Thank Goodness it's OVER!

January has been such a "BLAH" month for us around here. There have been some fun things, but I feel like most of this month we have spent indoors because the kids were sick. I have felt so stir crazy and just needing to get out...even if all I do is run to the grocery store quick.
Kai is now in "Sunbeams" in church and does really well. His teacher is AMAZING.
Cic is now in nursery all by herself. Kai is no longer there to keep all the toys away from her and to bully her. She now can play with whatever she wants and loves to taste each and every one of them. Because of this...she also brings home every germ and sickness that any child has ever had. Thus resulting in our month of on again off again runny noses, coughs, and recent sinus infections for both kiddos.
This picture was taken at the first of the month on Kai's first day of "Sunbeams."

This month has been absolutely BEAUTIFUL out. We had one snow storm worth calling a "snow storm" and it left us with a little bit of snow. It was sunny outside the next day and the snow was melting quick...NOT before Kai and I had a chance to build a snowman though.

I am no snowman expert but Kai thinks I am. He was so proud of his snowman. His favorite part...the "hat" on top. :)

One thing I am always amazed about is just how heavy (or how weak I am) that snow is. Kai did his best to help me lift the snowballs, and I nearly died laughing listening to him grunt while he "helped."
I'm so excited for FEBRUARY! I'm not a big Valentine's Day fan...too mushy for me now. I used to love it, but now I just don't believe it. I am excited to go to TEXAS this week. Stoked actually. Starting a new month, with a fresh start (while still nursing my kiddos from their sinus infections). Going to Texas just puts a smile on my face, even if my parents do live in San Antonio now...it's not "home" but close enough. I'm sure I'll even look around at the airport hoping to see an unexpected familiar face. Yup, I do miss Texas terribly.

So glad today is the last day of January! I'm hoping February is sickness free and we get to spend more time outdoors.

Christmas 2010

Christmas 2010 was such a whirlwind. It just didn't really feel like Christmas I guess. The weather didn't feel like Christmas and I guess I just let it sneak up on us. Don't get me wrong, we did Christmas activities and yes, I was totally prepared for it. I don't really know how to describe it. Maybe it's b/c I didn't watch my favorite Christmas Movie, It's a Wonderful Life. I had the time to watch it, I just couldn't do it this year. That movie makes me sad.
Everyone talks about how Christmas is all about family. Ben has a super busy job from November through January. He can't take any time off during the busy period so if family can't come to us, then we just don't see them around the holidays. I had a glimmer of hope that maybe my folks would come visit us this year but alas, someone needed them "more than we did" again this year.

For Christmas Eve this year we went to our friends (the Amberry's) house. Kai and Cic were just buzzing around all day and spending Christmas Eve with friends was just the icing on the cake. Here are the kids before we left for the night on Christmas Eve.

When we returned from dinner we sang our Christmas songs and read the Christmas Story together as a family. After, we let the kids open one gift. They both decided to open the gift from each other and were more than happy with the loot.
Cic gave Kai the spider man he had been wanting and Kai gave Cic Jesse. They both went to bed with big smiles on their faces. We also opened a package from Ben's brother. They sent everyone new pajamas. The kids were so excited and Ben and I both have new jammies as well. It was so nice to sleep in new soft jammies. Thanks Barry and Jenn!

Christmas morning was so nice. It was a beautiful day. I believe it was in the low 50's. No snow but super nice weather. Kai has been waking up at 6:30am and coming in to wake me up and cuddle in the mornings. On Christmas morning I laid in bed waiting for Kai to come running in and he never showed. I'll admit that most mornings I am tired and wish that he would sleep in a bit, but Christmas morning I looked forward to hearing him try to tip toe quietly into my room and then get within 1 inch of my face and whisper loudly, "Mommy are you awake?"

I laid there till 7:00am and decided that I needed to have the Christmas tree lights on when the kids finally decided to breathe life into the house. I turned lights on, put on a Christmas CD, lit a nice smelling candle and then decided I couldn't wait any longer. I felt like the little kid on Christmas morning. I just couldn't wait any longer...I had to see Kai and Cici's face when they saw the tree.

The first thing we do on Christmas morning is open our stockings. Ben brought Kai and Cic down the stairs together and the first thing Kai said was, "Did Santa eat my cookies?" We made and decorated sugar cookies for Santa to have a snack on Christmas Eve. He was happy to discover that Santa had taken a bite out of every one of the cookies Kai picked out for him.

This is the stocking Santa prepared for Kai.

Cici's stocking.
Me, Harley, Willie, and Ben's stocking.
Check out that pile! Kai and Cic must have been good kids.

The tree Christmas morning 2010.

Kai and Cic coming down the stairs on Christmas morning. Before the kids opened their stockings.

I'm kind of sad that I didn't take more picture of the kids opening presents, but there were SOOOO many and it took us FOREVER to get through everything.
This is why it took us so long to open presents. Cic opened one of her baby dolls pretty early on and wasn't interested in anything else after that. She was obsessed with her doll and played with it the rest of the day. Kai ended up having to open up several of her presents for her. He didn't seem to mind though...and neither did she.
I started piling up the presents for a picture and was amazed at how big the pile got.

Here is Cici's half...

...and Kai's half.
Wow! It seems like we own an entire toy store now.
We stayed in our pajamas the rest of the day and the house was cleaned up and all the Christmas decorations were put away by 4:00pm. I LOVE taking everything down. It just makes the house feel bigger and CLEANER.

Every year the kids wake up from nap time and everything is GONE. The tree is even sitting on the curb. The only proof that Christmas happened is all the new toys we have.

Kai and Cic got some great gifts this year. One of Kai's favorites is a digital camera. He is constantly asking people to say, "Cheese."

Hope everyone had a great Christmas!