Merry Christmas!

We had a very nice relaxing Christmas this year. It was Tanner's first Christmas and he was actually old enough to enjoy it a little bit (unlike Izabel's 1st!)

On Wednesday I took the kids to the mall to finish up a few last minute gifts. While we were there I let the kids play for a little bit. Then we came home and finished wrapping and started baking.

Tanner loved that he could actually play this time!

Christmas Eve Izabel and I baked all day! Then we got dressed up and headed out to Christmas Eve service at church. It was great to see some of our friends and listen to the beautiful music. We came home and had dinner and Izabel got to open her first gift...Christmas PJs! Then she put out milk and cookies for Santa. We told her she had to go to sleep so Santa could come so she climbed in the chair beside the tree and pretended to sleep! If I thought she would sleep all night I would have left her there!

Helping Mommy bake with her new baking supplies!

Family Pic in front of the tree

"What Santa doesn't bring me Grandma will"
This was definitely the case!

Pouring milk for Santa

Leaving some yummy cookies (thanks Aunt Joyce!)
Christmas morning she ran out and started yelling
"Ho, ho, ho ate the cookies!"

The calm before the storm!

Christmas morning Tanner woke up first so we brought him in bed with us like normal. Then I hopped in the shower and Izabel was up when I got out. We all got dressed and made breakfast. Aunt Theresa and Peter came over and we all sat down to eat (we realize we won't be able to move this slowly in the years to come!) Then we finally got to presents. We started with stockings which is our tradition and then moved on to the gifts. We all got lots of great gifts! Noah got a new HP laptop (so he can stop stealing my work one) and I got a Wii, wii fit and wii resort, and some new PJs. Izabel and Tanner got tons of toys including fridge phonics and farm, a leapfrog tag jr, giant towels and bath mits, a baseball toy, puzzles, books and lots of clothes. After opening presents we got everything together and headed over to my mom's house for round two. Both kids got new ride on toys. Izabel got a tea set, lots of blocks, more puzzles and books, slippers, and so much more! Tanner got some laugh and learn and little people toys, a stackable toy set, slippers and clothes. We got some free babysitting along with some other great gifts! My siblings and our spouses all did a chinese auction for Christmas this year since money is tight for everyone. I got the Monopoly City game and Noah got $25 worth of lottery tickets (he only won $8). We had a great dinner with everyone and then headed home since we were completely exhausted. Noah and I stayed up playing games after the kids went to bed. We had a great day and we hope everyone did too!

The stockings were too full to hang!

Izabel loved her fruit snacks and new cups the most

Helping Tanner with his stocking

Tanner had no problem ripping into his gifts

Izabel showed Tanner how everything worked

Tanner and Granddaddy

Izzy with her new tea set...we've already had some tea parties

Another family picIzzy rode her "car" all over the house and the neighborhood

My family with their gifts

Our Life in Ornaments

Since we got married we started collecting Keepsake Ornaments from Hallmark every year. We always go together and pick one to represent something that was important or meant a lot to us that year (some years have more than one for obvious reasons). It's always fun to pull them out and think back so I thought I'd do that on here. I look forward to many more years of memories and ornaments!

2005

"Our First Christmas Together"
This was our first Christmas as a married couple
and also our first keepsake ornament!

2006

"Class of 2006"
I became a proud ODU grad!

"Our First Home"

This was our first Christmas in our first home together.

2007

"Baby's First Christmas"
I can't even remember her being this small!

"Special Delivery"

2008

"Dancing with Daddy"
I used to come home many afternoons to
blasting music and Izabel dancing with Noah.
She still loves to dance!

2009

"Baby's First Christmas"
Tanner's first Christmas ornament...no this
is not his picture. I'm working on it!

Double Weekend Update

Due to the craziness of the season and everything we have going on I have obviously been slacking a little bit on the blog! Below are weekend updates for the past two weeks. It's a long one but it explains why we've been so busy! Enjoy and have a Merry Christmas!!!

December 10-13

We had a great weekend with Humaira (the kid's Godmother) in town! We started our weekend with a visit to Santa on Thursday. Tanner did a great job sitting on his lap and taking a picture but Izabel didn't want to have anything to do with him. She started saying "No, No" and then when we picked her up and walked over there she started saying "Please No, Please No." Of course we didn't force her but we were sad not to get our picture!

Friday after work we headed to the Admiral's hockey game. Noah got the whole box from work so we got to sit right on the ice. We're kind of spoiled from all the times we've gotten to sit down there so we don't really like to sit anywhere else! We brought along Humaira, my friend Candace from work, her boyfriend Matt, and a handful of Noah's friends. We had a great time and the Admirals won! Afterward I went back to the house with Humaira and Noah went to his friends house to hang out for a while.


Pictures from www.norfolkadmirals.com of the game we went to

Saturday morning we got up and Humaira, Izabel and I all headed out to do some shopping. Since I had only purchased one Christmas present I had a lot of work to do! We headed to Toys R Us first and then over to Landstown Commons. We went to Carters and then had lunch at Buffalo Wild Wings. Izabel ate a whole basket of corn dog bites and fries and drank the whole cup of milk! She must be hitting a growth spurt because she is eating like crazy! If you know Izabel then you know how unusual that is! Then we went to Kohls where we did a lot of damage. Izabel fell asleep in the stroller so it was pretty easy to take our time and check a lot of people off my list. I even bought presents for Izabel right in front of her! I probably won't be able to do that next year :) After Kohls we were exhausted so we headed over to Skinny Dip for some yummy frozen yogurt and to recharge. They have 8 different flavors and TONS of toppings. Izabel has only had ice cream one other time I think so she LOVED it. I put gummy bears and a ton of fruit on some strawberry yogurt and she kept saying "More peas, more peas!" It was so cute.

Just some of the many toppings offered at The Skinny Dip!

After Skinny Dip we went home to a beautiful house! Noah and Tanner had cleaned up, vacuumed, done laundry and even put the lights on the Christmas tree! It was a great present for me :) Tanner was napping so Humaira and I started wrapping presents. When he got up we opened presents with Humaira. Both of the kids got tons of clothes. Izabel got a Snow White doll (she's getting the DVD for Christmas) and Tanner got the laugh and learn bunny. We also got a fluted cake pan from pampered chef! We laid around for a while and then went to Friday's for dinner. We planned on having game night and ordering the fight but we were exhausted so we just went to bed.

Izabel helped Daddy finish the lights
by putting the angel on top of the tree
Humaira always goes overboard with the presents
Izabel can really tear through presents now
Tanner just wanted to eat the paper!

Sunday morning we planned on finishing up some shopping while Noah played football but it was pouring by the time we were ready to head out so we decided to wait. Izabel kept saying "I ready Mommy, I ready Mommy!" She was so upset that we weren't leaving and she made sure we knew it. She threw quite the temper tantrum when I tried to put her back in regular underwear to stay home. We ordered pizza and she didn't even want that! Noah came home and Humaira and I headed back to Kohls to make some returns/exchanges and use our Kohls cash. When we got home both kids were napping and Humaira hit the road to go home. Noah and I had a nice hour together playing games before the kids got up. Izabel woke up and threw another temper tantrum! How long do the terrible twos last??? It doesn't happen often, but every once in a while she has days where we just look at her and try to figure out who's kid she is! After we got her calmed down we went out to Greenbrier mall for a few more gifts. We went to JcPenny and Sears and successfully finished most of our shopping. I have one more person to pick up a gift for! It's so exciting to be done but I'm not looking forward to all the wrapping I have to do in the next few days!

Izzy and Tanner with their drinks and blankies

December 16-21

On Wednesday of this week I stayed after school for the DECA Christmas party. After the party I had dinner with some friends and then met my mom back at school to watch the drama club's production of "A Christmas Carol." The kids did a great job and it was really nice to watch a few of my students perform.

Thursday I rushed home from work to make cookies for the Zeta Alumni meeting. I was so excited to actually be able to go this month. We did a cookie exchange and an ornament chinese auction. It was great to see some of my old Zeta friends and meet a few new ones. I'm definetly looking forward to next month!

Friday I rushed home again to make gingerbread and pigs in a blanket for the Michael's Christmas party. We look forward for this party every year. A lot of our friends from camping come and it's always nice to catch up. The kids had a great time getting lots of attention and there was lots of great food.

Tanner had a great time!
Izabel playing dolls with the older girls
Tanner and Mrs. Sherri

Saturday we worked on getting the house cleaned up. Around 2 we started getting ready to head to Hampton for my faculty Christmas party when I got a phone call that the rode to our site was flooded from the storm. We discussed options and our principal tried to find another site but eventually we decided we would have to cancel the party. After speaking with the principal and all the vendors we decided to move the party to January 29th. Even though it won't be Christmas anymore we'll still have a Christmas themed party and we'll all have a great time. I've already started receiving RSVPs and it looks like we will have more people for the January party than we would have had at the December one so everything worked out for the best! Since we didn't have to go to Hampton but my mom was already here to babysit she let us go see a movie and have dinner. We saw The Blind Side and it was fantastic. If you haven't seen it yet you should go as soon as possible! After we got home Noah's mom and stepdad (Mimi and Papa) got in from Vermont. They came over with Auntie Ann and Theresa and we all had dinner and visited for a while. It is always great to see them!

While the whole upper east coast got pounded...
this was our blizzard!

Sunday morning Izabel slept until 9:00am! We were late to church because we use her as our alarm. We haven't been in a while so she had moved to a new class. She cried when I left her which is never fun but she is going to have to get used to it since preschool is coming soon! It was a great service with great music. While I was gone with the kids Noah met Barry at Home Depot for materials to work on our deck. This was our Christmas present from them and it looks beautiful! It's not quite finished so pictures will have to wait until next weekend. Throughout the day people stopped by to visit. I managed to get the tree decorated and all the presents wrapped. We did Christmas with Noah's family and we all got amazing gifts. Izabel and Tanner got lots of toys and clothes, I got a purse full of goodies and Noah and I both got season passes to Ocean Breeze. We also of course had the deck repairs and we got a gift certificate to Home Depot to start working on our fence. Soon we'll have this place looking exactly like we want it to! After presents we all had lasagna and the Michael's family came to visit as well. We had such a great time with everyone and it was tough when it came time to say goodnight!

We have four stockings now!!!
The tree, mantle and all the presents!
Izzy and Auntie Tree
Izabel loves her new doll stroller
Papa gave Tanner a Harley hat...
he smiles every time we put it on him!

We had a little more time with Mimi and Papa on Monday. They came over to work on the deck some more and play with the kids. They stayed while Noah and I went to Strayer University to meet with admissions. Noah is officially enrolled in their BBA program and will start January 11th. He should get full benefits from the post 9/11 GI bill which will be amazing during his three years of school. Everything looks good but we're still keeping our fingers crossed that it all turns out the way they say it will. I'm so proud of him for finally doing this. I know it will be tough while we're both in school but in the end it will be such a great thing for our family! We came home and said goodbye to Mimi and Papa. They headed down to Florida to have Christmas with Gigi but they will be back next weekend! Now it's time to enjoy a few weeks at home as a family!

8 Month Pics

Tonight we went to the mall for Tanner's 8 month pics. We got a couple of Tanner and then tried to get a couple of them together but that is quite the challenge! After the pictures we took the kids down to see Santa. We've been talking about Santa for weeks now and Izabel walks around saying "Ho Ho Ho" but she still would not get on Santa's lap! Tanner had no problem sitting there while we got a couple pictures. We got dinner and did a little Christmas shopping before heading home to bed. Hope you enjoy the pictures!

8 Months (+2 days)

Tanner is now 8 months old! (Sorry I'm a little late on the monthly post!) He's getting to be so big now! He is crawling and pulling up to standing which is so fun to watch. He is saying Dada and doing a little other babbling. He is eating 2nd stage jar foods and using a sippy cup really well. He still gets 3 bottles a day but once we get on stage 3 foods we will go down to two. He loves to play but gets really frustrated when Izabel is around. She likes to take toys away from him and yell "mine!" Tanner also likes to crawl to the corner of the rug in the living room and pull up on the sides. We'll say "No Tanner" and he'll look up at us with the saddest face in the world. If he keeps up with that face I have a feeling he's going to be able to get out of a lot of trouble! He's wearing 9 month clothes and size 3 diapers. He sleep pretty well. He goes to bed at 8 like Izabel does and gets up around 7. We'll bring him in with us and he'll usually go back to sleep until 8 or 8:30 when Izabel gets up. He may wake up a couple times but all we have to do is give him a binky and he goes right back out. All you have to do is smile at him or say hi and his whole face lights up. I think he is the happiest, most laid back baby ever and I love it since Izabel is so active!

I've been working super hard lately and getting home very late so I don't have many pictures right now but I will be sure to post his 8 month pics tonight. I hope everyone is enjoying the holiday season. We are so in love with our little boy and looking forward to celebrating his first Christmas!!!