Christmas Time!

The boys were invited to a friend's birthday party at the skating rink the Saturday before Christmas. Tommy was so excited because Santa was there!! He hadn't sent off his letter to Santa yet, but had been working on it the day before. He was really excited to tell Santa a few items on his list! (Damon had no desire to talk to Santa).

Hannah looked so adorable in her Holiday dress. I bought it second hand and it looked cuter than I expected!

 Someone has been giving up on naps and I have no patience to waste an hour trying to get her to take one. She often gives up watching tv or picking up the boys from school.

Tommy's Christmas Wish List to Santa. He didn't have enough time to put it in the mail, so he did what I did when I was little, and put it in his shoe by the front door over night so an elf could pick it up. He was relieved when it was gone in the morning. 

 Tommy convinced his Dad to help him build this one morning. It turned out pretty cool.

2nd Grade Christmas Concert and Longwood Gardens

The 2nd Grade Music Program was in December this year. I was able to take Grandma Ro to the last practice since she was flying home before the performance. 

Then, Grandma and Grandpa Weed were able to come to the school performance since they were flying home before the Parent Performance. I thought they did their best at this one. Damon had a speaking part and played the hand bells in 2 numbers. Tommy was singing the Hanukkah song a few days later and I had the Elf rap in my head for days. It was really cute and the kids did a good job!

 

After the school performance, we checked the boys out and headed up to Longwood Gardens. My dad has memories of going there with his family around Christmas time, so he wanted to go again. Barrett was supposed to have 2-3 things that afternoon/evening, but was able to get out of them and come with us! It was pretty cold, but beautiful! We watched the fountain show to Christmas music then warmed up in the conservatory and hunted down the venus fly traps! We climbed the outdoor treehouses and saw the cute decorations. Hannah has been giving up naps so was a mess and Damon's stomach wasn't feeling great, but we still had a good time. We're excited to have an annual pass to go back and explore!

My parents flew out the next day and we sure missed them. That night was the 2nd Grade Parent and Family performance. We were excited to see that they added a Merry Christmas sign amongst all the different holidays:) It was the music teachers very last performance since she was retiring before the holidays. She was wonderful and we have enjoyed her the last few years. Hopefully the school and hire someone as great!

 

Post Baptism Fesitivities

After the baptism, we picked up Caprioti's sandwiches for lunch. Some people took a little rest until Damon convinced them all to head outside for a game of soccer. The girls stayed warm inside. Then we all ventured over to Fifer's for free cider, smores, and a hayride. Hannah fell asleep on the 2 mile drive over there, so Grandma Ro stayed in the car with her. The rest of us tried to stay warm and had fun. We were sad to have Nathan leave that night and then the next day to see all the Edwards fly home.

Damon's Baptism

Damon was baptized, Saturday, December 13th. He was lucky to have both sets of grandparents there. Uncle Quinn even made the flight out! Nathan drove up that morning too. We had good friends attend as well as our home teachers. Damon asked Grandma Weed to play the piano and his mom led the music. His Grandma Ro gave a talk on baptism and Grandpa Tom gave a talk about the Gift of the Holy Ghost. His friends and brother came up to sing Baptism and we all had a good experience. We're proud of our Damon and his desire to follow Jesus.

First Snow!

It snowed one afternoon while the kids were in school. When I picked them up, Tommy asked if he could play in it when we got home. For some reason, he was shocked when I said he could:) We pulled out the snow gear, but only Tommy and Hannah ventured outside to play. Hannah kept saying, "no-ing!" They rolled and played and loved it. Tommy worked on a snowman rolling the snowball around the backyard. You could see this path of where he started...it was pretty funny. He worked until it was dark making his snowman stand up in the front yard. Luckily it was still standing on the way to school the next morning, so he hopped out for a quick picture!

Damon's 8th Birthday!!

Damon turned 8!! He wanted orange chocolate muffins for breakfast. I took donuts to his class that afternoon. We had a fun night of opening presents and eating cake and ice cream. He wanted a San Francisco Giants cake, so I did my best. We can't believe our little Cinco is 8!!!

Newsies and Birthday

Since Barrett's parents were coming to visit, we decided to take advantage of awesome babysitters and go to a play for an early birthday present. My siblings were all planning on meeting up in San Francisco to see Newsies Broadway touring cast, but we weren't going to be able to make it. So, I looked it up and found they were going to be in Baltimore the first week in December. We splurged and bought tickets to the Saturday matinee. We drove down and found pretty good parking. Our seats were pretty good and the show was amazing. It was really fun and totally worth the cost:) On our way home, we stopped off in Annapolis to eat at PF Changs. It was delicious! Since I had my wisdom teeth out the Monday before Thanksgiving, I hadn't really been able to eat much that week and part of the next. I had been starving and ate a lot of food...but it was so yummy! We picked up a few Christmas gifts then headed home. The kids were well taken care of while we were gone. They even had baths and were asleep when we got home! Awesome.

My actual birthday was a fun day too! My in-laws were super nice and watched Hannah so I could get some Christmas shopping done and go out to eat with my friend who has the same birthday as me. We had stuffed shells for dinner and Barrett picked up a Coldstone cake for me. The kids were excited for me which makes birthdays as an adult even better:) 

Damon's Birthday Party

Damon has never wanted a birthday party with friends. Well, this year he did!! Since he was turning 8, we let him choose a big party. He chose Chuck E Cheese. We had it the Friday before his birthday (Dec. 5) and it was so fun. All the kids and dads had a great time! We had church friends and one of his school friends. He earned a lot of tickets in the ticket blaster and all his friends were super nice and gave him their hard earned tickets. He basically had a second round of birthday gifts as he picked tons of prizes! It was nice to have the party somewhere else so we could go home to a clean house and our grandparents (that arrived a few minutes before we made it home)!!