Christmas: Round 2

This last weekend brought a second round of Christmas parties.  Saturday night was Jimmy's dad's extended family.  It's a pretty laid back event.  We all bring appetizers to share and play a fun gift exchange game.

 Esme had a lot of fun playing with her cousins, while Parker spent most of the evening in the basement trying to turn the ceiling fan on.  Tess was not nearly as amused.

 Playing with Hunter and Carter.

 We headed to Jimmy's parents after church on Sunday to celebrate with his immediate family.  We shared a great meal, exchanged gifts, and watched the Vikings beat the Bengals.

 Parker is finally starting to understand the concept of gifts a little bit.  We can get him to open one or two and then he moves on.  Esme was enjoying unwrapping gifts, but got distracted by what was in them.

 The hit was the ice cream cart Esme got.  She's been pushing around anything that will move, so this was a great one.  Her and Parker have been battling over it non-stop.

I have my work party this week, then real live Christmas Eve and day festivities.  Have a great week!

Mini Christmas Concert

Our nephews, Cody and Jayden had a mini concert at the local Barnes & Noble last night.  Both of them sang three songs.  Cody is in the center with the black shirt.

The kids did pretty good in the stroller watching.

There was a short break between, so we left and grabbed dinner before coming back to watch Jayden.  He is the 4th from the left with the red tie.  It was fun to get out and listen to them singing.

Esme June - Twenty Months Old

Esme is twenty months old today.  It is officially too cold for an outside picture, so one on the couch will do.  She is still in 18-24 month clothes and size 5 diapers.  There was a slight concern with her height a couple month ago.  They checked again at Parker's 6 year appointment and all is well.  Either they measured her a little wrong or she grew 1.5".  Either way, we are happy there is no more concern.  We aren't seeing as big of changes from month to month these days, but her personality is really starting to blossom.  She loves her dolls and is starting to do some pretend play.  She gets pretty upset when things don't go her way and everyone in the house (or church, or store, or anywhere) knows about it.  This is once of the many new parenting experiences we are having.  Parker was always very even keeled and wasn't affected much by environment.  

 She is being a bit more adventurous with food, but still has some pickiness.  She likes hot dogs, but wants to eat them with the bun.  Since that can be a choking hazard we chop it up first and then she will tolerate it.  We can't snack in her presence unless we are going to share.

 She loves snuggling and burrowing.  Once of her favorite places is sitting on the Nemo couch with a good book.  She is such a joy for us and all who get to spend time with her.  

Parker's Pride Award

It was a great week for Parker!  We had his 6 year well child appointment on Monday.  He is growing great and finally broke 40 lbs. (fully clothed) on the scale.  He also kept sneaking the doctor's pen, but ended up writing his name independently on the paper that protects the bed.  All of us were in shock and so proud!  We took the paper with us and it will be getting framed!

 He also won a November Pride Award at school for most improved.  He had a special luncheon today and Grandpa Buxton joined him.

 Grandpa brought Parker a nugget happy meal and got to sit at a special table in the lunch room.

 The school made a cute video of all the winners holding their awards.  I was eagerly awaiting Parker's and was pretty impressed with the photo they got.

Great job Parker, we are so proud of you!

Christmas: Round 1

We had two Christmas parties Saturday night after cookie extravaganza.  The first was our neighborhood party.  I was very excited to meet more of our new neighbors.  Almost everyone we hadn't met before said "You must be the new people in the red house."  We learned that we were the first new residents in 10 years.  It was a packed house.  I wish we could have stayed longer, but had another place to get to.

 I went solo to our annual Ugly Sweater and White Elephant Gift Party with friends from our old newly marrieds group.  It is getting harder for everyone to arrange sitters and make it out, so this may be the last year.

 There were some silly gifts this year, like a horse head and footie pajamas.

 It was a super fun night (as always.)

 I went with a full body theme this year, "Grandma got run over by a reindeer."  I painted hoof prints and glued cut-offs from our Christmas tree.  Topped off with a wig, broken glasses, a black eye and bloody gash.  Rachel and I even coordinated unintentionally since she was a reindeer.

 

I will get to wear it one more time for my work potluck next week.  Happy kickoff to the holidays!

Cookie Extravaganza 2017!

Saturday was a busy day.  It started with our 4th annual cookie extravaganza.  We were originally planning to do it on Sunday but then our church announced a bake sale, so we wanted to finish in time.  We pared down our recipes to make sure we would have enough time since there were two Christmas parties to attend that evening.

Peanut Better Ritz "Cookies" and Peanut Butter Balls

Gingerdoodles and Laurie's sugar cookies

Chocolate Chip cookies with multi-colored and regular chips.  I still haven't mastered these...

Peanut Butter Blossoms and Carmelitas

We also had a chocolate cookie and red velvet cookie that just didn't turn out well.  I think I will do better prep for next year if we want to try new recipes.

We were able to donate a ton of cookies to the bake sale and have plenty to share with friends and co-workers.