PRETEND CITY

The day after Christmas we went to Pretend City with Tammy and her kids, Mom and Maegan. Since Geoff had the day off work he was able to come too and the kids LOVED having Daddy there! He played with them in all the areas and they had a great time with him. It also made it more relaxing for me which was nice seeing as I move a little slower these days. :) We could also each take a kid and let them do whatever they want. We took turns with the camera so we could get pictures of both.

 The Marina

They had a great time fishing...

Cali put some gas in the car...

and then drove it around.

Cali loves this car...

She showed Lily what to do...

Aedan was in heaven driving this around...

The girls spent some time at the beach...

while Aedan answered some 911 calls...

Then the girls hit the stage...

(Cali dancing)

as you can see, Lily had a blast!!

While the girls were performing, Aedan was building...

(Daddy helped)

Cali came over to build a little too...

"Look Mom! I'm taking a bath! Ha ha!"

They had some dress up clothes in the house...

Cali & Aedan playing with the controls for the lighting on the stage...

The farm...

Cali & Aedan picked some fruit...

Then they helped Daddy dig in the earth to plant/dig up potatoes and stuff...

Maegan the cowgirl...

"Mom... I'm out of gas! I need gas!"

So we went to the gas station to fill up the car...

Lots of building in the construction area...

Lily helped too...

Geoff likes to give me funny looks when I take his picture...

Aedan hit the stage with Lexi...

Cali went worked at the grocery store for a bit...

and did a little grocery shopping when she got off...

They had a little activity where the kids would dance around the circle and then go up to another kid and pass the dancing to them. Aedan did it and it was pretty cute...

passing the dance to another kid...

Cali went to the Library...

and read some books to me...

Then we went to the Art Center to do some crafts...

Lily glued some stuff... all by herself!

 Cali painted...

It was a fun day!

THE MORNING AFTER...

The morning after Christmas was spent opening all the presents and trying to figure out where the heck to put them all!! The kids were so excited to play with everything they got. Aedan set up his race track first and played with that and Cali put on some dress up clothes. She wore her Aurora dress while brushing her Aurora's hair (from Aunt Tammy) and it was so cute I took a picture.
Really the kids were too excited for pictures so I just took these and let them play.

CHRISTMAS DAY

We went over to my Mom's for a big breakfast and to open some presents. It's a very rare thing when all of us kids are together (even for holidays) and this was one of those times so Mom had us take pictures with all 6 of us together, and with her.

All 6 of us...

Curt, me, Tammy, Jennifer, Maegan & Kev

Mom & the kids...

Mom with her boys...

Mom with her girls...

Curt & Jai

(his girlfriend... hopefully sis-in-law some day??)

Cali got a little dog in a purse from her cousins (aka Jennifer)...

(she refused to put it down to open her other presents. She loves it!)

Baby Elizabeth (aka Em) got some presents too...

Cali got a Rapunzel doll which she loves!!

Aedan got this cool CARS2 wooden track set. He LOVES it!!

Grandma made all the kids blankets this year. Since Lily seemed to love hers most (she wouldn't let go of it and kept snuggling it) I figured she was the best one to show it off. The kids all got different colors.

Then we went over to my Grandma's for Christmas dinner and to exchange gifts over there. We only see our cousins from that side every other Christmas pretty much so it was so fun to see them and spend some time together! It's a shame I didn't take very many pictures over there. We did get some pictures of my Grandma with all the great-grandkids and then some of the whole family. I just have the great-grandkid ones but really... those are the best ones anyway right?

Grandma & her 6 great-grandkids!

Cali got some Fairy wings...

When their (second?) cousin Alice said goodbye she swung them around. It was so cute!! They had fun playing together!

What a fun Christmas!! 

CHRISTMAS MORNING

I was shocked when Cali woke up first and we actually had to wait for Aedan to wake up (Cali ended up taking care of that). We put the child gate up in the hallway so the kids couldn't go peek at their toys without us so when Cali woke up she was confused (she forgot Santa came). Aedan immediately was so excited and dying to see what Santa brought (so was Cali once she woke up enough and remembered). It was so fun! They loved all of their presents! Here are the highlights of our morning...

"Santa" was super excited by all of her his finds this year!! Aedan loves playing dress up with Cali but we only had girly dress up clothes (except his Superman costume from Halloween). So, when she he found a dress up box with Superhero costumes (not just superhero but his 3 FAVORITE superheros!!) it was the perfect thing!! Cali got a box of fairy costumes. Those were the main things this year but they also got some Disney books, new undies (it was seriously on their lists!), cars, fairies, and Cali lost a shoe at Grandma's (that has been found since) so she got a pair of shoes. That Santa thinks of everything! :) 

Waiting patiently and trying to sneak a peak...

So excited!! "Look! Look!"

She LOVES her princess books!!

Aedan was pretty excited too! Can you tell?

Cali loves M&M's...

Cars are the perfect stocking stuffers!!

 So are undies...

(he was seriously so excited to get these!)

Geoff has talked about the movie "The Kid" for months!! I never see it in stores so when Christmas came around I found it on Amazon and he was one excited guy to get it...

Aedan got Cali this Ariel pajama dress. He picked it out all by himself and she was ecstatic!! It was awesome!!

I got Geoff a few shirts and this is one of them. (It's from Big Bang Theory) He loves it!! He got some other stuff too but these are the favorites I think.

Mom & Dad got Aedan the jet from CARS2 and it was a hit!

I was pretty spoiled this year!! Most things I asked for were things we totally needed like a new set of pots and pans and new luggage both of which were totally biting the dust! He found some great deals on those plus a blue tooth speaker thing for iPhones/ipads (which is awesome since I love music while I clean... maybe I'll clean more now. Hmmmm), a new BluRay player (ours has been acting up... not cool!), and the one thing I didn't even ask for that he got me.... a Macbook Air!!! It's totally sweet!! I need to transfer all my info over from my old Mac but I'm already using it and love it!  Since the pans & luggage were out (from Santa to us) I just got pictures with those...

We were so blessed to have a fantastic Christmas!