christmas

our celebration of christmas started on christmas eve. we went to mass, got to watch the kids do their christmas play, and then it was off to dinner for some awesome enchiladas and tortilla soup at sam and danielle's house. little miss was beyond tired when we got home but of course the excitement of santa and letting her open one present before bed perked her right up.

she decided that she wanted to open her present from her cousin and was very excited to find it contained princess slipper!! he knows her well! she immediately put them on and we were off to bed. she actually went to bed pretty easy and josh and i finished getting everything ready for santa to come!

this morning we actually had to wake her up! yes, wake her up! we got up around 6:30 just knowing that she was going to me up any minute. when she wasnt we went ahead and jumped in the shower and got our coffee started. at 7:15 she still wasnt even stirring. so at 7:30 the excitement got to us and we went to wake her up. she was so excited about all of the wonderful things she could found. all of the stockings were full and santa had indeed come! she could see her walking puppy, the cinderella doll and a baby stroller-although the baby stroller was from grandma and grandpa, santa decided to go ahead and set it up for her :)

little miss and josh got busy separating the presents into piles and the fun began. we let her open 2 or 3 for every one of ours, because if not-she was going to loose interest quick. she was really good about opening them, looking at it, getting excited and saying thing like "how wonderful" or "this is exactly what i wanted!" before going on to the next. she was even just as excited for us when we were opening out presents. she was also very excited that alexi and boomer had stuff in their stockings and was more than happy to start feeding them their treats right away.

after all the presents we did breakfast and cleaned and then played. she of course wanted everything open at once so that she could play with it. all in all it was a great day just playing inside with all of our new toys as a family. should be an interesting one next year with another little one running around getting into stuff :)

santa

this year little miss was really excited about going to see santa so that she could tell him what she wanted. even though she had already written her letter, she wanted to make sure he really knew what she wanted...and because she had thought of a few more things she wanted to add :) and being the sweet girl that she is, she went back up there with one of her friends who was not quite as excited about meeting the big guy in red. we were able to get a good picture of him, but it took a few tries.

the first santa she got to talk to was actually at josh's work christmas party. she actually got to talk to santa and mrs. clause, they were both there that night. we went over, waited in line, and she of course walked right on up, sat in between then and posed for her picture. after the formality was over she told them what she wanted and was very excited!

but we also went to go see one of the santa's in the mall. so we went to the same one we had gone to the year before. and this time she remembered to tell santa everything she wanted..... a walking puppy, a baby stroller, and a cinderella toy. she was very confidant that she had been a good girl all year and that santa really was going to bring her everything she asked for.....guess we will just have to see.

church and god

with the season of chrismas upon us, little miss and i have been going to church more often-trying to start a little early on the new years resolutions- so of course this starts to raise questions about god and jesus and everything that surrounds it. especially since we have had to have the talk about the fact that christmas is not about presents. and the talk about why she is getting a little brother instead of a little sister :) so these are a few more converstaions little miss and i have had about all of those things.

first i should start with our on going converstions about her brother- "why am i getting a little brother instead of a little sister?" easiest answer from me "because god decided to give you one"....okay :)

she likes to ask about where everything she has is from- ex.penny puppy is from grandma-olivia is from daddy- her basketball is from santa- those types of things. so a few weeks ago when we had a friend over she was talking about where she got her panties from....she told her friend- "god gave them to me" i about fell over laughing. and then had to explain to her that god didnt really give out those types of presents, and that mommy and daddy had bought those for her.

so when we go to church and she walks up with me to get communion she gets very disapointed about not being about to get one too. i tell her shes not old enough yet, well after her birthday and turning 4 she now says...."but im older!" when we get back to our pew she kneels with me and we pray-we tell god thank you for the people in our lives and we name each of her friends and their parents and she names penny, and alexi, and finally gets around to mom and dad and sometimes even throws in her baby brother. its so sweet to hear.

so this lead to my next story...cant quite remeber what brought it about, but little miss decided she needed a thrid hand. so she told josh and i, "i want a third hand, im going to pray to god and ask him for one." she has now said this a few times. she even told josh she would pray to god for him to have and extra hand too.

she has also already decided that since she is getting a baby brother this time that her baby brother needs a baby sister. i told her she needed to talk to her daddy about that one, but she has said, "im going to ask god to give my baby brother a sister". :)

my favorite story right now though is this-we were in church a the other da, and since its the christmas season, they of course have the nativity scene out. she asked me what it was and i explained that it was kind of like a picture of jesus' birth. so she wanted to know who jesus's mom and dad were. i told her god is jesus' dad and mary is his mom. she looks at me and asks "does she have a little lamb" i thought i was going to fall out of my chair at church. luckily it was before church had actually started and it wasnt too quite just yet. i told her....well i am sure this mary did have a little lamb, or a few, but that it wasnt the same mary as in the song. i love the way a 4 year olds mind works. she always keeps us laughing.

funny things my child has said in the past month.

so with a new baby on the way, little miss of course has questions about all thats going on. being only 4 and not really understanding it adds to it. which makes for some very funny questions and stories. these have really cracked me up so i wanted to make sure i got them down so that we can laugh about them when she gets older :)

so she likes to ask about food i am eating and if the baby likes it. so we were in the grocery store picking out gold fish and she asked me " does your baby like goldfish?" i replied "no, he doesnt, because mommy doesnt like them." she accepted that answer and we went on. a few days later we were eating dinner at home and she asked me "does your baby like spicy food?" and i said "yes, he likes spicy food, because mommy likes spicy food." another day she asked me "does your baby like beer?" as i was laughing i replied "no, because he's never gotten to try beer, mommy cant drink beer when she has a baby in her belly." and again she accepted the answer.

so a few nights later when we are putting her to bed and she is asking questions about how the baby is going to get out of my belly, and since i already know i am doing a c-section, i told her the dr. will take the baby out of belly. she didnt really understand and then she said "is he going to crack your belly open?" again laughing i told her thats kind of what it would be like....and then she said "and then you can have beer!!!" what can you do but laugh. she cracks me up! does make me wonder a little though :)

so she seems pretty excited about a baby brother and even though we havent decided on a name, she still tells people his name is marmaduke....we do throw out other names here and there but she always tells people marmaduke. and when she kisses my belly or talks to him she always calls him baby brother. so i was caught off guard one day when she said, but i want a baby sister!! and a few days later penny puppy told us she wanted a baby sister too. now i should say first that little miss likes to say she is going to eat us, or eat people or her animals...but its never in a harmful or sadistic way. so we were driving to the store one night and little miss started talking for penny when penny told me "miss katy (she has very good manners) im going to eat your baby, because little miss wants a baby sister" again, what could we do but laugh. although we did explain to penny that little miss was getting a brother and that we couldnt change that :) penny seemed to accept that pretty well.

and then we were back to how the baby was going to get out of my belly. we were in the car a few days ago and we were talking about it, and i told her the drs would have to cut my belly. she then asked about the knife and if they would use my knife that i take to work with me. so i had to explain that my knife was used for cooking and cutting food and could be dangerous if it were to cut someone. and that the drs. have special knives they use when they operate on people.

so those are some of the conversations we have had in the past month. she never seems to amaze me with the questions she asks and the answers that she will accept. and i wouldnt have it any other way :)

o'christmas tree

we got our tree up yesterday, but didnt get a chance to decorate it until today. it has been killing little miss that we didnt have it up and decorated already. she had a blast getting out all of the ornaments and putting them up on the tree. and i love that we have such a collection of different ornaments. i mean, i think the trees that have all of the same ornament and color schemes and stuff are cool, but thats just not us. i love the fact that we have beer ornaments, cartoon character ornaments, and even a few ornaments that i had when i was little. to me its a cool collection and i can even tell you who gave us which ornament. and what makes it even more fun is that every year we add new ones. each year my brothers and sister and i exchange ornaments instead of presents. it saves us money and its just become a fun tradition. so we have a very eclectic mix of ornaments to say the least :)

little miss loved picking out the ones she knew -the care bears, sponge bob, and those type of ornaments and putting the on the tree, but had just as much from putting on what we had left of the plain colored ornaments that josh and i got our first christmas together. i say whats left because our cat ezra used to have so much fun playing with the ones that fell off, and they tended to get broken :) alexi has never really cared one way or the other so its never been a big deal with her :) and while in the spirit of things, josh went ahead and put the outside lights up too. little miss helped some, but she was more excited about playing on sidewalk in front of the house :)

we also set down and she wrote out her letter to santa...its so cute! i wrote it out on a separate piece of paper first so that she would have everything spelled out for her, but she wrote the letter (and decorated it) all on her own "dear santa, i would like a walking puppy. love sara" so proud of her!

birthday party time!

well its official, our little girl is 4! where did the time go? its so crazy how fast it goes. she is no longer the little baby, or the little toddler, she is a little girl- or if you ask her shes a princess.

so it was only fitting that she had a princess party. shes said for months upon months that she wanted a princess party so it was inevitable....

we invited a few of her friends over and everyone got to dress up like princesses and princes. the girls wore their princess costumes-they were their halloween costumes :) - and i made little red capes for the boys so they could be dressed up like princes. the girls made tiara's and the boys made crowns to help finish off the costume. it was so cute watching the decorate them.

then it was time for the games. we had put the crown on the princess, kiss the frog, and a princess castle pinata. we let the littlest ones not wear the blind fold and the older ones thought it was pretty funny. of course the birthday girl didnt want to wear it and said " i will just do it myself". yeah right! she was such a cheater :) even the boys seemed to have fun doing the girly stuff. they even laughed when we put lip gloss on the for the kiss the frog game. and what kid dosent love a pinata! granted it was the one where you pull the stings but it still emptied candy all the same. it took forever though. each kid got to pull about 3 stings a piece before we finally let little miss grab all of the rest of them and just pull. it was funny for us adults because none of the kids really dove on the candy, they were all very polite about picking up the candy and sharing. crazy!

next was the cake and ice cream. i made sara a double layer cake. the top with real butter cream icing, and the bottom with the wilton butter cream recipe. both turned out really good- but my biggest disappointment with the cake was that the top of the bottom layer wasnt wide enough to actually put the princesses on. they were supposed to be on the top of the bottom layer with cones cover the top layer like it was the castle..oh well, i learned an important lesson for next time :)

thank you so much to everyone who came and shared this very special day with us. little miss loved all of her presents and had already gotten most of them out to play with them as soon as everyone left.

thanksgiving

well after a busy weekend of weddings, why would this week want to slow down? but really, i wouldnt have it any other way.

thanksgiving at my house when i was growing up was always a big deal. mom and dad would get up super early to get the turkey in the oven, and then the rest of us would eventually get up. two of my favorite things were always watching the macy's thanksgiving parade and helping my dad make the dressing. and in our house, if there werent at least a few more people to celebrate it with, it just wasnt thanksgiving. i took after my dad in that respect. so every year that josh and i have had thanksgiving at our house, i watch the parade, make the dressing, and invite as many of over friends that want to come. this year was of course no different.

it was a great time to relax with friends and eat amazing food. its nice to have such great friends when we are so far away from home. this year i am thankful for those friends that came to share thanksgiving with us, and that even though we are so far away from home, we have a wonderful family that are always there for us.

happy turkey day!