It's Almost Here!

Isn't Christmas time so much fun? Family, friends, giving, worshiping and the whole magic of the season - I love, love, love it! The hectic shopping, materialism and snow, uh, suck, but I've found that I can avoid them for the most part (the first two anyway).

In the past week, we've baked, decorated, visited Santa, had a Christmas gathering with friends and baked some more. So much fun! Having kids just makes it all that much better.

I've never been a "see-Santa-at-the-mall" kind of person. I actually kind of hate the mall in general and avoid it like the plague during the holidays. Taylor really wanted to go this year, so we headed out last Sunday morning.

It was as nuts as I imagined. The kids were good, but we had nearly TWO HOURS to kill before we got to see the big guy (1:15 on the wait list and 45 minutes in line). When we finally made it to the front of the line, their reactions were priceless. They loved him and I was sucked into buying the $15 photo.


In front of the tree before we left.


We've done a little baking the last few days, too. First it was sugar cookies, which was easy for everyone to participate.



Taylor's pink Christmas castle.

Some of our creations. Look at all of the icing and sprinkles on some of them! I just let the kids decorate them however they wanted.

We also made cake pops! Sugar cookie preparation is kid friendly...cake pops, not so much! Taylor wanted so badly to help, but it's a long, pretty precise process that even I flub quite a bit. The results are so cute, though!


It's okay if I can't help, Mom. I can still eat them, right?


On Wednesday night, we met up with our friends/former neighbors for the kids' gift exchange. I miss our neighbors and the kids had so much playing.

Next year, Ben's little sister (due in February) will join in on the fun!

Ben!

The kiddos...

...And their parents!

Just looked at the clock and it's officially Christmas Eve! Have a wonderful, safe and blessed Christmas!

Until next time,

Mommy Kel

Happy Birthday, Michael!

Whoa. Michael is turning 3 tomorrow. How is my little man growing up so quickly?

Michael, you are so special to your Mommy (and Daddy and Tay-Tay, too!). From the little twinkle in your eyes to the exaggerated hand motions while you talk, you win over everyone you meet. You are passionate, smart, athletic and oh so funny. Your "Pop, water, Gatorade and peanuts" routine is always a fan favorite. Like most preschoolers, you like things to be your way and can get quite upset when they're not. But, when it's just you and I on those Mommy/Michael days twice each week, you are as good as gold. I'll always cherish our days together. Thank you for completing our family and making me proud to call you my son. I love you!


Us.

We celebrated Michael's birthday on Saturday. Not only does the poor kid's birthday fall exactly nine days before Christmas, it's also in the middle of basketball and Steelers seasons. We just make the party day work as best as we can!

My brother's family, my parents, Mike's mom and husband and our dear friends Jason, Michelle and Ben joined us for the party. Nothing like pizza, homemade cake and fun with friends and family on a frigid December day.

Taylor was so sweet and set Michael up in the living room Saturday morning as we got the decorations ready. She even let him use her beloved Dora blanket!

Before the guests arrived.

Having pizza at the bar with cousins.

Big time.

Cutie Ben.


Guests.

Gpa.

Aunt Laurie, Noah, Mole.


Three of Mike's players stopped by to wish Michael happy birthday. How sweet! From left, Marty, Colt and Kasiem.

Cake time! Just like I did for Taylor's birthday, I let Michael choose what he wanted on his cake and made it myself. His requests - "footballs, shootballs, bat balls, shoccer balls and rainbow colors." I think I covered it all. Please do not report me to cake wrecks, haha.

Make a wish.

Kids playing with Gma N.

Present time, present time, open the presents, see what's inside (name that kids' show).

Crazy kid has wanted a ladybug Pillow Pet for awhile. Look how he's looking at it, haha.

He loved everything, but this Imaginext Bat Cave was definitely a crowd favorite.





Until next time,

Mommy Kel

Christmas and Snow

It went from fall to dead of winter weather here in about a week. Tomorrow's high is 20 and we have about 3" of snow on the ground right now. I'll admit, December snow is pretty, especially with Christmas decorations up.

We went with a real tree this year, the first time since Taylor was 2. It was a pain in the ass, I'm not going to lie, but I don't regret it. It's beautiful!

Picking out our tree. This was last week, before the latest Alberta freaking Clipper.

Taylor with one of her favorite ornaments.

Michael with a handful of little Sesame Street ornaments. They were on the tree for about a day. I **think** they are somewhere in his room now.

See Santa, we are sooooo good.

Our pretty tree. Well, unless you are sitting on the loveseat. Then's it kind of an annoying tree because it blocks the view of the TV a little.

Randomly placed Champy pictures:

Looking young and thin! I think Champy used this picture on his Facebook profile.

Best of friends.

Okay, back to the Christmas/winter theme. We got hit with snow all weekend. It was a little warmer yesterday and the entire family spent about two hours outside playing in the snow. I had to make both kids go in. It was the first time that Michael seemed to really enjoy it!

Yay, snow! (Side note: I dress for comfort, not style, in this kind of weather.)

Mike being nice with the kids before pelting them with snowballs.

And the snowball fight begins! We had so much fun, even when some certain Mr. Competitive threw the snowballs too hard. Ahem.

He didn't even fight wearing a hat. Definite success.


Close-range blast at the 6-year-old.

Michael, sneaking up on the Worm.

Cute picture, expect for the neighbor's satellite.

Look at Michael's face here. He was all wound up.

I love this picture!


He wanted to get back to the action.

We've had a lot of fun around here lately. Mike's team had its first game Friday. The young Hurricane lost, but stayed right with one of the biggest schools in Cincy most of the game. Pretty impressive, considering the varsity is made up of zero seniors, two juniors, four sophomores and a freshman! Before the game Friday, the whole family (sans Mike who was already at the game) took my dad to the Olive Garden for his 70th birthday. My lifelong friend, Lea, also joined us and we all had a great time. Happy Birthday, Pops!

Off to watch the end of the Steelers' game.

Until next time,

Mommy Kel

Ohio State Hoops Game

Well, I've done it again. I've waited too long between posts, now I have several things to post about. I do freelance work at night and I usually have to choose between blog or work. Boring me has chosen work too much lately.

We went to the Ohio State/Miami basketball game the day after Thanksgiving. Mike and I both know Thad (OSU's coach), so we got hooked up with great tickets - three rows behind Ohio State's bench! Since Mike's former player Quinten is now the starting point guard for Miami, most of his current team came along (and sat in the nosebleed seats). Mike ended up driving a 15-passenger van full of teenage boys. Taylor and I were the only girls!

Can you tell my kids were loving it? Taylor is not the boy crazy type, but Mike and I think she has a little crush on the boy in the black and red jacket. She would be mortified if she knew I wrote that on here!

Thad.

We all had so much fun, but Taylor really ate it up! She's a big OSU fan.

The boys.

The girls.

The Worm and the Pear in Buckeye necklaces!

Taylor loves Brutus.

We made it onto national TV! We had several people tell us they saw us on TV, so we recorded the rebroadcast. I took the picture below off our TV at home.




I have some more updating to do, so I'll see you in the next post!

Until next time,

Mommy Kel