christmas day

all i can say is 'wow'.  loved having christmas at our house this year.  both sets of grandparents.  all the barrett's.  crazy fun.  probably one of my all time favorite christmas'.  i have always wanted to have christmas at home (like i did growing up) and russ has always wanted to have christmas with family (like he did growing up).  so this year, both of best worlds!!!  everyone was healthy.  everyone was happy.  we were well blessed.

waiting to see if santa came!!!

yep.  lots of good girls and boys this year :)

c loves her joe joe

cousins.  can you believe mickey is only two months older???

j hugging her new pink golf clubs.  she thinks she may give up baseball and focus on golf.  smart choice at 5 years old :)

c lovin' her new train... 

the girls and their pillow pets

post sledding christmas: chillin' around the house

j and grandma practicing her needlepointing

a little toy story kerplunk

the boys and their football cards

christmas eve

we had an early church service on christmas eve and then headed over to grandma and grandpa's with great grandpa for dinner and presents.  it was a great, relaxing evening.  for the first time in several years we headed home (yea!!) to put cookies out for santa and leave reindeer food on the front yard.  loved getting to see my girls do these traditions since in the past they have fallen asleep on the way down to grandma and poppys and miss out on tracking santa, etc. 

we knew the barrett's were coming christmas eve to spend the night but not until late so we put c to bed and told the girls they could fall asleep in mom and dad's room.  even have a little show on.  j gave up pretty quickly and went to sleep - she was exhausted but e, well, the little scrapper stayed awake until everyone got to the house.  i'd say she probably crashed around 10:30.  i was ready to fall asleep around that time also :)

spent some time visiting and then got to sleep asap so that santa could come!!!!

e loves her dip...blue cheese and all.

j diggin' her new watch.  pink is so cool :)

yes, i included a pic of myself (bc i'm lovin' my new wine glasses!!)

j handing out heavy presents...the girls love their great grandpa

c just could not keep those little hands off grandpa's train set...

ready for bed but not falling to sleep for hours. and hours. and hours.

reindeer food!

picking out cookies for santa.  yummy.

Christmas Day Sledding

so i think i am going to have to break up the last week into a few posts...starting with christmas day sledding, not because it was the most important moment of the holidays but because the pics are downloaded off the camera and well, I'm tired :)

to back up a bit, we had christmas at home this year with grandma and poppy, the barrett's, grandma and grandpa and mama moe.  it was great fun and we had the perfect amount of snow to go sledding with the kids.  C lasted through presents and the the big kids hit the awesome hills in the neighborhood!!

snow angels in the making

sledding with daddy

joey successfully sledding downhill :)

now he has to walk back up the hill...

russ attempting snow boarding.  don't ask.

all the fun

jimmy attempting the snowboard.  a little more successfully

e says 'bring it'...she's ready to sled this year!!

Memphis

What a fun weekend.  But lordy is it hard to travel as a family of five.  One hotel room for all of us tight quarters.  Especially when a certain one year old has trouble sleeping in a pack n play :)

We headed down on Thursday.  Russ had meetings Friday morning, so we basically hung out and explored walking distance Memphis.  We stayed at The Peabody so the hotel itself was a big hit.  C loved the ducks and there was so much entertainment.  A local choir singing Christmas carols had J mesmerized for what seemed like forever.  We found a little playground inside Autozone Park (home of the Memphis Redbirds) and had a fun lunch where we got to make our very own s'mores (yum!!)

Friday night was a pasta dinner for the St. Jude heroes...absolutely touching to hear about the millions of dollars raised for the hospital and the personal stories of patients and their families.  Heart wrenching.  If I'm honest, it was frustrating to hear these stories of "what could be" and all you want to do is hug and love and hold your children and instead I have a one year old throwing food and pulling my hair, a three year old that is so exhausted she falls asleep fork in hand, and an almost five year old that has to be coerced into taking x number of bites of her dinner so that she can have the brownies and cookies she is driving me nuts asking for....ggggggrrrrrrrr.  Really makes you realize how we get caught up in the small, mundane moments of parenting when there is really such a bigger picture.  They are healthy.  They are happy (most of the time).  They are the biggest blessings in my life.

We enjoyed being spectators for Saturday's run.  Enjoyed beautiful weather and good friends.  Par for the course we missed seeing Russ run past us, but managed to cheer on all the other JL runners. After a little rest time we headed out to dinner as a big JL group celebrating everyone's accomplishments.  We had 7 running the full marathon and 9 running the half.  WOW.

My middle girl...she is a trooper trying to hang with the big kids but not *quite* there :) 

(On a different note, didn't realize my lack of sleep was so apparent until I saw the pics...ugh.)

My C was so happy to see her daddy post-race and have a broad shoulder to lay her sweet head on...she slept like that forever!!

And my big girl....with her new BFF Ashley :)

Headed home Sunday after a quick swim.  Stopping at Lambert's with two other families travelling with us.  Yummy.

Overall, a great getaway.  A perfect way to put the Christmas season into perspective.  We have three beautiful girls who are healthy, growing, happy.  I am blessed in every way imaginable.  But I gotta tell you, next year our plans are for Russ and me to run the half and leave the little ones at home.  I think all the moms and dads agree that it was fun to have the kids participate, but when it comes down to it you are too consumed by all the weekend 'adult events' to have littles along for the ride!!

My Crafty Side...

My craftiness is about non-existant.  LOVE everything I see others do but when it comes down to it, well, I don't have it in me to come up with crafty ideas and if I try and replicate someone else's crafty ideas they usually turn out a little....unusual.  Maybe because I let a 4 and 3 year old participate and they have a way of taking over???  Well, we can put the blame on them regardless :)

I mentioned it in my last post but this weekend we are headed to Memphis for the St. Jude's marathon to watch Russ run.  There are about 10-15 people from JL running and many are bringing their whole families.  Dinner reservations for Saturday night is for 45 people ranging from 1 - 50 years old!  It is bound to be an incredible experience. 

Anyways I'm sure I made some comment in passing to J about supporting daddy with "go daddy go" t-shirts or posters but I should have remembered she has a very focused memory and wouldn't you know it...we are not leaving the Lou without personalized t-shirts.

Cool.  Great idea J.  I'm on it...except there's nothing out there that I like.  And then I realized we are coming up to Christmas and J's birthday and we just don't have the $$ to throw around having shirts embroidered, especially if they are going to wear it for one special day.  Do It Myself????  Is it possible???  Well, I gave it a go and have to say I think they turned out pretty cute - and for less than $10 a shirt!

The girls are so proud of their daddy and I am so excited (and nervous) to take them to see such an amazing event.  Thousands of people running to support an incredible organization.  At the same time, how in the world am I going to explain this to my girls??  How to get across the *good* of St. Jude without exposing them to the *sadness* of cancer...with kids...and the fight for a cure??

We will do it. And they will be better for it. 

Thanksgiving Weekend

Wow...what a great holiday weekend!  Feel like there is still lots to get done but when I look back on the weekend, it was a whirlwind of productivity!

• Tuesday we spent the afternoon making Turkeys for everyone at our Thanksgiving dinner...turned out cute but lots of cutting for mom and lots of gluing for the girls.  Have to say I was pretty impressed that my big girls stayed focused on the project for 2 straight hours.  Never expected all the great help (note a hint of sarcasm??  the did great but well, they're 3 and 4.5)
• Wednesday the big girls went down to Grandma and Poppy's with the Barrett's.  Gotta say life with just one little stinker is pretty sweet  :)
• Thursday we headed down to Terre du Lac to meet up with the family and celebrate all we have to be thankful for.  We had a great day with the Cottle clan.
• Got a little Christmas shopping done late Thursday night and a bit Friday morning (online at night and not CRAZY early...just early enough to get some good deals :))
• Christmas tree and decorations up on Friday!!!!
• Saturday was Michigan v Ohio State day.  Bummer of a game but the girls had fun making signs for daddy.
• We also managed to fit in a little Tangled Friday afternoon.  E's first movie and she says she had fun.  Honestly, we had no idea what she was thinking - the kid was a statue for 1 hour and 52 minutes.  She was either completely enthralled or a deer in headlights.
• Sunday morning we joined St. Lucas UCC.  We are thrilled to become part of our new church family. 
• Outdoor lights up Sunday afternoon!
• Headed up to Jimmy's hockey game Sunday night hoping to see a great game....Turned out to not be a winner, but love our #6 Shark!!!

We've got a few days here in STL and later this week will be heading down to Memphis for the St. Jude Marathon.  Russ is going to have a great run, we are going to support an amazing cause and the girls are going to have a fun "mini holiday" at The Peabody! 

E's Quiet Time...

My little E decided over the summer that naps are completely unnecessary for a big girl like herself.  Not even 3 years old and they were completely boycotted?!?!  Why in the world would a person do that to herself?  Me...I would LOVE someone to tell me it was time to get in bed for a couple of hours each afternoon.  I'll give her one point...sure makes bedtime a lot easier :)  There were many a night this summer E fell asleep at the dinner table. 

We have moved on from that for the most part.  She has resolved herself (after a couple of really rough "quiet times") that she has to stay upstairs, in her room, quiet, for one hour.  And she does a pretty good job.  She waits for me to come get her most days, except eventually the lack of sleep catches up with her and there are days when she actually falls asleep.  **Yea!!  She will be well-rested and that stubborn little person that takes over my sweet child will disappear for another 4-5 days!**  But she's obstinate and will not admit defeat - which means she won't get in bed and fall asleep comfortably.  We have found her asleep lined up against the wall, in the upstairs hall, she's blocked her bedroom door by falling asleep in positions that prevent us from opening the door and today was the best one by far...the top stair.  Good thing she stayed still.  Rolling down the stairs would NOT have been a good way to wake up!!

So I go check on her tonight and, yep, sound asleep in the hallway...sweet dreams baby girl!!!