The Princess and the Frog

Today I took Shane to see his very first movie in the theater! I was not sure how he would react because it is so hard for him to sit still, but he has been very into movies lately and I thought it would be a fun experiment while I was on vacation. We talked about it for a couple of days and he was really excited when we would see the commercials for this movie.

Honestly, I expected to be there for 40 minutes or so at the most before he decided to cause a scene...but I got him the kids pack with popcorn, M&Ms and Sprite and he was in heaven! He would ask me the color of every M&M before he hate it, but he managed to be pretty quiet about it. He was very excited during the previews and wanted to know what would be coming next.

He wanted to sit in a seat, "All by myself!" but he is so tiny that it kept folding up on him! I had to hold it down with my leg, but in a way that he wouldn't notice I was "helping." The characters were fun and he loved all the music. He especially loved the "scary guy."

After about an hour he started getting restless and said he wanted to go back in Mommy's car, but I convinced him to stick it out a little longer and we ended up making it until the end of the movie! I was so proud of him! Of course he keeps asking to go back to the "movie store" to see the froggies. He did great, but I'm not pushing my luck :)

My Favorite Time of Year!!

December is my FAVORITE time of year! The Christmas tree and decorations go up the day after Thanksgiving so that I can be sure enjoy the festiveness all month long. I have my birthday, Christmas and New Years all in one week! Plus a 10 day vacation from work!! It was really fun this year because Shane could really understand everything that was happening. We read lots of Christmas books and watched Christmas movies together all month long. He loves to look at all the Christmas lights around town and we would take extra long ways home from Grandma's house to see them all.

Here he is after helping me decorate the tree.

Shane and Sticky liked to cuddle under the tree together

My first Christmas event was our Cootie Christmas party at Linda Buffo's house. Linda is always the host of the Christmas Cootie party and goes above and beyond in her decorating, hosting, food and drinks, and thoughtful personalized gifts for all of us ladies. This is a great group of women and I am grateful to be a part of their fun each month!

One of the 5 or so Christmas trees at Linda's house

Mom and I

Cootie gals 2009

The next night was my birthday celebration. I decided to do an Ugly Christmas Sweater bar crawl this year. Ryan was not thrilled about having to wear an ugly sweater out in public, but it was my birthday wish...that and an iPhone which he got for me the weekend before and I haven't put down since!

Don't we look fabulous?!?

I love this picture of the guys!

Looking good, even in tacky sweaters

The very festive group!

My best girls, xoxo!

Then we had Christmas Eve at Grandma Sandi's house. Aunt Tammy and Uncle Peter made us the BEST dinner and homemade chocolate lava cakes! Shane had spent the morning at Grandpa Dan's house and went without a nap, but he did surprisingly well for having such a long and eventful day. The adults did a small gift exchange this year, but of course Shane was super spoiled by his Grandparents and Aunt and Uncle. We didn't leave until after 10pm and he didn't even fall asleep in the car! He still wanted to stay up after we got home, but fell right asleep once his head hit the pillow. I was exhausted and not feeling well myself, but I still had to set up for Santa and make dessert for Christmas before I could do the same!

Horsing around with Daddy

Spoiled by his Grandparents

Measuring Kiwi with Grandma's tools

I was probably more excited for Christmas morning than even Shane was! I set up Christmas lights from the tree and stockings all the way into his bedroom (a cute idea I got from Dominique last year). He was soo excited to see the lights that he didn't want to leave his bedroom! We decided to do stockings and make coffee before waking Daddy up.




Then we opened the presents from Santa (a new scooter and helmet that I didn't end up taking pictures of!) and the presents from Mommy and Daddy before heading over to Grandma's house.

Cool motorcycle helmet that makes racing sounds
(from Daddy of course)

Lining up all of his new dinosaur bath toys

We got to Grandma's in time for brunch. Grandma had to pick up Uncle Cory, Aunt Janice and baby Carah at the airport that morning. It was Carah's first trip to CA and we were all very excited to see her! Shane really got along well with Carah. The last time we saw her he wasn't interested in her very much and would get really jealous. Then Uncle Jim came with Kyle and Brett who were home for the holidays from the East Coast. It was their first time meeting Baby Carah! She is the sweetest baby and will sit content for hours and not even make a peep! Just about the complete opposite of her cousin Shane! lol

Playing his new harmonica with Daddy

Playing with Carah's new piano

Cousins...aren't they adorable?!?

Carah playing with her Auntie

Shane making all kinds of noise with his new power tools

The guys horsing around before dinner!

Everyone contributed to the delicious dinner!

So nice to have everyone together for Christmas!
xoxo

The boys are always hard to shop for, but I had the brilliant idea that we could all do the indoor go-kart racing this year. I had the guys in suspense for weeks wondering what we were all going to be doing! Well...I didn't anticipate that TONS of other people would have the same brilliant idea and the place was packed and fully booked when we arrived the next day. My awesome plan backfired! Ryan and I still did racing with Cory and Janice the next day and then went again with Brett and his friend on Monday. It was soo fun, but just not the same as all of us doing it together.



I was feeling sick Christmas Eve and that whole weekend of non-stop entertaining and running around had me exhausted! It took the my entire 10 day vacation to recover, but we still had a great time! I was sad for everyone to go home so soon!