Christmas 2009

Despite the colds and coughs we came home with, our holiday was wonderful. Christmas Eve we went to 4 o'clock mass and then slowly headed to Grandma's house in the blizzard.  Kelly slammed on the brakes several times on our drive from church because of the white-out conditions, I had to remind him that that probably wasn't the smartest thing to do...you can all guess what kind of lovely reply I got for my backseat driving...oh, did I mention our sweet 4 month old was screaming his brains out too?  Hmm...great family memories:) 

We finally made it safe and sound.  We ate lots of great food then opened presents.  Kelly and I both held our breath as Bo opened his first gift and started yelling that this was not what he wanted.  Thank goodness that gift happened to be from us.

Our attmept for a family photo...minus Bo, he was still crabby about his crappy Transformer...:(

Here are some more pictures of the nieces and nephews opening gifts and of my dirty brothers at the kitchen table, where a wicked game of Things was played.  Probably not the best game for a bunch of drunk twenty somethings to be playing at Grandma's house on Christmas Eve.

Me and the sistas.

The next morning proved to be a different story for this little booger because Santa hit the nail right on the head and brought Mr. Bo a haybale maker.  The boy was all smiles the rest of the day.

He was in such a good mood, he was even posing for pictures with his mama.  AND smiling :)

Daddy got what he wanted too.  Mama had to work hard to track down these lovely 1/2 price binoculars at Gander Mountain.  As you can see, he was all smiles too on Christmas morning:)

After opening Santa gifts we headed out to my parents house for more food and gift opening.  The kids had a grand time playing Hungry Hungry Hippo, the guys had a good laugh during the gift exchange, and we ladies enjoyed playing with my new remote for my camera...snapping photos of ourselves:)

Then we headed west to Kelly's hometown.  Great times were had by all...minus the trip to the ER in which Kel received seven stitches in his left thumb.

 After sleeping over then celebrating at Kelly's aunt's house we headed home for one more celebration at my other grandparent's house.  Again, more fun had by all!

Holy smokes!  Who knew one post could hold 12,000 photos!!  Time to go get some work done now !

Sleepovers and Gingerbread Houses

Is anyone else feeling that it's suddenly holiday crunch time?  We don't have anywhere to go until Christmas Eve, but I'm already thinking...I need to make this to take here, and pack that to have ready for there...I'm going to try to have everything baked, packed and ready so that we can actually enjoy the holiday instead of having a stressed out crabby mommy, but as I say that I think crap, I haven't wrapped a thing yet!  Hmm...we'll live, I just need to stay focused and check things off my list one day at a time :)  Getting a little sleep wouldn't hurt either.

The boys have had some exciting times this past week.  Bo had his cousins spend the night for the first time, helped me bake sugar cookies, and built gingerbread houses with a friend.  Here are the pictures to prove it :)

Alot of the frosting ended up in Bo's mouth. What a surprise!

Cruz and his cousin Josie

Movie time! They watched Jumanji, and as you can see, Bo was frightened. He had nightmares all night.

Jaden read the book NO David! to the boys.

And then daddy read it.  It's our favorite b/c it only has about 2 words per page :)

This boy is going to be a professional baker by the time he's ten, he helps his mom so much in the kitchen!

Cruz even got in on the action.  Notice Bo being ornery.  He kept trying to make Mickey's footprints in the dough.  This is why we didn't hand any cookies out to friends or neighbors.  Who knows where Mickey's feet have been!?!

Sweet Baby Boy

This sweet baby boy has gotten off his schedule. He is now taking two one hour naps during the day, then a short 30-45 minute nap in the evening.  And then he thinks it's fun to stay up until midnight. 

Yawn.

The Holidays

This year for Thanksgiving we attempted to spend time with both sides of our family.  We got up early and headed west to visit Kelly's family for lunch, then made it back home to spend time with my family just before dark.  Being back "before dark" was key because I wanted to get a few family pictures.  I'm thinking family photos will become a tradition for us on Thanksgiving Day.  We were able to get some good pictures last year when I had just got my new camera...literally, that day.

Here are a few of last year's family pictures.

And this is the best we could do this year.

Here is one of the whole clan with my parents and brothers and sisters.

And here are a few from Thanksgiving Day 2009.

We had to lay Cruz down on the front door mat while we ate lunch.  He didn't seem to mind :)

The boys with Kelly's sister Steph and their Grandma.

This was the party going on when we made it back to my side of the family.

Cruz and his Ga-Ga

I'm really not fond of this picture of me, but I thought the picture was a funny one of me and my sisters.  We were searching the Black Friday ads for our shopping adventure the next morning.  Something must've been pretty funny.?.

Here we are a little more posey...

My sisters and I with the babies and our grandma and grandpa.

Thanksgiving was fun this year, but surprisingly Kelly and I were still hungry when we got home that night! That's just sad...

Now that Thanksgiving has come and gone, I know two little boys who are patiently awaiting Christmas....

Girls Weekend

My mom, sisters, and I decided to make a new tradition of taking a trip to Kansas City one weekend each year to do some shopping.  This year my sister and I had new babies and are still nursing so we were planning on bringing the babes, but my sis got out of it by having her hubby feed the babe formula for a day.  Kelly and Bo were headed back to Kelly's home town to go hunting, so Cruz was along for the ride.  He couldn't have been a better shopper!  Thank goodness!  Sorry mom, Em, and Kels...I know you're gonna LOVE these pics, but they are good memories that I have to document. :)

Here is Kelsey, mom and Cruz at American Eagle.

We made lots of purchases, but had to get out of the mall pretty quick, you can definitely tell the holiday season is beginning.  After 7 1/2 hours of shopping we checked into our hotel, which happened to be the same one Emmy and Heath had stayed at last December.  We took our shoes off and had a few drinks to relax before we went out to eat.  Kelsey insisted we get "dolled up" before going out.

Here is Kelsey teasing Emmy's hair while mom takes note.

And the finished product.

Aww...Kels, you're so darn cute.

We were ready to head to the restaruant around 9 P.M.  We had a short detour on the way due to the lack of our directional skills and made it to Carraba's around 9:30 P.M.  We were tired and hungry by then!! (And maybe a little tipsy too...ahem.) 

Here we are drinking our wine and waiting for our food.

Cruz slept like a champ throughout the night. I was worried he would keep everyone up, but I think the poor little guy was worn out from all the shopping we did.  The next day it was pouring outside and we were suppose to go to the outdoor mall...oh yes, and did I mention we were driving a truck?!?  We had to hit up Wal-Mart before anything so we could wrap our luggage and purchases in trash bags before we went anywhere.  Oh...if I had only gotten pictures of mom and Emmy transferring all of our stuff into trash bags in the back of the truck in the pouring rain in the middle of Wally World parking lot!!!  It was a hoot, to say the least! 

After eating at IHOP and the trash bag ordeal we were tempted to hit the road home, but Emmy had spotted a shoe warehouse on our detour to the restaurant the night before so we figured we could at least do a little shoe shopping before heading home.  We could've spent all day and thousands of dollars at the shoe store, but Cruzie wasn't having it so we decided to give the outdoor mall a drive by then head home.  Oh how the kiddos and husbands at home were excited to see us when we returned!  Can't wait til next year when we can go minus any children and maybe hit up a few casinos for our evening out....hmm, we'd better not plan on doing any shopping on our second day if we're going gambling girls!!