The big 1

Birthday girl!

Aaron and Charlotte spent the night with Aunt Tree so Elsie got Mommy all to herself. What a wonderful birthday present.

As soon as they were home they got right on decorating

what pros!

Elsie quite enjoyed all the attention of being sung to. She is my first baby not to shy away from attention which is fun.

Patiently waiting

hmmm... what's this?

Yummmmmmy

Oh, I'm so excited!

this is how it's done

Aaron and Charlotte assisted in opening her presents.

here she is trying to retrieve some crumbs

playing with new toys and then sucking frosting off of them

full, fat, messy and happy

clean up time

and just in case that wasn't enough for you, here's some more.

Christmas morning

Aaron woke us up at 7 and told me that he had already peeked under the tree. We went and woke up the girls and headed out to see what Santa left.

Charlotte got the bike that she had been hoping for and also some Dora protective gear (Santa thinks of everything) which she wore while she checked out her stocking.

Aaron got a really cool pirate ship (which yesterday he made the goal of playing with ALL day)
and lots of cool pirates. He also got a box of GI JOE'S from Nick so his ship quickly became a pirate/hero ship.

Elsie trying to drink Charlotte's new flashlight.

and all three posing in their pj's.

My kids are so cute!

Captain Aaron with chocolate coins from Grandma Jodi.

Santa Clause came to town

We invited Santa to our house on Christmas eve and he stopped by!

Charlotte was very excited to see him

Aaron was not so sure.

Elsie fell asleep before he made it but our cousins Seattle, Johnny, Kate, Claire and Penelope were there as well I just didn't get a group picture.

New Christmas pajamas!!

my sisters in the pajamas we gave them (notice the Santa on LoRen's head)

then after everyone left El woke up to help set up for Santa. She found this bear under the tree from auntie Lolo and hugged and hugged it. Good thing it was for her.

Christmas card blunder

I really did try to get Christmas cards out this year. I forced everyone to get dressed in matching colors and pose by the fire place. I even promised candy to happy participants. But as you now know these pictures weren't sent.

Here we all look pretty good but it was a little too close for my liking

Not one of us smiled for this one

This one was great except for that pirate on the left

After about 50 shots this was the only face Nick could manage so we had to stop (and no Nick did not get any candy)

Instead I just sent out a handful of cards to people who live out of town and threw in a wallet of our latest family portrait. Not quite as fun but oh well, there's always next year.

We are the champions

Last weekend Nick entered a rock climbing competition. I fought it. I thought he could spend his time much more wisely considering his truck is broken. He has never even gone climbing outdoors and couldn't possibly win. He disagreed and entered anyway.

The competition lasted three hours. I could only take 30 minutes of it. Climbing competitions are boring. The kids and I went to Denny's with aunt Theresa.

We came back in time to hear them announce the winners.

You can imagine my surprise when they announced that Nick took first place in his division. His prize was a night in a deluxe room at the Piccadilly Inn. Although his truck is still broken, I will enjoy every minute of our night away from home.

and I would fly 1000 hours.....

Yes, last Friday Nick hit the milestone of 1000 hours of flight time! About 800 of those hours he has acquired over the past year while teaching at Mazzei. Right now he is flying with his students as well as teaching ground lessons and testing other instructors students but there is talk of having him only fly with students or just being a check ride instructor (testing students) in which case he would get more flight time and build hours even quicker over the next year!!
Hurray for Nick!!!

If you ever want a laugh

you should spend a day with 22 preschoolers. If you can get over the coughing, sneezing, runny noses etc., it's really quite hilarious. I teach 4 preschoolers in our home about two days a month (which can be funny) but 22 small children in one room is just madness. First I watched one little girl draw a couple of pictures of her and Aaron at their wedding. (I don't think she knew I was his mom) Then another little girl walked up and told me that she ate a green bean last night, then walked away. At lunch one little boy talked to me for a good 10 minutes without stopping and the only word I understood was "and". But the best was a group of 5 girls who were running around making fun of all the kids wearing Reindeer hats and red noses while they too were wearing reindeer hats and red noses.

my baby could out dance your baby

She's a natural. I might take her to audition for so you think you can dance.

More bathtime

I finally figured out how to post vidoes ( I know it's not hard but I'm a moron) so here is more of Elsie in the bath!

El's first bath...

...pictures that is. Poor girl has been neglected due to the third child syndrome.

Isn't she cute.

I'm sure she wishes she could take a bath everyday

yes I know some of you are disgusted with me right now but come on, bathing three children every night? My knees simply can't take it.

I am proud to say, however, that all three baby books are up to date!!

Yummy.

I can't remember when they stop putting everything in their mouth but I'm looking forward to it.

Miss Charlotte turns three

Charlotte wanted bagels for breakfast which she ate as quickly as possible so she could open her presents and then go get her ears pierced.

here she is opening her very first Barbie from Daddy

and this is the cradle and high chair for her babies

She has wanted her ears to be pierced since she was two so after a year of asking we let her get it done on her birthday. There was only one girl working which meant that they had to do one ear at a time and I almost went somewhere else but Charlotte said she wouldn't cry so we stayed and did it there.

She did shed some tears after it was over

but ice cream fixes everything when you are three.

Elsie got to go on her first ride at the mall which she loved. Aaron was sad because he wanted to ride the fire truck ride instead but Charlotte got to pick.

Birthday Bash

I was able to get away with a combo party yet another year.

Sunday we celebrated Charlotte's 3rd and Aaron's 5th birthday. Charlotte wanted a pink marshmallow cake (which you can see in the back corner) and Aaron wanted a strawberry cake.

Charlotte could hardly contain herself and as soon as the first guest arrived she was ready to sing happy birthday.

I tried to maintain some kind of order while opening so many presents but it didn't work. They both got lots of cute and fun presents and I was able to get rid of some old toys to make room for the new ones without much complaint.

Charlotte got her first set of pretend make-up, which she slept with that night. (In fact I went in to check on the kids before I went to bed around 10 and she was sitting up brushing her hair and putting on lipstick)

and Elsie had a great time exploring all of the new toys while the other two opened them up.