December!

We, of course, had a home celebration for Dani's 6th birthday.  So much fun.

 School Christmas concert...our fearless Tori had a case of stage fright!

 Not Dani!  She had a blast!

 For the first time we went to the Schenectady PBA Breakfast with Santa.  (Wes never mentioned it before this year, but it is, apparently an annual event.)  Dani meets an elf.

 Tommy was in awe of Santa!

 Another Tori oddity...she wanted no part of Santa.

 Until she got a present, then he got a hug.

 Celebrating Great-Aunt Virginia's 99th birthday at Teresian House.

 Tori had a haircut and asked for a blowout.  She loved it!

 And CHRISTMAS!

Of course, Grandma and Grandpa came!

We hosted a Christmas Eve party and the kids wanted to dress up!

 Posing with Grandma.

 Christmas morning! 

What a smart Santa!  He wrapped each kid's present in different wrapping paper!  Way to go Santa!

 Santa is apparently unfazed by the term "some assembly required".  It took Grandpa and Mommy about 45 minutes to put the trampoline together!  (So worth it, though!)

 No, it's  not KISS or the Insane Clown Posse, Grandma bought facepaints for the kids.  All Grandpa needs is a black star on his eye, and we'd have KISS.

 A balloon animal kit from Grandma.  (She didn't realize we were already pros at these types of balloons!  She tried to get Grandpa to blow them up, and then I broke out the pump!)

 New Years!  We rang the new year in at 8:00pm so the kiddos could participate!  (We also did it at midnight too!)

What a super fun December!

Ringing in the new year with the folks.

 A few days after Christmas, my parents flew in for a visit.

So the kids had a second round of presents and holiday cheer!

The kids were so excited!

My parents are in their mid 60s, but you'd never know it by their boundless energy.  They are the most attentive and fun grandparents you can imagine.

 They wanted Grandma and Grandpa to watch Despicable Me.

 Tommy and Grandma doing a New Year's Eve conga.

 New Year's Eve wouldn't be complete without noisemakers!

 Wes had to go to work but I managed to sneak in a quick photo before he left.

 

As we start this new year, I resolve to take nothing for granted, to appreciate every moment, at home, at work, with my family and friends.

Cheers!

Preparing for the holidays.

 I'm a bit behind in my posting because we've been having SO MUCH FUN!

It started with decorating for the holiday, and getting ready for Christmas card photos. 

It's torture a fun afternoon of getting toddlers dressed up and using a variety of bribes and threats keeping them smiling and interested while I desperately try to get a few decent photos for a card.

It's so hard to get all three looking at the camera and smiling at the same time.

We were so close with this one, but Tommy...

This one made the card.

 So did this one.

 We couldn't manage a hugging photograph that worked.

 Not sure what they were looking at, but it wasn't the camera.

 Crazy eyes.

 Duck face.

 A little clowing around.

 And we're still trying.

We managed to get some decent pics, and I found a deal on overnight shipping from Snapfish, so we had them in time to actually mail so people would receive them by Christmas....except I didn't order enough, so not everyone did....and I got to pay for rush shipping a second time, for the second wave of cards.  But they got done, and we were ready to celebrate!

 

And in crazy child utterances this month:

Dani informed me at bedtime yesterday that she wishes she was a boy "because it's more fun to be a boy because they have wee wees and get to have the boy toys at McDonalds".

Tori's favorite thing is to replace words with "poop", and she walks around singing "Frosty the Snowpoop" and all manner of silly poop related things.  Tommy then mimics her.  Yikes.

Driving in a car with Tommy results in yells of RED LIGHT STOOOOOOOOOOOP at the top of his lungs every time we see a light.

Happy New Year!

Happy New Year, all!

We had a fun, mini-celebration around 7pm before the kiddos went to bed.

Granda and Grandpa are in town, so you know it's fun!

 Glowsticks and horns, like a rave, without the E!  But with the G (grandma) which is WAY better!

 Thomas x 2.

 Showing Grandma the ornaments.

Happy New Year!  Like all of you, I'm filled with all the things that I want to do better in 2013.  I won't bore you with them all, but I'm turning 40 this year, 'nuff said.