Pre-Christmas Fun

We loved having Dan around from mid-December to mid-January! He had a month off from school, and it was amazing having him around each day. It was great for him to be with the kids more, go fun places as a family, and to have help at home. I got to run errands without kids a record number of times! Here are a couple of the things that we were up to before Christmas:

Playing at the Children's Museum:

The Church Christmas party: Elena was one of the angels and we couldn't find her any wings at the stores that we went to. We were worried that they wouldn't have enough at the church, so genius Dan suggested that we make our own with stuff that we already had around the house: a couple of hangers, white fabric, a garland, and a glue gun. It was fun.

Didn't Dan do a good job shaping the hangers into wings?

This is how Elena dressed up her angel wings at home. Complete with princess dress, crown, and The Last Airbender Happy Meal fan.

Elena's preschool pancake breakfast and Christmas party. Kevin enjoyed himself too.

We were geocaching in Virginia before Christmas and I just had to have a family picture in front of the Ocean Breeze ape. We happened to be parked nearby, so we ran over for a quick photo-op.

I Love My Family!

We had a fabulously fantastic Christmas and it was the first time that we had been altogether in more than 3 years! That means that it was the first time that I was meeting my cutie little niece. I'll write more about our trip soon. While we were in Virginia, my mom's friend Connie Gentry took family pictures of us all. She did a great job and put up with a lot of crying. Both Kevin and Ariana were semi-sick and completely exhausted. Dan is holding Kevin in almost every photo because Kevin wanted nothing to do with anyone but his daddy. We were able to get some great photos though. Here are a couple of my favorites. Did I say "a couple"? I meant about 20. :)

Family Snow Fun

Yay for surprise snow in early December! And on a Saturday too - you can't beat that! We made a snowman (and used nearly all of the snow in our front yard to do it).Kevin loves Frosty! It's been so stinkin' cold that a much skinnier and shorter version of our snowman still remains two weeks later. :)
Then we went sledding in the kids' pool. I love our little hill in the backyard! It's not my favorite when I'm mowing, but it's awesome for slip'n slide in the summer and sledding in the winter!

Busch Garden's Christmastown

As part of our weekend as my parents' house, we (minus Dan) drove up to Williamsburg and went to Busch Garden's. So fun! The first we did was wait in line to see Santa. It was a longer wait than we thought, but it worked out. Kevin liked the elves just fine, but Elena was too scared to get in the picture. I don't know if you can tell or not, but the elves all had pointed ears and glitter on their cheeks just like in "The Santa Clause."
Elena was happy and sweet when it was time to sit with Santa, and it was Kevin's turn to be scared. The poor little man cried the whole time. He waved at Santa when we left though. I think he just wasn't too happy about sitting with him. These are the pictures that I took with my camera, but my mom actually bought the official ones despite the fact that Kevin was bawling. We have one on our fridge now.
Isn't this the cutest Santa's workshop ever?! I felt like we were on a movie set. We were the only ones in the room, the line was through a doorway and around a corner.

The rest of the night we saw shows, ate some snacks, and shopped. Bethany and I took this picture in one of the stores. I love my sister!

My cute parents:

Some of the rides were open. This was Elena's first time getting to drive a bumper car solita! She was so proud of herself.
Kevin is a huge "Frosty" fan. He was pretty tired by this time, but he was still willing to pose for a moment.
In the Christmas spirit: Of course we had to decorate our house for Christmas the first day that we were back home!

Thanksgiving

We were lucky to be able to go to my parent's house again. Yum! I love having them close. We enjoyed a busy Thanksgiving morning filled with parade-watching, cooking, and leaf-jumping but had a very lazy evening topped off with slivers of several of the 6 homemade pies.
Here's a bunch of pictures of fun in the leaves:

My dad is the coolest!

Who doesn't remember how fun this was when you were little?
Kevin was not a fan of the leaves in the morning but finally warmed up to the idea by end of the day:

On Friday morning, we went to see Tangled with Shelby, Laurel, and Michael. It was so fun to go with everyone: both my parents, Bethany, Dan, Kevin, and Elena. Everyone really liked the movie. I thought it was great. It'll be one that we buy for sure. Kevin was so good - especially considering that this was his first ever movie in a theater, and it was during his naptime. Friends since birth:

Bonus Pictures

Look who's spoiled rotten! :) The lollipop was one of the decorations for our Young Women's Noche de Excelencia (with the youth from church). It was Hansel and Gretel themed. Elena was so happy! She licked it a bunch for a day or two, but quickly forgot about it. Thank goodness! :)
One of Kevin's friends had a Buzz costume. Since he's a second child, he already has a favorite movie: Toy Story. (When Elena was this age, she wasn't even watching TV yet.)
He was in heaven! He kept pointing to himself and saying, "Buzz. Buzz."
After putting on my makeup one morning, I was surprised to see this. I walk into the kitchen and Elena said, "Look, Mom, I wrote pig." What a smartie!
Dan and I actually went on a date in November with a paid babysitter who put the kids to bed and everything. My friend Whitney asked me to document it and then post pic, so here it is (taken by wonderful Elisa before we left).