Family Date Night

Here's the gingerbread house we made this year.  GG helped us out by finding sour cherry balls because the kit we usually buy was a little bit different this year and didn't have our favorite candy included like it usually does.  Luckily, GG saved the day!  The gingerbread house already no longer exists.  We were so anxious to eat it, so one day, Mommy let us "do a little damage" on it and then we kept asking to "do more damage to the gingerbread house." So we finally just got to go for it and took it all apart and ate pretty much the whole thing. :)

We got to open one present early... a present we picked out for each other (from the dollar section at Target).  I got Max a little Superman guy and he got me a baseball bat filled with bubble gum.  Max cried when he opened my present and said he didn't want it.  Oops... needs to learn a little present etiquette!  It turned out ok because now he actually really likes it and plays with it lots. 

 On Sunday we had a really fun family date night.  We went down to Crown Center to look around and played for a bit.

Then we went to Winstead's (Max and my request) for dinner and got to all share a skyscraper soda for dessert... it's basically a GIANT chocolate shake that comes in a flower vase instead of a glass!  The crazy thing is, our family actually finished the whole thing!

Yum, yum, yum!!  Afterward, we drove around looking at Christmas lights and saw the new awesome light display at Deanna Rose in their parking lot.  It was a super fun night with our family!!

Max's story

I apologize for the video quality on these, but Mommy really wanted to have record of us telling stories to be able to remember forever.  Mommy and Daddy have been telling me "scary stories" after reading books before bed since I was 2, but now that I'm 5, they are about out of new stories to tell.  So lately, Max and I have been the ones to tell the stories before bed.  We tell very similar stories. ;)

Cole's story

Jingle Bells

Fun Holiday Weekend

We had a fun weekend with holiday merry making. :)  Max and I wanted to make a big "mural" for a Polar Express party we hosted.  We had fun painting.

 Mommy and I made some holiday treats for our buddies.

 We had lot of fun at the Polar Express party.  Everyone wore their jammies and after eating pizza, we did a couple crafts.  The kids made reindeer ornaments and the moms made candles wrapped with cinnamon sticks.

 Here's my Rudolph ornament...

 And Maxy just wanted to eat candy canes.

 Daddy made a movie nest in the basement and we ate peppermint popcorn and had hot chocolate!

 The buddies

Polar Express party favors Mommy made... origami boxes with a bell in each and a little "Believe" note.

And today we visited Santa Claus!  Max was very hesitant and didn't want to sit in Santa's lap.  In fact, at first, we couldn't get him closer than 3 feet away from Santa.  We finally got him to come over closer and actually got a good pic.  I was happy to sit in Santa's lap as usual and showed him my list I had made.  (I cut pictures out of toy catalogs and glued them to paper.  But then I would find things I wanted more, so I would "cover up" old pictures and replace them with new ones.) ;)

Meeting our Newest Cousin

Last Thursday, our newest baby cousin, Jack Christopher, was born!  He and Auntie Jess are doing great!  We went to the hospital on Friday to visit him and I wanted to hold him the entire time.  I loved looking at all his tiny little features.  Max was a little afraid to hold him and get too close.  I'm sure he'll warm up soon, though.  We can't wait to see him again! 

Just Pictures

Maxy loves dressing up in costumes just as much as me.  Lots of times he wants to wear costumes to bed at night and the puppy one has been a favorite lately.  Then he likes to put all his puppies around him before he goes to sleep.

 Sometimes during naptime, Mommy will go upstairs to find most of the costumes in Max's costume bin in his closet strewed throughout his room and this particular day, he had fallen asleep in his Peter Pan costume on the floor. :)

Today was Iron Man/Gator fan...

 And then on Friday it was Wolverine to head to the movies.  We saw the new Disney movie, Frozen, and we all loved it.  It was awesome!  This was Max's first "real" movie... we had gone to a summer movie, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, but this was his first movie at the theaters besides that.

I still love costumes too!  On this day, I created a knight costume with a new bow and arrow pack and (marker) "spear"...

Lately during nap/quiet time, I've been drawing on my dry erase easel.  Here are a couple of my recent drawings.

I've been cuddling in Mommy and Daddy's bed at night since having my surgery... then Daddy moves me to my bed when he and Mommy go to bed.  Might not have been the best habit to start because now I want to fall asleep in Mommy and Daddy's bed each night.  We've never had that issue before, so we'll have to work on that!

 Mommy went to a painting class with Miss Jess and Miss Natalie last week and had a blast!