Holiday fun

Okay so I have been really bad about posting to any of my blogs. Argh I look at the previous post and think.... no I know that I have written since then , or what is today's date? ! ? So I am still trying to post more regularly for those family members and friends that read this for fun.

Thanks giving ends and CHRISTMAS begins.

This year D was old enough to really get excited for everything. We put the trees up Thanksgiving weekend. Well we didn't decorate them beyond lights and some beads. As I was sitting in the office trying to get some things done on the computer I heard a dreadful crash and a yelp. As I turned expecting to see blood and horror I see a naked D sitting on a tote of ornaments looking very scared. ( He was only naked because he refuses to tell me when he has to pee. He would just rather go in a pair of underwear or a diaper.... but he tells me every time he has to poo. When he is naked he only pees in the potty... Go figure. Not too bad since he isn't even two yet.) Anyway here is the pic of the accident.
See he doesn't even look scared! But he didn't touch either tree for the rest of the season. You can tell that I am a total scrap booker / photo taker since I assesed the situation then ran for my camera.

Emailing Santa

Well I am so bad I hate waiting in lines and this year we were more pressed for time than normal.... we still aren't sure why. But we decided to see santa then something came up and we missed the opportunity. The past few years aunt Holly and the kids have gotten on the computer and emailed santa their Christmas wishes. This year was so sweet. M decided that he wanted this toy... we had no clue what he was talking about.... it is a fruit ball and rolls out of a tree and pops and you can hug it. Okay if you can figure out what it is then you are AMAZING! Finally we asked E what the heck he was talking about and she said that he saw it on a commercial. Okay we have a clue! So GOOGLE now comes into play. I searched so many ways of his discription that I was going crosseyed. Scott walked in and typed two searches and found 'it' on Amazon. So we had a name and a picture.
Furberries
So these things are cute and he apparently saw them on Saturday morning cartoons. That is the only time that he sees cartoons that have commercials. I don't really let them watch just anything. So those mornings Scott likes to watch Batman and Spiderman stuff with the bigger kids. Anywho these things are weird and cute. Kinda like Popples from the 80's. But they have a fruity sent also. Really funny. So M decided that he wanted the Pineapple Puppy. That was the only thing that he asked Santa for. Then a few days later E wanted the same thing just a different animal. So Santa had it easy. We never buy a ton for them just a couple things each and we have talked to Santa to make sure that he only brings our monkies one or two things then their stockings. There are other kids that need the toys and Christmas is about the Christ child and giving of our time not getting stuff to shove in our rooms. So that wonderful morning was very much anticipated by E and M for their Furberries.

December Traditions

Since we have been back in Arizona we have gone to McCormic Ranch up in Scottsdale during December. They have model trains and a train that you can ride for $1-2 per person and it is about 11 minutes a ride. They decorate it very cute! All lights and fun. So this year we let E have the camera and she had way too much fun
So these pictures I took. I can't let her have all of the fun. We go to the trains with Scott's parents. His dad loves trains and is like a kid in a candy store when we go. He just loves watching the trains. They have so much fun riding the trains then we have tickets for them to ride the carousel. I opted out since I have to take pics and such... So Scott got to be the parent with the three kiddos.... there weren't any animals left really close together so E had to ride away from the boy's. She wanted to be closer but was alright when she saw that she would be in front of them and could look back and see where they were.
Now if I can get a normal picture is another story. I was without my tripod and the iso on my point and shoot can only do so much along with the settings I can change it to. So this is as fun as I could get. I tried subject panning to see how it would turn out. Not horrible. But nothing that nice either. OK so it is kinda horrible but hey again it is a 5 megapixel point and shoot without my tripod. So on this end it sounds like I am really trying to defend my picture from all the torches and pitchforks.... they are in my mind.

The next semi tradition for the month of December is going to the Phoenix Zoo for Zoo lights. It really is a ton of fun. The zoo spends many hours setting up lights throughout the park. We had a membership to the zoo a few years in a row but this past year 2008 we didn't have the money to get a membership. So we didn't go this past 2007 December. Scott's parents wanted to take the kids to it and we asked if we could tag along. So fun. We invited Grandpa Dragon. He loves it too. What camera person wouldn't. So we headed out to the Zoo lights on the evening of 23rd. We bundled up... ok so those of you reading this that are in cold country have acclimated to your coldness but really if you have weird blood that can handle being in 115 degrees in the summer then 50 degrees and below feels really cold. Unless you are me and LOVE THE COLD!!! I wear a jacket since I never get to but half of the time I end up holding it. D isn't used to wearing his fat jacket and likes to chew on the zipper part. His jacket ends up wet. But it just doesn't feel like winter if you don't have some weird excuse to bundle up a bit. It is so much more fun. That being said.
This is the only picture of myself that will be in this post. Scott insisted on having the camera at the Zoo and when he gets the camera it is the only time that I will be in front of the camera. He insists that I have to have some photos in the scrapbooks too. I don't think so but I can't argue with him he is too cute. Hee hee.







In all fairness he never smiles normal for pictures at all. He can be worse than Matthew. He happened to smile normal for once so here is a picture of him too.
















These fun animals were all throughout the zoo. They are huge wire frames and they are pre lit. The kids always love seeing the zebras and this is all that they got to see that night.










So there is a story about the giant ants. 10 years ago this December (2008) Scott proposed to me at the zoo lights in front of the ants. He was trying to find a quiet area that we could talk and people kept walking through where we were. He finally found a quiet area that was away from the crowds and there was a small spot that faced away from the walk way that had these ants marching with leaves where he knelt down and proposed to me. Every year that we have gone back to the lights I have had to find where they put the ants and then I tell the story to E and M again. It was so sweet.

Grandpa had so much fun taking pictures of everything and I happened to see him pull out his camera while he was taking a break sitting down. He had a horrible infection in his tooth. I was so happy that he was able to come anyhow.














This was as close as I could get to M actually posing for a picture. He was so funny. He kept running back and forth and would throw out his arms and say ta da then run back to the corner and do it again. He is officially my clown.







Christmas eve we head over to Scott's grandmas house for lasagna, meatballs, sausage, chicken, and fudge and blonde brownies. So it is becoming tradition that every year we give Scott's mom pictures of the kids. She is a very proud grandma of her three grand kids. I don't know any grandma that isn't proud of her grand kids. I had forgotten to take the photos that week since I was working on other items for Christmas still. So Christmas Eve morning we went ahead and pulled out the sheet and the tripod and pleaded with the kids to sit still enough for one printable photo. So M began with singing like a monster. He was so funny.









Then he let his toung hang out so far. I asked him what he was doing. His response was "I am turning into a dog and my toung is too big for my mouth. Like on the color shaggy dog." We have the new shaggy dog and the old one. They like both. He kept doing it over and over it was halarious.












When it was D's turn he was so funny too. He kept pointing at the camera letting E know that it was his turn and that I was right there.














Then he proceded to tell me that he is this big and that he wanted to get his choo choo and play.
















This is as silly as E got that morning. She was so cute. She always grabs one of her sweet brothers and tries to pose. She is such a good girl.















Again she grabed D and tried to get him to sit on her lap for the picture. So much for that. He was having so much fun trying to get away that I had to take pictures of the sweet struggle.


Christmas Morning

Santa doesn't wrap presents in our house. Neither does mommy when the gift is big.
Like these.

For Christmas I made bean bag chairs for the kids. I spent some time picking out the fabric, Scott was able to find the pellets online at Walmart.com and we spent Christmas Eve filling the bags. I found the pattern on Michael Miller's blog http://www.makingitfun.blogspot.com/
it is such a great place to find fun patterns. Love it. They have great fabric too.
So E's has 2 panels of pink and black harlequin two panels of white and black flowers and two panels of french words and tiny drawings. She also got a trash can.... she asked me for it. Her strawberry furberry was brought by Santa and the traditional jammies and other little things.
D's bean bag is bug insect and frog related. two panels of orange and cream stripes and squiggles, two of cream with bugs, and two of green with snails and mushrooms. Santa brought him a peach furberry and he got some other little things from us.









M got a bean bag chair pirate themed. Scott laughed at me when I got the fabric originally. I have a thing for polka dots and he thinks that it is hilarious.
So his is two panels of cream with brown and reddish orange random polka dots, two of blue ocean with pirates and maps, and two of brown with maps and skulls and cross bones. They had so much fun opening their stuff and helping daddy open his stuff.... he got lego starwars both of the games for episode one through six. We are still very much enjoying all of the fun holiday decorations and new toys and gifts floating around our house.


To those of you who haven't received our Christmas card.... it is not the postoffices fault. I seriously did not have time to make them and send them out this (past) year. But I am going to send out something soon.

The boys birthdays are quickly approaching and I am already planning the cakes and everything. YAY Still not sure how we are going to do the parties... same day or seperate days. Oh well.