Pre Christmas fun - 2016

Ok, I'm finally catching up - so you don't have to read this - as yes, it's mid-February and I'm talking Christmas...but oh well!  That's life.  We have had a great season leading up to Christmas this year and even though I haven't kept on top of my blog...I wanted to make sure and get it all in.  I'm going back and mimicking this post from last year when I went over all the fun we had in 2015!

The week BEFORE Christmas, I took off work and took the big kids out of daycare for a fun week.  At the holidays, I'm always feeling bad for myself being a working mom and that I don't get to have this time with my kids to do things - this year though, I had a lot of vacation left over and thought I would take full advantage!!

Monday kicked off with breakfast and then we headed over to my coworker and friend's house to bring her lunch and hang with her older son and new baby, Beck.  He was adorable and the kids loved eating their Chick fil A together, while Amy and I loved catching up!!!

On Tuesday, I did the typical Kansas City Christmas holiday activity of going down to Union Station.  I was smart and asked my dad to go with us.  Even though it was 2 on 1, it is always nicer to be 2 on 2!!!  Well, the kids had a blast looking at all the fun trains and taking silly pictures with me.  UNTIL it was time to leave the train part and head over to Crown Center.

On the way out, I tried to grab the quintessential holiday picture in front of the gorgeous tree in Union Station.  And THIS is what I got. 

BAHAHAHAHAHAH.  I love it actually.

#reallife

Papa tried to calm Charlie down, but that didn't work.  Hey, at least Maddie looks adorable!

Maddie and my dad walked in the stroller over to Crown Center, but Charlie and his bad attitude had to drive with me.  Mainly because I knew by the time we'd be leaving, it would be pushing nap time and we wouldn't want to walk back over to Union Station.  That was dramatic (of course), but once we got to Fritz's (aka the train restaurant that kids love but it's like the WORST food ever - in my opinion!), they were happy because Aunt Lulu was there!  My sister works at Children's Mercy Hospital and her office is right across the street from Crown Center (same buildings that I used to work in at Hallmark!  How fun would that have been if we both would have worked there at the same time?!?).  See, they were happy!!

Especially seeing these life size lego people (Legoland is down at Crown Center too) and the fact that I got them a dirt and worms from Sheridans.

Even though I tried to make nap time work...it ended up like THIS.  Haha.  That's my dad sleeping in Maddie's bed, while Maddie is wide awake.

But I got to spend some time on my computer and watching what I wanted - which is always nice!

That same night - our matching dresses from China that were $11 came in the mail!  YES!!  I was so nervous they wouldn't get there in time for Christmas Eve and they did!!  Maddie's accessories are on point.  But she loves that dress and coloring!

The next morning looked a lot like this.  Haha.  This is Maddie, reading my company's prospectus :)  I snapped this pic and sent to my boss!

I had high hopes for our movie experience we had planned that day.  Can someone just level set all my expectations with these two?  Haha.  My parents joined us for Moana - which was Maddie's first movie.  And while she enjoyed the popcorn and refills....

She didn't quite understand the fact that you weren't supposed to talk - hahaha.  So she took her tag and grabbed some random coasters and hung out with my dad outside the theater until it was done.  We tried, right?!

One of the biggest challenges was remembering to pump before we went places!!!

But when we went to get this guy in the afternoon - all that annoying pumping is worth it!

Right?  I mean adorbs?!

By Thursday, I was POOPED.  Seriously.  I originally was planning on going to another friend's house, but after all our days filled with constant go go go, I was ready for a day at home and I know the kids were too.  So we spent Thursday putting together our fun gifts for our friends and neighbors.  Charlie was an awesome helper and they both loved delivering them to our neighbors!!

(read more about that here!)

Friday was filled with FRIENDS!  Jimmy was at home with us and we kept Mikey home too.  My best friend's from high school came over for a super fun play date with their kiddos.  Katie and James were in town from Oklahoma and Lauren, David and Landon came over from Wichita.  Oh man - it's SOOOOO fun to see all our kiddos together and how much they play.  

They danced and sang and chased each other.  Love their mommas (and dads) and these kids.  It's crazy to think how long Lauren, Katie and I have been friends and so awesome that we still are and now our kids get to play together!  For Katie and I, almost THIRTY YEARS and Lauren and I, almost 25.

After naps on Friday, we headed over to Mikey's day care lady's house (Ms Marie) for their Christmas celebration!  This is our first kid using an in home provider with and we LOVE her.  We have just been so blessed to have found her!!  She has a Christmas celebration for all the kids - AND their siblings.  She even invites recent "alumni" - how adorable.  She has 6 grown kids (around Jimmy and my age) and a ton of grandkids - so look at all the presents under her tree!!  She has a big and awesome family!!!

 One of her son's dresses up as Santa and comes to her house with huge bags of presents.  We had no idea what was going to happen, but he called each of the kids up by name and they sat on his lap and he gave them each a wrapped present.  Crazy, right?  Like even Charlie and Maddie!  They don't go there!!  Maddie was AMAZED that Santa was there in real life.  Charlie hates Santa and just wants presents.  Ha.

Mikey really liked Santa's beard.  Ha.

I was literally in shock because Santa asked the kids what they wanted before he handed them the present.  Charlie yelled "Star wars legos" from afar and got his present.  Went to open it up and that's EXACTLY WHAT IT WAS.  I had no idea how Ms Marie knew that, but the look on his face was priceless.  I'm not kidding - I will forever remember it because it even made me believe and realize how amazing the spirit of Christmas is.  And that it's not about the amount of presents, but really thinking about what that person wants and making them happy.  I am totally going to be more intentional about our gift giving next year - even to our parents and siblings.  Because the look on Charlie's face when Santa gave him that was amazing!

We had so much fun meeting other parents at Ms Marie's party and playing with all the kids and siblings - she is just the best.  Again, so happy that Mikey gets to go there everyday!

The only other thing that came and went was Tony's (our elf) last visit on Christmas Eve - I did pretty good this year (if I say so myself)!!!  I set a reminder on my phone and had a whole list of ideas already thought up.  The kids had fun and said goodbye to him.

After 5 days at home, I will say I was completely exhausted and didn't even have my third kid at home with me.  So SERIOUS props to you SAHM's out there.  You amaze me.  We did have our fair share of tantrums and fights, but I'm thankful that I took the week off with the older hooligans and made some memories around the holiday season - good and bad, but they are all wonderful memories because they will NEVER again be this age!  And each Christmas seems to get more and more fun!