Here's to you Taylor!

Notice how Addie's hair was braided overnight, after being washed. Pretty good effect, huh? She's watching the video behind me, so you can see her mimicking Taylor Swift's moves (and Taylor uses a hairbrush as her microphone in the video too!)

Oh Lou Lou

Jeremy and Amanda brought down a delicious treat made by LouLou. Addie and Ben were instant fans and they wanted to express themselves.

Note how Addie went rogue and wanted to record herself, ala Blair Witch Project, to get the full effect.

Christmas Day

This first one is out of order, but oh well.

I look half-drunk instead of Benjamin, for a change.

Addie got a doll that "pees and poops," but I have to say it is such a disappointment. Santa even stocked up on extra "food", "juice" and diapers, but as it turns out the food isn't for that particular doll. Blah blah blah. Disappointment. I also like my guerrilla photography in the background.

Addie directing us to where all of her presents could be.

Immediately upon walking into the family room, Addie and Ben were greeted to the new parking garage. As you can see, it was a successful gift. I also like Richard's expression in the background- he was still wearing his hat and new gloves from Wendy from Christmas Eve.

Addie got the bike basket she asked for and Ben received a dvd.

Ben also received a "penguin game" which was something he was requesting out of all of the toy catalogs. Apparently any penguin game would do!

Much to my dismay Ben received his first Nerf item. It is called the Buzzsaw and Graham has one at MomMom and PopPop's house, so Santa knew how much Ben enjoys playing with it. Did you notice how Ben and Muddy's pjs seem to go together? When I saw his set at the store they reminded me to two things: 1)the boy from the movie Polar Express' pjs and Muddy's.

Addie had to give Brian big hugs over the fact that she opened a Daddy and blond-haired daughter for her dollhouse.

Guppy obliged and wore his Santa boxers with fur-trimmed legs and Santa hat. Really. We were all thrilled.

Addie (and Ben) was surprised to open a doll house.

You wouldn't know it yet, but Ben was the king of Geotrax trains this year. Below is Aunt Kim arranging them to fully lay out the best train track ever.

Pretty impressive, eh?

The adults spent more time playing with the train tracks and remote controlled trains than the kids did! Here's how Jeremy and I planned it out the day after Christmas--right through the doll house! (And yes, the house still looked like that big of a wreck the day after!)

Overall a very successful Christmas indeed. Addie and Ben received more gifts than necessary, and we'll have to give some toys away soon. I should mention that the four of us rang the bell for the Salvation Army again on Christmas Eve inside the mall from 10am-1:30pm. It's definitely a tradition we'll continue for years to come. People were generous and friendly and I like hearing people reply "Merry Christmas." I have no idea how much we collected, but our kettle was heavy and full.

Christmas Eve

Christmas Eve began with an earlier than expected arrival of Uncle Jeremy and Aunt Amanda. They even arrived before Addie and Ben were awake. So Addie and Ben were awakened by them. Look at Addie still in a daze!

Once downstairs, Addie and Ben received some pre-Christmas Eve goodies.

Then after some food preparation, cleaning up and showers, it was time for the family photos and the festivities to begin.

This next one was Addie and Ben's pose choice.

Poor Benjamin with his eyes reacting to the flash, most times he looks like he's half drunk.

I cracked up at this next one. From a distance I couldn't see Muddy peeking out, but there she is- as the growth on Kim's hip.

And finally the whole family photo. Look at my goobers, Benjamin sticking his tongue out and Addie striking a pose.

Ben posing.

Addie

Showing off their new pajamas and bathrobes, just before going to bed. You wouldn't know it by looking, but it was close to 11pm during this picture.

Cutting down our Christmas tree

For the first time as a family, we decided to go to a tree farm and cut down our own tree. We ended up going to Linvilla, which is also where we go for Halloween each year.

Here we are on the tractor ride out to the somewhere near 30,000 trees.

Once the tractor stopped, we had to have the photo op in front of the little trees growing.

Each tree Addie saw elicited this expression and "That's the one!"

They called for me to look at them and Addie had decided she found "the one." lol Note Benjamin reaching for the saw.

After we found the real one, this is how our helpers helped Brian.

And he carried the whole thing, but we acted like we were for this picture.

The four of us with our tree.

Special thanks to Muddy and Guppy for photographing the 4 of us shots!

Snacks with Santa

The Employee Activities Committee at the hospital, of which I co-chair, hosts Snacks with Santa for employees and their children. Yesterday we went and had a blast. Here's some pictures of it.

Santa is actually the most senior physician administrator in the hospital, which I think is pretty cool of him to participate. Mrs. Claus is one of the switchboard operators.

Addie was excited because I told her there would be art projects to do. Here they are making Santa door hangers. We also decorated Christmas cookies (which is the station I manned and oh my God, it was gross!) They also had a tattoo station, a sticker puzzle station, decorating stockings, and making ornaments stations.

Here they are with their big kid helpers and their final products.

Exasperation

On Tuesday night while eating dinner, Addie accidentally dropped her milk on the floor (it had a lid on it, so there was no spill). In sheer exasperation, she exclaimed:
"Well spread jelly all over me, I'm a fool!"

So now when you accidentally hit your thumb with a hammer or stub your toe or close your finger in the car door- just think of Addie and exclaim "Well spread jelly all over me, I'm a fool."

Yes, you're welcome for my sharing this with you. I know at least three people who will now adopt this as their expression of choice...I'm not naming names, but you know who you are. I apologize in advance to each of your respective spouses...

Devastation

You probably want to grab the tissues for this one:

Tonight while eating dinner, Addie and Ben were being all lovey, holding hands, etc. Addie announced to us the when she gets older she's going to marry Ben. Brian explained that people who are related can't get married. He explained that we weren't related before marriage and that's what will happen with her. I chimed in that I couldn't marry Uncle Jeremy, or Uncle Teb, but that I grew up to be good friends with them and that's what will happen to her and Benjamin. As we're talking, we watched her face slowly morph into extreme sadness and eventually full-blown tears. She was devastated that she can't marry Ben. It was so sweet and sad at the same time. Brian and I were seriously wiping away tears off of our daughter's cheeks, all the while reassuring her that she and Ben will be best friends, and they'll be able to live near each other, etc. I even tried the "you know how good friends Mommy and Aunt Gail and Mommy and Aunt Amanda are" route, trying to assure her that she will be friends with whoever Benjamin marries.

By this point Addie was clutching to Brian, sobbing into his shirt. Ben stood up, walked over Addie's back and threw his arms around her and didn't let go.

It was such a precious moment.

What we did this weekend

We had a very busy weekend. Here's what we did, in photographs, so you didn't miss a beat.

Ben made faces.

We made Sugar cookies (oh and Brian got to use his new digital camera that we bought so that occasionally there will be a photo of me with my children, versus everyone else in the pictures, while I'm behind the shutter).

This one was staged, but it's still cute.

Ben has a history of blinking during the flash, which makes his eyes look like he's high or drunk. He's neither, in case you're wondering.

I hope you get the idea of how many sprinkles they each put on their respective trays. We're talking about piles upon piles of sprinkles, with a little sugar cookie dough thrown in for good measure.

Then on Saturday morning we went to swim lessons.

Addie had to sit out for a portion, for not being a good listener to the teacher.

Then we went off to ring the bell for the Salvation Army, for four hours, in the messy snow we got. I only got one relatively good picture during the time. Both wore their reindeer antlers and blinking red noses, which went over very well.

Sunday we went to Hershey Park's Candycane Lane. It's basically all of the kiddie rides open, amongst tons of Christmas light displays with Christmas songs playing etc. This is Ben on the carousel--look in the back and you'll see Muddy and Guppy riding in the sleigh on the carousel too. Oh and we got SO many compliments on Ben's monkey hat.

Yippy!!! A good picture of Benjamin and me!! It was c-o-l-d.

Close up of the lovebirds. Doesn't Muddy look so Aspen-cute?

Just loving it.

Then they got to ride on the hot air balloon ride. Addie got lots of comments on her kitty cat hat too.

She rode around doing this the whole time. Seriously.

Brian and she rode in the space shuttle ride that went high and very fast. I think this picture really shows how much they look alike.

Overall it was an incredibly busy weekend, but totally worth it. We also went out to dinner on Saturday with my friend Jennifer for her birthday and then back to her house for cake, during which time Ben professed, "I love Jennifer."