Christmas Day

Christmas morning the kids went to the tree to see if Santa came (Not that you could tell with the mountain of presents already there). Santa left a note on the cookie platter and Carter thought that was neat.

Now that Audrey figured out the presents were for her to open there was no chance of getting her to sit for a picture. This was the best I could get.

The trio batcave was the other thing Carter remembered off his list and kept asking for. Needless to say he was excited to open it.

Audrey got a stroller for baby Stella and she had to go for a walk right away. She's wearing the new shoes she got too.

Carter is glued to his Mobigo. Audrey saw him sitting there playing his games and she had to join in with her laptop.

Audrey loves their new kitchen!

Our attempt at a family picture

Group shot with Grandma & Grandpa

Thank you everyone for your generous gifts. We were spoiled this Christmas by all of you! We had a very blessed Christmas and hope you did as well. :)

Christmas Eve

We had a wonderful Christmas Eve! Daddy was home and Grandma & Grandpa drove down to visit (they now live only ~5 hours away). Chuck cooked his famous chicken parmesan for dinner and we let the kids get started on their presents.

Posing with ALL their presents in front of the tree. Audrey walked around carrying this present all day so it was no surprise she wanted to open that one first.

Carter opened this and shouted, "Chuck the talking truck! I wanted one of those!"

Audrey showing me her Disney princess CD player

Giving baby Stella her pacifier with one hand and holding a cut out cookie in the otherCarter's remote controlled walking Iron Man. He was so excited and played with it so long he forgot about the other presents under the tree. It was one of the few things he kept asking for off his list.

Zoolight Safari

The other night we took the kids to the zoo for their zoolight safari. The weather was perfect for it. It was so nice out the snow machines in the entrance weren't that noticeable. Audrey thought it was raining not snowing. The kids really enjoyed seeing all the lights and decorations. I think their favorite part was the train ride.

Posing by the North Pole. Audrey's too busy checking everything out to look at the camera.

Santa was even there. Carter was excited to remind him what he wants for Christmas. Audrey didn't want to sit with him but said hi from a distance.

Sitting on the turtle
Audrey kept telling it to giddy up. Then Carter would tell her it's a turtle not a pony.

Family picture taken by some nice strangers

Cookies for santa

Carter had been hounding me to make cut out cookies for Santa the last couple of weeks. As much as I felt like I didn't have the time or energy to do it, how could I say no? Carter helped with every step of the process. Like I said before, he's the best sous chef a mom could ask for. Seeing how happy it made him made it all worth it. Carter said that santa can have 4 cookies and the rest are for us :)

Carter hard at work frosting the cookies. He did a really good job. I did have to remind him not to lick his fingers so much. It's a good thing only family will be eating these cookies.

While Carter and I were hard at work frosting all the cookies, Audrey was on quality control

I think she approves

Carter posing will all the cookies he frosted. He truly was a huge help. Naturally, he made it a competition and tried to frost more than me. He reminded me that he was winning the whole time. I wonder who he gets his competitive nature from? At the rate the kids are gobbling them up there might not be any left for Santa.

Party Time

This past weekend we had two Christmas parties. Luckily, Chuck was post-call Friday and off Saturday so we could attend both. Plus the kids were welcome so we didn't have to get a sitter.

We took a family picture using the timer before we left Friday night. This was take 1

Here's take 2.
Audrey proudly showing me the ornament she made at school. She found a good spot for it on the tree. We'll see how long it stays there.

Carter & Audrey love their recorded Night Before Christmas book. They were so cute the other morning listening to it together. Carter is so sweet and always lets Audrey sit on his lap.

Carter's class is having a party so we made some puppy chow to bring. Carter is always my helpful sous chef in the kitchen. I think it's because he gets to lick the bowl :)

Meet Ernie

Last year one of the kid's Christmas presents from Great Grandma Aprahamian was the Elf on the Shelf. Her dad always had an elf out at Christmas so she was passing along the tradition to us. When we got the decorations out the other weekend we decided it was the perfect time to get our elf out. Carter loves the book that comes along with it and decided to name him Ernie. For those of you not familiar with the story, Ernie sits out all day watching the kids. At night, he goes back to the North Pole and reports to Santa if they've been naughty or nice. We've been having Ernie return in different spots every morning. Carter loves to find where he is for the day. In this picture Ernie was in Carter's little Christmas tree. It's amazing how effective a little reminder that Ernie is watching does for the choices Carter makes throughout the day. If he's about to whine or make a bad decision all we have to say is, "Ernie's watching" or "Sorry you had to see that Ernie." We may have to keep him hanging out year round :) Thanks Great Grandma for such a fun Christmas tradition.

St. Nick

St. Nick was supposed to come last night but he came Sat. night at our house. Chuck was post call Sun. and was home in the morning to see the kids find all the goodies in their stockings. The kids & I had been sick the last several days, so it was the perfect thing to cheer them up a bit. I didn't get things wrapped because of it but they still had fun unloading their stockings.

They just got their stockings down to see what's all in them

Carter finding his Star Wars stickers and m&ms

Princess stickers!

Pulling out her Snow White figurine
Audrey is currently obsessed with princesses and ballerinas. She's wearing princess slippers with her packer outfit in this picture :)

Carter got a Robin jet! I think he has the batcave coming for Christmas :) He did a great job following the instructions and putting it together by himself. Such a big boy!

The rest of the day was low key. Chuck was home to take care of us and we were able to get some much needed rest & relaxation.

Christmas decorations

Chuck was post-call Sat. so we took advantage of him being home and got out the Christmas decorations. We got the tree in the living room and Carter's room up before the Penn state game. After the game Chuck and Carter put the outside lights up.

Audrey looking like she's helping but is really causing trouble :) She kept pulling lights out of the socket and pulling ornaments off the tree. Carter was really good at finding where everything belonged.

We ran out of time to decorate the living room tree Sat. and Chuck was on-call again Sun. So Carter had to wait until Mon. to decorate the tree as a family. I don't think he could've waited another day! It's all he could think about. I can't tell you how many times he asked me about it.

Carter is a huge help with decorating the tree. He's so good about being careful with the fragile ornaments and keeping the boxes together. It's so much fun to watch him. Did you notice the huge present by the tree? We already have one large present next to the tree and the kids are getting so excited for more.

While Mommy and Daddy cleaned up all the boxes the kids decided to help by swiffering the floors. Carter got it out himself because he wanted to help. It was so cute to see them work together so nicely. Yes, Audrey is helping swiffer with one hand and holding onto Yoda with the other.

Thanksgiving Dinner

The Grahams hosted Thanksgiving dinner this year & there was a great turn out. I think there were about 20 adults and 5 kiddos. Needless to say that equaled a ton of delicious food. Chuck was post-call so we were thankful he was able to be there with us.

As soon as we got there Carter knew where to find Noah. The two of them camped out on this chair watching Cars until it was time to eat.

I managed to get a shot of all 5 munchkins

We brought our little table so the kids could all sit together. Brooklyn was behind them in the bouncer. Maybe next year we'll have find room for her at the table. Laura covered the table with paper and put together a cup of fun filled with crayons, stickers and toys for each kid. It was so cute and kept them entertained so the adults could eat with minimal interruptions.

After dinner Lee and Audrey were ready to dance. Their moves were hilarious! I should have taken a video of it.

Thanks Graham family for a wonder time.

Happy Thanksgiving!

From my little indian

Busy weekend

Last Saturday Chuck was on-call but the kids & I kept busy. That morning we met up with the Cherrys at the zoo. Unfortunately, I didn't take any pictures. Nonetheless, the kids & I had a great time. The weather was perfect and we got a VIP train ride to the new Trails of Africa.

We were home long enough to let Audrey nap a little. Then it was off to Laura Graham's baby sprinkle at the park.

The kids had so much fun running around the park while the mommies watched Laura open all the cute girlie gifts for baby girl Graham.

Sunday we went to brunch at Dr. Muensterer's home. We enjoyed delicious food, good company and the beautiful weather. Audrey kept making Daddy swing with her.

Audrey did a good job keeping up with the big boys. They ran around and played with the rocks nonstop.

By the time we left Karl and Carter were best buds

Poor Sasha

As if Sasha doesn't put up with enough having to live with the munchkins, I thought it would be fun to get a picture of the kids with Sasha in her Santa hat for the Christmas card. Sasha pouts with her hat on so it was a great way to get her to sit still. Well it didn't work out as well as I hoped.

Sasha sat still and pouted just as expected but Audrey didn't cooperate. For some reason Audrey didn't like Sasha wearing the hat. To the point that she was leaning away from her and almost looked scared. Oh well it was worth a shot.

Poor Sasha hates wearing the hat but I think it's cute

Grandpa & Grandma visit

Grandpa & Grandma came down for a quick visit last weekend. Our new furnace was acting up and Chuck needed Grandpa's help to fix it ourselves. It was a quick visit but the kids still had a great time as always.

Putting together the big Mater floor puzzle with Grandma. Audrey kept wanting to be a part of it but just kept getting into trouble instead of helping.

They thought it was so much fun bouncing on Grandpa's legs

Sitting with the Christmas decorations outside Bass Pro Shop. We went there to check out the boats for Grandpa & Grandma's new house in TN. Carter also picked out a fishing pole. I think he ended up deciding on a Star Wars one.

I know it's early to be seeing Santa. But he was already there and the line was super short. We only had to wait a few minutes.

Carter enjoyed the wonderful weather this last weekend. He said it was a "beautiful day with the sun shining and the air is fresh" :) Gotta love 'em