Christmas Day

Brad and I got an early Christmas gift when both Emma and Josh slept in until shortly after seven. Emma was the first to rise and rather than heading to our room like usual, we heard her running out towards the living room (right past the presents from Santa mind you). Brad and I got up expecting to see her by the fireplace but no Emma. Brad then noticed her over by the Christmas tree. When she saw us, she said "He didn't come. Santa didn't come." Apparently Santa was supposed to leave the presents under the tree so Emma didn't even look anywhere else. When we pointed out the gifts by the fireplace, she was relieved but still a little upset with Santa.

Santa brought Emma some new books and a diaper bag for her babies. About this point, Josh decided to join the party and was excited that Santa had brought him books and more cars. Santa also brought some new train tracks for both kids. Santa did not do so well with the stockings, which contained some silly socks (that Emma usually loves), M&M's and goldfish crackers. These things apparently were not good gifts. Poor Santa may just boycott our house next year. After a good breakfast, we headed off to church. Let me just say that Emma and Josh were so patient on Christmas day since there were still lots of presents calling their name under the tree.

After church, we had a quick lunch before sending Josh off for a nap and Emma off for a rest so still no presents. Finally though, Josh woke from his nap and it was go time. They were so excited about everything but we did manage to slow them down a bit when they would get occupied with something new. Josh got lots of new trucks, some animals and some blocks. We may need to add on to the house in order to have enough storage for Josh's trucks. Emma was in Strawberry Shortcake and Barbie heaven. She also got some new stuff to take care of her babies including a pack-n-play, play mat and bouncy chair and her own electronic game system. Brad and I did pretty well ourselves and it was definitely an Arizona Wildcat Christmas for me; Bear Down!

Christmas Eve

Once again, our church had a Christmas Eve program that the children got to take part in. Unlike last year, where there was clearly some pre-planning and practice beforehand, this year's program was sort of thrown together at the last minute, which was painfully obvious. Right before we left for Arizona, I finally found out what songs Emma would need to know. Thankfully one was "Away in a Manger", which she had been singing at daycare. The other song was called "Jesus, Light of the World" and she needed to know the chorus. Whether she knew the words or not, Emma was just excited to get up in front of a crowd. Let's just say that somebody is not afraid of the spotlight.

By the time we got home from Christmas Eve service, it was about time for bed but first, Emma and Josh got some cookies and milk ready for Santa. They also had to say goodbye to Doodle our Elf who was returning to the North Pole. Emma and Josh blew Doodle kisses and then headed off to bed to sweet dreams of what Christmas Day would bring.

Christmas Treats!

Last year, Emma and I made a "gingerbread house" from a kit at Michael's but it was made out of foam board. While it might have been a little neater, where was the fun in that? This year I decided to let the kids make some gingerbread houses with all the good stuff, icing and candy! I super glued some graham crackers together the night before for our houses and the next morning let Emma and Josh go to work. I will note that they had to wait until after they ate decent breakfasts before being let loose with the candy. They both did a great job decorating and Josh especially enjoyed having a small bowl of M&M's within reach. I am fairly certain that for every M&M applied to his house, he ate at least 10. Emma has already requested a bigger house for next year.

In addition to gingerbread houses, we finally found some time two days before Christmas to make some Christmas cookies. While the past two years, Josh couldn't or didn't really participate, he was totally into decorating this year. Both kids did a fantastic job with the cookies and for the most part, every inch of the cookies were not coated with sugar.

Wordless Wednesday - Loony Tunes

Arizona - The Rest of the Story

The second day in Arizona was a little chilly as well but we spent a pretty quiet day hanging out at Great Grandma and Cap's house. Emma and Josh conned my Mom into letting them open one if not two or three presents. Emma received some card games and spent a good part of the morning playing Go Fish and War. She was totally taken with Alex, Lara's son and only wanted to play games with him. He was a completely good sport about it though. That evening we met up with some friends of mine that I hadn't seen in about five years. Since then, we had added six new kids into the mix. Emma and Josh had tons of fun playing with the other kids and Josh just loved all the toys!

On Tuesday, we finally saw the sun; hooray! We had plans to meet up with another friend of mine. Our intention was to go to a museum in downtown Mesa that has been there for literally forever. However, I somehow ended up at this new museum about a block away that was so much more fun. I think it was called the AZ Museum for Youth. They run different exhibits and at the time had a Looney Tunes exhibit. There were also multiple craft stations so Emma was in heaven. It was lots of fun and I would definitely take the kids back. After some naps, we rounded up Uncle Paul and Alex and took the kids out for a bit of a hike. Emma certainly has the makings of a trail runner as she blazed a trail ahead of us. In spite of being hampered by much shorter legs, Josh did great and only had to be carried a short distance on the way back down. That evening after dinner, we opened gifts and with the kids tearing through all the presents, the gift exchange was over in literally 10 minutes. Emma was so excited to go try on a new outfit and when she came out with one on, Josh felt like he had to do the same thing and pulled down his pants just to make sure we got the idea.

Our last morning in Arizona was perfect as well so we again gathered up Uncle Paul and Alex along with Great Grandma and headed off for another short hike. Josh was completely into hiking so he and my Mom hung back while Brad, Emma, Alex and I headed up Silly Mountain. Again, Emma took off like a shot. Unfortunately she had a little accident on the way back down since she wanted to run. I was in the middle of telling her that she needed to be careful for about the third time when she took off sprinting and went down about 2 feet later. Her upper thigh had an unfortunate encounter with a sharp rock but thankfully it wasn't her head. After making sure that she was okay and all bones were in tact, Brad carried her back down the mountain. After we returned to my Mom's she did recover enough to go run around outside for a while before we had to head back to the airport. In spite of the weather the first couple of days, we had a great trip and it is too bad that we weren't able to stay longer.

Arizona - The Getting There and Day 1!

After all the excitement of the dance recital and Libby's birthday party, the day before, we were back up and at it early Sunday to catch a plane to Arizona. Let's just say that Josh is a complete bear when he doesn't get the requisite hours of sleep but we got ourselves ready and out the door at the time I was shooting for. Upon arriving at the airport, Brad offered to drop the three of us at the front while he went and parked the car; this led to my biggest mistake, trying to take too much in along with the kids. I am guessing that it was between the curb and trying to get into the airport with a little bear who wanted to pull a suitcase that was way too heavy making him extremely frustrated and keeping on eye on Emma that I lost my phone. Of course I didn't notice the loss until we had checked our bags and were ready to head up to security. I retraced my steps, no phone, Brad went back out to the car, no phone. Needless to say, nobody was happy other than Emma at this point.

We are now maybe 45 minutes out from our flight and the security line is backed up to the escalator. My only hope was that there were many other people in line for our same flight so we would not all miss it. By the time we got through security after several melt downs by Josh, we made it to the gate 15 minutes before the flight and they were just starting to board so we still got to board with Group A. Overall, in spite of being tired, both kids did well on the flight. The worst part was when Josh accidentally stabbed himself in the eye with Emma's headband. Upon arrival in Arizona, I took Josh off to change his diaper and came back out to the great news that my phone had been found and would be waiting for me at Lost and Found when we returned. Thankfully from that point on, it was a fairly smooth trip.

After collecting our luggage, we headed to the car rental facility to get our lovely red Mitsubishi Galant. I won't be terribly saddened if I never have to drive one of those again. I think that Josh finally fell asleep about as soon as we left the car rental facility and to our surprise, Emma also slept part of the way out to Grandma and Cap's house as well. She woke up about the time we stopped to get Brad a quick burger. Emma was not going to miss out on some fries. By the time we got to my Mom's house, it was raining. I told the kids that they were witnessing a rare event. The ironic thing was that the first two days it was warmer in Arkansas than Arizona. We had a whole crew waiting for us at the new house where we had a little lunch before we took off for some naps.

That afternoon, Grandma and Cap had a few friends over for some appetizers and celebration. Emma and Josh were completely fascinated by the desert and wanted to spend as much time as possible outside checking everything out in spite of the cooler weather. Emma made sure to keep a good watch on her brother so he didn't touch the cacti. It was so great for the kids to finally be able to meet some of their family and friends of my Mom's who have heard so much about them. Other than the rain, it was a good first day in Arizona.