Christmas 2012

Christmas was so great this year.  roman is the perfect age.  he gets what it is about and he is in awe of all of the "magic" that comes with the season.  it was fabulous that Christmas fell on a tuesday because that meant we had a couple of days to recover after traveling up to delaware.  in years past, it has been stressful to arrive on Christmas Eve and have to rush around to do everything we want to do.  the only thing that i regret was that we didn't go to midnight mass this year.  we ended up at AI Dupont with gianna again this trip, on Christmas Eve afternoon, and hadn't gotten to bed until 1am the night before, so we wanted to be well rested  for when the kids woke up in the morning to tear into the presents that santa brought.  gianna was diagnosed with another double ear infection (that i guess never went away from before our trip), so it was good to get her on some more medicine so she could enjoy herself the rest of the time.  we missed the kids playing in the snow (it only snowed for the time we were at the hospital) and dinner with toby's family, but they were all still there waiting for us when we got home.  and our boy was SO happy that he got to play in the snow. 

macee, mimi and popo were helping ro build the "tallest lego tower ever"!

roman-lou who?  

the kids looking outside when it first started to snow

roman and mimi made this little snowman and he lived in mimi's freezer.  ro was really upset that we couldn't bring him home!

grandpa with all his great-grandchildren

 grandpa with all his grandchildren

 mimi and gianna hung out a lot on Christmas morning

 mimi's baby and grandbabies

the red power ranger, one of many costumes that roman asked for this Christmas!

our crazy kiddos on Christmas morning

i think she likes her chair.  well, she likes climbing it like it's a mountain, anyway

on Christmas afternoon, we headed down to nana's house.  it was crazy as usual.  

the whole fam

 and the crazy family gets a little crazier

 see?

 mommom and her loves

 and then out came the silly string.  again. 

 it got a little messier than usual

 do you see the floor?

the day after Christmas, we went out to brunch with grandma and grandpa.  they traveled 5 hours just to eat with us and exchange some gifts and some hugs.  

lilah and her santa hat headband.  she just kept grabbing for the fluffy white ball!

gianna playing peek-a-boo with grandpa and the wrapping paper

a nice picture of grandma, grandpa and 3 out of their 4 grandkiddos

isn't she the cutest little thing?

a picture of mommom, poppop and all of the grandkiddos

gianna was really ready to open presents, she couldn't wait for lilah to have her turn first

lilah got an owl hat.  super cute

she looks so little in her big girl chair

this must have been "the year of the chair", gianna got 3 and i think lilah got 2

roman had a blast opening his gifts.  with every one, he would open it and say "what in the world!?!"

peek-a-boo again!

these boys are nuts

roman wanted a santa suit really bad!  mommom came through

and she even had a big santa sack full of presents for him to hand out to everyone

gianna sitting in her wicker rocking chair from mommom and lilah in the wooden one from gg

roman was loving on poppop wayne

gg came over for a visit.  we were so excited to see her

gianna started walking while we up in de visiting.  it was really nice to have our whole family share that milestone with us.  she got better and better at it the longer we were there

roman loved helping poppop wayne split wood for the woodstove

gianna liked watching them out the window

roman even pushed the wheelbarrow all by himself

and then he got a lift from poppop

this was what the beginning of our trip home looked like.  we were worried about the storm that seemed to be covering all of i-95, but luckily, it quickly turned to rain and then dried up and we were home before we knew it

it didn't take long for these little ones to fade out.  so tired from all the fun they had

when we got home, poppop, kelli and aunt alex came over to bring the kids their presents.  i mean, do the presents ever stop?  

gianna is getting really good at this now

dela-where?

oh wow!  a purse!  time for poppa to hand over the credit card

all those Christmas toys and gianna ended up playing in the tupperware cabinet with aunt alex.  

Seeing Santa

on saturday night, we took our annual trip down to savannah to see santa at bass pro shops. they have a pretty sweet set-up with games and activities for the kids, so they aren't getting all fidgety standing in line. and since the line is bound to be endless, they hand out tickets to come back at a certain time. so we arrived at 5:30 and got a ticket to come back at 7:30. sweet, we'll just have a nice dinner and shop a little and head back. little did i know that roman had taken out his list for santa while we were at dinner and of course, left it on the table. this caused a meltdown, plan b for if it wasn't still on the table when we went back, and a very sad trip to the restaurant. he was awesome though and held it together when the waitress said that she hadn't seen it. we just got out a new piece of paper and tried to remember all the things he had listed before. good as new. soon, it was our turn. i knew that it was going to be a crapshoot to see if g would warm up to the big man. i mean, she is in full-on "stranger danger" mode, and it was already past her bedtime (even with a long afternoon nap, this is bad). so, here we go... 

santa is taking a peek at roman's list.  as he reads everything, roman is nodding and looking very intently at his beard. 

this is roman's santa pokerface.  it's like he is super excited, but he is trying to hide it.  i love it. 

...and then there's this.  she was not havin' it.  roman was trying to comfort her and tell her it was okay, but she knew better. there's something fishy about that man in red with all the white fur!

santa update: after roman's Christmas program at school last night, we heard a bunch of sirens.  after realizing that they weren't going away, i had a hunch of what it was.  i hurried roman downstairs and quickly threw some pajama pants on him and carried him outside.  santa was riding through our neighborhood on a fire truck!  roman was super excited to wave to santa right in front of our very own house!  when we went back inside, we noticed that shoshee (the elf) had moved!  roman said that he saw her fly outside and into santa's beard so that she could tell him how good he had been.  and then she hurried back into the house before we got back in.  crazy elf. 

Daredevil and Dancer

again, just like last time, he didn't tell anyone. but this time, it wasn't because he was afraid he would get in trouble, it was because he is too tough. i asked him if he cried...he said "no, momma, i just went like this" (scrunches his face up like he is in a little pain). we took a picture of the bruised and swollen finger and sent it to the doctor, he said yes, it is broken, bring him in tomorrow for a splint. so, two weeks in a splint. lucky for ro, he gets his cast off tomorrow and will have two free hands for present opening come Christmas Day!

our little dancer!

Best of Friends

i never thought i would be so lucky to have kids that love each other so very much. roman's patience and kindness to his sister makes me so grateful every day. he loves her with a love i've never seen. she adores him and wants to do everything he does. i truly am so blessed.

she has been coveting his morning mini muffins for a while and he always shares.  now she gets her own bag. she just puts away too many to have to share!

i love this picture.  he was "racing" and she kept looking back to see if he was still following her!

A Trip to Durham

a lifelong dream for toby, roman probably doesn't quite realize the significance of it all.  we got a rare opportunity to go and see toby's favorite college basketball team play.  against UD.  how cool is that?  of course, UD was gonna get beat, but it didn't matter, they were gonna see duke play!  in person! at cameron indoor stadium!

once we got there, roman got changed into his "uniform"

the sun was in his eyes, but the boys were ready to go!

how cool is that?

happy boy

my boys in blue

 

 roman got to meet a few of the players

andre dawkins

quinn cook

marshall plumlee (can you believe they both fit in the picture together?)

toby's all time favorite player, now a coach...wojo!

sean curry

and then, the kids got a little goofy on the way home!

this won't be the last time we do this.  it was a good time.  maybe our little man will be on the team someday!

Holiday Hi-Jinx

i told you i owed you a picture of the outside lights.  here it is.  dun duh da daaaa!  this is all i could get with my phone and a squirrely french bulldog on a leash.  it looks really good in person!  promise.  

toby is really sweet and sent me this little tree to put by my desk at work.  it came with lights and ornaments. too cute!

we decided to do a book each night instead of your typical advent calendar or Christmas countdown. there are 24 books (new and old) that are each wrapped and roman gets to choose whichever one he wants each night.  

a peek inside

this weekend we went to durham, nc for the boys to see a duke game against UD...and guess who was in the hotel room when we got there?  silly shoshee (pronounced shaw she)!

i was trying to get a good picture of the kids in front of the tree and it really wasn't working.  this picture cracked me up though. they look super happy, huh?

roman and i decorated his "virginia" house last night.  i really don't correct him when he says it that way because i think it is really cute.  he was having a hard time holding the little candies, so he would get a handful for me to put them on the roof for him.  he wanted me to bring it to his room when it was all dry, so when he woke up this morning, it was on his dresser.  he loved that and wanted to show gianna his "virginia" house.