Christmas 2013

Christmas was so nice! It was at my house this year which made it extra special for me. My kids were able to sleep in their own house and wake up to explore under their own Christmas tree. Cameron's parents and Andy stayed with us. It worked out really well - since we had Andy in Liberty's bed, she bunked on a blow up in our room. It was really fun - she woke up in the morning kinda having a bad dream, came in our bed, we said Merry Christmas, and she snuggled us and wanted to go tell Merry Christmas to Grandma/Grandpa and Andy. It was on her way to Andy's room that she noticed the gifts:) Liberty got some FROZEN gifts and many calico critters. She truly loved every gift - from her sleeping bag from Grandma to her boogie board writing pad from Andy - there was not a single "dud" gift. Henry was ADORABLE when he woke up - he crawled over to his first gift and thought it was the coolest dang thing he had ever seen! He got a DJ billy beats, jumbo animals, and a little people airplane, and musical instruments among many other things. We had great meals together and went to San Tan the day after Christmas. Only thing that could have been better was Cameron got the flu on Christmas day. He spent the next day in bed, and I was surprised at how fast he bounced back considering it was a serious flu illness. He was recovered in time for our Saturday Christmas at the Wheeler's in Fountain Hills where we had a big prime rib lunch and opened more gifts (calico critter house! and car ramps and rocket ships!) We were happy to get to see all our family and spend some quality time together. I tried hard this year to teach Liberty that Santa Clause is really St. Nicholas who was a generous man who wanted to be like Jesus and help others. We talked a lot about why we thank people for gifts because that meant they were thinking of us and wanted to show their love with a gift. I think we were all feeling the love this Christmas.

Pumpkin Carving and More Fall Festivals

We went to Vertuccio Farms again (this time with Cameron) to pick out our pumpkin and do more jumping on the air pillow!  We got there right when they opened on a Sunday so Liberty (and very pregnant mommy) wasn't overrun on the air pillow with bigger kids.  Libs really likes the cow train and milking that silly cow aka plywood cow with fake udders.  We also checked out the farmers market next door which was really cool - got some honey and you can see real bees at work in a display they've created.  The night before we went to our neighborhood Fall Festival which generous neighbors put together each year that involves homemade chilli and pies, a ton of booth games, and 2 bounce houses.

Liberty requested our famous KITTY CAT pumpkin design for our pumpkin again this year.  She wasn't that interested in helping with all the slimy guts, but salted those seeds for roasting and we all enjoyed those.

Gingerbread House

My mom got us a Gingerbread house this year (I've never done one before) and Liberty had the best time crafting this together. Her excitement and anticipation is hard to capture on camera but it warms my heart daily. And she was concentrating so much! She is quite artsy. My apologies for so many pictures but I couldn't bring myself to delete much - even her "smile for the camera" pictures where she shuts her eyes tight are SO ADORABLE!

MOO-ey Christmas at Superstition Farms

So here are the other pictures from the rest of the Christmas-tastic fun to be had at the farm besides sitting on Santa's Lap! We did the Hayride, petting zoo and then made some smores by the fire. We were feeling so festive that we drove around and looked at Christmas lights after our 2 hours of fun at the farm! One of the houses had another Santa's lap waiting for Liberty but she sensed an impostor and wouldn't sit on his lap. WOW Christmas overload.

Santa's Lap 2011

It was the last day of MOO-ey Christmas at our nearby Superstition Farms, and we had nothing else to do so we decided - heck- let's go see if Liberty will cry or smile at Santa. Liberty has been a little chatterbox about sitting on Santa's lap. I asked her what toy she wanted Santa to bring her and she has responded with "baby" and "penguin". It may have something to do with those are often the toys she selects when I tell her to pick a toy to bring in the car - don't really know where she got those ideas. Anyway, ladies and gentlemen, we have a smile-er!

For a walk down memory lane and her experience sitting on Santa's Lap LAST YEAR - click HERE. SO BALD!

From 2011-12-17 - Santa's Lap

From 2011-12-17 - Santa's Lap