Santa Claus is coming to town

Last night we had our annual Christmas party with Mimi (Tan's grandma). This year we held it at the home she lives in now. We all piled into the kitchen/rec room and ate, played, sang and chased our children. It was so fun to visit with Great Mimi! She is just the sweatest and cares so much for others.

This pic got over exposed and I tried to fix it. This was all I could get. sorry.

G loving up some icecream

crazy stander!

After dinner and icecream all the kids started singing Santa Claus is Coming to Town and by the very end of the song, guess who walked right in... Santa! They went crazy and ran up, hugged and nearly pummeled him to the ground (I know one little girl might have ripped his beard off). He sat with each kidlet and handed them a surprise and they were in heaven!

 again with the staring at his beard!

G preferred the wrapping paper.

Baby H getting used to the idea. Sorry for the weird angle, as you could see there were hoards of children in my way and rightfully so.

Baby H wasn't too keen on Jolly Ol' Nick but it made for a pretty cute picture! Maybe next year.

choo choo!

So there is this guy who lives not very far from here whose house is on almost 3 acres of land and he turned pretty mugh his entire backyard in to a mini railroad world and last weekend he held an open house for anyone who wanted to come check it out. It was impressive! (...Tanner says I say that everything is impressive but it really was - and so is everything else usually, I promise!) Anywho, his attention to detail is astounding and it was fun to see! G could not take his eyes off the trains. As soon as he heard one coming, he turned and followed it until it was out of site. It was heaven for a little boy.

I love that not one kid is looking at the camera

 These are the trains that weren't even on the tracks!

What a cute smile! He is a total charmer!

G had so much fun playing with his cousins! He just loves them!

I love P taking a picture of H!

H seems unsure about this...

this is g's version of a smile lately

camping is intense

CAUTION

**picture overload next 3 posts**

Last weekend our little bitty fam headed up north an hour or so to spend sometimes with our friends at their cabin. We had so much fun!

We played games. Bags was new to us and our love affair has just begun. It's crazy addicting!

Eh hem, might I had that I won! :)

The fellas decided to campout and watch us ladies chuck these been bags like they were shotputs. We had to lower the scoring standard so that we weren't playing one round all day long.

It's ok, I'll admit it. I'm a girl and I have hardly ANY coordination.

We also played in the snow! G loved sitting on the icy mound and feeling the flakes in his fingers.

G went in for his first kiss: 

(I apologize for the blur)

It was such a fun weekend! Thanks for having us!

santa? i know him!

Last weekend we did the obligatory santa photo ritual. We went to Bass Pro Shop because we had been told that it was the best. It was indeed. Part of the store is turned into Santa's Village and there are children activities to keep them occupied and free popcorn. There also was the added bonus of being at Bass Pro Shop. Tanman had nothing to complain about. When we got there we got a pass that told us to come back an hour and a half later, so we shopped for necessities like camo lingerie (it exists... it really exists). We could not contain our laughter when we found that gem and quickly thought of any white elephant gift parties that we could bring it to. Tan and G roamed all over and played with the quads and the huge fish tank. Both boys were in heaven.

(excuse the blur)

When it was our turn to get in line it was about 45 minutes after G's bedtime so we were dreading the tears but the closer we got to the front the more hyper we tried to make him and by golly it worked! It worked! It worked! He was chill and just stared at his beard and best of all we had a not crying baby:

now if only he smiled...

(notice that he is smiling bigger on the quad than with Santa? Dad is so proud!)

best mom ever.

G got stuck in his highchair last week and I grabbed the camera instead of helping.

polar express part deux

The in-laws started a new tradition this year! Tanman's aunt holds a Polar Express party for her grandchildren and we thought we would do the same! It really is a genius idea! This gives our little fam the chance to have Christmas eve all by our lonesome without planning multiple schedules and keeping kids up like crazy... and added bonus: they get to wear their Christmas jammies all month long! We started the night with dinner and hot chocolate. After the nourishment we opened up the sleepers for the youngins and Grandpa read the book to them... or at least tried to long enough for us to snap some pictures. After the show of kids and craziness, we attempted to watch the picture show of polar express but that lasted long enough for G to find the stairs (for the first time) and decided to climb all the way up by himself.

G and baby H love eachother! (although H might be a little mad that G just stole his toy)

Erin, I think I figured out why H kept crying when we tried to take pictures... sorry! We are in the process of learning what "gentle" means.