Merry Christmas!

Well Christmas has come and gone all to quickly yet again.  As the kids get older the more they are enjoying the holiday spirit and presents.  We had an extended time with family and were able to squeeze a lot of cousin play time in which Ben loved and even Ashley too this year.  Ashley was even willing to go with the older cousins to play downstairs away from us without any prompting.

Deebo with Ben and Ash

On Saturday we went to two indoor soccer games and were able to play with my cousin's little girl for a short playdate.  And unfortunately it was short due to a misbehaving Ben, but it was still good to have time with them and Ash loved playing with new toys.  Then on Sunday the whole family went to dinner and then ice skating at Steinberg in Forest Park.  It was chilly, but Ben had a blast and even went around with his two cousins who play hockey.  They helped him skate along for a little bit which was neat since they were clearly lapping everyone else at the rink with their speed and agility.  It's crazy how good and fast they are even at such a young age.

Ben, Sam and Danny

For Christmas Eve it is tradition to go to my Grandma's (Momo's) house along with the rest of my mom's family for some food and presents.  Momo gave Ashley a baby doll with a changing table and accessories.  She immediately proceeded to try and change the baby's diaper and feed her the bottle.  I guess she doesn't need any explanation on what to do there since she's all too familiar with that from her baby days of not long ago.  Ben received a chiefs football helmet and jersey (I think I heard a few boos in the background when he opened it since we were in St. Louis and surrounded by rams fans), but nonetheless he was thrilled and pretty much wore the helmet for 2 days straight.  He also got moon shoes.

This is crazy!

Before bedtime Ben dictated a note for Santa to Brian.  It was too cute not to include in the post.  And yes, this is what Ben wanted to tell Santa and Hockey (our elf).

Christmas morning was nice and relaxing and Ben wanted to keep opening presents.  He was happy to receive the first of two zambonis which is a matchbox car size and then the second which is much larger and really cool if I do say so myself.  Although once he opened the second one he said he wanted 5 and not just 2.  Looks like he forgot to inform santa he had changed his mind on quantities of said zambonis.  He also got a hot wheels track, tons of dinosaurs (which I've only seen Brian play with so far), spiderman DVD, Imaginext playset and candy.

2 zambonis

Putting the zambonis to good use immediately

Ashley followed Ben's lead and tried opening a few presents.  She loved her slinky, magna doodle, and candy.  She also got a trampoline although we didn't take it out of the box since we had to transport it home still.  I told her what it was and she tried jumping on the box, but got bored with that quickly for obvious reasons.  She probably thought I was crazy and didn't know what I was talking about when I told her what it was.  But once we got it set up at home it has been in full use almost any chance she gets.

Ash jumping on her trampoline box

 

Christmas afternoon all the family came over and the kids got presents from Deebo and Papa.  Ash got a roller coaster and books.  Ben got a inflatable tumbler, car wash playset, mini air hockey table and hop a roo.  The kids then did their gift exchange and Ben got football guys which are a great alternate at playtime from his hockey guys.  Those two toys are some of my favorites that he's received along with the parking garage Amy gave him last year.  All are toys he will play with off and on for a little while on his own.  Ash got princess dress ups and shoes which she proceeded to wear one of the dresses the rest of the night.  She loves it and once her feet get a little bigger I'm sure she will get tons of use out of the shoes, but for now they fall off a lot.  She also took her turn at the karoake machine some of her cousins got and it turns out she has a future on soundtracks for whale noises.  We nicknamed her Orca for the night.

All the cousins

biggest present goes to Ash!

Ash: "Woah, what's in there Ben?!"

Hockey guys!

Ash putting on chapstick while her cousins open her present for her.  She sure knows how to dictate already....

Improvised roller coaster courtesy of Uncle Dean - Ash loved it

Ash 'singing'

"Mwooooaaaaaaawwwwpppphhhhhhh"

Fun in a trampoline

Overall it was a great Christmas and we will get the last set of presents with Brian's side this weekend.  Now I really need to purge old toys to make everything fit!

This year didn't start so great, but has ended well.  Hope 2013 has more good things in store. Happy New Year!!!!

Santa

This year Ben was excited to see Santa and didn't even cry.  He was a little shy, but walked right up and sat on his lap.  After a couple pics he proceeding to ask for 'hockey' for Christmas.  Prior to sitting on Santa's lap I tried to decipher more what he wanted for 'hockey' and he said two zamboni's and new gloves.  Luckily Santa already informed me that he has two zamboni's for Ben at Christmas if he is good.

Ashley on the other hand wasn't too sure about either Santa or Mrs. Clause so she let out a little cry at first after decided Mrs. Clause was the safer option.  She stopped crying pretty quickly, but just sat there with her head down and lip out pouting.  And of course she loved getting a present when it was over.  Maybe next year she will be more receptive especially since Ben seems to have finally warmed up to him.

Family Pics

It's that time of year again and we had some family pics taken of us.  The pics show a little bit of the personality of the kiddos, but only give you a glimpse into the everyday craziness that is our lives.  Big thank you to Jeff Dunkel for the pics yet again.

Halloween

So this is a little late, but regardless it's worthy of a post.  To start the Halloween fun we went to a friend's party where all the kiddos played and had a good time.  Not too many pics, but fun, nonetheless.

Ben, Milo and Jack

To dress the kids up, this year we decided we would have a theme since it's probably the last year we have a say in what they wear.  So we chose the angel and devil since it seemed fitting given our kids and their personalities.  This is a quintessential picture if I could ever have one from a typical moment in our household.  We even carved pumpkins a couple days early and let Ben pick his 'scary' pumpkin face.

Ben, Angie, Ashley and Brian's pumpkins in order

Halloween night Ashley was somewhat aware of what is going on and got into the spirit halfway through our block.  Of course Ben had a blast, but Ash wasn't so sure at first.  She spent most of the time clinging to Brian or I until we were about 8 houses in at which time she proceeded to run up to the front doors and grab candy from the baskets of our neighbors.  Overall it was a success and a lot of fun.
 

Leaves

It's that time of year again and lots of leaves are falling.  Too many in fact or for the kids it was just right to play in.  We couldn't get the pile high enough for Ben's standards, but we managed to make it taller than him on occasion at least.

Do you see a Ben in there?

 

At first Ash wasn't too sure of it, but the more she saw her brother having fun, the more she jumped in and enjoyed.

Playing together

Based on this pic you would think Ben was done and needed a nap, but that's never the case for him.  I was lucky enough though to capture this pic where he looks content and resting, but it really only lasted maybe 5 seconds tops.