We miss you Elfie

Just a few of Elfie's antics this year!  They love Elfie, especially when he gets himself into funny places.  

He also brought us a couple gifts during his stay.  He of course brought Home Alone, but also a new nutcracker for our collection!

After we had visited Santa, the kids each wrote some follow-up letters and we sent them via Elfie one night.  

 And then Claire made this very sweet card for Elfie.  I was kind of sad he had to take it home with him to the North Pole.  Hard to read, it says:
Elfie,
You are the awesome even though you ate one of our fresh made cookies.  You are the best elf on the shelf a girl could have!  I love you!

 And then on his last night here, he had a little note for us.  I'll have some pictures of the kids hugging him before they went to bed!  They were sure hoping he'd let them touch him on the last night!

HOME ALONE!!

I cannot even tell you how happy Fielder was this morning to find that Elfie had brought us the DVD of Home Alone.  He's been asking to see it for weeks, and by "asking" I mean begging, pleading, annoying, harassing, and talking about it NONSTOP.  Finally the day was here that he could watch Home Alone!

Their faces when I said to show me how surprised they were this morning:

Daddy *might* have been laughing harder than any of us!

Elfie may not have remembered some of the bad language from the movie, but we sure are happy that he thought of us today!  Thanks Elfie!

Christmas Pageant

Starring Fielder as a Wise Man!

I was so happy I could make it to Fielder's Christmas Pageant!  He was SO cute!! 

Fielder when I tell him to "smile normal" - and with his buddy Fares: 

 And here's a video...the one I really wanted to post is too big and won't work.  During his big moment, he dropped his myrrh 2 or 3 times with a loud crash.  He put the 2 pieces back together while getting a nod from his teacher that it was ok (and a few giggles from the audience.)  But this is a cute video too!

A Christmas Story

Haircut day!  It was a big chop and she's so happy that it takes so much less time to comb through the knots now :-)  

Mimi took us to see A Christmas Story - we loved our "girls day" and I'm so glad I could join them.  The musical was awesome and we really enjoyed it.  

 Autographs and photos with our favorites after the show!  Man, these kids are SO talented.

THANK YOU MIMI!!!

TLR #3

Our 3rd Tacky Light Run is in the books.  It was our coldest year yet and I'd say it was really fun for about 50% of the time.  Claire was a registered "runner" this year and we brought the old double stroller for Fielder and backup for either kid that was tired and wanted to ride.  Fielder was none too happy about NOT having a bib number so I pulled out last years' to save the day.  Now he had his very own bib and all was well.  Fielder's face in the picture below is foreshadowing for later in the night...

 It was super crowded and we barely were able to run at all.  The first part of the race was what I expected - in and out of the stroller, gloves on, gloves off, eat a candy cane, complain about not having anymore candy canes, run a minute, walk a minute, back in the stroller.....and on and on.  As the night when on and the kids got more and more cold, Fielder started to have problems.  AND since we couldn't run, it took about twice as long as I had expected and that much more time to be cold!  He started complaining about "foot cramps" which was odd given that I was the one pushing the stroller and he was riding!!  Still don't know what that was about, but the poor guy was just too cold and too tired.  A few minutes from the finish, I texted Rob "almost done, F is DONE.  please leave to pick us up now!!"  Claire was a trooper and even though her fingers were frozen solid, she had fun and did quite a bit of walking with me.  As I said on facebook, there was drama, there was complaining, there were tears, but they also had a lot of fun and both say they want to do it again next year!  (We'll see.)

Here she is warming up by the fire and hydrating with her powerade!  Fielder was carried straight up to bed and immediately fell asleep!  This run is really one of my favorite things so I hope we can figure out a way to do it next year - or once both kids are ready to run/walk the whole thing!!

Updated Big Boy Room!

Fielder's "new" room!  He was very surprised when he saw the updates Rob and I had made to his room.  He had a big smile on his face but didn't say much, just walked around checking things out.  I was really happy with how it turned out.  We still would like to paint and he needs a headboard or bedframe, but for now it's done!  And he's got the perfect spot for his beanbag chair.

Thanksgiving Weekend

Ahhh....a 4 1/2 day weekend....gone in a flash!  It went by way too fast for me, but tomorrow we are headed back to work and school and will remember a fun Thanksgiving break!  

Thursday, we had a low-key morning, I went for a run and the kids watched some of the parade. Then we headed over to spend the day with the Masons.  We lucked out with weather and were able to spend a good amount of time outside riding bikes, playing Andy's version of Jenga and throwing a football around.  Mom had a couple activities for the kids and they even played nicely with the toys - for a while at least!

Kids working on their gingerbread turkey...I see candy in Claire's mouth and I'm pretty sure Fielder sampled a few pieces too!

Both of my kids took their turns being grumpy and having meltdowns throughout the day...for example:

Mimi even had presents for the kids!  Each one got a book - Diary of a Wimpy kid for Claire and Pete the Cat for Fielder.

Our Thanksgiving feast!  Mom made a delicious dinner, all the favorites!  Thanks to all for a great Thanksgiving together!

 Friday was spent finishing up the Christmas decorations, working off some of Thanksgiving dinner at the gym, and visiting with Popa and Uncle Jake.  While I worked on the outside Christmas lights, the kids worked on Fielder's excavation kit.  Uncle Andy, Aunt Tara and Samara gave it to him for his birthday and he couldn't wait another minute to check it out.  They had to dig and really work to find the treasures inside.  Really fun!  It's now on Claire's wish list for Santa!

Saturday afternoon the kids headed back to Mimi's for a birthday sleep-over.  Fielder is really spreading out the birthday celebrations this year!  They went swimming and out to dinner at Leonardo's.  I hear he was bummed that they didn't sing happy birthday to him, but he did end up with a pretty awesome looking dessert!  And he got this soccer ball bean bag chair!
As I write this, they are now at the movie Trolls with Mimi and she'll be bringing them back very soon.  Sigh...  You know I love my kids, but a break sure is nice!!!  Fielder has his final birthday surprise when he gets home - while they were gone, Rob and I did a small "makeover" on his room!  I can't wait for him to see it!