Our Very Own Secret Santa

I wasn't going to post anything about this to keep it a 'secret' but I decided against it because I'm grateful for them. We had some "Santa's Elves" bring us 12 days of christmas gifts this year. Cody and Macey absolutely loved it!! A countdown calendar, darling kids game, ring pop christmas trees, a festive doormat, gingerbread house, just to name a few. Meanwhile, during that time I had a few days of pure overwhelmed-ness. Even a little depressiveness. I'm making up words. Everyone has them and some people pretend they don't but we all do. Ben gave me a blessing. I'm over it, enjoying life, and just waiting for the next time I crack!:) Well, at some point I was wondering if anyone here even cared and then I remembered we had a secret santa, who most likely drove a half hour out of their way to deliver something to us every day. That is HOURS of time they spent just to let us know that they cared. I have never been so grateful for anyone as I did that one day that I broke down and cried and then remembered someone cared. That is what Christmas is about. Christlike actions. I can't wait until we can do that for someone! Thank you secret elves. I got to the point that instead of running to the door I would run to the window and try to see who it was. Like a little kid!

Decorating the Gingerbread house:

Macey's contributions looked a lot like this:

Beautiful roof eh?

Dare I even admit that I helped? It's harder than it looks and with three kids, dang near impossible!

More helping

Macey

Preschool Program Performer

To my little competitive Cody, everything is a competition, even singing the loudest. Excuse the terrible video-ing, I was laughing and juggling children.

"Twinkle Twinkle Little Star"

It's not supposed to be a round, but Cody added his own special touch to it.

Love it. Also, notice the cute little guy next to Cody hiding:)

Look Who's Turning 30...Wait 3

Little miss Macey turned three on Monday. To celebrate we went for ice cream that day (because the children's museum was closed, the movies weren't open yet, the play gym was closed, And the other play place was closed!), and then once dad was home we went to Mickadonald's, as pronounced by Macey. It's her favorite place to eat and she always asks to go:)

While we were there we saw a guy there who introduced himself as the brother of one of the guys Ben works with. Ben was wearing his jacket with the company logo. They were there for their three year old daughter's birthday that was that day. Funny coincidence!

Here she is sporting two of her new presents, a kitty and a phone.

The frog behind her (amidst the multitude of blankets from her bed) is from the ER that we visited yesterday. Best case scenario though: her elbow was subluxated, and nothing was broken! The dr popped it back in and we went on our way.

Having cake: This year we did Hello Kitty!

Macey is so cute when we sing to her. She just loves it:

We're so glad you're in our family Macey. You never keep it dull around here. You are one of the most selfless people I know and you're only three. We love you!

An asteroid hit earth

A castle was destroyed.

Devastation was everywhere.

Can't you tell

Thanksgiving week

It's my parents' "off year" for Thanksgiving so they came to our house! Nette and Jon are in St. Louis this month so they made the 8 hr drive and came too!

One of the events was a hot chocolate taste test. We had 13 different flavors and blindly tasted each kind. The winners were: Swiss Miss and Stephens...nothing fancy like Ghirardelli or gourmet blends!

The science center was on the list of things to do.

There's a small room where you can feel an earthquake. Or they could have just stayed long enough and felt a real one here:)

One day Cody tried out the rocket. You blast off and then tip back and watch on a screen in the rocket.


I had to put this picture in because Macey is actually in the picture. Usually she's not tall enough.

My dad had to try out the segway. You could buy one of these for $5,000

All the kids, minus Mackayla

On our way out

Swimming at the hotel. These two kept their grandpa busy!

On Thanksgiving day, we gave the little kids their own table(s).

Here's Nette and her cute prego belly. She's halfway!

We gave my dad a back rub t shirt for Christmas and the kids tried it out:)

Macey and Vanessa were great little friends. I wish we lived closer to our families.

Cody and Macey were spoiled by grandma and grandpa. Several of the nights they went for a sleepover to the hotel and watched cartoons and ate candy. Grandparents can do that I guess! We don't have cartoons so they absolutely loved it!

And some more random pictures...

This is Macey's phone.

It doesn't look like it, but it's actually an iPhone. You flip it open and scroll through on the screen (a touch screen) and choose a game; there are several. And then you play them, 9 or 10 times, asking when you've won (because it's kinda hard to tell!).

This is Mackayla's "Dressing Face." Every single time she gets dressed she closes her eyes, smiles and opens her mouth wide open. I love it!

I love those squishy cheeks!

I cut all my hair off in the second ugliest hair cut I've EVER had. sigh. grow quickly hair.