Holiday Festivities!

I apologize for the marathon post...it has been a while.  Here are my X-mas angels in their new shirts from Grandma Wagener.

 Instead of going to Kent's work party, we attended a friend's murder mystery 1920s party!  It was a blast, everyone looked fabulous and really got into their parts.

                                                 Sarah, Amanda, Me and Saundra

                                                        Sly Sleaze and Vanessa Crooner.

 Sandy took all of us to the children's theatre to watch the "Christmas Story."  It was a great play, with the funniest part being when Randy went "wee wee" on Santa.

                                Some princesses visited us and wished us a Merry Christmas.

 I was able to attend all of the kids' Christmas shows....such a treat!  Danielle stood like this the ENTIRE time.  I have about 10 pics. because I thought it was hilarious!  She is the only one in the class who didn't sing OR do hand motions!  Gotta love that girl!  :)

 Brayden got to wear pajamas to school during his party...it was quite the party, they had a blast and made tons of crafts, sang songs, and ate lots of junk!

On Saturday morning we woke up the kids at 6:15, and I told them "We're going on a Christmas adventure!"  Brayden thought we were going to go ice skating....little did he know that we were going to spend the next 7 hours in the car, heading to the 'couve.  :)  For the one full day that we were there, we managed to go bowling, and it happened to be during Cosmic bowling!  It was dark and we got to jam out to old school music (songs from my high school days).  The kids loved shaking their bums!

                                           Auntie Kalin, Grandma, Grandpa and Ellie.

 We also got to celebrate Christmas early with my parents.  The kids were shocked and thrilled!

 New headlights from Grandpa, the kids thought they were the coolest, they immediately ran around playing hide and seek.

                          Miss Leila slept through the whole evening, but she sure looked cute!

 My mom got them a huge tub full of dress up clothes, with accessories.  The kids have been playing with it constantly....lots of arrests (from the police man), dances (for the princesses), space trips (for the astronaut), and jumping around (for the pirates and cowgirl).  Too fun!

Lindsey& Andrew, Christy & Molly, Meghan & Sloane, Jocey & Luke, Kathy and Conner (Molly is also hers)  My kids were with Kent.  :)

 I rounded out our whirl wind trip with a quick visit with the 'couve girls!  It was a wonderful visit that got cut short when we looked out the window and saw SNOW!  Snow in the 'couve is a scary thing, because no one can drive in it and they don't maintain the roads.  The party quickly broke up and everyone made it home safe and sound.  Thanks for hosting us Lins!

This is a pic. of Ellie that wouldn't upload earlier.....she is singing AND doing the hand motions AND smiling!  Too funny.

New cousin!

Grandma Wagener, Auntie Kalin and Cousin Leila came to visit us!  All I  have to say is that Leila is quite a trooper!  My kids are OBSESSED with her.  I don't think she got a single minute of peace while she was here.  My kids were constantly next to her, in front of her, behind her or on top of her.  They absolutely could NOT contain their excitement.  All I kept thinking was, I am so glad our family is complete, I don't know what I would do with so many helpers (besides go completely insane!).Dani and Leila
 Leila is so easy going and mostly happy, it was so fun to have her little baby sounds and cries in our house.  Just looking at her makes you smile.

                                                  Brayden and Leila.

 Ellie, Leila and Dani.

                                                                    Kalin and Leila
 We also did a gingerbread house while they were here.  This is me showing you how THRILLED I am that the house came pre-assembled.  Yes, it did say this on the box, (I realized after I opened it) but this was the best surprise in a LONG time.  You can't beat it, $9.99 at Costco.  All I had to do was squeeze a few lines of frosting and let the kids at it.  However, three kids and one house wasn't the most ideal, but we all survived and everyone got a turn....

                                        Grandma Wagener and the girls.  I hope we see you again soon!

Turkey Break

 Cousin Sarah got into town  and was able to come with us to watch Brayden in his Thanksgiving show at school.  It was great!  Kent was able to take the day off, so we all got to see our boy sing/shout (just like his mama).  It was pretty priceless, the best part for everyone was the last song where we ALL got to run around the room doing the chicken dance!  I tell ya, kindergarten is nothing but fun.

 We watched Elf and decorated the tree, then went down to Auntie Sarah and Uncle Kelly's and went sledding!  Grandma and Kelly took the kids out and Kelly hooked them up to his 4 wheeler.  Pretty cute and lots of fun!

 The boys were the first to sit down.  :)  They also chose the seats at the far end of the table where they couldn't get up and/or out to help with the chillins.  Smart boys I tell ya.

 AND our two kids' tables.  The girl team and the boy team.  That's what we're all about right now, GO GIRL TEAM!

Cousin Sarah with Brayden's snowman.  B made this all my himself, my favorite part was the duplo block nose.  He really wanted me to go to the store and get a carrot, but I wasn't about to leave the house, so he came up with a new plan.  :)  What a fun and snowy week!  Thanks for sharing it with us Cousin Sarah, we can't wait for you to come back!

Censor?

Not feeling like a very attentive mom right now.  We were driving home today and I was concentrating on maneuvering through the slushy roads of Spokane.  Dani asked me to turn up the radio, (she LOVES music), I obliged and listened faintly to the music.  After the song ended and another song came on Dani said, "Mom can you play that "Go to hell" song again?  Ooops....do you know which song I'm talking about?  It has a really catchy tune, I think the phrase might be "I hope she gives you hell"  I don't know who the artist is, but I like the song.  Apparently Dani does too!  I am NOT reverting back to kids songs, or lullabies, so if my children tell you to "Go to hell"  just go with it!  :)

Neighborhood entertainment

All right folks, I am going to share my most recent embarrassing moment.  I worked in the girls' pre-school classroom this morning and I was busting to get back home to get Brayden off of the school bus.  Otherwise they drive him back to his school.  However, this 'Couve girl is not all that confidant in maneuvering through snowy roads.  We pulled into my garage about 5 minutes past the regular school bus drop off.  I hurried out of the van, yanked the door open and unloaded Gavin, my neighbor's son, and then hurried the girls out.  Apparently Ellie didn't have time to grab her glove and let me tell you, the WHOLE neighborhood heard about it. 

Yes, it is usually a wonderful thing to be directly across the street from the bus stop, however, when your child/children is/are having a melt down everyone gets to witness your (lack of) parenting skills. Ellie was shrieking at the top of her lungs about her glove......I was NOT going to buy into that and help her find it because she was out of control.  I helped Gavin get bundled, I helped Dani get bundled (Ellie is still screaming like a banshee), I looked up and saw Gavin's mom scurrying over to rescue him from the utter chaos of my garage.  I also looked up to see at LEAST 6-7 parents at the bus stop waiting for their beloved child.  Yes,  ALL eyes were on ME!  I smiled and waved, and yelled (over Ellie), "Glad we can provide you some entertainment.  I'm not charging admission, but a charitable donation to my coffee fund would be appreciated."

Meanwhile.....Jackie rescued Gavin, Dani and I were ready to cross the street and Ellie is still losing it to the fullest in our garage.  I yank her up, carry her inside, tell her to sit on the stairs (yeah, right), then realized there's no way she will stay there.  I carried her up to her room and slammed the door and told her to sit there.  I ran down and got Dani and went to the bus stop.  Low and behold as we were crossing the street, our front door opened and, "MMMOOOOOMMMMMM, come here right now!" came barreling through the air." 

This is what I am so proud of, I calmly turned around and said, "Ellie you need to go back into your room."  All the parents were staring/laughing/rolling their eyes at me.  Surprisingly nobody wanted her, nor a play date with us.  :(  One friend suggested I cancel my clients today, keep the baby-sitter, and go have drinks.  That sounds better and better by the second.........(She is still screaming 30 minutes later).

First Snow!

Christmas came early for my kids this year! 

 We woke up to a few inches of SNOW!  As a parent, I don't get quite as excited, especially since Spokane doesn't shut down, life continues and you're expected to drive and get to appointments.  BUT today we were free to play!  After Brayden got home from school we met the neighborhood gang of kids out on the hill (which didn't work quite as well as our own backyard)!  There were a few minor meltdowns from cold and ice, but overall it was a BLAST!

                                                  Owen attempting snowboarding.

                                          Kaiden and Ryan hiking up for another ride down.

                                                 Dani, Gavin and Ellie cruisin'.

                                                                 Ellie and Gavin

                                                       Ellie on the first run down the hill!

I think this is the first of many sledding days to come this year.  We can't wait!

3 1/2 going on......22?

As the girls were playing tonight I overheard, "I will be right back, I have to go pick up my boyfriend."  Yes, that's right, they were playing "house" and they are three and a half years old and they think they should have a boyfriend.

 This is pretty much my worst nightmare.  When they were born and the Dr. said,  "It's another girl."  I instantly thought, 'Oh my god, TWO teenage girls.'  This is just a tiny, tiny glimpse into what life will eventually be like.  I really hope they will have different boyfriends and different tastes....the way things are going I don't think they could be anymore different.  We shall see, time will tell, wish me luck, the years will pass quickly and I will be at another level of crazy, psychotic, and non-stop worry.  :)