Christmas Eve

We had a nice Christmas Eve starting with a visit from Grammie and Grandpa Wardle. They came for a few hours to play with the kids and bring their presents. It was so nice to hang out with them for a while and the kids loved having them at our house. The boys drug Grammie right to thier bedroom to show her thier tresures.

Here are the kids playing with the Singing Santa

Grammie and Grandpa brought for Cammie.

Grammie and Cameron

After playing and opening gifts for a while, the Grandparents had to head back to Fresno. We did the normal evening routine with a few special changes. After dinner and bath the kids got to open one specially chosen gift, new jammies from Grandma Lou and Grandpa Charlie. Kyle kept asking, "Can we do it again?" He really enjoyed opening gifts this year. Then of course we had to put out the cookies the boys made for Santa.

Don't forget carrots for the reindeer.

Here are our cute kiddo's in their new jammies ready for bed.

The boys were too excited to sleep. Kyle was a wild man who wouldn't stay in bed or stay quiet. Carter was trying really hard to go to sleep but was just too excited. At one point he said to me, "Can I please have a book to read? I think that will help me fall asleep before Santa comes, I don't want him to miss me." Aw, how could anyone refuse that request. It did the trick too, he was asleep in no time after that. But the question everyone wants to know the answer to...did Santa come?.....

The Week Before Christmas

The weekend before Christmas Gregg's company had its first annual Christmas party. Being a new employee Gregg felt obligated to go, not a big deal except that it was being held 4 hours away in Modesto. We left the kids in Clovis with Uncle Chris, Auntie Penny, and the girls. The kids had such a great time! That night they went to see Christmas lights, played with their cousins, ate popcorn and had a "camp out" with Courtney and Ashley in the living room. The next day uncle Chris took them to the mall, the pet store, and McDonald's. They talked about how much fun they had for days! I didn't get any pictures of the festivities, but this is what the boys looked like 5 minutes after we got in the car to head home.

Our beautiful niece's Courtney and Ashley came back to Bakersfield with us to spend a few days of their Christmas break. We had a lot of fun while they were here. We did some girlie stuff like painting nails, watching chick-flicks, and playing with hair and make up, (Uncle Gregg opted out of those activities, but we didn't mind.) The kids had fun with them too, they love the girls! It was also great for me to have some extra help and a few extra sets of hands for a few days.

Here is a picture I took of the two of them.

Ashley and Cameron

Courtney and Carter

We made cookies the morning that the girls left.

The boys made cookies to put out on Christmas eve for Santa.

Here Cammie is showing off the cute outfit the girls dressed her in.

The boys attacked Uncle Chris when he got here to pick up the girls.

It was a busy but incredibly fun week for all of us.

Putting Up the Tree!

Last week we went out to get our Christmas Tree! Carter has been asking for one since July! I had put our stockings and some other decorations up Thanksgiving weekend, but Carter insisted that it wasn't Christmas yet because we didn't have a tree. Well Carter when you're right, you're right! It's just so much more festive now. ;-) Some people prefer a "fake" tree and that is just fine. In our house however, we have to have a "fresh" tree. We have to have the smell, the thrill of finding "The One", and all of the little imperfections a real tree comes with giving it its own sort of personality. This year we drove to a few places where we'd bought trees in the past, and while the prices had gone up the tree quality had not so we moved on. We went to a new lot near our house and it was filled with beautiful trees! We thought we'd found a winner right away, but that would have been too easy. We had to go poking around the trees that had just been unbound. Gregg and I took turns pulling them up and twirling them for each other (because they were so fresh they didn't have stands on them yet) and it didn't take long to find the perfect one. The boys were so excited. Kyle walked form tree to tree saying, "I yike this one...and this one... no this is the one...let's get this one too...etc." I don't think there was a single tree on the lot that he didn't love.

So excited!

Cammie didn't really care about what was going on,

but she is always happy to be pushed around in the stroller.



Of course the day we decided to take this little adventure
the pick-up truck was out of commission.
It took all three of them to get this beast up on top of my Suburban.



Ah, the final product!
( I really need a tree skirt! Lol)

Proud of their handy work.

It's torture for them to not be able to touch it all the time!

This is how we've taken to keeping Cammie away from at sometimes.

We had an incident with her and a broken glass ball yesterday.

Next year I'm converting to plastic ornaments!

Hope every one is enjoying the Christmas season so far! Merry Christmas!

Thanksgiving

We had a wonderful Thanksgiving this year filled with lots of family, fun, and of course food! We were joined for the holiday by Gregg's parents, his stepsister Leah, and his brother Chris and family. The weather was so beautiful that everyone arrived Kathy, Penny, Courtney, Ashley, and I took the boys to the park for a while to burn off a little energy. One of the benefits of our new home is that there is a great park literally 5 houses down.

Carter and Courtney coming down the BIG slide.

Still afraid of heights, Carter needed a little encouragement.

Kyle on the other hand needed no encouragement.

Mommy and Kyle goofing off on the teeter-totter-thing.

Cammie and Leah stayed home with the guys.

(As you can see by her smiles, she wasn't too upset about missing the park outing.)

Waiting for dinner...

...cooking dinner...

...Still waiting, but this time at the table where he can show off the candle he made at school.

Finally! Time to eat, and eat we did!

I'm not sure if it was the great company or what,

but the food seemed to taste even better this year.

Among other things, for dessert we had the adorable Turkey cupcakes made by Ashley. They were so cute!

I'd say that this was our most successful Thanksgiving to date. I already can't wait to do it again next year!

New House Pictures

The "move" is over. Whew! It took us about a week to get moved and unpacked, and about another week to get settled and organized. As you'll be able to see from the pictures there is still a little work to do, mostly hanging a few more pictures and catching up on laundry. I think we are definitely getting the hang of moving. This was the smoothest and quickest one yet. However with that being said, I don't want to do it again for a very long time!

Now for the house pictures:

Obviously this is the front of the house

Standing just inside the front door.

The guestroom is to the right.

Standing in the living room by the TV.

Another picture, standing in the same place. From here you can see the hallway to the kids rooms.

The hallway to the master bedroom is on the right side of this wall, by the fridge.

Now standing in front of the kitchen counter looking into the living room.

You can see the doors to the guestroom.

I guess I forgot to get a picture of that one. Oops!

The dining area.

Kitchen

Cammie's room. I had a better shot of it, but Blogger wouldn't pick it up for some reason.

Carter and Kyle's room.

The master bed room.

(Like I said, hanging pictures-catching up on laundry.)

Entrance to the Master Bath.

Finally, the back yard. Small but functional.

Now you've had the Grand Tour!

Super Heroes and a Star of the Week

Lately one of the boys favorite things to do is pretend that they are super heroes. They dress up in goofy jammies from last year, sometimes adding a cape, boots, or pair of socks for gloves. They run around the house calling out whatever superhero name they have chosen for that day followed by "to the rescue". On the day I got this picture Carter was "Dog Boy" and Kyle was "Tree Boy" because of course a super hero's name has to coordinate with his costume. It's an innocent game that's cute to watch until their Arch Nemesis the evil Mominator makes them get dressed in real clothes so that we can leave the house, usually resulting in an epic battle of good vs. evil, (in this case evil always winning.)

Will Dog Boy and Tree Boy save the costumes from the evil Mominator?

Will our Super Heroes have to go to Target in Real Clothes?

Tune in next time to find out!

Every week in Carter's class one child gets to be the "Star of the Week" and last week was Carter's turn. He got to have his pictures from home up on the bulletin board in the front of the class room. He got to be the Line Leader all week. He was able to choose who he wanted to sit by at lunch as well as receiving lunch first. He was SO proud!

Here is a picture of Carter and one of his teachers Miss Sandy. He LOVES Miss Sandy!!!!

(Aw, my baby is getting so big!)

9 Months (almost)

Here is an update on our little princess. She is almost 9 months old now. It's going so fast! She has hit a few milestones recently. She says Mama, Dada, and I think she's started saying Baba (bottle) when she gets hungry but it's hard to tell with babies, especially hungry babies. She just finished cutting her first two teeth. She also stopped rolling from place to place and started crawling. She does the "army crawl" like Carter used to do. She is everywhere now and does not like to be confined. Nothing is safe anymore, i.e. magazines, shoes, and the cat. It was actually our cat Millie who got her to crawl the first time. Millie was about 6 inches from Cammie, to close to roll to, so she started scooting on her belly to try to get her. Millie moved a few inches further and it continued. Following Millie around is still a favorite activity for Cameron. She is getting even more fun to play with. Both of the boys fight over her and want her all to themselves. She is our sweet sweet little girl and we can't get enough of her.

The boys room is at the top of the stairs and she could hear them playing. She tried and tried to figure out a way to get up those stairs. This is the closest she got of course, but she was so proud of herself for getting her legs up there.

Trick or Treat

Halloween was so much fun this year. Last year it "clicked" for Carter, and Kyle just kind of followed his lead. This year it "clicked" for Kyle too. It was nice to not have to coax them too much at the door. They both know that you have to say "Trick or Treat" to get the candy, and that if you don't say "thank you" Mommy will make you go back up to the door to say it. This year we had my friend Mandy and her 18month old daughter Macy with us. Macy toddled along with the boys, and since she doesn't talk much Carter made sure to tell every one, "Macy is a Ladybug."

We started the night with "mommy's little pumpkin" helping me decorate our pumpkin cupcakes.
(As if we didn't have enough sugar floating around already.)

Then it was time to get the costumes and face makeup on. The boys wanted to be Pirates so that they could wear eye patches. Carter asked me 2 months ago if they could be pirates and that gave me plenty of time to put their costumes together. Grandma Lou made the vests, and total we only spent $4 on each costume!

Let me tell you, it is NOT easy getting little boys to hold still for make up.

Grammie Chrissie sent us Cammies little Leopard costume. So cute! It took Both Mandy and I to hold her still enough for her whiskers and kitten nose. I know I'm bias, but isn't she the cutest little Kitten ever?! Kyle really liked it too. "Mommy look, CamCam is a kitty cat!"

Cammie and Macy checking out each others costumes.

Arr Mateys!

Mommy and daughter ready to go!

I love Halloween! So much fun!