Coming Out of Hiding, lol

How has this holiday season been treating ya'll? Good, I hope. We have been extremely busy and I just haven't had alot of time to update my blog. Here's my attempt to bring my blog up-to-date:

12/17 (Wed.)-Emerson had his Christmas program with his preschool. He got to sing a few songs and then say a line by himself on stage. He was a little shy but he did great. He said his line perfectly. I told him to make sure to say it loud so that his Daddy could hear it. He was so proud of himself and we were too.

12/18 (Thurs.)-Today was the last day of school for both boys and each had their school Christmas parties on that day. I couldn't be in both places at the same time so Clayton went to Emerson's party and I went to Hayden's. I had to help the kiddos make pancakes on a griddle so that was interesting to say the least. As we walked out of the school we realized that it was snowing pretty heavily. It was nice to see the snow but it unfortunately messed up our travel plans for that weekend.

12/19 (Fri.)-This day marked Clayton's Christmas vacation. Every year he takes a couple of weeks off in December to relax and enjoy staying at home. He won't go back until January 2nd. We were supposed to leave and head out to Wyoming to spend Christmas with his Mom but that didn't happen due to the weather. Her area was supposed to get snow 3 of the 4 days we were going to be there. Heck if I wanted to travel in that mess. I love snow but I do not like to drive in it. That totally sucked.

12/20 (Sat.)-It's actually a good thing that we didn't go to Wyoming. I was sick as a dog and ended up spending the day in bed. I had a roaring headache.

12/21 (Sun.)-We headed to the Denver Zoo to see their holiday display of lights. The event is called Zoo Lights and it rocked. We froze our butts off but it was well worth it. The kids got to see Santa and then we took the little steam-powered train for a little tour around the middle of the park. After that we went to see the hippos, elephants, snakes, fish and giraffes in their indoor exhibits. There was a cute baby giraffe that we really enjoyed seeing. There was also supposed to be some baby snow leopards somewhere but we missed them. If you live anywhere near Denver, you really should check this event out. It ends after New Year's Day so it is still going on right now. The trip was well worth it to us and we plan to make it a Christmas tradition from now on.

12/22 (Mon.)-I worked on getting the house clean all day long. Clayton also helped quite a bit and then took the kiddos to see Bolt at the theatre. I soooo appreciated that as the kids were driving me insane.

12/23 (Tues.)-My parents flew in to spend the holidays with us. My Dad had never been on an airplane nor had he ever been to Colorado before this day. He also hadn't seen the kids since June 2007 so this was a big trip for him. We met up with them in Brighton for dinner at a yummy 50's diner. We had a good time and the kiddos were thrilled to see Grandma and Grandpa.

12/24 (Wed.)-My parents and the kids put together rice krispie houses (kinda like making gingerbread houses but they tasted much better IMO). Hubby helped the kids make sugar cookies and rice krispie treats for Santa. One of Santa's elves rang our door bell and left us all Christmas jammies and a note that said that we needed to go to bed soon because Santa was on his way. This is a yearly tradition that began with Hayden's first Christmas and it is one of my favorites. The kids never quite make it to the door fast enough to catch sight of the elves. It's all so much fun.

12/25 (Thurs.)-I couldn't believe that the kids weren't up at the buttcrack of dawn that morning. The one morning that I expect them to get up early is of course the day that they sleep in, lol. We all waited in the kitchen for them to come down. Once Hayden emerged I told him to wake his brother because Santa had left them some goodies. He quickly grabbed Emerson and they both flew down to the living room. It was fun watching them go through their stockings. After they finished we dove into ours and then everyone opened their gifts. Here are a few of the gifts we got that I can remember off the top of my head:

Hayden & Emerson
-2 Nintendo DS Lite systems
----games-Transformers, Super Mario Bros., Pac-Man, Spongebob-Drawn to Life, Lego Star Wars, Bolt
-Nintendo Wii
----games-Super Mario Kart, Thrillville, Da Blob, Rayman:Raving Rabbids, Paperboy Mario
----accessories-Sports Kit, 2 Steering Wheels, Gloves (covers for the 2 remotes and 2 nunchuks)
-2 Playdough Caddys
-Star Wars voice changing helmet
-Wooden disk sets that are used for building things

Me
-Nintendo DS Lite
----games-Brain Age 2, MillionHeir, CrossworDS
-Snow Boots
-Slippers
-NC State sweatshirt
-Bakeware set

Clayton
-Nintendo DS Lite
----games-Zelda, 007
-Coat and scarf
-Puffy vest
-NC State sweatshirt
-Personalized beer mugs
-Coffee caddy for Keurig cups

Don't you think that it is funny that all 4 of us got Nintendo DS Lites for Christmas? On top of that we got the Wii from Mom and Dad. Clayton still has his XBox 360 too so now we have a ton of video gaming options in our house. It is insane around here but a lot of fun, lol.

Mom and Dad usually don't do much for themselves for Christmas so I got them both stockings this year and filled them to the brim with lots of fun goodies. We also gave them a new digital camera so that they could get out of the Stone Age. Film is so old school, lol.

12/26 (Fri.)-We goofed off all morning and then headed out to Red Robin for lunch. After that, Mom and I went to Target to pick up some Christmas cards and wrapping paper for next year. I really lucked out and got some great deals. We headed to Starbucks after that and then went back home for the evening.

12/27 (Sat.)-We relaxed and took it easy today with my parents. For lunch we headed to Culver's (their food is so-so but their frozen custard is heavenly). I made some molasses cookies that evening and we just chilled.

BTW-I want to say Happy 1st Birthday to my first surrobabe!!! He was born after midnight on 12/27/07. I can't believe that he is already a 1 year old. Wow, time sure does fly.

12/28 (Sun.)-Mom and Dad flew back to NC today. I spent all day in bed due to reflux and I just didn't feel very good in general. Thank goodness I had a backlog of DVRed programs to watch to keep me entertained (and not to mention I had my new DS to keep me company too).

12/29 (Mon.)-And now I am finally caught up to today. We met up with Clayton's Dad and his wife for lunch at Rockbottom Brewery. It was fun catching up with them. We then went to Toys 'R Us so that the boys could spend their accumulated Christmas cash before heading back home.

Whew....I am tired of typing now. I will try to get some pics posted tomorrow. My card reader is now broken and I hate hooking my cameras (I have 2 and they each use a different kind of disk hence making a multi-disk reader much easier to deal with) directly up to the laptop. I will possibly just go buy another reader tomorrow to make it easier but we shall see. Good night everyone!!