Play dates in December: Posing at the Park and Sprinkles up the Nose

In early December, Cas and some of his friends spent the night at our family farm and we headed to Grammy and Brownie's.  Saturday morning, we met my best friend Amber and her three kids at a park near my parents' home.  Maya was posing away for the camera - 

The kids played hide and seek, freeze tag, climbed trees, but spent very little time on the actual playground equipment.  I think they spent more time walking, crawling and jumping along this light pole that had yet to be placed upright than they did on the slides, bridges and climbing structures of the park!

A week later, we met my friend Kelly at the Children's Museum.  I stayed upstairs in the tot spot with Kelly, Katelyn and Maya, while my mom spent the morning with Collin.  Concentrating while coloring -

And intensely pedaling a bike, as the faster the wheels turned, the more light bulbs illuminated.

At dinner with Amber and Kelly on Thursday night, we learned that all three of us had Saturday morning free.  So I volunteered my parents' house to make gingerbread houses.  Friday night after my mom went to a birthday party, she hit Walmart to pick up supplies for the party I had volunteered her to host - she's the best!

Part of the reason we needed to get together was that Kelly had made the girls matching monogrammed shirts and skirts, and we couldn't pass up the opportunity for a group photo.  Before the icing and sprinkles came out, we got the girls - Esmae (4), Maya (19 months), Katelyn (2.5 years) to pose for us -

Collin hopped in to the shot on the front porch swing -

 And then we kicked Collin out and the moms with their daughters smiled for the cameras -

Once the photos were over, the girls all switched to casual Christmas shirts (all of my kids' holiday gear comes from Amber or Kelly) and we decorated sugar cookies -

Esmae and Katelyn debated decorating over just eating the decorations!

Collin's sprinkles were thicker than the cookie!  Not sure how he managed to get sprinkles up his nose when he was supposed to be decorating and not eating -

Very proud of his loaded up cookies -

Feeling sick to our stomachs from the cookies, we moved into tree decoration mode, putting green icing on ice cream cones and then adding sprinkes.  Holden and Collin posing with their creations - 

After the decorating was complete, we tried to balance out the sugar with some pizza and then herded everyone outside to burn energy.  It was so great to watch them play together and such a joy that we're building two generations of friendships!

Reindeer Performances and ZooLights

Collin's preschool class had a holiday sing-a-long in mid-December.  And he had quite a cheering contingent with Grandma Libia and Lita, Grammy and Great Grandma B, Cas, Maya and me for their three song, two-minute performance.  

Our happy Rudolph -

Cuddling up with Daddy -

I jumped in to the family picture with Collin's reindeer hat.  He's gotten very into coloring lately and worked hard to create rainbow antlers.  We laughed at his elf that he made in class - every other student had appendages in the correct location, but Picasso-Collin put his shoes coming out of his head, his legs out his arms, all in an effort to create a "silly elf."

The Sunday night before Christmas, we met my parents and kids at the zoo for Zoo Lights.  We had bought and printed our tickets ahead of time, so when we saw the line with over 100 people, we laughed at the irresponsible folks who hadn't planned ahead . . . until we learned this was the line of pre-paid tickets!  We followed the trail with the masses, oohing and aahing at the lights - Maya shouting "wow" - and took some photos along the way.

Maya constantly wanted to be with "mammy," so my mom carried her throughout the zoo while I pushed an empty stroller and Cas and my dad walked along empty-handed!

Cas and the kids by one of the stunning trees -

Maya did not want to leave these drums.

Luckily our next stop after the drums was the chimpanzee area filled with blinking lights and music where Maya stood in the middle, making all the visitors go around her, and danced her heart out.

Right before the exit, there was a choir singing Christian Christmas hymns and my 19-month-old booty danced / twerked to the worship songs!

Family Pics 2014

In October, we met with a co-worker's friend, who is a local photographer, to take family pictures.  We love some of the shots she got of our kids and family!

Maya was not easy to photograph on that afternoon, she was not in the mood to smile and pretty much only content in my arms.  And not just in my arms, but for most of our family photos, I had to toss her up in the air, catch her, and act happy while sweat dripped down my back.  Our impressive photographer still got some cute shots of her though!

Collin was a dream - great smiles, very patient.  We took pictures for only 20 minutes but it felt like we were out there for hours!  We headed straight to a restaurant for chocolate and wine for me!

The handsome boys - 

My sweet boy -

Before the photos began, when we could slide on the playground, Maya was full of natural smiles - 

We took pictures on a Wednesday, so Grandma Libia and Lita were able to join us.  Maya was smiling because she was playing peek-a-boo.

These kids love Wednesdays with their grandma and great-grandma!

The whole group - even Kiki (who made the picture because she kept Maya happy) - 

Our Christmas card photo - 

Scared of Santa and Sugared Up

On the first Saturday of December, we were invited to a company family Christmas party.  This is an over-the-top event that we attended last year and seems to get bigger every year.  There are stations for Christmas crafts, wax hands, balloon animals, gingerbread house decorations, jugglers, Santa, and this year, huge piles of snow with sledding. 

We had been talking about it all week - and I thought we were over the stomach bug that made its way through our family after Thanksgiving - but Collin woke up looking and feeling terrible on Saturday morning.  I was disappointed - for our family and for him - but Maya and I hit the Christmas brunch on our own.  She was all smiles in her cute Christmas outfit from my mom (do you see her scar on her nose - this was 7 days later and much improved) -  

And then we put her on Santa's lap - poor girl!

When we got home for lunch, Collin was feeling better - so good in fact, he was up for making and consuming his gingerbread house!  Maya took a nap and we had a fun time creating art out of candy.

Posing with his house -

Later that night, my silly ones kept up the posing, this time with their Green Bay cheese head Cas brought home from the football game -

Since Collin missed out on Santa photos, we hit the mall on a Wednesday night to try again.  Sweet Collin tried to comfort her, but Maya is not a fan!

By the time they snapped the official mall photo, Collin was tired of smiling though Maya had calmed down a bit -

Merry Christmas!

Face Planting at Landa Park

I adore Landa Park in New Braunfels - a beautiful, calm setting with lots to see and do.  We took the kids there on Saturday morning, joined by my mom and brother, my uncle and grandma.

Maya was all smiles as we gathered the group - 

Posing with the family matriarch -

Collin feeding the ducks -

Maya threw her bread 6 inches to the ducks that came right up to the edge -

And ate some of the bread while she was at it -

Sweet Uncle Alex didn't get much personal space when Collin was awake - they shared a room in NB, always had to sit near each other at meals, and tumbled and wrestled whenever Alex wasn't on the tennis court.  Collin loved all the time with him!

This girl loves her "mammy" - though my mom is trying hard to teach her the "gr" sound!

Family pic at the park - Maya's the only one looking at the right camera -

My Uncle Larry and Grandma Jewell Rae headed back to the condos rather than to the playground and train, but took a photo of our crew before they left -

Shortly after this photo, Maya was running and face planted on the sidewalk.  It didn't look too bad on Saturday, but on Sunday she woke up with a Rudolph scab that lasted for weeks!  Luckily we were able to scoop her up, hit a playground, have some pb&j, and then ride the train, so she was distracted from her wound.

This is one of my favorite pictures of the year - all with similar expressions!

Saturday night, Cas headed home to travel to Green Bay for a football game with a customer.  And Saturday night I was hit with a stomach bug.  So my wonderful family rounded up all the gifts we received (like new fighting men from Uncle Alex and Aunt Coady), packed our condo that looked like a clothes/toys/book tornado hit it, cared for my kids, and loaded up the car the next day.  Alex drove my car with my bike rigged up precariously to the back and dealt with dirty diapers and whining on the 3 hour car ride while I offered little to no help.

I had an incredible Thanksgiving long weekend up until 11pm on Saturday night (start of the bug), and I'm so thankful that we were able to spend time with all of our family!