Christmas Eve

On Christmas Eve the little elves got to open a special present...

Christmas pajamas!!!

... and a new toothbrush!

 

Notice that there are no presents under the tree. We got a box of goodies from Aunt Jess a few weeks before Christmas and I attempted to put them under the tree; the two older kids kept pulling them out and organizing them into piles and comparing size and shape of presents. The younger one didn't quite understand the pretty boxes and kept piling them up, like stairs, to reach things on higher shelves.

Ball Corp. Adult Holiday Party

Christmas Eve, Eve (Dec 23rd), we got to put on our fancy clothes and go hang out with adults at Matt's adult holiday party. In four years, this was only our second time going to the adult party. Last year it was on a Sunday and the year before I was 35+ weeks pregnant, so we were really happy to go this year. We hadn't hired a babysitter at bedtime yet, so we hired TWO to make sure all went smoothly. Thankfully it did!

(I love my little photo-bomber!)

At the party there was dinner, dancing and a comedian, and we enjoyed it all!

Blue Belt

K has continued to work hard and excel at Tae Kwon Do. At the end of December he earned his blue belt, his 4th advancement. The Master promised that "the easy belts are in the past" and that now he will have to really work hard. I'm glad he still loves it, and I love seeing him learn and grow with this sport.

YMCA Christmas Party

The YMCA preschool program that C is in does such great holiday parties! It's so great that the families are so involved, including siblings!

Santa even came for a visit! (end of video)

C got this great book from her teachers!

And her first set of Legos from Santa!

L got some cars from Santa! Thankfully he wasn't scared of Santa at all.

Ball Kids Holiday Party

Until this year, the Ball holiday kids party had been on Sunday so we hadn't been to it before. But this year we did, and we had a blast!

It was at the bowling alley and everybody got their chance to bowl.

Hilariously, L won the jackpot THREE times on this ball machine.

Then C won the MEGA JACKPOT on the same machine.

The "boys" loved the bumper cars.

And Santa was even there!

 

We are so glad that we got to go this year!

Victorian Streetwalk 2014

We enjoyed the annual Victorian Streetwalk with the kids favorite face painter.

Date Night in NYC

While my folks were here we were super lucky to have the opportunity to escape down to the city for a night without kids.

We used up all of Matt's Marriott points to stay at a fancy hotel just blocks from Times Square.

It was an itty-bitty little room, but it was all that we needed.

The hotel had lots of charm.

A longtime friend was also in NYC for the weekend so we met-up to have lunch. It is always a pleasure to catch up with you June!

We checked out the Macy's store windows. The pictures do not do them justice.

Matt was in heaven in this comic shop.

The New Years ball!

Our big splurge for the trip was dinner at The View restaurant. Which is a rotating restaurant over Times Square. SO worth it!

We went to the toy store without kids! That never happens! (When we got home K grilled us as to why we were in a toy store)

Saturday morning we ate breakfast in an empty Times Square. Why not?

Then went to the temple. I love how peaceful and quiet it is inside the temple, even in the middle of Manhattan.

Then we walked the long way back to the hotel through Central Park ...

... And past the fancy decorations and window displays on 5th Ave.

It was such a wonderful and rejuvenating weekend without kids. Thanks Mom & Dad for making it happen!

Happy Thanksgiving!

We had a GREAT Thanksgiving around here! We were so lucky to have Grandma and Grandpa here to celebrate with us. Our festivities started on Tuesday before Thanksgiving. Both kids had class parties.

It was so great that Grandma and Grandpa could come!

K's class had a Charlie Brown Thanksgiving celebration (without parents).

The kids had Wednesday off from school and we got a good amount of snow to play in! This was L's first experience (that he can remember) with it all and he loved it! He was bundled appropriately, so the cold didn't bother him at all.

We woke up Thanksgiving morning to a beautiful foot-and-a-half of snow. Matt and the kids spent at least 1/2 of the day playing outside.

The most fun thing they built was a fort at the bottom of the slide.

 

We had true Thanksgiving feast for dinner and stuffed ourselves silly.