Christmas Eve

Brandon agreed to be in our Church's Christmas Eve Pageant this year

(as long as he didn't have to say anything) 

He was a Shepard, and did a great job :)

 The Shepards had to whisper..

 Lily loved watching the Angels,

and then later in Mass decided to take all of the wipes out of the container and clean off the seats with them. 

I started to protest but then figured it was cheaper to buy more wipes then to have her scream. 

Brandon being "scared" when he saw the angels.

We had Christmas Eve Dinner at my parents, Lily playing with the nativity. 

 Brandon picked out his tie this year. 

We went home and Lily went to sleep, Brandon was getting into bed when he was visited by "Santa" outside his window and a note telling him to get to sleep. he immediately kicked us out of his room

Polar Express Party

Based on something I saw on Pintrest I decided to throw a Polar Express Party the Friday before Christmas. 

Everyone came over in their PJ's.

I baked little train bundt cakes

 We had the kids  put icing and decorate them with candy

 Then the kids made beaded necklaces with the P.E. Bell

 I made "hot chocolate" cupcakes and kenn made real hot chocolate and

they ate popcorn and watched the movie. 

 Brandon declared he was going to marry Brianna tonight...

 He and his good friend Brady.

The kids really had a blast and were pretty quiet through most of it. 

I definitely think this will be a yearly event!

Longwood Gardens Dec 2013

We had such a great time a few years back my parents decided to go with us this year 

to see the light display at Longwood Gardens. 

We figured with Lily who is so fascinated with lights it would be perfect. 

We purchased the timed tickets a good month in advance and well we apparently we chose poorly.

Lily got a double ear infection a few days before we left, we still thought it would be ok since she had antibiotics in her system for 2 days or so...

In addition the forecast was calling for snow, we thought hey its only like 3 miles from the hotel...

So we get up to the area, have lunch and then check in to the hotel and get lily a nap.

Everything is working well...

Get to the gardens and see the beautiful inside areas

(as always these pix are with my camera so not the best example)

 Lily in her snowsuit with GrandRuss

It started to snow while we were there. It was beautiful!

Then Lily fell asleep just as we finished up the inside.. We didn't want to wake her to go outside.

So we decided to run over to the restaurant and eat dinner while she slept and then it would be dark and we could see the outside lights. 

 She did sleep through dinner, then just as we were packing up to go she woke up.

And she was not happy. 

When we got outside this time the snow was coming down HARD.

I was the only one in snow boots... they were plowing but it was still a lot.

we started to walk and Lily just was not having any part of it. 

At this point Kenn and my mother couldn't take pictures outside anyway so Kenn so sweetly said he would take Lily back to the hotel and the rest of us (in my dads car) could finish up.

We walked for maybe 5 more minutes and decided it was just too snowy and should leave also.

I was able to get 1 picture in the snow. the rest was so hard the camera could only focus on the snowflakes

On the way out Brandon broke something in the gift shop and we knew the night was complete.

The snow was so bad getting home both kenn and my dad had issues getting to the hotel.

We ended getting back around the same time, put Lily to bed and then the bad snow storm turned to rain.

An hour late the roads were completely fine so we used the free babysitter to take Brandon out to see

"Frozen" at the local movies. It was really really good!

 (all the while my sweet parents were stuck with no cable at the hotel due to the weather)

Lily woke up like 2x that night in the hotel and we had one more small mishap in the parking lot involving a luggage cart and a Lexus and we then went home.  

Overall we all still had a great time even if it was exactly as we planned. There is always next year!

Wolf Lodge Dec 2013

We got to spend the first weekend in Dec at the Great Wolf Lodge 

(thanks to Aunt Gail) for my Birthday

Obligatory first picture before getting into the water

Lily LOVED the waterslide! The picture above was her with Brandon, 

but she went down a good 5-10 times on her own!

I don't have any pictures b/c that required to parents (one at the top and one at the bottom)

 They also had this FANTASTIC life-size gingerbread house! 

It was completely made out of frosting and candy. It smelled sooo good. 

 At Night Brandon got his PJs and Daddy and I took turns Running around the hotel with him while he played MagicQuest

 In the morning Lily watched was fascinated with the Wolf

 and kept watching him and watching him. 

 Finally we got to go up and meet him. i'm not sure how excited she was to be that close

 The kids also got to write letters to Santa and mail them in the big mail box.

This really is an amazing place to take the whole family and we absolutely hate to leave each time we visit.

Breakfast with Santa 2013

At the beginning of Dec we had our Breakfast with Santa.

Not a single peep from Brandon 

(he knows the way it works now, pictures, present from Santa, eat some breakfast and decorating cookies) 

This is during Lily's nap time so when I randomly handed her to some strange man,

 she clearly wasn't Ok with it

So I compromised and held her and she was fine. 

Brandon decorated his gingerbread cookie, ate some cupcakes and Lily brushed her new pet dog 

that Santa gave her. It began to snow as we ate and was a beautiful site to see when we had to leave 

November 2013

We had a pretty quiet November. Lily had her first hair cut.
I am such a good planner, lily had her 15mos appt where she got 3 shots and then right to the hair cut appointment! But hey that is the life of working parents, you gotta fit it in when you can.
She honestly did really well. she wasn't loving it and then her amazing big brother read to her so she was completely calm. Then she ran around the place trying to grab every Christmas ball decoration they had so I have no good after pictures.

Thanksgiving was at my parents house where Kenn quickly ate then ran out to the Ravens game. 

I had to work the next day so the three of us went home to bed with nothing overly exciting except for me watching the game :)