Santa Visit

Chase & Grandma

Making a gingerbread ornament for the tree

My mom invited us to her library for a "Christmas Around the World" theme. It was set up very cute with crafts for the kids to do, a Christmas tree decorated for every country, a holiday puppet show, a jazz band that the boys loved, and the unexpected visit from Santa. We really lucked out, we ended up being 3rd in line to see the jolly man and I was so grateful that I had my camera. Chase was totally excited and marched right up to Santa, told him his name and said "I want a Star Wars for Christmas." Immediately after Chase, Luke went up with no hesitation and said the exact same thing. It was so cute and I was so proud of them for being brave! After that we had some punch and cookies. I think this trip will become a new tradition!

First Snow 2010

The snow fort from Grandma & Grandpa Dom

Action shot

The awesome snowfort that Allison built

There is something about the first snow of the season that is so exciting! The boys were thrilled when they saw the snow falling and couldn't wait to get out in it. Our neighbors turned their deck stairs into a pretty awesome sled hill for the kids. Luke went on it once and that was it, he was done. Chase however, absolutely loved it and was outside for probably about 5-6 hours with a few little breaks here and there. All of the kids had a great time, some of us adults got in on the fun too. Nothing like a fresh snow fall to bring out the kid in everyone. It was great!

Message from Santa

Santa Claus has heard how hard the boys have been working to behave since Santa is coming soon. He left them both a message to keep them motivated!

Chase's message:
http://www.portablenorthpole.tv/watch/c3ZfhnvaE89fm4vinOHng

Luke's message:
http://portablenorthpole.tv/watch/SjFWXuevnh6zm6OPRz_7Ew

A great day

Today I took a half day off of work and spent the morning in Chase's classroom. I've been so curious and excited to see what a 4 year-old preschool classroom does and let me tell you, they do a lot! It happened to be "J" week so I was Chase's letter J, his Jessica. He was so thrilled that I was there with him and he could show me certain things that I didn't know about his school.

His teachers are so wonderful, they make his first school experience so rewarding, I can't believe how lucky Chase is to have them. They are so down to Earth and truly funny, although the kids don't "get" much of their humor. I was so proud of Chase's behavior. He was a great listener, respectful friend and a great help at clean-up time.

I also started our Christmas sing-a-longs class with Luke tonight. Taking the class with just the 2 of us is great. He is such a musical kid, he loves all things music, including singing, playing with sticks, bells or any instrument really! He keeps telling us that he wants Santa to bring him a guitar...I tell him only if he makes the "nice" list and some days that is questionable!

Overall, it was a day with my kids, I'm so grateful for them!

Family Pictures

Although this one is really bright, I love Chase's eyes and smile, a real one!!

The sneaky grin that I know so well!

Being silly

I'm really late in posting these pictures since they were taken in October. I don't really love any of them except for the one of Chase. I'm glad that we took them but I'm not sure any of them are display pictures!

Fall stuff

The raking lasted for all of about 1 minute and then it was onto something else!

Chase really was a good "raker". Can you see his weapon sticking out

of his coat? That is our vacuum attachment that he carries in his

back pocket everywhere with him. He even took it to school

once without Blake knowing...the only parents that have to search their

son before school for vacuum attachments!

Mid jump






This is Chase's Thanksgiving Feast at school. They always sing their Sunny Days Preschool song before snack each day and today was no exception. A lot of times Chase wants us to sing it with him before we eat dinner, so cute!

Grand Bear Lodge

So excited!

On the carousel at the indoor amusement park

Luke being "brave" on the toddler water slide

The kids playing in the wave pool

The Tuesday before Thanksgiving we packed up the kids, the cousins, & my sister-in-law and headed down to Starved Rock to the Grand Bear Lodge. It was a mini-vacation for all of us. The kids had so much fun playing in the water and waves were a huge hit! Luke was pretty much done with the pool after the first night so we spent some time in the arcade and at the indoor amusement park. We might just make this event a tradition before Thanksgiving every year. The water park was virtually empty so we didn't have to fight any crowds at the pool and since it's only an hour away, we were able to make it to Blake's parents' house for Thanksgiving dinner.

Luke ended up sleeping in a big-boy bed while we were there and although he got out a lot the first night, I do think he's ready to move up to a new bed. We've been talking to him about that a lot lately so he's excited to get a new bed and start being a big boy by going on the potty...we'll see about that since he has virtually no interest at all. We're going to try over winter break with both changes, hopefully it will go well.