The Polar Express

I love that I am just now getting all caught up with our holiday fun on my blog.  Blogger fail.  But it must be documented...I have too much fun looking back!

So on December 1, on the tenth anniversary of Frank's passing, my mom brought all of her kids and all of her grandchildren to go on The Polar Express!!!  It seemed appropriate for us all to be together and talking about what Frank would be saying/thinking about all these ladies!

Before the big event, I let Scarlett watch the movie a few times because she wasn't familiar with the story and the book is just a bit too long.  By the time it was time to go, she was all pumped up to go to the North Pole!
Mission accomplished!

It was a really great experience for all the little ones, but I think Camdyn, 9, was a little too old.  They literally drove the train down the railway, stopped and said, "There's the North Pole," then drove back.  It was a total of one hour and pretty torturous for the adults, but the excitement on the kids' faces made it all worth it, cheesy as it sounds!

There was Christmas music playing after they finished reading The Polar Express and they served hot cocoa!  Santa even came along for a ride on the way back!  Perfect!

Of course, I have millions of pictures!

The granddaughters!

All of us!

Blurry, but all of us!

SANTA! ('s biscuits!)

Love their faces!

One side of the train: Scarlett, me, Max, Poppy!  (Sorry Clunies!)

The other side: Molly, Alyssa, Mum, Camdyn

An outside view of the train!

After this, we went to Whole Foods, so definitely worth the trip!

BEST. CHRISTMAS. EVER.

We had a fantastic Christmas!!!  The gifts were toned down from past years and that just made it more fun!  Less stress, but more thoughtfulness!  Yes, please!

This was the first year that Scarlett got it.  It was magical for her and that added so much fun for me!  We made reindeer food, drove around looking at lights, talked about how Santa goes into the houses through the chimneys, left out the cookies and milk for Santa, and all that good stuff!

Here is our Christmas Day 2013 in pictures...

Happy birthday, Jesus CAKE!

Tracking Santa with Lulu...

Wrapping gifts:

Santa came!!!

And he brought "Staige" with him!  Scarlett was psyched!

Then we headed to GRAMMUM'S!

Scarlett is (unintentionally) so FUNNY!

When Scarlett tried to get onto the couch with her Princess Tiana and a blanket, she fell front-first onto the hardwood floor.  I was worried that she had hurt herself and asked, "Did you land on your chest??"  

Scarlett replied through her tears, "Nooo, on my nickels!!!"   HAHAHA!  Poor thing!

All the little ladies call their nipples, nickles, thanks to Alyssa Lou!  When she was younger, she asked Molly what they were called, and Molly told her, "nipples," but she heard, "nickels," so that's what they've been in our family ever since!


And just because I can't post anything without a visual, welcome to the longest bike ride ever.  We have a playground that is right around the corner from our house, so I had the bright idea to take out Scarlett's tricycle and go for a ride in the beautiful weather we were having a week ago.  It literally took us an hour just to get to the playground.  I'm hoping this Spring Scarlett will have the pedaling thing down.  Pain-ful!

Sorry it's sideways -- I thought I could fix it after uploading it to blogger.  Guess not??

Scarlett, the cheerleader!

Scarlett learned this cheer from Alyssa, the professional cheerleader in our family!  The colors in the cheer change whenever Scarlett says it, but she's always so proud of herself; it cracks us up every time!

Kitties for days!

While my mom's husband is away for work, we've been socializing at her house all week!  It's been a party! 

One hilarious night, all the little ladies were coloring with markers while we were chitchatting.  (Yay for entertained babies!)  Though when we looked over, Scarlett had colored a black circle on her nose.  Mary, being the fun aunt that she is, said, "Hey, Scarjo, do you want me to make you a kitty?!"  Of course, Scarjo (and all of the other girls!) wanted to take Mary up on her offer!  So off to work Mary went, creating little kitty faces on Alyssa, Lulu, and Scarlett.  (Mum wouldn't allow Cam to join in because she's a little too old!)  

We all chuckled at their cuteness and went on with our gossiping!  

Scarlett and Louisa had a party splashing in the sink, and that took off some of the marker.  So when we got home, I just sat Scarjo at the edge of the sink to scrub her down with warm water and lots of Dove soap.  Her kitty whiskers faded, but refused to be washed off.  

Turns out, the markers that Auntie Mary used were for POSTERS and absolutely not waterproof!!!  SO, the girls got to be kitties again the next day, too!

Bullet points because sleep has been hard to come by and I can only drink one cup of coffee...

• Nick and Vanessa Lachey had their baby boy.  Camden John is the name they went with, really??  That's the best they can do?!?!  The way that Vanessa talked about naming her baby, you'd think they would have thought a little bit outside the box!  I have to say, I think Jessica Simpson wins the best baby name award in this battle of the exes!!!
• Speaking of Jessica...did you see her on Katie??  The show was a bore and she really just talked about Weight Watchers, but at least she looked fantastic doing it!  Yay for Weight Watchers!
• I am addicted to Ebay.  For reals, addicted!  I communicate about my purchases with Tyler through our bank account because I thought he checked it diligently.  Turns out, he doesn't, so he was a little confused when all sorts of packages started arriving in the mail!  I can't help it -- HANNA ANDERSSON for almost no dollars!  Score.  Another ebay plus??  They have everything!!!  I lay in bed when I can't sleep (so annoying.) and go shopping.  They have Disney Princess things galore!!!!  Scarlett's making out like a bandit!  It makes it even more fun when she talks about the  "mail mail" bringing her presents because she's such a good girl!
• Scarlett has decided that "Sex" is no longer the kitty's name.  It's now, "Mister."  I'm okay with this...maybe it'll cut back on the weird looks we get from our neighbors as Scarjo calls, "Seeeex!" down the driveway!
• Tyler DVR'ed The 'X' Factor and The Voice instead of Big Brother last night.  We're fighting.
• Yay for Kelly and Michael!!!  I am soooo happy that they didn't go with Nick Lachey.  (Holy NL bashing today, huh?!)  Nick was such an awkward host (IMO) the last time I saw him on during the Olympics.  He started talking about the gymnasts' behinds and how the camera always focuses on them and he cannot help but look.  Um, they're kids!  Like 15 and 16 while Nick is at least double that.  It just made me cringe!
• Lulu's 2nd birthday party was a success -- Mary rocks!!!  She had fun with all of her new gifts and Mary ordered the yummiest cake ever.  YES!  

A dozen doughnuts on your birthday...best ritual ever!

Already a pro at unwrapping her gifts!

Bday gifts from her favorite auntie!!!

Birthday Girl poses!

Yay for new backpacks!

• Alyssa was in the local homecoming parade!  She is seriously awesome and full of fun!

First parade and she's already a pro!

Seriously the cutest little cheerleader ever!

She loved to cheer for Alyssa Lou, but was TERRIFIED of the fire trucks and their sirens!

• It's no wonder some kids have the attitude/behavior that they do after seeing this display at the playground.  After a little barefoot, unsupervised 4-year-old (ish, I'm guessing.) ran up and down the slide a few times while Scarlett was waiting to go down, I told him that, no, he couldn't go up again until he waited his turn.  He looked at me, turned around, and just ran up the slide again.  I looked around the playground again to see who was watching this little boy and no one showed up.  Then another little boy climbed to the top of the slide with Scarlett and was waiting nicely for his turn.  Finally, the naughty little boy's mother showed up, snatched him, and tore off with him dangling over her shoulder, kicking and screaming.  I thought to myself, "Good for her!"  If Scarlett had acted that way, we would have left the playground PRONTO!  Not that any parenting is better or worse, and it's always tricky to decide how to handle situations, especially in public, but IMO, she was doing the right thing.  All peace was restored on the playground...for about five more minutes.  THEN, the little boy's aunt came roaring onto the playground, hollaring to the boy saying, "Who said you can't go up the slide?  You can go up the slide!!!  I'll even go up with you!!!  COME ON!!!!"  OMG.  She was obnoxious.    It was a tunnel slide, so as soon as she tried to go up, she got stuck and she couldn't save herself because of her socks, so obviously, she just took off her shoes and socks and left them on the slide while she continued up, because that's what any sane person would do.  She was shouting and screaming with her nephew all over the playground; it was all so crazy and chaotic.  Then, as they made their way to the other side of the playground, Scarlett continued her route of running up the stairs and down the slide...but when she got to the bottom, she ran into the dirty, inside-out socks that were still there.  We left after that.  It's such a shame that that little boy has such a bad role model.  
• Phew!  Venting feels good!!!
• I realized that I should just be taking pictures of myself in a full-length mirror to document THE BELLY.  Duh!  But then I realized I'd have to clean my mirror first...I'll get to that.  Soon!  Baby 2 will be here in 6 weeks and 1 day!!!  Yikes!  
• It's Friday, so Scarjo has Rhyme Time with Meems and Lulu while I head to my doctor appt.  Yay for her, sads for me...those scales there really bum me out!!!  I don't think the birthday cake will be helping things!  ;)
• And here is a little sneak peek of Scarlett's halloween costume!!!  (I am SUPER prepared because baby 2 is due on the 27th, so I have to have Scarlett ready to trick-or-treat!)

Just need the underclothes and she's ready!

Baby 2's Name

I pulled a MODG and tested out my name for baby 2 with a stranger at Cam's soccer game.  I told just one parent to see her reaction and to see if people outside of my family will think it's a crazy name or a crazy-fun name, like I do!

Well, it went about as well as MODG's online experiment ...the one parent I told absolutely despised the name.  Even the first name, which is actually a normal and real name!  I thought just the middle name would be the kicker, but it was whole thing.  It didn't bother me -- instead I started judging the names of her kids in my head and I got all nasty!

Because baby 2 is a part of my family, I'm (mostly) sure she'll rock her name and really love it!  (Unless she's built like a brick house -- then she'll hate me and her ultra-feminine, happy name.)

So my little experiment just re-affirmed my decision to keep my name a secret until baby 2 is born and it's official.  Then people can voice their opinions.

On an unrelated note...Alyssa Lou is a cheerleader!  She even has her own groupies (Lulu & Scarjo!) to watch her practice.

Such a rockstar:

Another stolen picture from Mary!

Beach day!

I'm not even going to lie -- I brought gossip magazines to read at the beach!  With all the kids that were with us, I have no idea when I thought I'd have time to relax and read!  We still had a blast!!!

A beach day in pictures:

Already snacking and we haven't even pulled out of the driveway!

Alyssa and Scarlett

Camdyn 

Sunscreen and sand are a bad combo!

Pose!

Gymnastics at the beach, obv.

Cam's keeping her hair down to get highlights!

Dancing!

Alyssa making friends!

Ice cream for the ride home!