Christmas 2011: Round 3

Christmas morning is finally the crime scene I imagined it to be. Emerson tore through the presents like it was her job. Only one rejected present (a male chef for her puppet theatre) and one sadly missed present (a Barbie car for her kids... Happy Birthday!). Bryce was just happy to take the scene in. He loved her dollhouse as much as she did (Emerson didn't get the magic thing about getting it down the chimney) and he adored his grill that Emerson got him. Although he didn't even open all his gifts he had a blast eating the leftovers from Santa!

Christmas 2011: Round 4

Christmas afternoon we went to the Meme and Papa's. Emerson and Bryce received a mountain of clothes along with some sweet toys. Emerson got an iPod, which came with icarly pjs! Bryce was outfitted with Woody and Cars! Eric and Linda made an amazing meal and Emerson kicked butt at Apples to Apples!

The Tale of the North Face Jacket

Maybe it should be saga. A few years ago Eric wanted a North Face jacket. Each year he said he was going to ask for one and one year I even thought about it (but Columbia works for me). This year he finally asked his parents.

Christmas afternoon we were all opening presents at his parents. Bryce had a mountain of clothes to go through. In amongst all of those outfits there was a size 2T North Face. Eric was miffed. Then I opened a North Face. He was even more miffed. Then we figured out that it wasn't my North Face, but his. I was cool with it. It was awesome to see the little kid frustration on his face believing that he didn't receive what he wanted, but instead his 17 month old son and wife had instead.

Bryce is adorable in it... don't you think?

Christmas 2011: Round 2

Christmas Eve was at the Pope's and although Eric had to work late, we managed to have him present for the presents!!! Bryce was in the mood to tear through the paper and to sit and watch a little tv while eating his veggies (thrown out the attitude)! He loved the train with Papa Mickey and Emerson loves her OVEN!!! So excited to make half done brownies!!! We got Mike a chair for his dock... but everyone had to sit in it first!!!

Christmas 2011: Round 1

We went to Granny Mac's Christmas Eve afternoon and Bryce was soooo excited to rip into that paper. Emerson tried to control her excitement, but it was almost unbearable for her. The kids had a great time opening their gifts and eating and jumping on Scott.

The day before I showed Emerson her black and white dress and she was over the moon. Very girly and poofy but classy. I told her she had to behave and then she could wear it on Christmas eve. She really listened... for a dress. Bryce had to rock the black and white too... although I feel as if he should come over and pimp my ride.

MacTivus 2011

Evan's first MacTivus!!! Mel and Todd braved babyhood to bring Evan into the celebration, although Evan was not too keen on the sleeping at night part (for this evening at least). Eric made risotto, maybe, Mel brought awesome steaks and Emerson provided the "glass eyes", errrr, buckeyes. Bryce had a blast walking up and pointing to the baby, while Emerson kept calling him Baby Evan (whether it was the combination of Baby Jesus or just having another Baby in the house). We all got to talk to Josie, who pointed out the obvious (which none of us ironically noticed) that our firsts all have "E"s (Emerson, Ellie, Evan). She I expect that sometime next year Josie and Mel will be knocked up with a little Bryn or Ben.

So Random!

Emerson has taken a slight liking to the Grinch. She has watched the cartoon and half of the Jim Carrey version, but I think she rather just dress up the stuffed version. She had a blast at her Holiday parties at school and loved Christmas cookie day. This month she went to another birthday party for her classmates (a double party at Build A Bear) and keeps talking about her 5th birthday party! I am getting a little scared on what she has up her sleeve!

Bryce is loving all of the decorations and lights. Every other sound out of his mouth is "oooo" or "aahhhhhh". His eczema is worse, but we can't tell if it is the allergies or the weather. It is a tough call since he is allergic to nuts, eggs, chicken, soy, shellfish, wheat, milk and wool! His milk and wheat are low enough we still give it to him, which could explain the increase on the eczema (the more you have of something the more you can become allergic to it). Oh well. So we keep him slathered in various creams and covered up and wait for spring to be retested! Through all of this itching the one thing he cannot live without is his frog. He uses it as a pacifier. It is super gross. I was it every day. It is still super gross.

Here is to a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year. We will be doing to crazy "visit everyone" over the next few days along with Mactivus! Then Emerson and I have a party in the works for New Years Eve... should involve a parade and fashion show!!!

Santa... Kris Kringle?

Last week I was thinking about how we went to Higbee's for Christmas and ate lunch and then went up to the top floor to visit Santa in his amazingly cool workshop. I needed to find the modern day equivalent for Emerson and Bryce. So after looking online I pretty much had to hand it to Tower City's take on Who-ville meets The North Pole. It was amazingly creepy cool.

Emerson took a little while to warm up to the "cast" but once she did she got to create toys in different workshops. The best was the snow on the light table!!! Bryce didn't care much for any of it... till we got to the gift shop and tried on hats.

The best part... and I will need to add the pic later... was that Bryce wanted nothing to do with Santa so Eric sat in Santa's chair with Bryce and I was next to them and Santa sat on the floor with Emerson. Odd, but effective.

Evan's Baptism

Eric, the Godfather, and Carrie, the Godmother, became official this Sunday when Evan was Baptized! It was cool. The kids didn't dig the Catholic mass... but that is to be expected by us Methodist heathens. There was a super sweet party after... at the pot... so it was super sweet! The last pic is of Bryce trying to be good. Slight failure. BUT Evan is freaking adorable!

Hambden Fire Department Christmas Party!!!

The best part of the party? Emerson riding on the back of a TURTLE!!! It was super sweet! The worst part? The almost out of this world doll she received. When she opened it she was beyond polite. Then when we started to pack up to leave she voiced her real feelings. Needless to say, the doll has been donated to a deserving little girl and Emerson scored some Littlest Pet Shop animals.

My rebound tree.

I found the perfect Christmas tree. I was super excited. They dragged it to the front to trim and wrap it. That is when the perfect tree became the ex-tree. It had a double trunk. The perfect tree was so stinkin perfect cause it was actually two trees. It just wouldn't fit in our stand and Eric is too stubborn to get a new pin stand so... Eric picked out our rebound tree. It is fine. Pretty standard. Normal trunk.

We are Thankful!

Emerson and I made a thankful tree with leaves containing all of the things she is thankful for. She listed every name she could think of, some she wrote while others she dictated. I added a leaf for beer.

Bryce loved Thanksgiving. An endless supply of people to entertain him and a smorgasbord of allergen free food to eat from! It was a little tricky, but him was able to eat everything... except for Granny's potatoes!

Emerson enjoyed playing her I Spy games with everyone and it was a pretty sweet day!

Shitty Arse Job Update...

I wish I could really state what I think of our district, to their faces, but I rather take my paychecks and do my job and just pretend things are GREAT! Weeks have passed since the school districts failure of a almost 6 mil levy and they still have yet to make any decisions as to what to cut next year. They need to make 3.1 million dollars worth of cuts and the freaking geniuses didn't have a plan B for after the levy. Brilliant. They are going to change extra-curriculars but aren't sure if they are going to cut them or make them sulfa sustaining. They are going to cut teachers, but they aren't sure how many or from where. They are going to mess with bussing again, but they aren't sure how. They talk about privatizing the classified staff... changing the lighting systems... hiring someone to tell us the lights need to be turned off... closing the buildings at 3 PM to everyone... but they have no plan. When Mentor cut me they at least had a plan. I knew by Thanksgiving that I needed to find another job. Heck, I was offered one by Madison midyear to go back to them in January... but I stuck with Mentor for the year and then was traded to Riverside. Truth... literally traded. It all worked out. I came over to the land of beavers (seriously, look above) and Mentor has since received three plus administrators from us!

I digress. But seriously... .Riverside, get your shit together.

Oh! The picture of the staff is from our Staff/ Senior volleyball turkey ball game! Staff won... kinda... and they looked so good thought I would share that some good things can continue while we all sit here waiting!

Happy Halloween

Emerson the Witch and Bryce the Bee had an amazing Halloween. On the other hand, Jaime the Mom and Eric the Dad were chasing Jager the dog through the entire neighborhood for over an hour. Damn dog. Oh well! Bryce was the official candy passer outer and Emerson had uncle Bryan and Uncle Mike taking her all of the place to get candy!

Happy Birthday Old Man!

Emerson helped me bake a cake for Eric's 35th. She is getting much better at making things "pretty" and not just throwing things onto of frosting! I did the 35 but she tackled everything else. Emerson also managed to scavenge the house for items to "give" Eric. He ended up with some Star Wars pillow cases and a sweet Uno game.

Can't find Squire's Castle???

After we gave up Bryce decided to bond with a tree.

Wanna go to Squire's Castle???

Since Emerson is still lovin' the princesses I thought taking her to a castle might be fun. Although Squire's isn't a "castle" it is a 'castle'... so we began the journey. My mistake, they were paving the park roads when we went. So instead of just say "Let's come back another day", I said "Let us try to get there through the woods". Big mistake. What a fool I was. 1.5 miles later we still were not there and the sun was way below the trees. Bryce was a little frozen, Emerson was seriously tired and I got a few good pictures!

Random Night at the McIntyres...