Advent calendar

Here is how we have been counting down our days 'til Christmas...

December 1 -

Steve, our Christmas Elf, introduced himself.  He said that he would be keeping his eye on both Poppy and Sam and reporting back to Santa.  While he's here, he also plans to provide lots of fun activities to get ready for Christmas.  Today's idea was to watch "The Polar Express" before bed.  Poppy would not take her eyes off the tv screen for a second.  And Sam couldn't get enough of the popcorn...

December 2 - 

Poppy receives the first gift of Christmas!  She was awoken by a reindeer's bell resting on her bed.  She couldn't believe that it looked just like the bell the boy gets in the Polar Express.  The note in our advent calendar said that Poppy and Sam could open a large gift waiting for them under the tree.  Would you believe that it was the Polar Express train set?!  Poppy could barely believe it herself.  She couldn't wait to get to school that day so that she could tell Ty all about her new train.  And then Ty had to come over to see for himself...

(And Poppy is pretty sure that Steve, our elf, lives in the little village under our tree.)

December 3-

Aunt Jeanna gets to come home early, just in time for Christmas!!!

Poppy's piano debut

Poppy is still doing awesome with her piano lessons.  Just a few weeks ago she went from learning little songs on just one hand, to her first real song using both hands.  The first week trying to learn this song was rough.  But one day something just clicked and she figured out how to do it.  She absolutely amazes me.  Especially because I have been practicing this song just as long as she has, and I can't even come close to playing it.  

My favorite part is that she absolutely loves playing!  She loves practicing!  Almost every single time she walks by the piano, she stops to play a quick song.  And Sam is not far behind her with his love of the piano either, I'll have to post one of his videos soon...

Catch up

I have been pretty much absent from blogging lately, but all for good reason.  We had 2 really fun events that have taken up all of my spare time over the past month.  First, it was my parents 40th wedding anniversary.  My brothers and I decided to have a little surprise dinner and put together a simple photo album as a gift.  Well the photo album turned out to be pretty epic.  It was nearly impossible to do "simple" when going through 40 years of pictures.  And we only had less than 2 weeks to work on it.  So I basically used every spare second going through old pictures and scanning them, and then used iphoto to make a really cool photo book.  And then Marc took all the digital files and turned them into a movie.  And my brother found some old videos and had them make into dvd's.  It all turned out super cool and my parents were surprised to say the least.  The only picture I have of the night was this polaroid from the end of the night...

The next fun, but time consuming event was having a welcome home party for Marc's sister and boyfriend who just returned home from Iraq.  We decided it would be nice to have the house all decorated for Christmas before the party, so we have been scrambling around to get all of that done over the past week.  First it was the big tree hunting trip.  Marc won this year and I agreed to go chop a tree down.  I personally think this whole experience is over-rated and am more than happy to go pick one out from a tree lot, but I will admit that the kids had fun...

Finally, they found the perfect tree!

Timber!

My favorite part of the day was our stop at Ted's for lunch.

For the rest of the week, I diligently strung popcorn and cranberries, while Marc tinkered away in the basement playing with his new train set.  This year he decided that Poppy and Sam must have the Polar Express train set.  And that he would have to build an entire platform thingy for the train (and village) to go on under our tree.  

After many, many, many hours of decorating, I finally present to you - our tree.  I love how every single branch is dripping with ornaments, candy canes or icicles.  Because you can never have too much on a tree, can you?  And don't forget Marc's pride and joy, the train. (it's pretty darn cute how much Poppy and Sam love that train too)

With all of the decorating behind us, we were ready for Jeanna's homecoming yesterday.  We were able to meet her at the armory, which Poppy was very excited to see.  It was really neat (and emotional) to see the buses of troops being escorted by police and motorcycles and then all of the families cheering at their arrival...

(check out Poppy's welcome home sign she worked so hard on)

Aunt Jeanna is so strong!

Home, at last!

So as you can see, we've been quite busy lately.  But now that the parties are over with, we get to relax and enjoy the holiday season.  We've already started our advent calendar, which has been keeping us busy with fun little activities to get ready for Christmas.  I'm trying to take a picture of each activity, so I will be posting those soon...

Gobble, gobble!

We had an absolutely perfect Thanksgiving this year.  I have so, so much to be thankful for.  My family is definitely at the tippy top of my list.  And we are all so thankful that Marc's sister, Jeanna, arrived back in the states safely last night from her tour of duty in Iraq.  Poppy cannot wait to see her!

And here is a list we have been working on over the past few weeks...

Poppy was super into this.  Every morning at breakfast she would excitedly shout out what we should be thankful for that day.  My favorite was when Ty was over for lunch and the two of them together decided that we should be thankful for "friends".  It was so sweet.  And the fact that she wanted to put art and piano lessons up there melted my heart a little too.

So many thoughts and things to post about, but not enough time to sit and upload pics and type.  Soon.  In the meantime, here are a few pics from the past month...

Poppy on her way to school on pajama day.  She thought it was so cool that she got to wear her pj's to school.  And it was one of the first chilly mornings of the season, so overprotective Marc made her wear mittens to school which look totally ridiculous...

This little boy desperately deserves a post all his own.  So many changes he is going through.  And he is at the exact age that Poppy was at when she came home from Korea.  Crazy how different, yet alike they are...

And the absolute favorite part of my day.  No matter how exhausted either of us are, I always look forward to reading together before bedtime...

Poppy & Ty

A few weeks ago, we met up with Poppy's best buddy, Ty, and his family at the Historical Society for a cute little Halloween event they were having.  I haven't mentioned Ty in a while, which is funny because he has quickly become such a big part of Poppy's life.  The two of them are pretty much inseparable at school every day and Poppy continues to talk about him all day and all weekend when they are apart.  

Seriously, could they be any cuter together?!

They really are so adorable together.  And it's so funny that whenever someone asks Poppy if Ty is her boyfriend, she's quick to say "No, he's my best friend."  And then one day she came home from school and told us that her and Ty have decided to get married, but not until they grow up.  And then a few days later she came home and said, "Ty's dad said that we have to go to college before we get married, so that's what we're gonna do."  Seriously, sometimes I feel like she is at least 14, not 4.

Halloween

Oy, picking out halloween costumes this year was quite the chore.  I had it in my head that I wanted Poppy and Sam to have coordinating costumes - like Tinkerbell and Peter Pan (which is Poppy's all-time fave movie).  Poppy says nope.  Max & Ruby.  Nope.  We gave her all these super cute ideas.  She shot them all down.  After weeks of debate, she declared, without any further negotiations, that she would be a waitress (and Sam could be her "cooker", if he wanted).  So without further ado, here is Waitress Poppy...

She looked adorable and she absolutely loved wearing it and being able to take everyone's orders.  Sammy however, would have no part in wearing a chef's hat.  Scroll down to see his costume...

After dropping off Poppy at school, I went home to make them a spooktacular lunch...

ghost made out of a cheese stick, monster jaw (apple slices w/ slivered almonds), banana ghost, mummy dogs, ketchup for dipping and apple cider

I was sure that the "monster jaws" would freak her out, but that was her favorite part...

Sam loved it too...

And then once everyone went down for their naps, I whipped up a batch of WORMS!!!

I am the worst at food photography and the coloring in this pic is horrible.  They weren't bloody red, they looked more like browny-red, like real worms!  I brought them to our halloween party, where no one would eat them because they were so gross looking!  Not even my bug-loving nephews would touch them!

the cousins!

 Check out Louis (sitting next to Sam) he was dressed as Charlie Sheen!

Then we flew back to our house to go trick-or-treating in our 'hood...

{Waitress Poppy & Sammy the Spider!}

Marc's (and Poppy's) masterpieces.  Marc was so proud when a few families said that they go trick-or-treating at our house every year just to see our pumpkins.

And Poppy's favorite part of Halloween - passing out the candy!  She did great, even when we had massive lines of people.  We only went through 500 pieces of candy this year!!!