A Visit to Santa

My mom takes the kids to see Santa at the mall every year. This picture makes me laugh, Adelaide is of course trying NOT to smile, Demzi is mid laugh and Liam is at least not crying (he cried after I sat him there).
Shockingly enough Addie actually talked to this Santa, enough to say, "I want an easy bake oven." This after being told if she didn't tell him he wouldn't know what to bring. Santa was great with her. He said if he brought one he'd like her to make some cookies for him.

Demzi asked for, "an easy bake oven for ME not for Addie. " (That was new, she has been pretty consistent on her barbie up until that point)

Liam, didn't cry. So over all a successful Santa visit.

Christmas Treats and Hot Tubbing

My mom invited all the kids over to make Christmas treats and since I forgot my camera Alicia was nice enough to send me pictures. I don't think many treats made it home with us but the kids sure had fun.

After the kids were done eating themselves silly we decided to all get in the hot tub. Three adults and seven kids in my parents hot tub makes for some crazy times but it was tons of fun.

Snowman

My kids have been excited to build a snowman since we got our first skiff of snow. Last night we finally had enough stick around long enough to make one.


Never mind that Demzi is crying. She had taken off her gloves and was playing in the snow so by the time we decided to take the picture she was done. She really did have fun....oh and that her hat on its head, with skittle eyes and mouth and the "perfect carrot" for a nose. (Addie has been making me hold on to that carrot since I gave it to her one day for lunch, she wouldn't eat it because it would be a perfect snowman nose....)

Moore Family Christmas Party

Last Saturday was the Moore family Christmas party. It started out with a visit from Santa. When Santa walked in Demzi came running towards me with wide eyes and I was thinking that she was going to start crying. Then she broke out in a huge grin and said, "It's Santa mom!" She waited with the other kids then hurried and sat on his lap and said, "I want a barbie." So while this picture may not show it, she was extremely happy to be there. She just kind of looked shocked about it the whole time. After she got off of his lap though she kept laughing and saying, "Ho ho ho, that's what Santa says, and I say, I want a barbie. Ho ho ho that's what he says." Addie has never actually talked to Santa. Although she does talk about what she wants him to bring her. Even here she was just sitting on his lap, trying not to smile, and acting all shy.

Liam was definitely not sure of what he thought about the whole thing. He didn't cry, so that's at least something.

After Santa left we sat down and had some breakfast, waffles with all sorts of yummy toppings. Then it was time for America's Next Top Grinch. The contest started out with the reading of How the Grinch Stole Christmas. I was surprised that even Liam sat still.

Addie and Demzi were both very obviously absorbed in the book.

Then it was time for each family to nominate their grinch. Here they are all ready to go. They had to go through a series of competitions. Modeling their costumes, one question, their grinch voices and a obstacle course to finish it off. Then everyone voted on who they thought was the best grinch.

Random December Pics

I was playing around with the camera the other day and so I have a few random pictures laying around.


Can you tell what we have been up to at our house? I dread potty training I think it took me a few months to get geared up for it but she was ready it was always me dragging my feet.

Addie tried to convince me the other day that she was NOT tired and didn't need to nap. I knew it was going to be a later night because we were going to a party so I was insisting she nap. Stubborn Addie told me she was going to sit in this chair since she was not going to sleep. I tell you this wasn't even 5 minutes later.

Liam got this toy drum for his birthday. I love how hard he is concentrating in this picture.

Demzi saw me with the camera and wanted me to take a picture of her taking care of her baby. This baby actually cries and then goes to sleep if you give it the binky. I took a couple pictures of her and she looked at them and said, "no, not me, the baby!" This was kind of in between, I got a picture of her and she got a picture of her baby.

Microwave

We have not had the best luck as of late with microwaves. We bought this microwave new with the house. This is the second time it's broken but this time it's no longer warranteed so we ended up buying a new one.

Who new that a broken microwave could make such a great toy? First you open the microwave...
Close the microwave....

"Cheese" (As a sidenote he actually said, "cheese" for this picture and so every time after that he would crawl up to the microwave, point and say "cheese")

Happy Birthday Kris!

I'm way behind because Kris's birthday was on the 11th. I figured that better late than never though. These are the pictures from Kris's two parties (if you can call them that)

This is with my family the Monday before. Here he is while we sing to him. The cake is a cheesecake which is why it wasn't decorated. Letting Addie help him blow out the candles....

Then on his actual birthday we were down at his parents'. We ordered pizza and then had cake and ice cream after.

Santa Picture

This week is just kind of a fun Christmasy week at school for Addie. She came home today excited to show me that they colored a picture of Santa. I love this picture! Her coloring has evolved so much from from the entirely green days! Now a days she knows exactly what color she wants where (which is why she has little scribbles on the side to make sure it was the right color before she started using it). That being said she doesn't care necessarily that it matches every other picture of Santa.

The Birthday Boy

I cannot believe that Liam is a year old already! This last year has just flown. He has been such a good baby. He is definitely a third child though. This kid is learning to hold his own against his big sisters. He can stand forever but has non interest in walking. We try and get him to walk between us and he just lets his legs collapse under him. He will walk along furniture though and I'm not in a rush for him to walk. His 12 month stats are:

Length: 29.5 inches (45%)
Weight: 19lbs 8oz (10%)

We had a party for him this last Saturday. We just had some pizza, presents, then cake and ice cream. Liam got really excited about the stack of presents but just wanted to climb all over them.

In the end I think that I had to open everything for him (I guess we know what Christmas is going to be like). Then he had to make the rounds and push everything that made noise.

Then it was time for cake.

During the singing he was trying to just grab cake or the candle. Of course he didn't understand the blowing out either so we did that for him to.

He was really upset when I took the cake away to dish it up.

He started out slow, he wasn't sure why everyone was watching him so he started out just poking it.

As soon as we turned out heads for a minute we looked back to see him attacking it. That's just what we wanted! Everybody needs messy cake pictures fromt heir 1st birthday.

Feeding the Ducks

So Liam is sick today and Teresa said that if I'm going to stay home with him I had to update our blog. This is actually a first for me so I hope everything works out. Back in November, before it got too cold, we went and fed the ducks while we were visiting Grandma and Grandpa Benson one Sunday. The girls and Liam had a fun time. Addie and Demzi would actually get one piece of bread to the water for every ten they threw and Liam just ate the bread. Hopefully, this gets me out of blog posting duty for awhile. Here are the pics.

Bye Baby Curls

Liam had quite the long hair going on, with little curls on the back of his head. I decided it was finally time to cut it off. Alicia was nice enough to let me come over and show me how to do it (hopefully next time I can do it).

Here he is before the cutting started.
He did great the whole time! He was so intent on this sucker he hardly noticed what was going on.

Here is the finished product, all of the sudden he has turned into a little boy and lost his little baby look.

Just a Sunday Afternoon

This is one of those rare Sundays where we were just home the whole day playing with our kids. We were playing in the back yard when Addie decided she wanted Kris to throw her up in the air.

Demzi of course wanted her turn but after a few times (specifically this time) she decided that it terrified her and she wanted nothing more to do with it.
Addie informed me that she made sure to put her hands out so that she could really fly. It of course didn't scare her in the least bit, but I think they wore Kris out.

Trick or Treating!

I think Addie has had this Halloween planned out since last year. The second we packed up the Batgirl costume she had decided that she was going to be Snow White and that Demzi was going to be Aurora (which Demzi was fine with). She also thought that Liam should be one of the dwarfs, specifically Grumpy. Since that didn't work out we found a frog costume and said he'd be the frog prince. So, come Halloween when it was rainy and windy we tried to convince the girls that they didn't NEED to go trick or treating. They had done a trunk or treat the night before and had three Halloween parties. But these girls insisted, so we went out and froze, but it they loved it.

Here'e our after trick or treating picture, don't they look like they're having fun, they were so wet! The wind kept blowing their hoods right off.

Halloween Fesitivities Part 2

The Monday before Halloween was the Thompson family Halloween party. This has been one of my favorite things all growing up, my kids have tons of fun with it too. We started the night off with dinner and then played some games.

Here are all the kids with Grandma in their Halloween costumes.
Jordan and Josh in their costumes

Alicia made a Halloween Twister game, "Twisted." All of the kids wanted to play it. I love how concerned Addie looks in this picture.

She did really well with it overall though. I had to help move her around a little bit but she actually tried to hold herself up.

Demzi had no idea what we were actually doing but decided that she should get up on her hands and feet too.

Then of course there was the Halloween scavenger hunt which led to this year's pinata. Demzi gets really into it. It's kind of scary when she is holding the bat.

I remember the first year we did this Addie was traumatized and cried through the whole thing, obviously she is over that now.

And of course Liam needed his turn too, even if it was to just throw the bat, he tried tasting it too.

Enjoying some after pinata candy with grandma.