Christmas 2012

( I have a confession, it is March 22nd, 2013, the day before Katherine's 7th birthday party and I'm finally getting around to blogging about Christmas.  Yes, it's 3 months late.  No, I don't remember that much about this day, except Katherine got a Karaoke machine from Santa and I've been using it more than her.  I'll do my best to recall the precious memories of that day.)

I am positive these three children are the most adorable children that ever could have been brought into my life.  God must have really loved me and Jim to gift us with these precious little people. Beautiful too. :)

 

 Adorbs!

Even thought I told Jim, oh, about 100 times to not get me anything big, he broke the rules and ended buying me (us) a pressure washer.  I do have a special place in my heart for pressure washers.

Yes, that is genuine excitement over a pressure washer.  What can I say?

The grandparents and great grandparents came over.  Grandpa and Grandma are 91.

 

This was a pretty good picture representing the genuine mess we had in the living room.  I'm thinking we'll have a different plan for next year.  And just one more picture documenting me in yoga pants.  Who-da-thought those things would be so comfortable?

We did all the traditional activities like go to Candle light service on Christmas Eve, leave cookies and milk out for Santa, spread reindeer food out on the sidewalk and I eventually got in the story of Jesus' birth.  It wasn't at the beginning of all the gift-giving, but it made it in there.

So this year was the year I got a serious hankering for 2 different Christmas trees.  I absolutely adore all the ornaments our kids make and love to look at them all each year and reminisce, but I also love to have and look at Christmas trees with a decorative flair.  I want the kids have their own tree and I'd like to have my own tree.  Is that bad?  We'll see.  It's all a cost thing right now.

Disney at Christmas

Usually we don't get to experience Disney at Christmas time, but Jim ran into a co-worker that needed some quick cash in exchange for 4 tickets and we decided to hop on it.  Whoo hoo!

It was very pretty.  Disney always does it up just right and Christmas is certainly no exception.

Growing the beard and getting ready for our church's nativity to be a Wise Man.

They had just opened up the new Fantasyland addition and here's the view of Belle's castle above.  It's realistically about 20' tall, but the way it was positioned made it look like it was full size far away.

Again, someone got ahold of the camera.

No amount of, "Hey Brandon!  Look at Mommy!  Smile at the camera!" could get him to turn around and stop looking at whatever was behind them all.

Tampa Zoo December

Our 2nd trip to the Tampa Zoo...

Every time I see this picture it reminds me of a story about my brother, Mark.  When Mark was this age, my parents had a rooster that roamed free on the property.  One day my mom recalls hearing a faint sound, but wasn't sure of what it was.  So she went about her business of doing "inside" work.  Minutes later she heard it again, a very faint high-pitched sound, and it sounded similar to "helllllp! helllllp!"  So she decided to investigate.  She looked outside and saw nothing, but something told her to keep looking, this could be serious.  Well just then, from around the corner, was her precious little blond-haired blue-eyed toddler wearing nothing but a diaper, running as fast as he could away from the rooster with the rooster chasing and pecking at him and Mark was yelling, "Helllllp, the rooster's peckin' my butt!!!!!"

Good times.  Good memories I say.

Mi Mamacita...

 

RCS Christmas Program

RCS had their Christmas program.  Mom and Grandma came to watch our little/growing-too-fast girl sing in front of all the adoring fans parents.

She doesn't ever seem like she's nervous before and after a show like this, but during it she does this cute thing with twirling/scrunching/wadding up her dress that suggests otherwise.

Her brother.  Hmmmm.  Love that kid.

Um, he gets a little restless.  Sometimes.  Like after 5 minutes of  attempting to sit still.

So we, meaning his father and I, resort to desperate attempts and tactics to keep him entertained.

Like, give him the camera.

 

This usually will prolong the attempt at "sitting still" for another 10 minutes or so.

And we usually get some entertaining photos.

He enjoys looking at the pictures that he's just taken.

And admiring the results.

Sometimes we see a little more of him than we were expecting.

But as long as he's quiet and not destroying something, we're okay with it.

Ahhh, the beauty of the Christmas season.