The 10 Steps of Christmas Morning

Christmas morning must be the best part of being a parent.
Here's a play-by-play of how the morning went...
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#1: The girls stood at the top of stairs and stared down to see what Santa had left

#2: Of course, Santa strategically placed the toys where the girls could see them from their positions at the top of the stairs. Well done Santa.

#3: Daddy forgot to get out the video camera ahead of time and made a 4 year old and 3 year wait (yes, WAIT) on the stairs until he returned with the camera! How cruel.

#4: When they finally got the okay, they jumped right into their gifts. No pun intended!

#5: And then went to the stockings and found their number one want on their wish list..."Real diamonds and real emeralds" in the bottom of their stockings. Well, Santa might have embellished the "real" part just a bit but it will take them a few years to realize the difference I hope.

#6: Daddy had to put the toys together that Santa didn't have time to do beforehand. Oddly, the girls heard a lot of 4 letter words during this part of the festive morning.


#7: We got ready for the troops to arrive for our traditional Christmas morning breakfast.
#8: The troops arrived to find that Santa had left yet another toy for the girls in the front yard that they had missed up until this point in the morning. Steve is telling the very animated tale about how many pieces the "elves" had to deal with in making the little toy.

#9: The girls were summoned to the driveway to see that they had missed a playhouse that Santa had left for them. There eyes lit up... they were so adorable.


#10: Finally, we all went inside for some good ol' fashioned Holiday cheer (oh ya, and puppet show by Papa)!




A very Merry Christmas morning indeed!

Preparing for Santa

After a late night at Mike and Nancy's we still had to make all the preparations for Santa's arrival.

Charlie made special reindeer food in her pre-school class that she was instructed to put out on the lawn to guide Rudolph to our house and fill up his tummy for the long night ahead!

Here is the note attached to the reindeer food.

Charlie really thought long and hard about where the best place was to put the reindeer food.


Ryan decided that under the tree was the best spot.



Next, we had to put cookies , milk, and our lists for Santa by the fireplace.

By this time, it was hours past their bedtime... don't they look exhausted???


Finally, it was time for the annual reading of "Twas the Night Before Christmas"
Nonna was the lucky reader this year.

Grandpa was the lucky "disciplinarian" when Charlie wasn't quite sure she wanted to behave anymore! LOL.

Christmas Eve with the Kudrons

On Christmas Eve we had dinner with the Kudron side of the family at Mike and Nancy's house. We really had a great time. It was their first Christmas in their new house so we had fun "breaking it in." I try to be careful so I hate when it happens and I leave someone from a party out of the pictures! This time it happened to Mike! I can't believe that I did not get a single picture of Mike (sorry big brother!)

My mom and I

Steve and Sandy

Grandpa and Charlie

Steve, Nonna, Nancy

Ryan, Katie, Charlie


Ryan is really starting to take the whole posing aspect of picture taking to a whole new level.

The kids tore open the presents! Great gifts everyone. They loved everything!

Nonna "read" Cameron a story. It's so fun to hear Nonna's made up version of the story!

Oh boy Cameron is going to have a tough time getting in with this tight group of girl cousins!
Good luck Cam!

Charlie HATED wearing her turtleneck shirt! Total meltdown...We had to ask Aunt Nancy if we could borrow a T-shirt for the evening. She's still a little upset here but at least she's trying to tear this one off of her like she was the other one! LOL

Hands down the best part of the night was the walk we took after dinner. Mike and Nancy's new neighborhood is well known for its elaborate Christmas lights and decorations. Every house was amazing! The cars were lined up practically bumper to bumper all the way around the tract. It was extraordinary. We all bundled up and enjoyed the crisp, cool, Christmas air!

Thanks for hosting Mike and Nancy!

The Grace Cookie Factory

I know, I know... I was "gently" reminded over the last few days that I am falling very much behind in the blogging department of my life. I have no one to blame but Edward Cullen (the protagonist character from the Twilight saga of books I have been addicted to since Christmas). Anyway, I think I am back to the real world now. The holidays are over. The decorations need to be taken down. The kids need to be fed a little more regularly (just kidding). And apparently, the Growing Up Grace blog readers need a fix. So, Edward Cullen and the rest of the vampires will just have to wait.
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Our special dish to bring to Christmas at Aunt Ginny's house was the Grace Famous Sugar Cookies. The girls and I worked hard to create each cookie to be unique and decorated with love.

Christmas Lights Around Town

For the past few years, we have made it a tradition to go up to Gigi and Papa's house, have dinner, get in the car, and drive around and look at Christmas lights. This year, we continued the tradition last Saturday night. Gigi and Papa are both pretty camera shy but we did get some cute pics of the girls.

A couple pictures of our yummy pizza dinner.


I love this picture of Daddy and Charlie with Gigi's reading glasses on. Look at how big her eyes look. Just precious!

We bundled the girls up in hats, scarves, and blankets so that they could have their windows down while we drove through the neighborhoods. They loved every minute.

Teddy Bear Christmas Sing

Last Friday was Teddy Bear School's annual Christmas Sing. This was Charlie's first and last one (probably) and definitely Ryan's last so it was very special. They sang their little hearts out.

We were in the very back of the room so it was hard to get a close up of Ryan because she was in the back row.

But... since Charlie was in the front row, I got to be "one of those parents" that would sneak right up to the front to snap a photo! Hee-hee!

The best part for the kids is that EVERY parent brings a dozen cookies to share. I swear, it's better than Halloween! All those holiday cookies to choose from, divine!


An attempt at a photo without a cookie in the mouth.

And a family photo!! Our last big event at Teddy Bear School.
Both the girls will most likely be attending McGaugh full-time next year! It makes us sad, we love this school so much!

Baby Wyatt's First Birthday

Charlie and I had a great time at Wyatt's first birthday party. Ryan was home sick and Steve stayed to take care of her. Erin had thought of all the perfect details for the cowboy themed party. I mean, my goodness, just take a look at that cake... it's perfection!!

Cowboy Wyatt thoroughly enjoying his first bites of cake.


Charlie made fast friends with sisters, Emma and Grace. They are almost exactly the same ages as Ryan and Charlie.

Celeste, Claudia, and Dana pose for a cozy pic.

Megan Lieb and her oldest, Thomas. I know you can't tell here but the boys and girls were pretty evenly matched at this party. It was cute to see so many around the same age.

Carson and Michelle working on a craft. All the kids were big fans of the glue!
My little Char-Char . You can't tell but she just got her balloon from the "clown." There wasn't really a clown but all the kids kept calling one of the uncles, Paul, a clown because he was the one filling up the ballooons and had a beard and a cowboy hat on. In the mind of toddler, add those three things together and you get a clown!

Charlie was very "star struck" by the clown! LOL

Happy Birthday Wyatt!

Midweek Family Field Trip

As the girls are starting to get older and naps are becoming non-existent, Steve and I are realizing that we have to come up with more creative ways to fill our afternoons. If all the girls do during the day is go to preschool and then home to play around the house, they get "cabin fever" by late afternoon/early evening. Ironically, this is the same time of day that Steve goes to bed. This cabin fever turns into the "crazies" in a blink of an eye. So the math ends up like this- one parent with two overly bored toddlers and one daddy trying to sleep who can't because of the literal bouncing off the walls! So the solution has to be to tire them out in the afternoons so that the evenings are a little less daunting. It's hard though... Steve and I both work and are exhausted too. We'd love to just let them play at home so we can rest or get chores done around the house but we have to suck it up more often until dance class (for Charlie) and softball (for Ryan) starts up after the new year.
One of last week's afternoon field trips was to the Santa Ana Zoo.

I love this picture. If I didn't already have the whole Christmas card photo picked out, this would have been a cute choice! It took Charlie a while to realize these animals weren't real before we could convince her to climb aboard!

Ryan always likes to look at the lemurs when we go to the zoo.
She sings and dances from Madagascar and hopes they'll join in...
"I like to move it, move it! I like to move it, move it!"

Charlie spent most of her time on daddy's shoulders. She still wasn't quite sure of the whole fence thing between the animals and her!

Ryan posing to show Charlie that it is okay to get on top of the stone animals in the play area.
Can you believe she is almost 5 years old? What a big girl!

By this point, Charlie was ready for a horsie ride. She was saying, "Getty up Lizard, Getty up!"