Christmas All Day

This sweet City by the Sea is by far the most festive, holiday driven, Santa-lovin', place I have ever lived. And guess what? I am enjoying every bit of it. Tom at one point said "geez your day is like a marathon of Christmas cheer". I can't get enough. I want the girls to see it all and look back at these memories knowing I really tried to give them the best Christmas seasons while they were kids. I love this time of year!

 We started our Saturday off at the Home Depot Workshop for kids. Minus Madeline hammering her own thumb (we all knew that was going to happen), the girls seems to love it. They are looking forward to earning more pins on their aprons when they complete another project.

We then headed to Ella's school for a craft fair! And another Santa spotting. The girls decorated cookies and I bought a really neat ornament.

Not pictured: Our lunch at Mcdonald's. Always fun. After lunch, we headed to Easton's Beach. There was a whole lotta Christmas going on there. We made tons of crafts, saw Santa, had a few rides on the really old, but really fast carousel. Sam slept through it all just about. 

By this time, I started to believe Tom might have been missing us. He stayed home to read all day! I think he was happy he had a silent house for six hours. His punishment for not being able to participate in our Saturday Christmas day time extravaganza was taking us to dinner and to the tree lighting on Bowen's Wharf. However, we may have been enjoying our Scottish brews in the Irish restaurant a little too much because we missed the actual lighting of the tree. We showed up a little late, got some hot cocoa and the girls saw...yet another Santa. Their 4th one that day.

Poor girl. She was out like a light when we got home.

 Out to dinner. Still can't believe my baby sits in a high chair. 

 The tree is lit! 

 Bowen's Wharf is beautiful at night time!

 This picture is pretty self-explanatory.

 Just hanging out on a giant anchor.

 Waiting for Santa. Again. (I am pretty Santa'd out. I'm not gonna lie.)

 And he's out. Sweet, sweet Sam.

 I really need to learn how to take photos at night that aren't blurry.

Christmas in Newport...

...begins.

On Dec. 1, Newport kicked off the Christmas season with a historic tree lighting in Washington Square. Even though it was a rainy, cold night we headed to see it happen. There was caroling, cannon fires, and most importantly the giant tree lit up beautifully.

It reminded me Fort Sill's tree lighting last year. Treasured memories.

I truly love this amazing city. We are so blessed to be living here and to celebrate Christmas as a family!

Seven Month Sam

This is a little late, but Sam turned seven months on the 23rd. Ok so this is really late.

He's a total busy body and all over our house. He's crawling, climbing stairs, pulling up, cruising furniture, letting go from the coffee table to the couch. I can hardly believe it.

He loves to eat. Minus apples. He wasn't a fan of the sauce. He loves bananas...mashed or cut up little pieces. Although he hasn't quite mastered the whole picking up food thing yet, and 50% of the pieces end up on him. He's working on his talking. He started babbling "dadadada" the other day.

You can tell he really loves his sisters. Madeline makes him belly laugh daily, and his sweet face lights up when I tell him it's time to pick Ella up from the bus stop.

He is a total mama's boy and if I am in the room, he wants me and only me. Tom doesn't stand a chance.

He slept the longest he ever has before just last night. 8:30-7:15. Yes, I count every minute. I know it was a fluke, but I will take it! He's been a true bear when it comes to naps, and not the kind of hibernating, sleepy bear I want him to be. More like a roaring, angry black bear in a baby crib (can you imagine that? Exactly.) Other than that, our Sam really is an awesome baby. Completely chill. Sweet. Cuddly. A lot like a teddy bear;)

Happy 7...errr...7.5 months, Sam! Mama is crazy about you. Or just plain crazy. Both, really.

Adventures in Tree Trimming

It really is an adventure putting up any tree. But especially an enormous real tree in a tiny townhome. Tom and I were exchanging quite the plethora of curses and laughs after our friend Dylan dropped off our freshly chopped down tree. Between trying to fit it in the door, and then having it stand up straight...it was quite the job. We love this holiday though, and we love seeing how excited the girls were to have a real tree and to start decorating it that nothing could really make us that upset...

Unless you count me almost losing my mind watching the girls hang multiple ornaments on the same branch and then adding candy canes on top of that. But I just sat back and watched. And cringed.

My kid at heart hubby insists on colored lights on the tree. It's festive he says:) And the girls agree completely with him.

Just a quick snippet of our night. These girls...I just adore them.

 What? You don't use your tree skirt as a superman cape?

 This is how we kept Sam trapped for all of like 30 seconds while we decorated.

 Let the morning playtime begin by the tree. 

 I love this time of year. 

Henry is baaaaackkkkk!

Our Elf has returned. To be honest, I was really excited for his return. Typically the girl's behavior is crazy good when Henry is around. All I have to do is simply start singing "Henry the Elf is watching you, watching you, watching you. And all you do." They behave right away. It's like this magic switch. Dare I say it's been easy? Well, day two of our elf returning and that little guy is spending the night at the North Pole ER due to Madeline's little curious mind (and foot) "touching" him.

Probably our own faults for putting him in a roll of toilet paper and throwing him down the stairs only to be easily accessible to small children. But still. I figured, and hoped, my kids could hold back from that itching desire to just touch him. To test the waters and see if Henry really will lose his power. Well, he did.

Madeline: (Yelling...almost in a proud manner) Mom! I touched him!"
Me: No, you didn't.
Madeline: Yup. I touched his foot. 'Wit' my foot."
Me: Why?
Madeline: Did he lose his magic? Does he have to go to the North Pole?"
Me: Yes, he did lose his power. And yes, he won't be coming back now. Why on Earth would you touch him?"
Madeline: (shrugging her shoulders prancing off to play with Barbies not giving a rat's ass that she just crushed her sister's 'play by the rules' heart)
Me: Well, at least you were honest."

Dang. It's going to be a long couple weeks with this elf.

Poor Dad is always on the naughty list. 

 This was at 6:30 am and they had already eaten the majority of those m&ms. My kids do not mess around when candy is placed in front of them.

 He returned, with a Hello Kitty band-aid over his broken heart from being touched, hanging from a Rainbow Loom necklace. 

 Ella made him that rainbow loom around his neck and it will remain there until...??

 Henry was hungry and ate a sprinkled chocolate donut:)

I am sure you will see more of Henry's shenanigans later, but so far, he has been well behaved. 

Thanksgiving

Happy Thanksgiving! (Oh look at me! I am behind again!) We celebrated Sam's first Thanksgiving this year and let me tell you...that boy can eat some mashed potatoes! I don't think he was very happy when he lodged them into his eyeballs, but I think he was even more upset when he realized he wasn't getting anymore. He's at that stage where he cries if you take away something that he really wants. And apparently this mama can make a mean mashed tater. (Is he even allowed to have those?? Ha!)--Whatever, it kept him busy while we were all able to enjoy our turkey dinner. Just the five of us. We loved it that way. A completely relaxing day. No expectations. We stayed in our pjs watching the parade ooohhhing and awwwwing over every float (the girls LOVED the Wizard of Oz one). We had "turkey talk" aka Ella brought home from school an amazing turkey centerpiece with little conversation starters in it which included what we are grateful for. I am pretty sure everyone's response was "mom", but Tom might have heard differently.

We really are a blessed family. As busy as life is, at the end of the day I always thank God for giving me everything I could have dreamed of. Beautiful, healthy kids, a loving husband, the best parents, brothers, in-laws, friends, and community. I don't need one day of the year to be thankful. I really am always thankful. Even when I'm losing my patience with my kids or my husband I think "just stop...this is a good life. Be grateful." And I am.