Santa Came!

The kids were beyond spoiled by Santa and other relatives (and maybe a bit by mommy and daddy too).  Calder was SO excited when he finally woke up (a Christmas cold led him to sleep in over an hour past his normal wake up time!)  He found the sled that Santa left for him and started tearing into his stocking right away.  He was so excited and thankful for every little thing.  When he found an orange in his stocking he exclaimed "Look, Mommy!  A new orange!!" 

Sparkly shoes for Tessa!

Batcave!  One of his favorite gifts.

Tessa loves her new baby doll accessories.  As soon as Daddy put the stroller together, she put her doll in it, put her purse on her arm, waved goodbye and said "See you later!" as she trotted off into the kitchen.

Calder put Zaidy to work with one of his new transformers.

Another favorite gift -- a space shuttle and station from Uncle Sean and Aunt Vandana!

Tessa feeds her new baby doll. 

Christmas bedtime hugs!



Christmas Eve

We were very fortunate to have both Dave's parents and my mom join us for Christmas this year!  We all attended the kid-friendly Christmas Eve service at our church.  It was the first time that the kids actually sat in the sanctuary with us (they usually go to the nursery/Sunday school).  Despite bringing along a few distractions, Calder had trouble sitting still and kept asking to go to his class.  Tessa was antsy too, but we all made it through! 

After church, the kids each got to open up one present.  As a kid, we always got pj's on Xmas eve...which I may start doing eventually.  This year, I decided to give them books.  Calder's was about space (of course!)

...and Tessa got a new doggy book.  Clearly, she was kind of excited about it.  :)

Tessa convinced Zaidy to read her new book right away. 

Christmas kisses for baby sister!

Air and Space Museum

Given Calder's interest in outer space, I've been meaning to take him to the the Udvar-Hazy Center (part of the National Air and Space Museum) for some time.  We finally got our chance this past Friday.  We met up with some friends and had a great time!  The kids especially enjoyed the observation tower where they could watch the planes come in for a landing at nearby Dulles airport.  And, the museum was nearly empty...which is perfect when you are chasing around little ones!

Calder also really enjoyed sitting inside a real airplane and learning some basic flying techniques.  :)

And, of course, getting to see a real space shuttle was no let down either! 

Cookie Makers

I had two sweet little helpers for my holiday baking this year!  Calder decided that he didn't want to help make the dough, and it honestly didn't occur to me to ask Tessa if she wanted to help...but she's seen Calder help me in the kitchen enough times that she knew just how to get herself into the action.  As I was gathering the last of the ingredients I turned around to find her pushing a chair over to the counter and trying to climb up!  It was very cute.  She turned out to be a very good little helper! 

After refrigerating the dough overnight, it was time to bake and decorate!  Calder was definitely ready to help out.  He enjoyed picking out which cookie cutters to use and intently decorated all of 2 cookies! 

 Tessa was quite intrigued by all of the different sprinkles. 

And, of course, there was no shortage of taste testers in our house either!

2010 Christmas Card Photo

It wasn't easy to get a decent Christmas card photo this year, but at least we ended up with something usable.  I'm sure nothing will compare to the years to come...trying to get 3 little ones to pose happily together will definitely be a challenge! 

Go Steelers!

Calder found Daddy's old Steelers hat and decided to take ownership.  Let's go Steelers!

Holiday Caroling at School

Last night, the kids' school had a holiday caroling night.  They brought in a couple of face painters for the kids, which turned out really cute!  Calder's class sang Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer and Jingle Bell Rock.  He knows all of the words and loves singing along to those two songs in the car!

My Rudolph:

Rudolph from courtney on Vimeo.

Tessa's class "sang" Jingle Bells.  Actually, the teachers sang it, and the kids just walked along, half of them crying.  Tessa held it together, but she was one of the lucky ones to be carried by one of the teachers.  And once she saw Daddy she reached right for him. 

 Happy in Daddy's arms!

Cooks in the Kitchen

Tessa serves up some ice cream in her kitchen...

And, here's my little Astronaut-Chef, who helped me whip up a batch of cookies this afternoon! 

Letter to Santa

Calder sort of freaked out when he realized that he really wanted a piggy bank for Christmas after we had already visited Santa.  He was very concerned about how Santa would know.  So, I suggested that we write Santa a letter...

He was so proud of his letter.  He kept "reading" it over and over.  When Dave got home, he bragged about how he did it all by himself, without any help from Mommy.  (That's sort of true... he composed the letter himself and did all of the writing, I just provided some major spelling assistance.) 

After he finished, he had the great idea to give the letter to Elfie (our Elf on a Shelf) to personally deliver to Santa tonight.  Elfie agreed, so I carefully placed the letter in Elfie's lap (without touching him of course, for fear he would lose his magic!)

After that, he wanted to write a thank-you note to Elfie for delivering the letter to Santa...but we haven't gotten around to writing that one yet.  :)

Early Gifts

While we were in Michigan for Thanksgiving, the kids received some early gifts.  They are all a hit!

This poor doll spends most of her time completely naked.  Tessa constantly wants to take off her clothes so she can wipe her bottom!

Hello, December

Happy December!  We're busy decorating and planning lots of fun activities over the next few weeks.  To kick off the season, we attended a tree-lighting ceremony at a local shopping center. 

 We went to this ceremony last year as well, and I scored the most perfect Santa picture EVER:

 

So, I definitely had high hopes for another great photo op this year.  Calder wasted no time jumping onto Santa's lap! 

But...alas, the little one could not be convinced.  She held on tight to Daddy and would not let go!

Loads of Leaves

The kids had a blast this fall playing in the leaves!  Can't wait to do it again next year!