Merry Christmas from the Family!

Our family had a great Christmas this year. Although Charlotte and Jensen don't fully "get" the whole Santa thing, it was still fun to watch them take in all the sights, sounds, and tastes that the holiday season has to offer.

First up...Santa! Let's just say neither Charlotte nor Jensen is a fan. We had two opportunities to see Santa this year and the pic I posted last week was literally the only photo we got of both kids together with Ol' Saint Nick. If you asked Jensen if he wanted to see Santa (or if he ever found himself in the same room with Santa) he would shake his head "no" while sloooowly backing away. Charlotte found herself intrigued and would smile, point, and say "Santa!" but when it came time to sit on his lap she wanted no part of it.

We celebrated Christmas with Brian's side of the family the weekend before Christmas. The entire fam gathered at Granbury and all of us (especially the kiddos!) were entirely spoiled with gifts. I was too busy corralling C & J to take many pictures, but here are a few from the Grzych's camera:

A little cuddle time for Jensen and Papaw (aka "the baby whisperer" and the one and only person who can get Jensen to sleep at the lake!).

The Shelton girls...Charlie, Haven and Piper.

My sweet Bug was a bit overwhelmed by all the action. She stuck VERY close to me all day.

The kids had so much fun playing together, as usual, and Jensen is really loving his cousin Knox. Knox is nine months older than Jensen so of course Jensen just thinks he is too cool...at one point they zipped themselves into a large (soft) dog crate and had a blast wrestling. So much fun to have another rough-and-tumble dude around!

We spent much of Christmas Eve day and Christmas day at my parents house. My brother had to work on Christmas Eve, so my mom was feeling a bit down about not having him around at our annual dinner. I think the babies provided a bit of a distraction, though!

They "helped" my mom and I bake by licking the beaters...

They shared snacks with Jazzie and Bear...

And they did really well at our Christmas Eve dinner at La Gondola (in fact the waiter even commented that they were really well-behaved! Here's the secret: Give Jensen as much ranch dressing as he wants. He will be too busy shoving it into his mouth to misbehave.).

On Christmas morning Charlotte and Jensen were up bright and early, so we brought them downstairs to see what Santa brought. Their big gift from Santa was a Learning Tower so that they can watch me in the kitchen. They immediately climbed up into it and were not the least bit interested in coming down to open any more gifts, so they chilled in the tower while Mommy opened their gifts for them. Afterwards, we headed to my parents house where C & J were presented with their very own easy chairs:

They were very impressed with their chairs until Charlotte decided to check and see if hers was a rocking chair...when she discovered she couldn't make the chair rock, she was greatly displeased. The below pic shows Charlie flailing around mid-tantrum:

I'm so proud.

Uncle Dot and Aunt Biff arrived, and the gift-opening began.

Jensen likes to multitask, so he is eating a graham cracker while opening gifts.

After the festivities, the four of us headed home so that Charlotte and Jensen could nap while Brian and I attempted to find places for all of the kids' new loot. Once they were up, we spent the rest of the afternoon relaxing at home. I decided to make some cookies so C & J could try out their new Learning Tower.

This is pretty awesome!

So helpful. (And there's the ever-present graham cracker.)

Yeah, you might want to think twice before eating any homemade goodies from me.

Charlotte and Jensen were at an interesting age this year...not old enough to demand or even expect presents but delighted to be ripping tissue paper out of gift bags. Definitely not old enough to understand the true meaning of Christmas but that will change in the years to come. Until next year...Merry Christmas and Happy 2012!

Wordless Wednesday (Charming Charlie)

Deck the Halls

Christmas is just a few days away (actually, we've already celebrated with the Shelton side of the family) and our house is as decorated as it's going to get. Once again, we decided against putting up a Christmas tree...I just did not trust the stinkers (especially my crazy dude) to not topple it over onto themselves. But this year, our decorations are special...it's the first year we have been able to display holiday artwork made by our kids. It's enough to make me feel warm and fuzzy inside. :)

Two tissue-paper wreaths.

Two tiny handprints.

 And two stockings hung by the chimney with care.

Wordless Wednesday

iPhone Photo Dump

Lots o' pics from the iPhone...in no particular order...

I made a wreath out of book pages!

We had another playdate at the park with our twin friends...

...and Charlie was on MUCH better behavior this time!

Stacking Keurig cups is great entertainment.

I must admit, I was impressed with J's idea of turning them over for easier stacking.

I made a burlap wreath!

We discovered that C&J share my passion for queso.

Drag the hamper into the kitchen, knock it over, and stand on it? Why not?

We decorated for Christmas in the form of felt trees...the kiddos enjoy decorating with the felt ornaments.

I realized that Charlie has four pairs of leopard shoes. Yikes.

Wordless Wednesday*

*Yeah. That's a naked baby running through the kitchen. I have no excuses or explanations.

Wordless Wednesday (T-R-O-U-B-L-E)

 

Jingle Bells!

This past Saturday was Charlotte and Jensen's onstage debut at their school's Christmas program. We decked them out in their Christmas best...

Charlotte wasn't too sure about all this dressing up business.

Actually, it made her quite displeased.

...and headed to their school. After dropping them off in their classroom, Brian and I took our seats in the sanctuary. I'm not going to lie...my stomach was in knots. I was pretty sure Charlotte would take one look at the room full of people staring up at her and lose it. After what seemed like forever, out they came:

I cannot look at this without laughing. She is totally checking everyone out, looking down her nose at them in typical Charlie fashion. If you've never been judged by a toddler, you have never met my Charlotte.

Jensen didn't quite know what to make of everything.

We watched them take their places onstage and I gathered up my belongings, looked for the nearest exit, and planned my escape route after grabbing a screaming Charlotte from the stage. The music began ("Jingle Bells") and to my great surprise, little Charlie shook her little bell like it was no big deal at all.

She did, of course, stick very close to her beloved Mrs. Clark.

Jensen, on the other hand, did not get into the jingle bell spirit. He sat onstage with a downright disgruntled expression:

Bah, humbug!

To be fair, he hadn't been feeling great the past few days...maybe that's why he refused to participate in his debut performance. Oh well...it could have been much worse! Once again, my stinkers completely surprised me: I expected Charlotte to scream and Jensen to either get really into shaking the bell or run around the stage like a complete wild man. I should have known that they would throw me for yet another loop...perhaps one of these days I will learn to expect the unexpected! At any rate, I was once again so proud of my stinkers...sometimes I still can't believe these two beautiful toddlers are all mine.