...a very good place to start...

I guess we shall start at the very beginning! Get ready gang.

The week before Christmas James had a Holiday program at school. I just love these things and watching all of these kids. The boy and the two girls next to him are his best friends he says. :)

After the program, we all did a few crafts and left to start Christmas vacation!!

The next day we went to my family's Christmas celebration of Christmas Camp. Our family is huge, as you can see in the pic above, so we rent out a camp for the weekend. The kids had a blast.

Santa comes and everyone gets a gift. You can see the kids waiting for Santa below.

The week of Christmas we did a lot of hanging around and cuddling on the couch. My fav. We can't forget about Georgie!! Our little elf friends made a visit every night. The kids woke up on xmas eve morn to a present from Georgie. He gave them each new jammies to wear when Santa came. This has actually been a tradition since James was born.

Oh Christmas morning, how I love thee. Pretty sure I had a hard time sleeping because I was so excited. :)

They got some stuff they really wanted which is super fun to see them get so excited about.

Caleb made us a YUMMY breakfast...

My dad and Vicki came over and hung out the rest of the day. My dad made us some more delicious food and we all sat around with expanding waistlines.

We have had amazing weather for a Minnesota winter. Temps mostly in the 40s, when it should be well below zero. I am not complaining!

Ada turned TWO on the 5th!! Happy Birthday my sweet! She looks so old in these two pics. *tear*

We had a little shindig for her this last Sunday. She is in love with Dora right now, so appropriately we decked the house in Dora. It's funny though. I never thought I would fall into the kind of tacky licensed character birthday parties. I always thought I would have these super cute, crafty parties. I am not going to lie, I tried to pressure Ada into an owl party. She wasn't into it at all. But then realizing, who am I to deny her of her favorite things? She likes Dora? Damn it, I will give her Dora!

This is what we are up to these days...

Big girl undies!!

Another year

I had a birthday a couple days ago. I am not exactly sure how I feel about it. I know I am not old. I am starting to slowly creep towards 30 though. Remember when I was talking about the awkward ages of kids in this post? Yeah, well I am realizing we are always in some sort of akward stage in our life. Right now, I am in this fun stage of pimples and wrinkles. I think I would take another wrinkle or 2 to get rid of this 16 year old boy face. I mean come on! I think Proactiv is in my future...it worked for Justin Beiber and all of those other celebs, it would surely work on me, right? Not sure why my face can't look like Ada's. Too bad she is too young to truly appreciate her smooth skin. Check out the piggies!!! On my birthday my dad and his wifey Vicki came over and cooked us a yummy breakfast. Such a lovely way to wake up. I can't say it enough how happy I am to have them back. The rest of the day was filled with lounging in our jammies and I even snuck a nap in. Happy Birthday to me! My stepmama Vicki is owner of Poised with Serenity Massage. She is amazing. I am not sure how many of you have had a full body massage, but it isn't just a really good back rub. I urge you all to get one, and if you live in the are you better get one from her! :) This might sound really cheesy or something, but as I was laying there getting my massage and going somewhere far away, all I could think of was the art of it. I actually felt like a piece of art being worked on like a sculpture or something. That might sound weird, but it was really cool. I am not sure if all massages are like this, but hers definitely are. Do it. Messy yummy. This made my birthday right here!

Pappy and Nana!

I had mentioned in my previous post that my dad and his wife Vicki surprised us and came to town. It was so nice to spend time with them. My dad has been a chef most of his life and for his birthday (dec 22nd) he cooked us a Chinese feast! YUM! Good times. His mom and dad came as well, along with Vicki's parents.