Jenna's First Christmas

Our Christmas Eve was spent in church, and then a drive around the neighborhood in the pouring rain looking at homes decorated for Christmas. We came home to get ready for bed and of course left carrots and cookies for Santa and his reindeer. The kids went to bed as usual which is always surprising to me (not even a peek out the door to check at what was going on downstairs). It's become an annual tradition here that Dave and I have snacks and wrap all the presents and get everything set up for the morning. The night was as usual.

Amelia and Ava came into our room first at 6:30am "Merry Christmas!" They waited for dad to take a shower and for Jenna to wake up. Wow, they are patient! We went downstairs to check out the loot, but actually had to wait again and wake up Drew. Drew slept through half of the presents. while Jenna tried to eat paper, bows and gift tags, Amelia wanted to get everything opened quick, while Ava wanted to try everything on and open each box as she went.

Drew and dad looked great in their sweater vests and caps, Amelia got her pixos and dinos, Ava loved her mermaid dress and heels, while Jenna is still enjoying eating whatever wrap she can find on the floor.

My mom and uncle Jon came over around 12:30 with bags of presents for the kids. We then went to Grandma and Grandpas. We opened more presents and had dinner. We drove home in the pouring rain with a crying baby who still doesn't like that car thing.

Thanks to all our family for the enjoyable day and for the gifts. Merry Christmas!

Today brought more rain which has pretty much washed away our huge snow and left a gushy mess outside - perfect day to stay in and take it easy.

Santa Wish Lists

With the super snowfall over the weekend, schools are closed this week. Then of course there's already the scheduled winter break next week.............(if anyone's counting....that's two full weeks at home). Okay, back to my post here.... Here at home this week we've had hours and hours of outside snow time, teacher christmas card making, dinosaur gingerbread cookies and the girls put together their Christmas wish lists.

From Amelia: "Pixos, new clay, a new dragon, and a snowflake that can't melt".

From Ava: "all the toys, and a singing Barbie like Kendall had last year".

I asked them what Santa should bring Drew and they told me "transformers, Bakugan, and a piano that plays music".

BLIZZARD

It started snowing about 9pm on Friday night. I was a bit worried for Dave to make it home from his work trip by midnight. He was home by 2:00am and said driving conditions were horrible. The kids were ecstatic to see him bright and early at 6:30am!!

It snowed all day and into last night. Our unofficial snow fall total here is 17 1/2 inches. Everyone got some snow time and some snoozin....

The Week in Review

I've just heard from Dave. He's about to board the plane headed HOME! He just spent the last 19 hours flying from Singapore to Newark. I am excited that he will make it home by midnight - hopefully before the big snowfall comes. Forecasters are calling for a major snowstorm tonight through tomorrow.

I was a bit worried this week how I would handle being home alone all week without Dave, but I DID IT! Monday was as usual, Tuesday Drew stayed home for a doctor appointment in Fairfax where we waited way to long for a lot of nothing. Wednesday my mom came up to celebrate Amelia's birthday and then spent the next few nights keeping me company. The kids enjoy it when Grannie is here for a sleepover. Thursday was Christmas shopping and today was Drew's Christmas party at school. Jenna slept, Ava enjoyed hanging out with her buddies and meeting Santa. Drew's class went from station to station - games, singing, crafts and a visit with Santa. Drew received a huge body pillow as his gift, but was definately happier with the chocolate chip cookies on the snack bar (photo above). My mom snapped a photo or two of Jenna and I today (above) and I tried to be artsy with the last photo (snapping the kids photo tonight with the lit tree).

Oh yes, and Wednesday morning I was getting Jenna dressed. She won't sit still at all for me anymore, so I asked Ava to distract her. Jenna isn't much for babbling yet, but there she went...AVAAVAAVAAVAAVAHH and MOMMOMOMOMMMM. And it's been fun when you say those sounds to her now - she will repeat them!

Come on home Daddy!!

Happy Birthday Amelia!

Dave is in Singapore this week for work. To celebrate Amelia's birthday, my mom brought over a roast so we had a special dinner with Grannie, Collin, Jaxson and Jaclyn. Amelia opened more presents (dinosaurs, puzzles, bendaroos and a stuffed DRAGON!) Amelia told me that at school today her class sang Happy Birthday to her and enjoyed the brownies that we sent in for the class to enjoy at lunch.

PARTY!!

Amelia will be six on Wednesday December 16th. To celebrate, Amelia, her family and friends visited Adventure Park today. The party began with pizza and cake and then the kids went to play on the play gym, the tea cup ride and all the arcade games. There happened to be face painting today and Santa was visiting. We had a great time. Amelia really enjoyed her time and loved all of her presents. Thanks to family, Grandma, Grandpa, Uncle Steve, Heather, Abigail, Bethany, Olivia, Grannie, Uncle Josh, Jaclyn, Collin, Jaxson, neighbor friends, Kasey, Nicholas & Vito, and friends, Lynn, Alyssa and Julia.

10 Years Ago......and......Today

Drew at 4 months old - 1999

Jenna at 8 months old
Yes.... we still have baby clothes from ten years ago..... and now that I look at it...we've still got that couch!!

8 Months

Jenna is EIGHT months old today. Still crawling and climbing where ever she can - figuring out there's more to this house then the living room where we spend most of our time. Right now she's in her walker opening kitchen cabinets pulling out pots and pans and chewing on them. She's doing a bit better at night - crying out once or twice a night which alerts me to go ahead and feed her a bottle which I would say she doesn't actually need, but I can't seem to stop the pattern....