Christmas 2013

Christmas 2013 was a bit more low key than last year for the Saxton crew. Since my family had just traveled north a few weeks back for our late Thanksgiving celebration, we celebrated Christmas Eve and Christmas morning as a family of four. This was actually perfect. I love starting our own traditions as a family and it was nice spending our very favorite holiday together celebrating Jesus and being with one another.

I love Christmas Eve. With little kids it can be tough though. Mass is generally at 4 and anyone that has little kids knows that they don't get more cheerful and pleasant the closer you get to dinner and bedtime. Add in Christmas Eve crowds at church and you are talking two hours inside being relatively good and quiet. Before church started actually went great as the kids read, checked out the nativity about a million times, and played quietly and nicely. Once the actual service started they were getting tired and cranky. They loved the singing but didn't do as nicely during other parts of the service. Since this was also Noelle's first time being back in church with us since early September I wasn't shocked it didn't go super well but at least we got to church, heard the readings, and sang some beautiful carols with the rest of the congregation. We timed things this year to see when we could arrive in 2014 and I am hoping that a later arrival plus slightly older kids will mean a bit more relaxing and meaningful service for mom and dad.

After church we headed over to the Hollywood's to enjoy appetizers, bubbly, and good friends. The Dobucki's joined us as well and it was great to see our four little guys running around and playing together. We took some pictures, ate some yummy food (I think heavy appetizers is definitely our new Christmas Eve tradition - so yummy and works great with being at church for two hours in the late afternoon/early evening) and enjoyed some adult conversation with some of our favorite friends in Maryland. We have done Easters and Thanksgivings before with this group and hope to make the Christmas Eve tradition last with them.
 

   

 

When we got home Noelle finished her picture for Santa, set out cookies, carrots, and milk for the reindeer and Santa, said her goodbyes to Boo our elf, and both kids then got ready for bed. It was almost 9, significantly past their bedtime, so they fell asleep at super speed and mommy and daddy were ready to get the house prepared for Christmas morning.

 
Our kids are super lucky. Our tree was filled with presents before Santa came thanks to Bryan's mom, dad, and grandmother, my aunts and uncles, and Ms. Rose. Santa and mom and dad brought a few additions - Kel's big present was a train/road carpet for his room and Noelle got the shopping cart she had been wishing for. The kids also had a special surprise in their stockings - fresh beat band tickets for the whole family!

Christmas morning the kids actually slept in. Kellen slept so late that Bryan went downstairs at 7:30 to begin making us pancakes from scratch. When K finally got up, the kids and I ran downstairs to check out the tree and then to check out our stockings while daddy finished cooking. Then we all had our yummy breakfast - pancakes, sausage, and an edible arrangement Bryan's coworker has sent our family. It was yummy and gave us the energy we needed to tackle present opening, constructing, and our journey later in the day.
 

The kids opened their presents. Noelle handed everything out, Kellen loved everything he got and played with each thing he opened, and Noelle wanted all of her things open before doing any playing. This worked out fine since she had about double the gifts he had since his were larger items like duplos and hers were mostly crayons and markers of different varieties. The kids loved everything they got, and besides the rug and shopping cart, Baby Cinderella and Captain Hook, Kel's firetruck, and the vacuum are probably the current favorites.

The rest of the morning consisted of mommy and daddy doing some cleaning while the kids played with their new goodies. I then packed (the kids got new bags from Grandma Evans!) for our adventure south so that we could spend a few days with my family while Bryan worked and relaxed.

Thank you, Santa for hitting out house this year. And more importantly, thank you baby Jesus. We truly are blessed in this house. Merry Christmas to all of our friends and family!

Boo, The Saxton Elf

When I found an elf on the shelf on clearance after Christmas last year, I couldn't resist. Pinterest is full of super fun elf poses to surprise your kids each December morning. And I liked the idea of having an extra set of eyes and ears to report in to Santa about whether Noelle and Kellen were being good this Christmas season. The best laid plans didn't quite pan out, but we still had fun with our elf. Each morning, Noelle raced to find where Boo had selected for his spot for the day. Boo also left the kids a variety of notes over the holidays. I am hoping that next year once Kellen is really old enough to get in to the whole elf thing, my creative juices and energy will flow each night and our elf will be simply amazing. More likely, we'll get more of the same with Boo making a few turns around the house, but I can dream.

Here is Boo in all of his 2013 glory. He arrived on our front stoop on December 1st and was up to his tricks til the morning of the 24th. We read the book that arrived with him, named him Boo, and shared the rules - especially no touching! There were a few close calls, but thankfully Santa gave me special permission in a phone call to move Boo when he fell.  Boo also forgot to move on a few occasions but turns out he was pretty tired from some weekend festivities and since the kids had been so good he felt Santa didn't need a visit those nights. Phew!

Noelle was pretty sad to see Boo go on Christmas Eve but we reminded her that he needed to go tell Santa that it was ok to drop presents off at the Saxton's and that he would be back next year. That seemed to satisfy her and of course the excitement of Christmas morning kept her mind off of Boo's disappearance. Boo, we'll see you again in December 2014!

Noelle's First School Conferenece

Apparently we are old enough to attend school conferences. Yes, that's right. On Wednesday morning the 18th Bryan and I headed over to Noelle's school for a conference to hear about how she was doing in Pre-K. We dropped the kids off at daycare and sat down and spoke to Ms. Sharon for about 10 minutes about Noelle's readiness for elementary school. Not surprisingly, Noelle is doing really well with most things. Her vocabulary, annunciation, and verbal skills are all really excellent. Apparently though, she rarely talks to her friends and does most of her talking to the teachers. Who knew that my little outgoing child was shy in public? Well, I guess we had a small clue since she is super shy meeting new people, but I assumed after 3 mornings a week with the same kids (who she talks about constantly to and from school) she was interracting in the same way she does on playdates. Apparently not. We'll work on helping build our little one's confidence!

Noelle is also doing great with knowing her numbers, letters, letter sounds, etc. She can memorize short poems and songs, can figure out syllables, and does some basic rhyming skills. Her writing skills are vastly improved from a few months ago. She holds the pencil correctly but doesn't apply enough pressure yet so has shaky letters. We are doing a lot of practice with that and with the amount she writes and colors at home I am sure she'll be fine in a few months. She also has just started coloring in the lines for the most part so I am excited that her pictures are a lot more lovely lately!

So all in all Noelle is doing great. A little clingy with her teachers, a little quiet and shy with her friends, and needs a bit of work on her writing but well on her way to being ready for Kindergarten. She also hasn't had any bathroom emergencies at school since starting her new medication which makes me feel better about her being one of the youngest in her class this fall. I think she is going to do just fine in school. And I can't believe our baby will really be in elementary school in 8.5 months.

It's Wild Out There!

On Saturday the weather was absolutely gorgeous. Tempatures were in the high 60's which was awesome. Since Bryan had never been to the Maryland Zoo, we took advantage of the perfect December weather and headed over to Druid Hill for a morning adventure. The kids both love everything to do with animals and trains, so the combination of viewing some of their favorites and getting to ride the tram over to the exhibits made for a perfect Saturday for both of them.

We started our adventure by the prairie dogs and the kids insisted on getting their picture taken on the lion statue. This will apparently be a tradition for our family so it will be cool to see how they grow through the years!

After the tram ride, we hit the arctic area. We spotted the male polar bear sleeping and two beautiful arctic foxes laying out in the unseasonable weather.

Next up was the penguin feeding. Noelle wanted to do this last time but we didn't make it at the right time. The little penguins are adorable. Kellen was pretty excited about watching them too!

Then we stopped in the elephant viewing area for a few minutes. This was the best of the 11 pictures Bryan took of Kel and I. Sigh.

Then we checked out the giraffes, lions, and chimpanzees. The one chimpanzee got right next to the window and stared us down when I got the kids' cereal out. It made me feel kind of bad.

 

We ended the visit in the woodlands as we looked for otters (missing as always) and let Noelle check out the bats - one of her current obsessions as she has decided she is now brave enough to handle them. The kids each went down the tree slide and K had a small fit as we left that area but he was really too small for it and it was getting close to nap time and we hadn't brought lunch with us. We crossed the bridge back up to the rest of the zoo and then hopped on the tram back to the entrance.

It was a great morning at the zoo and an adventure with all 4 of us. It seems like that rarely happens in our crazy lives! Even Bryan said he was pretty impressed by the zoo's offerings and had fun - win! We'll be back in the spring or summer!

Be careful - it's wild out there! Just look at those crazy animals!

Holiday Playdates

Over the past few weeks we have participated in and hosted a number of holiday themed playdates. The first was by far the most impressive. Melissa and Kolton hosted some friends for a Polar Express viewing, dinner, and crafts. Noelle liked making the snowflakes, Kellen liked eating and the train table, and everyone enjoyed the movie. It was actually shocking how great the kids sat for the show. Even when they all got bored of sitting, they played nicely to the side so as not to interfere with others' viewing experiences. Melissa is always a fabulous host, and in addition to the activities, she had a gold ticket and bell for each kid to take home, as well as a train cookie with their initial. My kids are still talking about this playdate three weeks later - always a sure sign of a winner!

 

Later that same weekend we hosted a few families for a Frosty playdate. We had people over mid-afternoon so that just snacks were involved. Moms, dads, and kids came over to make snowmen, eat carrots, cookies, and popcorn, sip warm chocolate, and watch Frosty with us. It was a pretty low key afternoon and it is always nice to see some of the dads get to come out for an event!

Our final holiday playdate that included an activity was last Friday after naps. We had some friends over to decorate ice cream cones like Christmas trees. Vanessa hosted us for this event last year and the kids loved it so since we couldn't make her sequel we had our own. Noelle in particular carefully frosted and adorned her tree. Kellen pretty much ate each "ornament" as he picked it up and then ate the tree later. The kids had fun and everyone played really nicely afterwards despite being all dosed up on sugar!

Tomorrow is Christmas Eve! We are so excited to keep celebrating our favorite holiday with family and friends!

Chugga Chugga Choo Choo

The last few days we had several adventures with trains. On Thursday night, the whole family hit the Train Garden at one of the local fire stations. It was just one big room of trains but it was a wonderful display. The whole family really liked checking out the trains and despite the crowds, this was definitely a trip to put on your list if you are local to the area.

On Friday morning, after dropping Noelle off at school, Kellen and I journeyed down to the B&O museum in Baltimore to meet up with friends. This was our first time using our new family membership that my grandmother gave us for Christmas and we can't wait to go back with the whole family lots of times over the next 18 months. Kellen and his friend loved checking out the full-size trains, the model displays, the train tables, and the train playground. We didn't get to do the 25 minute train ride through part of Baltimore since we were limited by Noelle's pick-up at pre-K but we have lots of time for that on future trips. It was definitely a great way to spend the morning!

 

I know there will be lots of more trains in my future since my son is obsessed and my daughter loves them lots too. I think they are right, trains are pretty cool!