Friday, December 28, 2012

Another post of photos, all about our Christmas day.

Our living room looked like this on Christmas morning.


I had tied strings to all the stockings and hid them throughout the living room and kitchen, with a string for each of them to follow and find their stockings.


It was fun, but a bit too advanced for the kids. It did, however, help in distracting the kids long enough for us to be with them when they found their present from Santa.



They were very excited about their swimming goggles and can't wait to try them out in the pool!


We lounged around playing with all the new toys, ate our eggs benedict, and eventually got all dressed up for Christmas with my parents.


We snapped a few pictures with GG and Grandma and Bopa.



Auntie TaTa and Grandma got the recipe for the poshki. (I think that is how you spell it?) Which was a traditional food we made every Christmas with my Grandma so it was fun to pass that on to the kids.



Auntie did the Slovakian blessing before dinner.


After delicious ham and potatoes we all got down to business opening all our presents. Rory added two more princesses to her collection.


And a group shot, because we do group shots.


We have amazing families and we are so glad we got to celebrate with everyone that we did. Merry Christmas!

Thursday, December 27, 2012

Sorry for the delay, here's some photos from our Christmas Eve celebration at Joe and Bridget's with Dido's family.

My family.


Rory and Dido getting a cuddle in.


Max showing off one of his Christmas gifts.


A photo of me and the men of my house. Yes, I do love this photo.


After dinner we loaded up and headed over to Annette's house to celebrate with Grammy's family.

Here's some of the kids, taking their turns on the Pinata.





We eventually packed up and headed for home where the kids made sure to shoot for Santa. Carrying on the Gazdik tradition.



Shortly after this everyone was tucked into their beds anxiously waiting for Santa's arrival!

Sunday, December 23, 2012

I'm currently sitting at my kitchen table, listening to my kids make elaborate plans on how Batman and Spiderman are needed to help Rapunzel, Cinderella and the baby dolls get safe. Seriously? These kids are so dang cute sometimes it's hard not to just run over there and hold them forever! Christmas has started out awesome for the kids this year. When we returned home from decorating Christmas cookies our neighbor Chris stopped over after visiting with Santa Clause.


Yes, he really did bring that many toys over for Max and Rory. It was ridiculous; and a little funny. Of the various toys the kids received I was able to snap a couple funny photos. Here's Rory, I mean Princess Rapunzel, playing with her mini doll self and her pink rifle. Seriously? Could she pull those boys' heartstrings any further?


Max got this semi-automatic Nerf rifle.


I am aware of the sensitivity to semi-automatic weapons right now, I'm not going there, but I do want to tell you that this toy gun is the best gun Max currently owns. It is so easy to use, he just holds down the trigger and the bullets come out. All his other guns require pumping or pulling or some other hard maneuver that is usually too difficult after a couple of times making for a very grumpy boy. This gun? Amazing. And it makes me laugh every time it goes off. I have even stolen it a few times to shoot it at my husband. It is AWESOME.

After Chris left we made our way over to Grammy and Dido's for our Christmas celebration with Dusty's family. We had matching Christmas pajamas again this year for the kids and had some fun trying to get the grandkids and grandpups all together for a shot. This is the best one.


We also got one without the pups.


Uncle Ed was giving piggy back rides, and since taking turns was out of the question the kids all hopped on together!


The girls, almost posing nicely, naturally someone has to look away.


Here's Nora, opening a present.


Lyla showing off her Carhartt hat.


Rory with her Barbie.


No photos of Max opening gifts, bad Mommy didn't take any of him, whoops! Now we enjoy our one day break before we start the rest of our Christmas celebrations this year! I can't wait!

Saturday, December 22, 2012

Our Christmas celebrations have started and everyone is very excited. We started out by joining YoYo (Chuchee) at her house for some cookie decorating. Yes, there were a lot of cookies and sprinkles to chose from!


Grammy helped Nora with her cookies.


Auntie Katie was awesome at helping the girls, and the girls did a very good job of sharing since they seemed to want whatever it was the other cousin was using.


Max was very dedicated to the icing. He didn't want a single spot of cookie to go without.


Uncle Ed and Oliver did a lot of joint cookie decorating which led to some interesting color combinations.


We quickly discovered that some of the icing had gone missing.


I was extremely impressed with how well all the kids did during the time they decorated. Needless to say there was a big mess, but they were very focused.


We got a quick shot of the kids and parents before cleaning up, lots of messes but very happy kids.


And while the adults cleaned up, the kids had fun chasing around Daisy.


Thank you Anna for taking some photos for me and for helping Gayle setup this fun cookie decorating party! I'll have lots of fun Christmas photos to post over the next few days, so enjoy!

Friday, December 21, 2012

A few days ago the kids and I attempted some sledding. It didn't go well. After the rain a while back the snow got really hard. It also melted the snow unevenly, and with dogs running around, our track became quite the dangerous terrain. No one could stay on top of their sleds before getting to the bottom! We finally got a couple inches of snow to work with our sledding trail. It was still a bit bumpy, as Max discovered quick!


Rory decided she wanted to stick to the bunny hill this time around. I can't say I blame her, the last time we tried sledding it was pretty scary. She still had a good time even if it was slower going.


Of course, sledding didn't last very long with her. She'd rather just sit and eat the snow.


Max man was a different story. He of course continued to take the big hill, enjoying every trip whether he remained on his sled or not.


He was also quick to get his sled back up the hill to do it again!


I do love not having to bring sleds up all the time. The older they get, the lazier I can be!

Thursday, December 20, 2012

My good friend Rebecca had her baby girl last night. We spent a good part of the day yesterday watching Jane (the big sister) so you can imagine I was extra excited since I got to be with Rebecca for some of her labor and help her out with having Jane here to play with the kids. We stopped and visited for a little bit this morning, isn't she beautiful?


Her name is Claire, they haven't decided on her middle name yet and she weighed 8 pounds, 7 ounces and was 20 inches long at birth. Congratulations to the new family of four!

Monday, December 17, 2012

We've been laying low this weekend. Not only did I have the desire to cuddle my children and never ever let them out of my site again, they also have been recovering from the nasty cold they both got this week. Not that a cold is really a good reason to stay locked up, but it worked as a good excuse for us. No one was complaining about the extra TV time, hot chocolate and warm apple cider to help sore throats, and numerous cuddles.

There was still some energy in the kids so we found ways to work that out. The kids and I have got some new dance moves that we invented this weekend. We cannot wait for Auntie and Taylor's wedding to show them off! (No date set, but yes, they are engaged!) Daddy and the kids wrestled. Well, more like the kids kind of wrestled but really just begged Dusty to throw them.





Yes, he did do this numerous times with both kids this weekend. Those arms make me swoon...