Christmas!

Finally the day came! So much work and preparation and it turned out to be a fantastic day! We spent Christmas Eve at my parents house eating dinner, making smores, drinking hot chocolate and opening presents next to the fire pit. It was very Christmas-y. Quin spent the night at our house and helped us set up the train table and get everything else ready. I set my alarm and woke the kids up around 6:30. I was so excited I could barely wait! The kids were amazed by the trains and played with them before getting into the stockings. They loved all of their gifts and played with them all morning before going to church. Cooper was so into playing with his stuff that when we asked him if he wanted to open another present, he said "nope". It was so cute. We had a fantastic relaxing day and ended it with a yummy dinner at a family friends' house so I only ended up having to cook a few desserts. It was so nice!

The tree after "Santa" came

The kids big present. They both LOVED it.

Addison and her Wish Bear. She is still obsessed with Care Bears. This bear makes 16 bears and she still got another one after this picture. They were 2 of the 3 things she asked for.

Cool dude!

Not really sure what "Santa" was thinking when he gave them cymbals, a tambourine and other very loud instruments. Oh well, they love them!

My cute little Conductor ; )

Apparently he thinks it's a riding lawn mower. He wanted Addison to push him around on it all day.

Quin and his new laptop. Totally surprised!

Phillip and Cooper in their matching Avenger pajamas. I made them all by myself. I'm pretty proud ; )

Addison in her Care Bear jammies that I made. Love the ruffles on the bottom.

Cooper loving his new Cars pillow/book

Day at the Park

Phillip decided to take a half day yesterday so we could enjoy the 70 degree weather we've been having. We went to Pullen Park, which has finally finished being renovated after 2 years. It is amazing! We spent about 4 hours there and it flew by. It doesn't really feel like Christmas because it's been so warm but it was nice to spend some time outside. We went with some friends and the kids had a blast.

Banging on the drums

Cooper climbed this all by myself. I was impressed!

Cooper wanted in on all the fun. They loved the see saw.

Me and the kiddos on the train. Cooper LOVED the train. He kept saying "choo choo" every time it honked. It was fun to do that with them.

Cooper driving the boat

The boys...so cute

The girls...also so cute!

On the Merry Go Round

He was amazed by the train again. Saying "oooooh"

Cute Daddy moment

Don't know why, I just love this picture

Addison being chased. So fun!

They LOVED the tire swing

After the park we made snowman donuts. The kids loved making them but they loved eating them even more ; )

Christmas Outfits

Just a few pictures in their new Christmas church outfits. I have some good looking kids!! When I was getting Cooper dressed and Addison came in, Cooper said "Look...Princess". It was SO cute!

Helping Daddy

Phillip raked some of the leaves up a few days ago and Cooper just had to help. Amazingly enough, these are just the leave from the front yard, where there are barely any trees. He didn't have time to get to the backyard and they are about a foot deep back there. He's not looking forward to that!

Santa Visit

Every year at my dad's Christmas party for work, he hires a Santa for the kids. We look forward to it so much. No waiting in lines, no having to pay for pictures, the kids get as long as they want to see him and they even get a candy cane! Addison's been so excited and I've been talking it up to Cooper to get him excited about it. The first thing he did was run in and give Santa a big hug. He sat right up on his lap no problem. When Addison was this age, she completely freaked out, screamed, cried, the whole works. I was glad to see he wasn't scared. Of course he wouldn't smile for the pictures but oh well! We pretty much had a whole uninterrupted hour with him and the kids kept going back to talk to him more than a few times. When Santa asked Cooper what present he wanted him to bring him, he said "Momas" which in Cooper land means Thomas (the train). He even said "choo, choo" to get his point across. It was SO cute! He gave him another big hug and a high five and was sad to say goodbye. I'm glad it was such a success for both kids!!

New Beds

Cooper was pretty ready to get out of his crib so we needed to get him a regular twin bed. We figured that since we will eventually have a 3rd kid, Addison and Cooper will have to share a room at some point. So we decided to just get bunk beds that separate so we won't have to buy a bed for Cooper now and then buy bunk beds later. Cooper was SO excited to get his new bed. He just kept saying "Cooper's bed, my bed". Love it!

I went to my mom's house tonight and Phillip stayed home to "watch his Packers game". When I got home a few hours later, I went to put Addison to bed and I walked into her room and saw her new bed. I was shocked. I hadn't really talked to Phillip about when to put them up and was considering doing it for Christmas but he wanted to surprise me. Love that I didn't have to deal with it at all!!

I originally wasn't going to switch Addison's bed but since I already had the bed I really wanted to make more space in her room since her bed took up 3/4 of the room. I got new bedding and LOVE it. It's so nice to have so much more room to play!

Rapunzel on Ice

Ever since I saw that Disney Princesses on Ice was coming here I knew I had to buy tickets. I found a pre-sale code from a friend and bought them even before they were open to the public, I was SO excited. A few weeks later we got a postcard in the mail advertising it with a picture of Rapunzel on the front. Addison immediately started saying she wanted to go and kept the postcard on the dresser in her room. She begged to go but I wanted to surprise her with it so I told her she would have to save up her allowance money to buy the tickets. Well, she didn't save enough money (I knew she wouldn't, that's why I told her that) and she was so sad that she wasn't going to be able to go. Last night I asked her to come to the store with me and when we pulled up to the RBC Center, she was confused and said that it didn't look like the store, it looked like the place where we watch the hockey games. Then when we got out of the car I gave her her Rapunzel dress and told her where we really were. She was confused for a second and then started jumping up and down saying "thank you, thank you". I'm glad I kept it a surprise. It was so fun to see her get so excited!

She was excited to get a snow cone in a Rapunzel cup and was even more excited when I told her she gets to actually keep the cup ; )

Just a few highlights from the show...Princess and the Frog song

Cinderella and her fairy godmother and mice friends

Dancing at the ball

Cinderella and her prince ; )

And now for the main event...Addison is OBSESSED with Rapunzel and couldn't wait to see it. Sorry the pictures are so bad. It's dark and they're skating around really fast.

I know this is a terrible picture but this was the highlight for Addison. She was so amazed that they were "flying". It really was beautiful to watch and I enjoyed singing along!

"I got a dream" is Addison's favorite song from the movie. It was cute to see her singing along and enjoying it so much.

At the end, ALL of the princesses came out. She was so happy to see Ariel, Jasmine, Mulan, Belle, and Sleeping Beauty.

After the show was done and we were walking back to the car Addison just kept saying thank you and that it was the best Mommy/Addison date ever and she said "my dreams came true mom". That about melted my heart!