Christmas with a 4.5 year old!

We had quite a weekend celebrating Christmas! It started early Christmas Eve, when we all went to Matt's work to fix breakfast for his co-workers. (On his day off...what a guy!) We made blueberry pancakes, bacon & blueberry muffins. Everyone was appreciative, except for the guy who splattered blueberry juice all over his white dress shirt and tie. Oops:(

After that, we hit Kroger and it wasn't too bad. I witnessed 2 freak outs, when Kroger appeared to have run out of whip cream and butter. There were no less than 5-10 people standing perplexed at the dairy case.

Christmas Eve dinner at Ga-Ga's featured homemade lasagna, chocolate cake and stockings to open. We were all beat from cooking and cleaning & fell asleep easily and early.

A white Christmas is rare here, but we actually had a dusting and woke up to a beautiful snowy morning!

Here's Dev opening one of her first gifts. Matt found it...apparently she saw part of it in the hotel on our trip down to Florida. Talk about a steel-trap memory. It's cute...by the Wallace and Grommet folks.

As always, the simple gifts I threw in the basket as afterthoughts, were very popular. She loves this weird gooey stuff I found in a can. It's meant to make flatulent-like noises when you stick your hand in, but turns out it's like a non-messy play doh. She's messed with the stuff for hours.

The $.99 kaleidoscope!

We're busting out the Easy Bake Oven this afternoon....wish me luck:)

It's That Time of Year

Last week was memorable, for all the wrong reasons. Dev and Matt came down with the flu within 2 days of each other. The poor things had sore throats, high fevers, vomiting, major aches and pains, severe congestion and coughs, zero appetite or energy....it was a long week for everyone. By some miracle, my Mom and I avoided the worst symptoms. We both had chills, aches etc... for one day and thought we were coming down with it. (We felt better the next day)

But, it's that time of year. I knew as soon as the kids started staying in 100% of the mornings at preschool, it would get ugly. They take them out whenever possible, but ice and snow and bitter cold means indoors they stay.

It's almost Christmas...already? We realized Dev hadn't been to see Santa yet. She's always been cool with the guy in red, except for her very first Xmas at 6 months old.

(We took our own pictures at home)

At that age, she freaked out if I left the room, so it was understandable. Santa pictures aren't very high on my childhood memory priority list, so whatever works for her is fine with me.

This year, Dev chose her Santa visit outfit. I thought the Peace symbol was appropriate:) She also asked if I could straighten her hair that day. I obliged.

Here's 2008:

And, 2009:

It's all about Barbie this Christmas. I introduced Barbie to Devin with my collection from childhood. I still have my 1970's Barbie carrying case, 5 dolls, outfits, the Dallas horse and saddle etc... She loves to bathe the dolls, wash their hair and change their clothes. Most of my Barbie's clothing was handmade by my Grandma & it's incredible. She hand knitted retro sweater dresses, coats, there's fur stole and some really sweet outfits. So, it was a wake up call when I went to the Barbie aisle at Target for the 1st time. Apparently, Barbie is a hoochy-mama now. All the clothes make Barbie look like she's ready to hit the streets for a Pimps Up, Hoes Down episode.

Her "big" present this year is a doll house to Barbie's scale. (Which btw, is 1/6 in case you care) The actual "Barbie" dream house is just too much pink plastic for me. (And, I'm fairly tolerant of pink plastic)

So, I went with this wooden one:

The most important feature for the house (according to Devin) is to have a "balcony." This has 2 with porch swings!

I damn near went postal putting it together, but at least I didn't wait until Christmas Eve. (Like last year, with her bike)

I just hope Barbie likes it. Let's hope she's into Southern Colonial charm vs. pink plastic vomit.

See?

The Finished Product!

Year In Pictures New Year's Card

Make a statement with custom holiday cards at Shutterfly.

View the entire collection of cards.

There's a Bluebird On My Shoulder....

Or, at least on my bird bath!

I also caught the Matriarch of our cat clan tolerating the newbie. (Actually, she was probably trying to keep warm) We remind ourselves daily, that our lovely (grey) Samantha is 15 years old...the equivalent of late 70's in human years.

I needed a new picture to complete my Christmas card project for 2010. I placed my Shutterfly order today and I'm so excited to see our cards in person:)

Camera Shy

Happy Thanksgiving!

We had a low-key holiday thanks to a nasty cold for Matt and now, Devin. The house is filled with sniffling, sneezing, coughing, tissues, humidifiers and general sickness. My anti-bug vigilance is paying off, as I've avoided this awful cold completely....so far.

This video is from a few weeks ago, while I was mowing the lawn and raking up the last of the leaves. I told Devin she could play outside, but had to stay on the front porch. Earlier, she yelled to me that she was having a Birthday Party on the porch. I said, "Cool! Who's Birthday is it?" She replied, "It's the chair's! And, it's a Rainbow Celebration!"

I didn't know Matt was getting some video gold:)

She created this interesting costume yesterday. It's a handmade nursing shawl from my neighbor, serving as wings. The dress is a pink sparkly number I found on the clearance rack at Old Navy for $3.25. She accessorized with my shoes and a gold/rose crown.

What's in the Box?

What's in the box?

Ta Da!

Devin Taylor!

Our tree in the front is just about done dropping its' beautiful red leaves. So, we raked the biggest pile possible.

And....

We jumped!

Halloween 2010

I can't help but do a Halloween costume review for Devin. The first 3 years were animals.

The mouse costume at 6 months old.

My 18 month old kitty.

A 2.5 year old Peacock. This might be my favorite.
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Last year's clown. Our first non-animal costume. And, the last time I had any say in what she wore.

This year, Devin was a Princess....shocker.

My tennis girls dressed up for Halloween!

We dressed up the Barbie collection, too.

Then, Dev decided to dress Baxter. "In a dress."

This year, Dev took notice that parents of "older kids" stayed on the sidewalk. After a few houses, I was told to stay behind. She approached house after house with the standard greeting and consistent, "Sank You" for the candy.

She was so tired...she tripped and fell twice during trick-or-treating and hurt herself throughout the day with various scrapes and bruises. But, we made it through:)

The Rest of the Trip

It's so good to be home. We decided to drive all the way...leaving Orlando at 8:00 am, pulling in our driveway at 10:13 pm. Not bad. Dev slept the last 3 hours, thankfully. Actually, she was a very patient traveler & fairly flexible for a 4.5 year old.

I told her these glasses were very, "Jacki O." Then, I had to explain who she was and why we would want to be like her:) At least I finally found a pair she will keep on.

She finished this drink at Planet Hollywood. And, ate a big dinner. We walked a lot that day!

The actual dress worn by Judy Garland in Wizard of Oz. Devin asked if we could buy it!

We got to the Beauty and the Beast show 15 minutes early, as suggested by a friend. Our seats were perfect and the show was very cute. It was like B&B redux. The big 3 songs and all the favorite characters.

No one fights like Gaston!

We found Tigger out and about shopping for sunglasses.

Papa, Don and Dev just before we went to Hollywood Studios.

Ray spent some time teaching the Dev the basics of Crazy 8's.

Grandma got herself and Devin matching Splash Mountain shirts, since it was their favorite ride. Dev went on it a total of 3 times...we even made a special trip back just for that ride.

One of the best things about the trip, was Devin swimming. I guess something clicked.

The zero-entry pool helped Dev get a better sense of balance and control in the water. Within the 1st day, she was going under more and more. (and for longer)

By the end of the week, she was very close to swimming underwater. We were so proud and amazed. She worked hard all summer, with lots (and lots) of water up her nose. She never gave up, though!