Christmas is quickly approaching!

We finally made it to go visit Santa.  Logan was very excited!  I was so happy to be able to bring Rylee and Brady with us too, the kids always have so much fun together!

Logan talked Santa’s ear off.  He talked about what he already has, what he wants for Christmas, AND what he wants next Christmas. 

Logan’s Pre-school Program

I was very sad to have to miss Logan’s preschool program!  I had school, so Nick took the morning off work to go with him.  He was handed this menu by Logan when he got there and Logan was the little helper that got Nick chocolate milk and cookies.

He even cleaned up Nick’s dishes after he was finished!  I’m hoping that will carry over when he’s at home now! :)

I tried to enlarge the picture above so that the writing could be seen, but Logan was asked what his parents want for Christmas and that was his answers.  In no way do we want Motorcycles (OK, well my husband would love it, but not me!) :)  I think Logan has heard Nick ask me about one a little too often. 

Parties and more!

CHRISTMAS PARTY

Each year, Nick and I look forward to this friend’s Christmas party.  We always have such a great time.  My sister hosted this year and all the kids made gingerbread houses.

Me, Lindsey, my sister and little Brooklyn

Brady and Maddie playing dress-up

Logan spent much of his gingerbread-house-making time like this, eating as much frosting as he could!

I was especially proud of the above gingerbread house I made with Peyton!  Ours was one of the only ones with a true roof, and it was the last one standing!  We rocked!

Each year, the adults do a white elephant gift exchange.  Nate was mentioning this year’s was a little “lame” because 3 different people brought snuggies as their gift.  (I was actually a little excited that my hubby got the leopard print one!) Anyway, Nate was even more peeved when he got the “Precious Piggy 2010 wall calendar”…such a great moment!

My sister scratching away at her elephant prize (10 scratcher cards), notice all the shavings piled up on her belly!

All the girls (Robin, LT-> ok, so he’s not part of the “girls”, heather, Melissa, Sheryl, Katie, Lindsey and me! :)

Logan & Peyton having fun stacking the snowmen.

SURPRISE!

My aunt recently celebrated her 50th birthday, and this afternoon we had a surprise party for her.  She was completely surprised and it was so much fun to visit with family!

The cake serving got a little out of hand!  It started with my aunt getting some black frosting smeared on her face, then Taylor joined in…

Nick got a little of the frosting and then the cousins went full force wrestling each other to see who could smear the most.  At this point, I was thankful this black frosting wasn’t flying at my house! :)

Logan wasn’t the least bit phased by the whole frosting craze, he was happy to have his small slice of cake to enjoy!

DECORATING THE TREE

Logan really enjoyed picking out and decorating the Christmas tree this year.  It’s so much fun to see him understand, enjoy and take part in so much more as he grows older!

   

MY MUSCLE MEN

Logan really wanted to have some tattoos like Daddy’s the other night, we had fun getting him all set!  We usually have  stash of the fake tattoos, but it had been a long while since Logan had wanted to sport some. 

 

BIKING BIRTHDAY PARTY

My close friend’s (Tika) daughter, Shyla just recently celebrated her birthday.  I wasn’t able to go because of work :( but my hubby was awesome and took a bunch of pictures.  They had blocked off a section of her street and all the kids brought their bikes.  Logan had a blast!

 

Nick took a video of Logan biking to be able to show me how much fun he was having since I couldn’t be there.  Little did Nick know that he was going to catch a spill by Brady…

Baby Shower!

I was so excited to host my sister’s baby shower today! If you’ve kept up on my (or her) blog, you know she’s been on bedrest for 6 weeks now! Poor thing! She’s halfway there with 6 more weeks to go. We were nervous because there was a possibility that she was going to have to go into the hospital, but she avoided that and her body is behaving (“behaving” is relative…) We’re hoping she can finish off this pregnancy without any hospital time!
****In case you were wondering...it was a pajama theme in honor of my sister who pretty much lives in her PJs on bedrest****

Melissa & Rylee

I got this little hat for Aubree and we had two little adorable girls at the party that were happy to model it for us…too cute!

It was so much fun to get all the girls together and celebrate my sister’s newest addition! We’re all so excited to meet her!

Rylee’s Birthday Parties

Rylee was so surprised that her mother arranged a surprise birthday party for her while on bedrest.  She had about 12 friends surprise her on her doorstep and then we all went to Organ Stop pizza.

Holy cow!  Riding in the car with six 8 & 9 year-olds was quite the experience…it made me thankful to have a boy.  I can’t believe how high pitched those girls can get their screams! :)

They had so much fun requesting songs

During one song, bubbles came down from the ceiling and the boys thought that part was great!

Then they went back to Rylee’s house to open presents.

Logan playing the “pass it” game at the family party.

The day after her “friends” birthday party, we had our family birthday party for Rylee too.  She did a great job hitting the piñata open!

Giving thanks...

I can't begin to list all the many things I am thankful for this year. I have an amazing family, wonderful friends a roof over our heads and food on the table. I can't complain, life is good!

This was the second year we were able to host Thanksgiving dinner at our house. Nick and I love to host and entertain and volunteer to do so whenever we can! We loved having our family and friends over!

Logan & Christian playing in the back yard

Getting things prepared

The Harris Fam

Logan has a new found love for pumpkin pie, we had to stop him after his 3rd piece!

We had so much fun playing catch phrase at the end of the evening.

My sister and I have a long-standing tradition of braving the Black Friday madness each year. With her on bed rest, we weren't able to fight the crowds, and I definitely wasn't going to go out without her. So, we brought the shopping to her couches and used our laptops to take advantage of the deals available online. Starbucks, ads, laptops, and thanksgiving left-overs made for a great shopping day.

My Big Sister

Growing up it wasn't always fun being viewed as the "little sister" but as we are getting older, I am appreciating it more and more! :) My sister just celebrated her 30th on the 16th of the month. Pregnant and on bed rest wasn't exactly in the 30th birthday celebration plan that had been discussed long ago...but we made it work!

Virgin Pina Colodas

She really did have cake and ice cream, but we were too excited to eat that I totally forgot to put the candles on it. Of course, when I remembered cake was gone, so we improvised with a piece of bread :)

We played CatchPhrase, Pictionary and Taboo. We brought the fun to Melissa since she couldn't go out and have her own fun. Lots of food, friends, and games!

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I have also appreciated being able to do more for and with my niece and nephew. Rylee went to a birthday party recently and I went and checked in on things because my sister wasn't able to meet the parent of the birthday girl ahead of time (she talked with her on the phone prior).

You can obviously see that "Lady Rylee" was in her element at the tea party. She was loving getting all dolled up and acting fancy.

Learning the proper way to take off her gloves when having tea.

Hall of Flames Field Trip

Last week Logan's school went on a field trip to a fire-fighting museum called Hall of Flames. The kids loved it! They listened to a story, got to climb on an old firetruck, watch a fire-safety video, and play on some other fun fire-related things.

Fireman Brady

Logan settled for just wearing the hat

Trying to get a pic of the preschool group

Roch

Brady, Logan & Roch

Listening to the story (or actually...not listening to the story :)