Christmas Outings

 In early December, Santa Claus was visiting our church.  We stopped by and the kids were ecstatic!

 Pippi was not ecstatic!  I assumed we would see Santa another time or two before Christmas in a more proper background and attire.  Laney had peed on her pants while going to bathroom before we left, her shoes are on the wrong feet and Piper had a blowout diaper all over her cute tights.  Oh well.

Another night we all got in the car after dinner and headed up the street to Deanna Rose.  The whole month of December, they have a light show that you can watch from the parking lot.  It's synched up to a local radio station.

 We were sure the kids would LOVE this 20 minutes of music and lights.  Ha!  That lasted about 7 minutes.  Cooper was bored, Laney was pulling every paper out of console, Piper was licking the window and the girls just crawled all over us.  So...we did have fun but we didn't go back for another visit during the season ;).

Another night we headed down to Union Station for a Christmas train exhibit.

 Even though we had made reservations, we had to stand in line for a bit.  This boy was the only one willing to take a picture for me.

She had spotted Santa and Mrs Claus!

 We got up there and Cooper froze and wouldn't sit on their laps...who knows why?  2 minutes later he wanted to go sit with them...go figure.  Of course, Laney asked for a trash can!

 Ready to check out the Christmas train cars.

 Each train car was decorated to the MAX!  It was pretty incredible!

Laney loved the Barbies!

 Love these two!

A very cold! but fun little outing!

More Pre-Christmas Fun

At this point I might be caught up on Christmas blogging by Easter ;)

December was busy and so fun, the typical, right?

 We crafted these cute reindeers.  I love that Laney wanted to accessorize hers.

 Movie Date with Coop!  Cami and Cash invited us to go see Annie with them, we loved it!

 He wanted his picture taken in front of "this city."

 Some of our favorite people and first friends in Texas were back in KC to visit.  We were over the moon excited to see them again!!!!

 The kids wrote letters to Santa and he wrote back!!!

 Every.single.stinkin'.meal the kids argue over whose turn it is to sit in the favorite seat.  Seriously.  And we don't even know why it's the favorite, nothing special about it.  So, Nineey solved our problem for a day ;).

 The Jones' grandgirls (minus dancing Ava-Grace).  

 The photobooth fun continued after the bday party.  

 His Christmas present to us from school was coasters stenciled from the Nativity scene.

 This was some night in December...really late.  The kids were so excited to wake up and see it the next morning...just an inch or two.  

 Nothing sparks fun like a giant cardboard box to color!

 Coop's teacher sent home a packet of activities to work on over break.  Cooper finished it all on the day he brought it home.

She brought these home from her party at school...quite the cookie decorator.

Piper's Winter Onederland

For the record, I had intended to publish this post last night.  I was uploading pics around 11.  They were taking for.ev.er. (still just working on desktop...yet to deal with laptop issues).  I went to check on kids and was greeted with the worst smell when I entered Pippi's room.  Poor girl had thrown up all over her crib and basically rolled around in it.  :(  Thank goodness Adam was in town because this was a 2 person job!  Got her up and while undressing her realized she had poop all the way up her chest.  So, her and Adam were in the shower at 11:15 last night.  Good news...she was happy as could be thru the whole process. She loves the shower, even in the middle of the night!  While they showered, I changed sheets, disinfected crib mattress, and threw away those jammies!  Needless to say I didn't make it back to computer to finish up post!

Not sure why it turned out blurry.  This is post shower, she was all smiles!  Luckily it seems to be a one and done thing.  She's been really cuddly and sleeping a lot but other than that she is her normal happy self!

We celebrated Piper's first birthday with lots of family and friends.

I found her invites on Etsy and loved them!  Invites are my favorite part of party planning!

 Earlier in the day we attempted to get some pics in her party outfit before the chaos ensued.  This is the sequence of her refusing to keep bow in her hair...

No bow but still just as sweet!  Also got her shirt on Easy.  Tutu was from Laney's first birthday outfit from my Grandma and leggings were hand me downs.

 There were a lot of family and friends in our house!  Thanks to Maggie for taking my camera most of the night so it was one less thing for me to think about - you did awesome Mags, thanks!

 Aww, Baby Brody!

 The menu was chili and hot dogs which I thought was going to be a great idea for a December birthday party.  I also made homemade hot chocolate with toppings.  Then it was almost 60 degrees that day and people were sweating and hardly hot chocolate was gone.  Go figure.

 We put together a little photo booth area that was BYOC (bring your own camera).  If you are reading this and you have pics of your kids doing this, send them to me!

 Henry didn't want a costume...who can blame him, look at those 3!

 My friends got Pippi a shopping cart.  It was a total hit at the party and continues to be!  If you are wondering, you can find it at Pottery Barn Kids.

 I have said it before, our kids are so lucky to have 2 active and super loving great grandmas!  We were so happy GiGi made the trip in and stayed with us.

 My sister made her adorable smash cake.

 Just like the cupcake on her actual birthday, she didn't have much interest, no matter how much the kids tried.

 My baby is one, waaaahhhhh!!!!!!!!!

 This is us calling the big kids up to take a family picture.  Yeah, that wasn't happening...too busy with their cousins and friends.

 I told you it was hot, Brody was stripped down to his diaper!

 And then my sweet winter onederland party got turned up a notch when Adam turned on the music for the kids.  And not the Frozen soundtrack...Nicki Minaj, Pitbull, Taylor Swift...you know, typical 1 year old birthday party music ;).  I must upload a video from it, hilarious!  My middle child put on quite the show.

And just like that, it was over and we were on to Christmas!  Thanks to all that helped celebrate our baby's first birthday, it was perfect!!!