anything, obviously something he heard at school.

Sleepy sis and her monkey.

Santa delivered. Drew asked Santa for Skywalker and he got it. Must have been a good boy.

Star Wars transformer.

We have never seen Star Wars either, what does that tell you.

One of Jillian top two favorite gifts. It is a Backyardigans circus, just like boyfriend Nate's.

This one was a big hit with Drew. He is about to redeem himself for the princess pictures.

His own dress up clothes.

BATMAN!

That is one excited little boy!

Jilli bean chugging away sleepily at her gifts.

ROBIN! SUPERMAN!

The coveted when pigs fly game!

Jillian got a jewelry box for all her beads and bracelets. It has her name on it, a pink tutu and it plays music. She carries it around and dances with it.

The girls are out and time for their present - Greenies!

Jillian opening presents while I color in my snuggie. A nice picture of my thinning hair too, man I am pretty irresistible. Crayons, snuggie, bald spot, watch out.

Jillian fishing for puzzle pieces.

Playing with when pigs fly. The pigs are pink balls with velcro on them and you project the up into the "sky" and they stick up there.

Jillian's other favorite - Crayons.

She is definitely my kid - not that there was really any question.

Silly girl putting them in her monkey toes. She was proud of her accomplishment. She yelled "look mama, look look!"

Relaxing in the caterpillar.

Now the velcro pigs are stuck on his shirt - he is so funny.

Tonight Andy threw one of the dogs new toys and hit the pig game and at least 5 pigs were stuck to the toy when Bailey brought it back to us. It was pretty funny.

We had one heck of a white Christmas in Bonner Springs. 8 inches I am guessing, high winds and crazy drifts.

It was hard for the kids to walk in at first and I wasn't so sure how long sister was going to last out there.

My angel making a snow angel.
Frozen Cheese!
The slide was super slick and both kids loved flying down it.

Is Lucy on point or is her paw cold? I am not sure?????

Andy pulling Drew around on the sled. If you can't tell the snow makes the girls super frisky.

Action shot.

Sister making snow angels up in the swing set tower.

My favorite Jillian snow picture of the day, snot and all.

Drew in the play house.

My favorite Drew snow picture of the day.

Not bad for throwing and videoing all by myself. Drew was up on the porch helping Andy shovel and eating snow and sister was in the play house having lots of fun.


Bailey waiting intently for another throw. Look at her poor frozen whiskers, she didn't seem to mind them.

Woof! (tranlation: throw it again)

The reason for all this crazy running and barking - cuz, I mean the cuz. Lucy's favorite toy.

Whiskercicles for Luce too.

Caterpillar has gotten lots of use. Drew watching some toons after playing in the snow.

Christmas Eve

Our 2 year Christmas eve tradition is homemade pizza. The kids were super excited. I think they would eat pizza everyday if I let them.

Dangerous - Jillian spreading the sauce.
Yes, Jillian is wearing a Halloween shirt on Christmas eve. This is because Drew is wearing an orange shirt and she insisted on an orange shirt just like brothers. This is the only orange shirt she has, so Halloween it was.

This is me trying to get Drew to try a mini-pepperoni. Drew likes pepperoni, but was telling me he didn't like these. As with 90% of the things I make him try, he liked it.

A lot

Adding their favorite part - the cheese.

A lot of cheese.

Sister taste testing the ingredients.

A lot.

Drew sees that it is okay for Jillian to eat the cheese out of the bowl and decides to join in.

Now it is like a cheese eating contest.

A definite tie. What goof balls.

Jilli may have a future in competitive eating. If her stomach is anything like her father's this could be a real possibility.

While our pizzas were baking we made some cookies for Santa's visit later that night.

Drew is great at rolling out the dough.

Jillian was just happy it was finally her turn. She just keeps yelling "Jillian turn, Jillian turn!" until it is actually Jillian turn.

Poke, poke... Please notice the table stalker in the background.

Stars and Christmas trees. We couldn't find our snowman cookie cutter we had last year. It seems like lately I have not been able to find multiple things (none which have turned up yet). Either Andy is hiding them or I am losing my mind. Both are a feasible possibility.

Jillian's masterpiece for Santa.

Drew and Andy went all fancy-like with some monogramming.

I know Santa is going to love that one.

Of course we had to taste test them, the best part of making cookies.

Of course Jillian just ate all the icing and sprinkles off hers.

After baths and Christmas jammies we had to finish our list of Santa preparations.

Step 1: Move the fireplace screen so Santa won't trip.

The kids are chanting "teamwork, teamwork" as they are helping Andy move it.

They liked their teamwork efforts so much, Step 2 - putting cookies out, included chanting also. Step 2 also included cookies falling on the floor, one face down. Poor Santa, hope he won't mind a few extra sprinkles.

Drew has a specific spot picked out for the cookies.

Again those slippery little cookies slide off the plate.

Andy chugging the milk he just poured because I wanted the kids to help pour it :)

The kids helping pour the milk for Santa :)

Ready for Santa!

Step 3 - putting out the Reindeer food.

Drew's Christmas gift from his teacher, Miss Lindsey.

If you don't know, it was snowing like crazy in Kansas on Christmas eve.

Still, these three braved the weather to spread the reindeer food.

2 of the 3 didn't mind going out in the snow that night. They were actually pretty excited.

They won't miss our house for sure, now.

This video cracks me up. I am trying to get her singing her favorite Christmas song, Jingle Bells, but she obviously has a different idea. Jillian translation is "I want it!, I really want it!" Then Drew walks in proudly stating that he turned on all the lights upstairs, although we don't know why. Just a funny video all around.

After all our Santa preparations were done, we watched polar express and then read The Night Before Christmas (after tooth brushing of course). We put both to bed and didn't hear a peep until morning.

Now it was time for the real elves to get to work.

Lucy was really upset and worried that we might not get everything done, can you tell. This is her frantic pose.

The cat was very interested in the wrapping and tissue paper. By interested I mean standing on.

Bailey waiting for us to go to bed.

The final result.

Where's Waldo? Roxy was under the tree and weaving her way through all the presents.

Even after all was done, parents showered and in bed, I still couldn't sleep. I was so excited for the kids to wake up and see what Santa brought. I was awake until at least 2:30 am. Ridiculous I know. The early morning wake up came really fast.