Breakfast with Santa

LOVED, LOVED, LOVED this day! Just look at all the Santa excitement. My favorite is Tilly jumping, squirming, and dancing around. Give that girl a candy cane Santa!!

Grandma Jo won this visit with Santa at a silent auction last Christmas and we have anxiously been waiting a year for this... Now I cant wait until next year so we can do it again!

We had pancakes and chocolate milk. Cookie decorating. A quick lil Christmas craft. Santa even brought some gifts early!!  The planning was very minimal, and the reactions were priceless.

Charlie. Apparently she wants a scooter and legos... nice and simple. Thanks Charlotte!!

Uncle Ben, Aunt Tiffany, Austin, Conner, and Isabella.

John, Jenn, Jillian & Jacob. Charlie's future in-laws ;) 

 

Joe, Sarah, & Harper.

Harper was not impressed with Santa. But she eventually warmed up and gave some hugs. Or she  decided to suck it up so she could get off that scary mans lap!  

PS. I am obviously obsessed with this girl. She is so freaking adorable. I have more pictures of Harper, than my own daughter.

 

Can't leave out my man William.  Isn't he handsome? I am so glad he came. Hopefully Laura and the whole fam will be able to make it next year. :) We missed you guys! But thanks for sending along my buddy.

 

I am also in love with Tilly.  She's funny. As you can see, she was not happy with her Nana interrupting playtime for a picture. But it does make an entertaining picture.  

 

 

 

Thanks to all that came!! Hope your kiddos had a blast.  

Happy Holidays!!

 

 

On an unrelated note. Chuck volunteered to read to Charlotte's class on Friday. I am really glad that I got to witness this, because it was probably one of the sweetest things I have ever seen. I got to meet Charlie's friends- Rose, DeMarie, Layla, and Miley. ALSO- got to scope out this Marco punk. He is in the orange. The moving to Mexico is all making sense to me now....

Tiny Dancer

Thought the blog could use a little dance video....in high speed.... enjoy!

 

As you can see we are ready for our visit with Santa this weekend!! Charlie did a great job helping with the tree:

 

In other news, Charlie has a new bf at school. All week she has been talking about an unknown "Marco". Today she told me that she loves Marco, and he loves her back. And that they are going to Mexico to live with Julie and Eduardo. What the what???? My mission for Chuck this week- scope out said Marco to make sure he has good intentions with our daughter. Chuck says "I am going to kick that kid in his baby junk".  Poor Charlie is going to have a tough dating life. Warning to future bf's... beware of the big protective daddy.

Halloween

Halloween sure gets better the older Charlotte gets. Lets take a trip down memory lane.....

First Halloween- Charlie was the sweetest lil pea. Aww, just look at that precious baby. What's weird is Gma Jo bought this costume for Charlie BEFORE I even told her I was preggo. Its like shes psychic or something?!



Second-  Pebbles/Flinstones.  This was the year that the Cardinals won the World Series. So I had to compromise with Chuck on the jersey addition. I have to admit, it was a nice touch. This is also the first year that we went to Boo at the Zoo, and have been back every year since.





Third- Jessie from Toy Story.



This year- "Spoooooky" Witch.



This was the first year that Charlie got to pick her own costume. She started off with a "Ninja Turtle-Santa Clause-Dinosaur" combo, which had me in a panic. Luckily in the end she went simple with a "spooooky witch" (picture Charlie adding jazz fingers and a scary whisper voice). And she was dead set on this for over a month.  At least until the day we planned to go shopping. That morning we met up with her cousins at the pumpkin patch. They were telling us about how they were going as batman, superman, or some other boyish super hero. And that damn moment changed all our plans!  Lets just say that  Charlie was not happy when we left the store with the planned WITCH costume and not BATGIRL. Like kicking and screaming, I-am-not-leaving-this-store-until-I-get-what-I-want, unhappy. And its not that I have anything against batgirl. I think she is cool as shit, and Charlie would rock that costume any day. Its that I am not spontaneous. I like to stick to the plan.  She had been telling EVERYONE she was going as a witch, and I couldn't have her show up in something completely different!  So.... be prepared to see batgirl in 2014.

Like years before, we went trick or treating at the zoo. The sea lions were extra friendly. I think it was all the kids dressed in bright colorful costumes (I hope they are not color-blind, otherwise I totally sound retarded!). The one below sat next to Charlotte for several minutes just chasing her fingers.



On Halloween we met up with Harper and her neighborhood pose'. It was a little rainy and cold, but that did not stop us! Charlie sprinted door-to-door totally ditching all the lil kids. She was on a mission to fill up her bucket. Definitely had to keep a close eye on her though. She was just waltzing into strangers homes, coming out with quarters and other random things!! If you haven't noticed- my daughter has sticky fingers.... especially at the grocery store. Normally we use the cart with the lil car on the front. If I park her too close to the aisle, she will sneak random things to her car. I first learned about her thievery when I went to unload her into the car. I went to unbuckle her and noticed corn syrup and popcorn seasoning on the floor of the car. Geez- Charlie, if you are going to steal something, at least make it something we enjoy! As embarrassing as it was, I did return everything to the story because I am a good person!!

Charlottes school does not observe "Halloween", so instead they had a pajama party. With no candy. And non-Halloween toys. Not sure how the teeth fit into that equation. But I am OK with it.



So there is Halloween 2013 Charlie Style.

Because I am too lazy to create a separate post for the pumpkin patch, I am just going to throw in some pictures from the day. As usual, it is always fun to hang with Charlie's cousins.

Fall is here, hear the yell...

As you can see, we had a fun day of family pictures. Thanks to my handy dandy tripod and trusty self timer, I foresee lots more in the future... and possibly a very unhappy hubby. Hopefully Uncle Bennie can keep his kids in good health so they can join us next time. :)

We found this glorious tree in TGP and I fell in LOVE. Isn't gorgeous?! This is why I love fall. b-e-a-utiful. And we could not have asked for a better day. November 10th, almost 60 degrees. I will take it!!

Here are a few shots that made my fav list.

 

 

^ that's one smokin' hot family!