Ringing in the New Year

Alyssa's New Year's Eve attire

Because Jaden is so scheduled still with bedtime, etc, we decided to have a quiet New Year's Eve at grandma's house. I guess quiet, in the sense that we didn't go out, but not quiet with the amount of people over. Thanks to grandma, we had lots of munchies, to include pigs in a blanket, pizza, chips and dip, crackers and dips, cupcakes, treats, etc.

We played a bunch of games which included Jumping Monkeys, Yahtzee, Cootie, and more! The kids had a blast, as well as the adults. We decided to do some fireworks and sparklers a little early in the evening, as we weren't sure that the little ones would actually make it until midnight. Much to our surprise, they did! We rang in the new year with champagne and sparkling cider! We didn't have a good view of the strip from grandma's balcony, so we watched all the fireworks from downtown of TV. What a great show!

To a great and memorable 2009 and much more excitement and good memories that 2010 will bring us!

Grandma's plant that Alyssa decorated with all the New Year's dress up stuff

Lilyanne and Alyssa blowing bubbles

Jaden just taking it all in!

Cousins ~ Hayley, Alyssa & Lilyanne

Alyssa sparkling

Alyssa drinking 'apple soda'

And yet, more cousins...

Abby, Andrew, Alyssa and Jaden at the Magical Forest

We are so bless that between mine and Andy's families, we have a ton of grandparents, aunts, uncles and cousins! Alyssa and Jaden had such a great time the week of Christmas being able to reconnect and play with all of their cousins! Here are just a few pictures I wanted to share~

Jaden and Abby dining together

Jaden and Abby conversing about blueberries and potato salad

Regan, Andrew, Alyssa and Kendal playing a game of Go Fish

Thanks everyone for such a great time ~ we hope to see you again soon!

The Elf Named Pincher

This year we decided Alyssa would be old enough to start appreciating the idea that Santa watches you to see if you are being a good or naughty little girl. With the advice of some friends, we purchased "The Elf on the Shelf." It is a hard back book that comes with an elf doll. In short, the story is about an elf, whom the child names, that comes to your house on Thanksgiving and stays until Christmas Eve. Every night the elf flies back to the North Pole to tell Santa if you've been good or bad, then comes back to the house the next morning and sits in a different spot in the house. On Christmas Eve, the elf flies back to the North Pole where he then stays until next year.

It's a great, fun tradition to start for anyone with young children. It's definitely something that I will use for many years to come. We had a blast moving Pincher every night to a new location around the house, after the kids were sleeping, of course. Every morning, Alyssa came down and searched all around to find out where Pincher would be sitting next. It did help a little bit when daddy said "you better be good, Pincher's watching you!" She would look over at the little elf, and the naughty behavior would stop!

We will definitely miss having Pincher around now that Christmas is over.

As Alyssa says, "Mama, I really miss Pincher. I cannot wait until next Christmas when we get to see him again."

Edible Snowmen

We had a delicious Christmas dinner with Nanny and Opa and I couldn't resist making some Christmas themed food!

Frosty the snowman cheese ball

Frosty the snowman coconut cake

Christmas morning again.....

It's our tradition to have our own family Christmas in the morning and when we are all through, we head to Grandma and Papa's house for breakfast and more presents. Here are a few photos from Grandma's ~

Jaden trying to play on his spinning toy ~ he thinks it's just a stool!

Alyssa and Brayden eating breakfast

Presents, presents, and more presents.......

Because the Christmas morning post itself was kind of long, I thought I would do a separate post to share some of the photos we took~

All gone!

Christmas morning

Stockings

Uncle Jeff making coffee

Opening presents



Alyssa playing with her dress up clothes

Jaden coloring

Jaden on his new Little Einstein car

The aftermath.......

Christmas Morning

It's finally here, Christmas, that is! It's so hard to write down all of the joyful moments and capture the excitement of Christmas morning in a story. So, I'll do my best to remember some of Alyssa's priceless expressions of the day.

As Alyssa is walking down the stairs, she says:
"Oh my gosh, mama, I can't believe Santa remembered our house!"
"Look at all of those presents!"
As she's screaming for joy, Jaden is just pointing away saying "Ohh, Oohhh, Ahhhh!"

The first thing Alyssa went for was to see if Santa ate the cookies and milk she left out. Sure enough he did. If there were no presents, she still would've been excited that Santa ate his snack.

The opening of presents began, and as I expected, Jaden didn't have any interest in opening anything. He would play with the toys as they were opened by Alyssa, but mostly he was just in shock at the conditions in the living room! The wrapping paper, gifts, stockings, Christmas music, Alyssa's excited screaming and the chocolate Santas. He just didn't know what to do!

"It's all I ever wanted!"
"Ahhhhhhhhhhh A Disney Princess castle, I just love it!"

Although Santa was very generous this year, Alyssa's most exciting gift was the Disney Princess Castle and a few princess' to go in it. It's the only thing she asked Santa for each time we went to visit him. And, I must say, Jaden's favorite toy of the moment was his black monster truck.

We spent the morning opening gifts, and then we headed off to Grandma and Papa's house for breakfast. Much to Alyssa's surprise, Santa had left a few gifts at Grandma's house for us all, too! We enjoyed a delicious breakfast and spending time with Grandpa in the Blue House, Aunt Christina, Uncle Wayne, Hayley, Lilyanne, Brayden, Uncle Matt and Uncle Jeff who were all in town for the holidays.

More shrills, "I can't believe it, it's the Play Doh ice cream maker!"

The afternoon consisted mostly of playing with new toys, napping, cleaning and preparing the house to have Nanny and Opa over for Christmas dinner.

We enjoyed the company of Nanny, Opa, Uncle Charlie, Uncle Jeff and James for Christmas dinner. Nanny made a delicious Prime Rib Roast with the trimmings and Alyssa and I decorated a Frosty the Snowman cake for dessert.

"This is the best Christmas day I never had!" (haha)

What a busy day, but we are so blessed to have the opportunity to spend the holidays with all of our family and friends!

Merry Christmas to all!
~2009~

Christmas Eve

A family tradition of ours is so go over to Grandma & Papa's house for a traditional 4 course Italian Christmas Eve dinner. It's something I can remember doing every year since I was little. We spend the day cooking and the spend hours eating! Dinner was delicious and as the evening went on, we waited for our special visitor to arrive!

Uncle Wayne and I had been tracking Santa all day through the Norad Santa tracker online. Soon enough, the doorbell rang, and there was Santa! Santa made a special stop during our Christmas Eve festivities to bring a few gifts. The kids were ecstatic! Alyssa was screaming and jumping for joy and Brayden was screaming in fright! Santa handed out his gifts and then all the kids sang their own rendition of Rudolph the Red Nose Reindeer.

As I was watching the clock get later and later, we decided it was time to go home and prepare for the big morning.

Thank you Grandma and Papa for a wonderful Christmas Eve!

Alyssa with her cookies and milk for Santa

Santa's cookies and milk

Here comes Santa Claus....

Last night we had our 2nd annual Kiddie Christmas Party! JoAnn and I started this tradition last year, as there are many of our close friends with kids of the same ages. We had a potluck Christmas party with a lot of delicious food and treats. The day before the party, Alyssa and I made small goodie bags to hand out, as well as a Christmas tree cake and candy cane cupcakes. They turned out so cute and delicious, too! This is really the first year that Alyssa gets so excited to help make things; such as goodie bags, crafts, etc. She finally understands what they are for and how to do it!

The day of the party we headed to JoAnn's, who graciously invited 30 people into her Christmasly decorated home. There were approximately 10-15 kids under 5 and all the adults that come with them! At the party last year, we had everyone bring a gift for a gift exchange and then we baked and decorated sugar cookies. What a mess! Rolling, baking and decorating cookies with 15 kids under 5 = not a good idea! This year, we decided to do things a little differently. We had foam stocking ornaments that we decorated with self stick candy canes, presents, stars and various stickers. No glue, markers or anything that has to be extra supervised! They turned out so cute and the kids had a blast.

We also decided that the majority of the kids were at the age where they were overly excited for Santa! My dad, who owns a full on Santa suit, accepted our offer of dressing up as Santa and showing up at the party. With a few rings of the doorbell, Santa arrived with 2 bags of presents in tow! All of the parents brought a small gift wrapped and labeled for their individual child. I have never heard so many shrills and screams of excitement for Santa. The were absolutely amazed that Santa came to their Christmas party! It was so wonderful to see them all so excited and happy. They all sat so patiently in front of Santa waiting for their names to be read and their present to be handed out.

What a great evening and so much fun for the kids! Thanks JoAnn for a great 2nd annual kids Christmas party!

Jaden scared of Santa

The work gang ~ nurses, doctor and social worker!

And away we go....

Thumbs up ~ time to get on the plane

Alyssa set up her very own picnic, complete with a pink checkered tablecloth (AKA blankie)

Alyssa and I were off for our first solo plane ride. We left for Reno for Uncle Matt's college graduation. Andy had to work and 2 weeks before Christmas was not the time to purchase airline tickets for a family of 4! So, Jaden and Andy stayed home and Alyssa and I went on a short trip together. She was so excited to be going on another airplane! It was so cute.....she was sitting on the plane anxiously waiting for her apple juice she so politely ordered, and in the meantime she put out her pink checkered blankie on the tray table for a tablecloth. She said she had made a picnic table for her snack!

We arrived in Reno, and much to our dismay, it was freezing! All bundled up, and to Matt's house we went. We enjoyed many festivities that weekend including, ice skating, pizza balls, touring UNR, seeing Santa at the mall, graduation of course, first time at a Bask restauraunt and snow!

Alyssa had been asking for so long if she could ever go ice skating, so we thought it would be the perfect chance to try it in Reno. There was an ice skating rink in the middle of town that was open in the evenings. We got all bundled up and headed into town. She had fun walking around the ground in her ice skates, but wasn't thrilled to be on the ice. "But it's too hard, mommy. I can't stand up. It's too slippery for me!" After about 2 times around with Uncle Matt holding her, she was done. All undressed, skates returned and ready to head to the car. Oh well, at least she can say she tried!

Graduation of course, was graduation. I really think someone should reinvent the whole ceremony to make it just a little bit more lively! Alyssa was a bit overtired, bored and hungry, so the already dull ceremony was a bit hard for her to sit through. After graduation we dined at a Bask restauraunt. It was a family style restuaraunt that was delicious!

The day we flew out to come home, it was snowing pretty hard all morning. I think if our flight was any later, we would have been snowed in. We got out and arrived home safely and the next day Uncle Matt said there were 8 inches of snow overnight!

We had a blast in Reno, and Alyssa can't wait until she gets to go on the airplane again!

Alyssa drinking her cocoa and enjoying the sites of Reno

Uncle Matt and Amber

Alyssa with the bears at Black Bear Diner

Papa, Uncle Matt and grandma after graduation

Grandma by the water, Uncle Matt and Grandpa by the water

Alyssa having fun at the pizza balls restaurant

Alyssa trying out ice skating

Alyssa and mama by the Christmas tree

Santa, Santa

We are halfway through December and we've already stood in line twice to see Santa! 30 minutes the first time and almost 2 hours the second time! What we do for our excited little ones during the holidays!

Unfortunately we were unable to get any pictures of Alyssa with Santa last year, as she was deathly afraid of him. Luckily, this year, she loves him! She was just so excited each time to have her picture taken and to tell Santa what she wants for Christmas! Good thing for us, she told Santa the same 3 things each time! I didn't think it would be that easy to figure out what a 3 year old actually wants. Usually it's, "I want everything I see in the store or on T.V."

Jaden, on the other hand, could care less. All he wanted to do what walk around the place, play in the fake snow and touch the Christmas decorations! I guess it'll be a while before we have a picture with him. I'm sure next year, he'll be just as afraid as Alyssa was last year!

Alyssa sitting on Santa's lap for the 2nd time!

Jaden walking around, mesmerized at the decorations!

Talking to Santa for the 1st time!