Look Mom No Hands!!

Emery learned to ride Emmet's two wheeler over Christmas break. She learned in a day, so much quicker than her brother. I love her can do attitude. She is out every day riding her bike. She loves it. Yesterday we rode our bikes to school dropping Emmet off. On the way Emery exclaimed, "look mom no hands!" I kind of freaked out, I don't want any broken teeth! Today Emmet was telling me that once Emery is too big for the bike we need to save it for when daddy comes down and we have another boy. I sweetly told him mom's can't have baby's forever most mom's stop having kids when they are 40. He thought about this and told me I have 9 years and that dad should be back by then. Poor guy, I didn't want to crush his hopes!

Christmas 2009

This was the very first Christmas morning spent in our own home. We usually slept at my parents, but this year I finally felt it was time to do it in our own home. I wasn't sure how it would turn out, but my family was awesome and helped make Christmas morning special. Here are a few pics!

Christmas Eve Day Cookie Party with cousins. My kids are the perfect age to really get into the spirit of Santa!

Traditionally on Christmas Eve day for lunch we have clam chowder and pizza was added for the little kids. We always had Little Ceasars, until Sam joined the family we upgraded to Barros. I think that's one tradition we'll keep!!

We spend Christmas Eve afternoon at my parents. We share some of our talents. The kids were suppose to be singing our favorite song Alfie the Elf. They weren't quite in to it!

Emmet did with a little encouraging sing All I Want for Christmas is my Two Front Teeth!

I just love this picture of Emery blowing spit bubbles!! She's all girl, yet as rough and tumble as they come. Her dad would have loved that about her.

I love my little angel. She has a gift of being so tender and sweet!!

We spend Christmas Eve at the Hawkins. We do the Nativity and my kids really take this seriously. Emmet asked to be a Wise Man this year. He sat perfectly still for almost 15 minutes. This proves he's able to sit still through FHE right?!!?

Emery was Mary and she will talk about this all year long. You can't miss her, she's the pink Mary!! I'm not sure the real Mary made quite a fashion statement.

Santa's elves ie: Chris and Jenny Olson came to my house around 10:30 that night delivering all of the gifts that were hiding at my parents home. I am so thankful they helped me I was so tired and it's no fun doing things by yourself all the time. They spent the night and my parents arrived at my door at 6 am. Emmet had just woken up so it was perfect timing. I loved having a house full of family. It was wonderful to have others with me to see my kids reactions and laugh with me. Too often I'm laughing at my kids alone.

Sam's dad took my kids shopping for me. I love seeing what they pick out. This year they got me the board game mouse trap. Emmet and my dad were setting it up and Emmet came running up to me in the other room, "mom, mom the game has four players so if dad was here he could play it with us!" It still amazes me how much they think about him and love him. If he walked through the door right now, I know they would recognize him and accept him immediately. Kids are amazing!!

Emery got a great doll house for all of her Barbie "stuff". But she also got make-up. She especially loved the blush!! This doll house on occasion has turned into Emmet's lego base. Emmet did get some legos. His dreams came true, I have successfully built them and for now they are still intact! We have learned from the past and Santa brought only "age appropriate" legos.

Hip hip hurray for our best Christmas yet. I've been saying this a lot I've noticed, but with every passing day we are able to find a little bit more Joy! Thank goodness.

The Polar Express

We headed up north to Flagstaff to enjoy the Polar Express. It was freezing by our standards, but oh how much fun we had. The train car looked exactly like the movie. We were given hot chocolate on the train. Emery took one sip and then spit it out, similar to the movies. I couldn't help but laugh it looked so funny. We sang songs, Santa came through handing out bells. They also read the Polar Express. Everyone was in PJs. I recommend it to anyone in AZ!!

Emmet had three requests on this short trip.

1.

Play in the snow. I wasn't sure if there would be snow but there was! Thankfully, my aunt sent us their old snow clothes.

2.

Have a snowball fight!! I lacked the proper shoes, but we did have a snowball fight. This was the first time Emery had ever played in the snow. What a good sport she was.

3. Emmet wanted to see it snow and a bonus was go sledding! We were staying at my aunt and uncles home and my uncle Kevin made the sledding possible. They just used their front lawn. What was really cool was the morning we were leaving it started to snow!! I thought it was our sweet little Christmas miracle that Emmet got everything he wished for!