Elf Yourself 2012

My wonderful sister-in-law sent this to me earlier this wek. Wiggy has been watching it over and over...and over. I think it's the closest I will ever get to seeing Luke and Bubba dance.

Christmas Party

My work's Christmas party was Saturday. Always a good time.
I didn't know what to do with my hair so I went to this new place in town that's a "dry bar." You pay $30 and they wash/style your hair. Anyways...I sat in the chair for an hour while the girl curled my hair and it was so relaxing. I almost fell asleep. The only bad thing was I had to go in at 1pm because it was the only appointment they had. By the time we left for the party at 6:30 my hair had lost all the curl. So that was a complete waste of money,. Oh well.
This year the party was at the Convention Center downtown. Grandma and Grandpa Hogue babysat the kids for us so we were able to stay a little later than usual.

 

 

 They had two artists there who drew caricatures. The guy who did ours lives in LA and does it for a living at Universal Studios. When I saw it I couldn't stop laughing. He did a good job.

After we had our picture drawn we got 15 minute chair massages...then we called it a night. We were home before 11pm...which was earlier than expected. BUT...it was nice to be out alone with the man of my dreams. :)

Wiggy's Christmas Concert

Wiggy's pre-school had a Christmas concert. Each class was to learn and sing two Christmas songs. The kids had been practicing and Wiggy would sing the songs at home over and over and over and over again. So, we were excited to see her up on stage singing. She is the most musical of the kids at this point....always singing.

Unfortunately, we almost had to miss the concert. I picked her up from school early with a fever around 2:30. The concert started at 6:30 and when I picked her up she said she didn't want to go to the concert. We were all disappointed! I gave her some Tylenol and laid her on the couch to snuggle up. I checked back with her around 4:30 and she said she wanted to go sing. Her fever had come down so we were very excited. We got her cleaned up and we were at her school ready for the concert at 6pm.

The pre-school's director is a good friends of ours and she saved us some seats in the front row! Thank you Jenny! :) We were very happy to have such good seats.

http://youtu.be/5WZEYJ_XW4o  (video)

 

Bubba's First Band Concert

Bubba took up the clarinet this year. He had to pick an instrument and since I owned a clarinet from when I was his age, he thought it would be cool. (I think his fist choice was a trumpet or the tuba.) :)
He did a great job at the concert and seemed to have a good time. For some reason, when he brought his clarinet to the concert, he didn't bring it in the case. So, by the time he got on stage to perform, he had chipped the reed. So...I am not sure how well he was able to play or how much squeaking actually took place.
No matter what, we are really proud of him for wanting to be in band!

 

 

Thanksgiving 2012

In our usual tradition we headed up to Roseville for Thanksgiving weekend. I love spending this holiday with our family up north. On the drive up I was reminding Luke that this was his first trip north in 2012 and only my second. It just seems like we don't travel to see everyone as much as we used to...or like to. Hopefully 2013 will be better!
We left on Wednesday afternoon after Luke got off work. I packed up the car and the kids.... and we picked up Luke from work. Thankfully traffic on the 99 was pretty bearable and we got to my parents' house earlier than expected. When we arrived, Grandma had each of the kids try on pajamas she had made and Wiggy enjoyed modeling for a bit.

Thursday morning - We had good intentions of doing the early morning 5K Turkey Trot, but with no one inthe family formally signed up, we lost all motivation. We were all OK with that! We perused the paper and enjoyed cinnamon rolls for breakfast.
Grandpa checking out the Thanksgiving Day newspaper!

 Visiting with a few of the cousins before dinner.

 

Grandma started a new tradition this year. Everyone got a card and we wrote the things we are thankful for. After dinner the cards were handed back out and we had to guess whose card was being read. It was really fun...and I hope we do it every year.

 

 

At midnight we girls headed out to the Galleria to do some shopping. It was complete madness, but at least we grabbed some hot cocoa before we headed in!

We got home around 3am and passed out. Nothing too exciting was purchased and with the crowds I think we could skip this next year! :)

Friday morning- Wiggy and I went with Grandma to the Rack and the Galleria. It was fabulous and hardly anyone was there. Wiggy really likes applying make-up in Sephora and riding the merry-go-round!

Friday night is breakfast dinner night! Grandpa and Luke cooked up some bacon, sausage, hash browns and omelettes for the whole gang. 

The boys brought their NED yo-yos that they bought at school. They were surprised to see Grandpa do a few tricks. Grandpas aren't supposed to know how to do this kind of stuff, right!? :)

Saturday - We all got prettied up and headed a few miles from home to take some family photos. We couldn't have asked for better weather and I think they turned out fabulous. Here are a few of my favorites. I'm sure glad we take the time to capture these memories together.

 

After pictures we headed out to Sun Splash to miniature golf, race go-carts and do laser tag. We all had a great time. I think this can be an annual tradition!

 

 

 

Saturday night Grandpa made his famous turkey and beef enchiladas for everyone. He slaved away in the kitchen while everyone else played and recouped from the busy day of fun. We were supposed to play Chicken Foot but we were so exhausted we decided to wait until Christmas break.

After dinner all of the kids put on their Christmas pajamas and we took pictures. The kids were absolutely done with having their picture taken today, but they survived a few more in the stairway.

Sunday morning - We were up early and on the road before 9am. Traffic was the 100 times better than I could've dreamed. We made it  home in under five hours! It was a great way to end the busy weekend.

We always enjoy spending the weekend with our big family and are looking forward to Christmas break! XOXOX