Give Thanks to the Lord….

At the beginning of December, Brennan took on the challenge of learning this bible verse for Sunday School…..sister followed suit.  I think it is an appropriate thing to share on this New Years Eve!  Give THANKS to the Lord…..for he IS GOOD!

After Christmas HiJinks….

One of Brennan’s presents from Nana was a science wizard kit.  He grabbed a crazy hat he had in the dress up bin for this great picture… 

And, here is my 6yr old skateboarder.  Uuugh……what you do for your kids!!!  He is aware of the rules…..if I ever see him on this skateboard without his helmet and protective pads it is MINE!  But, he’s getting the hang of it and talks about it constantly. 

Video below:

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Merry Christmas 2013!!!

Christmas morning with kids just can not be beat – that is for certain!   Especially with the magic of Santa still alive.  Santa surprised Brennan by getting him a new ‘little teddy.’  As you probably know, Brennan LOVES his teddy.  We have 3 teddys now in rotation and he used to have a little teddy too.  I bought it on accident and then we think that perhaps Caelan put him in the garbage at some point when she was really little.  The original Little Teddy is nowhere to be found – we have searched every nook and cranny in this house.  He was so impressed that Santa knew how much he wanted a Little Teddy.   He also got BeyBlades and a Seahawks jersey from Santa (which he wore for 4days straight before I could get it off of him to wash it). 

Caelan got this princess castle with little people princesses and some slippers from Santa.  This reaction is priceless! 

The finale of Christmas was this kitty for Caelan from Grandma Carol & Grandpa Roger and a skateboard for Brennan from us.  Brennan was quite distracted during the opening of presents looking at what was left under the tree and trying to figure out if he was getting a skateboard (it was #1 on his Santa list, and he had already opened the protective pads from Nana).  But, we hid it in the closet to tease him – and brought it out at the end (pictures to follow). 

Sean added a nice touch by leaving carrot scraps next to Brennan’s note…..

One present I gave to myself was this pan I found on the local consignment FB page.  We used to get these at the Farmer’s Market all the time, now I’m excited to make them myself.  They are round pancake balls that you can fill with whatever you want. 

This ring was a present from Caelan….it’s a stackable ring with three pieces.  I think each ring represents my three ‘loves’…..Sean, Brennan, & Caelan….

And….by 9am Brennan was out playing with his alley buddies…..Eli (he is Jewish and they must have talked about how he doesn’t celebrate Christmas - Brennan knew it and insisted that it would be OK to call his mom on Christmas morning) and Toby (who was beyond excited to play with his new BeyBlades. 

We went to the movie Frozen in the afternoon (Eli and family decided to join us, actually) and then came home for a quiet, non-traditional meal of tacos.  After dinner we looked at some Christmas lights.  It was a great Christmas, but I couldn’t help but feel sad that we didn’t have any grandparents with us this year.  Next year, perhaps……

Last Stretch Before Christmas!

Brennan and Caelan both practiced for a song at Church the Sunday before Christmas……They did pretty good during rehearsal, but Caelan would have no part of standing up in front of church once we actually got to the ‘show.’  Brennan actually did a great job singing a pretty hard song (not really a kid song if you ask me…). 


After church I wanted to get a picture of Caelan in her cute dress, and she rushed to get her completed potty chart…..I am just happy anytime I get cooperation for a picture from the kids…..

After lunch we watched The Polar Express for the first time this season.  (Sean was at the football game and I had some holiday cooking to do in preparation for a party that night – perfect time for a movie!).  I was very surprised how long they sat like this.  The Polar Express still scares Brennan a little bit, and in anticipation of the scary ghost parts, Brennan volunteered to snuggle his sister.  So sweet! 

And…..then the scary part hit…..and Caelan bailed and came and helped me in the kitchen. 

That night we went a party with the Hoffman’s and the Ellefsen’s…..fun night celebrating the holidays!

We finally went to see Santa a few days before Christmas, and as expected, Caelan would have no part of sitting on Santa’s lap.  Unfortunately, I woke up that morning at 3am and couldn’t get back to sleep so I look very tired in the picture…..and you can see that Caelan is definitely NOT happy with the situation…..but at least she’s not hysterically crying this year. 

After we got back from the mall we decided to try and deliver our neighbor gifts and as you can see Caelan was still in a stinky mood…..but the combination of colors and clothing were irresistible to try and take a picture!   (I had just bought Caelan and Brennan each a scarf at the mall – and they were both so excited..)

My absolute favorite is below…..its like she is a model who is posing!

Let It Snow

Caelan got to do a routine in her gymnastics class to the song Let It Snow.  It was so cute.  First, she got completely distracted by the fact that our good friend Jenny Pastore had just arrived and was standing at the entrance behind her, and Second, the teacher was kneeling to the side and didn’t do that during practice.  So, Caelan thought that she needed to kneel too. 

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The Saturday before Christmas we hosted a get together with Sean’s cousin Garret and family as well as Garret’s brother Travis who was in town for a volleyball tournament with his fiancé Molly and their baby Elias. 
Below is Caelan and Madison….they were as happy as could be to be together all day long. 

Brennan was so good at holding Elias ……for a few minutes…..

And…..then the girls got into Brennan’s closet, and became Jedi’s…..

We ended the night by taking Garret & family to Snowflake Lane in Bellevue.  What a fun day with Sean’s family. 

Holiday Season 2013 cont….

It is becoming harder and harder to get a decent picture of these two goofballs…..this was the morning of the Microsoft Family Christmas party and they were both looking so festive, but alas….this is the best I could get….

Click on the link below to see a video of Brennan riding the mechanical bull at the party…..it was hysterical.  The line was long, and I saw many kids much bigger than Brennan fail at even getting on the bull, but he had no problem at all.  This video is from his second attempt….

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You can see from this video that baby sister was not going to be outshined…..she cut up the dance floor for at least 45min….

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And, our BIG news of December is that Caelan is officially POTTY TRAINED!  Sean is some kind of ‘potty whisperer’…..with Brennan I was SO STRESSED OUT!  Sean and Caelan just figured it out over several days, very low key or pressure, and with just a few accidents she got it…..She made it through 40 successful trips to the potty is just 4 1/2 days.  She cashed in her chart for a Barbie….yes, we now have a Barbie in the house!

We had our ONE and ONLY snow day the last Friday before winter break.  I was up early watching the news and checking for school closures, and thought that Brennan would be SO DISAPPOINTED that school was going to be cancelled that day.  He had ‘Crazy Hair Day’, ‘Wear Your PJ’s to school Day”"’, AND his class was going to read Polar Express and have Hot Chocolate.  It was going to be a big day. 

But, he taught me a very good lesson that morning…..when he looked outside he was beyond excited and then I said, “dude, I have some bad news, though….they’ve cancelled school….”  He looked at me and thought for a second and then said, “but, Mama, we can just do all those fun things here at home.  We can watch the Polar Express, and make hot chocolate….” and then he ran up and got his Christmas PJ’s on and got right outside to play in the snow….it was before 8am….

The whole block was outside all morning playing in the snow and sledding.  Then, the warm front moved in and it was melted by the time I came home from work.