Hanging out with Friends :-)

 A couple days before Brett's birthday, Laura, Bill, Abby, and Jackson came over to give him his birthday presents. This has been a tradition of ours since the kids first birthdays, and even if Brett or Abby is having a birthday party, we always give the gifts one on one :-) After Brett opened his presents, the Lokers stayed for dinner and play time. Of course, it was a bit crazy at times, but oh so much fun!!

Laura often picks out Brett's birthday cards from Snapfish and then puts photographs of the kids on them. Such a cute idea! One of these years I will follow suit :-)

After opening the card it was time to open presents! They gave him a cool train t-shirt with a 4 on it (which he quickly tossed aside until the day of his birthday when he was so excited to wear it!), a Thomas DVD, and a stuffed cat that has a remote control so you can play hide and seek with. THAT was definitely the hit that night (but I didn't get any pics!) :-)

Abby and Brett had fun using stencils on our window! This was actually a gift Brett got from our friends, the Boone's, last year for his birthday, and it is still a big hit!

After dinner they snuggled up with some blankets on the floor to watch T.V. There was no quiet time for Jackson though! He was on the go all night :-)

How cute are they?!

Since our DVD player isn't working, Brett and Abby watched Rudolph in Brett's room on the mini DVD player. Somehow they both fit into Brett's toddler bed just fine. There were only a few squabbles over space :-)

Then it was time for the real fun to begin! Jumping off the bed into a pile of pillows!! I think they could've done this all night if we let them!!

Can you tell they were having fun?!

And, of course, Jackson had to check out the fun too :-) Look at that cute face!!

The Perfect Christmas Tree

 So, this post is a little late! We've had our Christmas Tree now for over 3 weeks! Somehow, until now, I completely forgot to document one of the most exciting adventures of the season....picking out our perfect tree! Just like last year, it was a very mild day, especially for December. We didn't even need coats! It was nice because we didn't have to worry about Brett getting cold, but at the same time, when I think of Christmas, I think of cold temperatures and snow....and then warming up with blankets and hot chocolate. Those are my memories, and I hope they become Brett's too. But with global warming and the way things have been going, I'm not going to hold my breath! We've enjoyed making our own memories, and really, with a little boy is tow, the weather is the last thing that matters :-) We had so much fun!!!!

Brett took off looking for the tree. It was so funny because we would find the "perfect tree" and then our eyes would wander and we'd find another one that was "it".  This went on for almost an hour!

Brett really liked this tree, so I took advantage of of good photo opp. :-)

Finally! We found our tree and it was time to chop it down!

 Brett was a great helper...

And so happy and proud to take our tree home!

 Of course, as soon as we got home we had to put it up. And, of course, when we plugged our lights in, most of them didn't work. So, off to the hardware store I went! As soon as I got home the decorating began!

 

 And here is the finished product :-) It really is the perfect tree for our home :-)

Merry Christmas Everyone!!!

First Annual Christmas Party with Friends!

A couple weeks ago our good friends, the Lokers, hosted a Christmas Party at their new home for all our Chelsea friends. It was a night full of everything that a party should have - good food, drinks, gifts, and laughter. The Chelsea Christmas parade was that night too, so after some play time and appetizers we bundled everyone up and walked down the street to watch the floats go by and see Santa. I didn't have my camera for that, but it sure was a great time! After the parade we walked back to Laura and Bill's house and had a wonderful feast for dinner full of all the fixin's...ham, potatoes, green beans, and homemade mac n' cheese. I'm getting hungry just thinking about all that good food! After pigging out, we put the kids in their pj's and then passed out a gift for each of them to open. They played with their toys for a little while, and then we put a Christmas movie on so us adults could have our own Christmas exchange, White Elephant style! Good times were had by all!!

After getting their pj's on, Brett, Abby, and Carter entertained themselves while waiting to open presents :-)

And down goes Carter! Can't you just feel the love?!

And then Carter took Abby down too! Brett is either playing referree or trying to get in on the action too :-) Mmmm, what do you think?!

We then attempted to get a picture of all our cuties together...

Hey, atleast they were (almost) all in the picture!

Now to the best part....opening presents!!

And it's a....

Remote control race car!!! Thank you, Carter and Landon!!!

And let me just tell you, according to little boys, there is NOTHING like a new remote control car!!

We were able to pull the kids away from their new toys long enough for some dessert....yummy cupcakes that Zuzana made!!

After all that crazy fun, the kids sat frozen in front of the T.V. for a Christmas movie :-) Just what we had hoped for so we could play our White Elephant game!

Of course, not long after the sugar kicked in and they were in full gear again! And Laura, who always thinks of everything, gave each child a little goodie bag to take home :-)

"Let's see what's inside, Landon!"

It must've been good stuff, because Laura got a big thank you hug afterwords :-)

You'd think by almost 10pm at night the kids would be beat, but nope, they were ready for more fun in the basement!! We surely didn't mind because that just meant we could have another glass of wine, and chat some more!!

The big mattress on the floor is always a huge hit!!

Brett and Carter love to play chase games and wrestle!

Brett thought the guitar was pretty cool too :-) He was jammin'!

Finally, by around 11pm, Brett was getting tired :-) Here he is cuddled up on the floor with the soft new blanket we had gotten from the White Elephant game. We went home after this picture was taken and went to bed :-)

We really had such a great time with all our friends, and I loved watching all our kids play together!! Thank you for hosting such a wonderful party, Laura and Bill!! We can't wait to do it again next year :-)

Hometown Holidays!

 A couple weekends ago was Chelsea's annual hometown holidays. It's one of my most favorite things that our little town does and we look forward to it every year! It feels as if the whole town comes together for our children, and the spirit of Christmas is felt by all :-) 

Our first stop of the night was the Teddy Bear Factory to decorate Christmas cookies! We were the first of our friends to arrive, so while we waited for them, Brett enjoyed pointing out the antique toys and train sets in the display case. "Look at that cool train, mommy! Can I play with it?"

 Here they are goofing around the big bear at the entrance of the store :-) Brett still loves to make his little buddy Jackson laugh! His sweetness towards him melts my heart.

Then it was time to get down to business! Let's decorate some cookies!

I don't think I've ever seen a kid put frosting on a cookie so fast! Brett wanted that cookie in his mouth ASAP!

From the look on his face, I think it was pretty good :-)

After decorating cookies we let the kids just run and play for a little bit....

and the laughter and fun I witnessed put a smile on my face :-)

 "I'm going to catch you, Landon!"

Now that's the smile of a happy little boy, don't ya think?! Really, who needs Santa when you have friends to play with?!

After running around and burning some energy, it was time to go do some crafts! The place was absolutely crazy, but I think Brett still had fun. Here he is making a pinecone ornament :-)

Brett loved making the marshmellow snowman...actually, I think the part he loved was eating it afterwords!

Brett also painted a coaster, filled a bag with reindeer food, and decorated a paper ornament. After making all those crafts and carrying them around, we saw the paper bags to put them in! Brett decorated the bag and traced his hand on the front :-)

We then waited in line to see Santa with our friends Kathi and Jen and their son Jack. Brett was really excited to see Santa and kept telling me he was going to ask for an airplane (just like he did last year :-) ). But, just like me as a little girl, as soon as it was Brett's turn to sit on Santa's lap, the fear crept in and it just wasn't going to happen! We convinced Brett to atleast stand by Santa for a picture, but that was all we were going to get...no smile or anything!

This picture is priceless and sure to be a keepsake for years!