Christmas Eve 2009

Every Christmas Eve we spend with Grandpa and Grandma Long at their house.

Mason fixing Aunt Robin's leg with a saw.

Getting ready for Santa

On Christmas Eve, before going to Great Grandpa and Grandma Longs house, we got everything ready for Santa to come.

Ever since Mason came home from preschool with reindeer food, he has been waiting very impatiently to sprinkle it on the yard. He was SO excited to finally get to sprinkle it on the yard.

Then we made sugar cookies for Santa and put frosting on them.


We put out the cookies before leaving the house for the evening in case Mason and Cooper fell asleep on the way home.

Before we left the house, Mason also made sure his bedroom was REALLY clean, because when he sat with Santa last week, Santa asked Mason to keep his room clean.

What does Santa Claus say?

Watch the way he forms his mouth to say "Christmas". I watched it several times and it got funnier each time.

Santa Claus is comin' to town

Every year Jeff's fire station hitches Santa's float onto the fire truck and take Santa around the area to visit with all the good little boys and girls. On Sunday the station had a Christmas Party and towards the end Santa showed up.

Mason told Santa that he needed fire fighter pants and fire fighter boots to go with the rest of his fire fighter outfit. He also told Santa that he wanted a chain saw. Cooper was fine with Santa from a distance...
but not up close.

That night was Santa's night to visit our neighbor hood. So Mason got to see Santa again.
Mason gave Santa some food for the local food bank...
and asked Santa to read him a book about himself and his reindeer.

The Police Officer

It has been a while since the Borders Production Studio released a movie, so we figured it was about time. Enjoy!

Just remember to turn off the music first.

sNOw

Well the inevitable has happened.

We have snow.

I don't know the exact amount, but I would say we got between 3-4". Mason was so excited this morning when he woke up. Not excited to play in it, but to shovel it. Is that weird?

He couldn't help me shovel the driveway though, because he had preschool this morning, so he asked me to save some snow for him to shovel. I told him I'd save the back patio for him, which he was SO excited about.

While Mason was at preschool, Cooper and I shoveled the driveway, or should I say I shoveled and Cooper whined about being cold and wanting to go in, so he went in. He told me NOT to lock him in. I told him I wouldn't, and had a feeling that I needed to grab a key. So I did and went back out to finish. When I was done I found the door locked, and Cooper screaming inside about the door being locked.

Aww now doesn't that just bring back wonderful memories of Cooper locking me out before?

Yup.

Luckily I had a key.

Will he ever learnOur back yard.

My little man!

Can you see how excited he is about shoveling? I can. He hardy ever smiles in pictures, but he was here because of being able to shovel.

I caught him eating the snow.

Count down to Christmas

At the end of November the boys and I made two count down to Christmas chains, then the next day, Mason came home with a Santa's beard count down to Christmas from preschool. So we ended up with three. The boys have enjoyed doing each of their count downs every day, and on most days they try to to them multiple times. They refuse to throw away the chains they rip off, instead they have become an extension to Santa's beard.

"Those ones too!!!"

I know kids are fascinated with the Christmas tree and want to touch it and take an occasional ornament off, that I have preparded myself for. Cooper for some reason doesn't just want to take an occasional ornament off, he wants to take ALL the ornaments in the same color off. Yesterday I caught him with four gold balls and today with three blue balls, pointing to some blue ones towards the top saying, "those ones too!!!" What am I going to do with this kid?

The best Christmas card!

I just received this card in the mail from our mortgage company.

The front says: This year we're giving the gift of honesty.

The inside has 12 small gift tags and on the tags are these sayings:

-They tell me this is the gift that keeps on giving, so do I have to get you something next year?

-If you don't like this, I've maxed out my credit card for nothing.

-Does anyone else think that the whole concept of "Secret Santa" is creepy?

-Gifts made with your own two hands are supposed to mean more so I wrote you a check.

-Not really sure what this is. I was kind of hallucinating by the end of Black Friday.

-You do still collect those ceramic dog figurines, don't you?

-Yeah, yeah, it's a sweater. Merry Christmas.

-You're lucky, airport security prevented me from bringing my special homemade eggnog this year.

-I paid fifty bucks to have this wrapped by a grown man dressed as an elf, so don't complain.

-I was going to get you something you really wanted, but then I passed the summer sausage stand at the mall.

-You did say you wanted fruitcake, right?

-They say it's the thought that counts. Um, sorry.


I just might use these on our gifts this year, if you get one, consider yourself lucky. The alternitive is your name written on the present with a sharpie. And yes, I have done this before. Tacky I know, but hey it's the thought that counts, right?

Shiner

This morning while trying to climb into his chair, he slipped and hit his face right below his eye on the chair. Poor little fella.

ZZZZ

Mason and Zachary wanted to sleep in the same bed, I was pretty sure I was going to have to separate them, but they proved me wrong.

The Moon

O Christmas Tree!

Our day after Thanksgiving, did not start out like most peoples. We were not up at the crack of dawn getting the "best deals". We decorated our house for Christmas.

Mason and Cooper enjoyed putting window clings on a couple windows. Since Friday, Cooper has enjoyed taking them off, and putting them back on multiple times a day.

Then it was on to bigger and better things, decorating the Christmas tree. I was very curious to see how Cooper would react to the tree. Remember last year? If not here is a video from last year of Cooper when he saw the tree. If you do remember, watch the video anyway to see how small and fat (can those two things really go together?) Cooper was.

Here is how Cooper reacted to the tree this year, a much better reaction.

Watching Daddy put the tree together.Getting closerAll done. Sorry no pictures of us decorating the tree, we were all to busy decorating to take any pictures.
Aw so pretty.Our nativity
Other misc. decorationsOur nutcrackers that we won in a white elephant exchange with my family.
And last our stockings.

Thanksgiving 2009

Mason brought home this "thankful turkey", or chicken as Mason calls it, from Preschool. Every time he said "thank you" for something, or was told "thank you" he was to feed his turkey a bean. He loved keeping track of how many 'thank yous" he said or heard. We had Thanksgiving at my parents house. They had a pretty full house with just the siblings and grand kids. Mason took most of these pictures, so enjoy his photography skills.
My Dad, doesn't he look happy?
Bill and JaredMichelle and Ethan Jeffery in his stylin' new glasses.Jenny with Madeline and Me with Alaina

Cooper-SO happy to be eating!

DEALS! this month

This has been a great month for deals! Not so great having to do some extra running around, but well worth the money I saved plus having 1-3+ years worth of each of these products for the price of just a few of these at regular price is pretty nice.

Revlon eyeshadow = $1.49
Revlon mascara = $2.49
General Mills cereal = $0.61

Kleenex tissue = $0.24
Betty Crocker frosting = $0.16
Herbal Essence shampoo, conditioner, and styling products =FREE (I just had to pay the $0.20 in tax)