Fun with Mama Shirley and Daddy Jim

The kids got to go play with Mama Shirley and Daddy Jim this morning.  They always have lots of fun together, and today they made little marshmallow snowmen.  They were too cute not to show off.  We can't wait for dessert tonight!!  :)

Christmas in St Pete

We had a great Christmas in St Pete.  We got down on Friday and got to play for awhile before heading to our favorite Thai restaurant for dinner.  We had an extra guest with us.  Ryan (Jill's daughter) joined us for dinner.  We got to babysit her that night and had so much fun with our cousin.

Brian asleep with Abuelo

On Saturday morning, we took the kids to visit Grannie and Aunt Ola.  We were surprised to see some of Erik's cousins there.  We haven't seen them (the cousins) in years, so it was nice to catch up with them and visit with Grannie and Aunt Ola.  Of course Grannie had a delicious lunch for us.  We tried to get the kids to nap that afternoon before heading up to Jonathan and Chat's house for dinner that night.  Brian slept, but I think Kayleigh was too excited to sleep.
Dad made pork for our Noche Buena dinner, and Chat had black beans and rice to go with it.  After dinner the kids got to open their presents and play for awhile before we headed home. 
Brian did not want to sleep in his crib while we were there, so we decided to let him sleep wherever he would.  That means Saturday night he was in Kayleigh's room sleeping with Kayleigh and Erik.  I had been in there for a little while, but when I got up for something Brian took my space and so I went to another room to have a bed for myself!  :)

Cookies and milk for Santa

Everyone is asleep!  Time for Santa to come!

The kids were so excited to open their gifts Sunday morning.  Kayleigh's one item on her Christmas list was a guitar.  (She had wanted slippers before that, but got them from someone before Christmas and changed her list.)  I couldn't believe it when she went right to the guitars, which were in boxes and wrapped, and said that they were Brian's and her guitars!  I still made her wait to open that gift because I didn't want her to ignore everything else.  Sure enough, they opened the guitars toward the end, and then were finished opening gifts.  It worked out because we wanted to go to church, so we had plenty of time for breakfast and getting ready to go.  We finished opening presents after lunch.

Brian playing an "instrument"

Kayleigh with her headband made by Aunt Robyn

Everyone napped that afternoon before going to Barbara and Jack's house for dinner.  Dinner was delicious and there were even more cousins there for the kids to play with!!  Barbara and Jack gave the kids each a gift, and they played with them for a little bit before trying to watch Veggie Tales.  I don't think any of the kids watched the whole video before deciding that running in circles around the house would be fun. 

Waiting to open presents

Relaxing and watching TV

Worn out!

Bed #3 for Brian

We drove home on Monday with LOTS of other people clogging the road.  Thankfully there were no accidents and we got home safely.  My mom bought some new sheets for Kayleigh's bed, and before we left to go to St Pete, I snuck upstairs and put them on her bed.  I brought the camera upstairs with me to get a video of Kayleigh when she saw the sheets for the first time.  I have to say, her reaction was priceless.  Here's the link to the video.  I can't get it to embed.
http://youtu.be/SWuhXSlftiA

Christmas happenings

We are definitely in the Christmas season!  We've had lots going on with more fun stuff coming up in the next two weeks.  This last weekend, we decided to go look at Christmas lights.  There is a house in town that had 100,000 (you read that correctly!) lights and was set to dance with music.  It was really neat to see! 
Saturday morning, we went to church to have Breakfast in Bethlehem.  The kids always have fun with the crafts and getting to dress up and have their picture taken.  Breakfast was delicious, and it was nice having it in our renovated fellowship hall.

On Sunday evening, Erik's work had their annual kids Christmas party. Kayleigh said she was going to sit on Santa's lap and tell him what she wanted. We didn't think that Brian would sit on Santa's lap because Kayleigh wouldn't get near him at that age! Kayleigh climbed right up on his lap, and Brian let him pull him up. We had a blast and the kids got

When we got home from the party, we found Tracy in her room covered with one of the pillows we keep in there.  She must have been cold!

Finally, I need to introduce you to our elf.  His name is Bobadoo Snitcharoo.  We LOVE the name Bob, so that had to be part of his name.  Erik liked the Snitcharoo part, because every night our elf flies to the North Pole to tell Santa how the kids have been behaving that day.  It's fun because each morning when we wake up, he's in a different place!  The kids love to find him in the mornings.  He's been fun to have.  I know other people who have gotten elves in their houses, and I've wanted one but never got it.  Grammy (Jan) bought him for us this year.