A Whirlwind called Christmas

For the past 3 days we have been celebrating Christmas with family and friends. And although I am officially exhausted, it was totally worth every second. We spent Christmas Eve down at Willow & Ryan's for a Christmas Party. Here are the girls, Natalie and Maria with another friend, Kelly. They were holed up in Maria's room most of the evening playing hair cut and who knows what else. We got to spend time with Jenn, Chris and sweet baby Katelyn. Why doesn't everyone wear a tutu at Christmas? It was so cute!

We couldn't get the girls to come out for a group photo so we got us with our babies.

And then just us. The babies were not too happy (I speak mostly of Danny) so that's why we are cracking up. Danny was just out of shot screaming bloody murder that I had put him down.

Then onto Christmas morning. Natalie was up at about 7:40 and patiently waited for Danny to wake up. She only lasted about 20 minutes and when he still wasn't awake by 8, we woke him up. He was a little uncertain about what everything was and took it all in. Natalie is not in the picture because she was already at the tree taking inventory.

A music box...

A zhu zhu pet...

A Barbie Volkswagen Beetle...

Danny liked his basketball hoop and tunnel tent...

And trucks. This boy got some trucks...

Christmas afternoon was over to Mimi & Papa's for more food and more gifts. Natalie received the entire collection of Disney Princesses.

Aunt Liz got Candy Land. Well, Austin got Candy Land, but we all know that it's going to be Liz playing it. Apparently when she was younger, she played this game over and over with all of her siblings and ironically, she never lost. Hmmm....

Greg had his hands full.

Austin enjoyed her first Christmas and was full of smiles and coos.

Uncle Marc got to spend time with Danny.
While Natalie joined the rock band in the basement. She was on vocals with Papa and Uncle Pat on guitar, Uncle Steve on drums. It was quite entertaining.

Sunday .... Today my parents came up to our house to celebrate Christmas. We watched the Ravens game and exchanged gifts and horsed around.

Danny LOVED his Little Spinners toy!

Depending on the weather, we may have one more outing tomorrow to see Grandpa Larry. Thank you to everyone for being so generous. Our living room is bursting at the seams! And to everyone that we didn't get a chance to see .... Merry Christmas! We hope you had as enjoyable holiday as we did.

Oh ... I almost forgot ... a shout-out to Willow's husband, Ryan, who said he checks the blog regularly. Hi Ryan! Thanks for reading!

On my honor...

...I will try:
To serve God and my country.
To help people at all times,
And to live by the Girl Scout Law.

It's official. Natalie became a Daisy Girl Scout last night after she recited the Girl Scout Promise in front of her leaders, family and friends.

Then it was time to celebrate!

Bring on the green cupcakes!

This is Evan. He and Natalie are in school together and his sister is a Daisy. Is that his arm around his shoulder??!!??

Everyone loves thin mints!

Congratulations to Natalie and the rest of her Daisy troop! And if anyone is looking to buy cookies, give me a call - I can hook you up!

Santa Pics

We took the kids to see Santa on Saturday. As you can see, Danny was not very excited about being placed on this strange man's lap.




This was the first year where Natalie actually went right up to Santa and had a real conversation with him. In fact, after we were done with our visit we sat down in the little food court area to have lunch when Natalie realized she forgot to tell Santa what Danny wanted. She jumped out of her chair and ran right up to him - hijacking another little girl's visit - just to let Santa know what her little brother wanted. We, of course, apologized to the other family and waited patiently til they were done and explained what happened. Santa was very nice and thanked Natalie for being such a good big sister.

I also thought it might be fun to post pictures from Christmas' past. Natalie hasn't smiled for a Santa picture since 2005 when she didn't know any better. A trip down memory lane:

2005 2006

2007

2008 (fake smile)

2009

Hopefully next year two kids and two smiles?

You might not believe this....

As many of you know, I may have been called a picky eater once or twice in my life. I'm not known as willing to try new foods, but recently Heather and I were talking about spaghetti squash at work and how it's supposed to be this great substitute for pasta. You know, less carbs, etc. I was skeptical until I was at Liz & Ray's just a few days later. It happened to be at dinner time and they were serving spaghetti squash with meat sauce. I just took a small portion - just to be polite! But it surprised me ... it did kinda taste like pasta ... just crunchy. So, we attempted to make our own tonight for dinner:

Look at the noodles. That's just crazy!

We also ate it with meat sauce and although Greg and I both agree we won't be totally replacing our regular pasta, this is a good alternative now and then to change things up. And hey, if I can eat it ... that means you can too. Yes Karen - I'm talking to you!

On a TOTALLY unrelated note, here's some cute pictures from last Sunday when we got to spend some time with Austin: