Santa! I KNOW HIM!!

Earlier this month we took a trip up to San Francisco and made sure to squeeze in a visit with our good friend Santa. Last year Declan and Santa were on good terms and chatted up a storm while Ez tried to slowly back out of the room without drawing attention to himself. So this year I made a point to really talk up the Santa visit with Ez. I told him how Santa brings presents to all the good boys and girls. We looked through toy catalogs and brainstormed what he wanted to ask Santa for. And when the big moment came he almost tried to back out the door again but I reminded him why we were there and what he wanted to ask Santa for and he bravely got on Santa's lap and quietly mumbled, "I want a dirt bike." I was so proud of him. But then Declan burst into tears and we had to make a hasty exit. Apparently I put so much effort into getting Ez to like Santa that I dropped the ball with Declan. Oh well, there's always next year. 

And just for fun, here are our past four Santa visits:

Just two more sleeps until we see if Ez was good enough this year to get that dirt bike ;)

Holiday Happenings, Week 3

Merry Christmas eve, eve, eve! Three days till Christmas and I gotta say I'm ready. Shopping is done and presents are mostly wrapped. Cards are finally in the mailbox. Cookies have been baked. Family is arriving this evening and we're enjoying a quiet few days before the madness of the weekend hits us. A good kind of madness, but madness all the same since we'll be driving all over the place. In the meantime, here's a bit of the festive happenings going on over here. 

We haven't done a ton of baking this season but it's just not Christmas without sugar cookies. This is by far my number one holiday treat going all the way back to when I was Ez's age. The dough, the decorating, swiping licks of frosting, overloading on more sprinkles than one cookie can possibly hold...I LOVE it! And so does Ez. He was a perfect little helper this year from dough mixing to sprinkle topping. As a reward for his efforts he got to lick the frosting off two cookies. One day he may come around to liking a bit of cookie with his frosting, but for now just the frosting will do. Declan was curious about the whole process, but after I told him no to throwing the sprinkles on the floor, stealing the unfrosted cookies, and trying to fling frosting all over the walls he gave up and wandered off to do his own thing. 

We made sure to box up and deliver a few to the employees at our local motorcycle dealership. Nine times out of ten Ez would rather go there than the playground and they are so nice about letting us wander throughout the store with our stroller while Ez touches all the headlights and handlebars and he and Declan take a seat in the fancy Batmobile looking vehicle. I'm sure they could've kicked us out and told us not to touch anything but they're so nice instead. Until the day we push all the motorcycles over domino style, anyway ;)

While Joe and I were off having our own festive fun in Sacramento the grandparents and uncles were busy holding down the fort. My mom boldly declared on Facebook that she had toddler-proofed their tree. To give her credit she did do a good job with all the bows and paper ornaments. But Declan loves nothing more than a challenge. He walked right through the door, straight to the tree, and yanked the lights up hard enough to send the angel on top flying. He and Ez spent the next few days systematically removing all the ornaments and trying to chew through the lightbulbs. Unfortunately there is no such thing as a toddler proof tree. And there's definitely no such thing as a Declan proof tree. 

When Joe and I got back to town we all took an evening walk through my parents' neighborhood to check out the decorations. There were so many great lights and music and they even had Salvation Army at the end of the block handing out candy canes. A nice Christmasy end to our weekend getaway. 

For the past few years Ez and I have been making salt dough ornaments for our tree. So far we've made mini Christmas trees, handprints, and this year we did thumbprint hearts. The Pinterest version had actual fingerprint grooves and everything. How they pulled that off I have no idea. Most of our don't even look like thumbprints so you'll just have to take my word that that's what they are. 

I'm so so SO excited to see Ez and Declan's faces come Christmas morning. I don't think either of them really know what's in store for them so it's going to be a total surprise when they walk downstairs and see presents under the tree. Part of me can't wait and part of me wants to drag this holiday season out just a bit longer. I'm sure I say this every year but it flew by way too fast!

Hope you and your family have a cozy festive weekend planned and that none of you are stuck in long lines doing last minute shopping. 

Family Christmas Photos

Does anyone else get super stressed out by family photo sessions? There's just so much pressure to get one good shot of two active little boys running full speed in opposite directions. Inevitably there are tears involved. So this year we didn't do it. We brought our own camera, along with Grandma, and on two separate days in two different locations we did our best to get a few family shots as well as shots of Ez and Declan. Together. In one frame. Preferably looking toward the camera at the same time. That's the really hard one, in case you're wondering. They have an uncanny ability to tag team us, with one being sweet and adorable just as the other one turns around and shuns the camera altogether. It's like an unspoken agreement between them to never ever both look toward the camera at the same moment. At the time I basically threw my hands up and said it wasn't meant to be, but then you know what? I got home and went through the photos and decided there were actually a lot of really cute ones. So many that I couldn't narrow them down and that's why there's a few dozen here ;)

For the first photo shoot we went to one of our favorite spots: UC Berkeley. I seriously can't get enough of that place. We got a few good family shots there, as well as some of the kids with Grandma. The other trip we took was to San Francisco Golden Gate Park. In both shoots the boys wanted nothing to do with the camera. Sitting still and posing is just not in their DNA. The best chance we had was to get them interested in some naturey type item and then snap a few quick shots while they examined something that was inevitably poisonous. Like mushrooms, or these red berries. Don't worry, we watched closely. 

Perfectly imperfect, or imperfectly perfect. However you want to look at it, this is our family at this season of our lives. A little distracted, always on the go, usually only 75% of us are smiling at any given moment, but I love these crazy rascals and I wouldn't have it any other way.

Mini Sacramento Getaway

Merry Christmas week!! 

As early Christmas gifts to each other Joe and I gifted ourselves with a mini kid-free getaway. We dropped the kiddos off with my parents on Friday and right as we were about to walk out the door Declan started legitimately choking on a grilled cheese sandwich. Joe had to Heimlich him and thankfully he spit all the sandwich out, but it was so scary and not the best way to start a relaxing day off from parenting. Joe and I were just marveling at how much younger we looked in one of those throw back snaps. This is why. I'm pretty sure I got a dozen new gray hairs that day alone. Parenting ages you fast y'all. But back to our getaway, which I promise was still fun despite its traumatic start. 

We rented an AirBnB right in the heart of Sacramento. I've probably mentioned this on the blog before but Sacramento is where Joe (and my stepdad) went to school, so it will always hold a special place in Joe's heart. Even though I grew up not too far away, I hadn't spent too much time there so I was excited to explore it with Joe, who knows the area better than me. We kicked off our stay in Old Town, which is like a wild wild west town right on the river with tons of cool shops and restaurants. 

Unbeknownst to us, Old Town does a Christmas lights show on the weekends leading up to Christmas. We just happened to be there at the right time and grabbed a spot along with everyone else in the middle of main street. It was basically a Sacramento history lesson given by actors on the rooftops of the buildings, along with lots of cool changing lights, culminating in a battle between Santa and Jack Frost. We even got blasted with a bit of snow at the very end. It was a very merry beginning to our trip. 

After the light show we were starving and stopped for...what else? Mexican food. Once we were properly fueled up we headed back into the cold for a bit of browsing and Christmas shopping. There are so many cute little specialty shops, it was a really fun spot to shop for the last few random gifts we had left to get. Back at the AirBnB we played a Zelda version of Monopoly which was probably the shortest Monopoly game ever since Joe took all my money right off the bat and I had mortgaged all my properties within thirty minutes.

Joe insisted on an early start the next morning, so we bundled up and walked out into the early morning cold for breakfast at the Fox and the Goose, a cute little pub where we had breakfast last time we were in town on our way to Tahoe for our honeymoon. They seriously have the BEST scones. And I'm not even a scone fan. I think it may be the cream they serve it with that makes them over the top delicious. After breakfast we walked over to the Capitol building and just happened to catch the beginning of the Sacramento Santa Run. We didn't plan it that way, but our trip wound up being a very festive, jolly getaway. 

After we'd seen the thousands of Santas on their way we wandered around the Capitol building for a bit, and since it was open and we were freezing we wandered around inside as well checking out all the Christmas decorations they'd added since our last visit. 

All the museum rooms had Christmas trees and decorations, as well as hundreds of wreaths with California bears hung on the halls, and poinsettias tucked into every corner. It was really beautiful. Once we were nice and warm we decided to brave the below 40 degree weather (I know some of you are laughing, but that's freezing for us!) and check out the gardens, hunt down some coffee, and then head back to pack up and check out before heading on the next part of our adventure. 

After we checked out we headed to Sac State to wander around Joe's old stomping grounds. We saw the school newspaper office, where he worked as a journalism student. We also came across the cutest performance of about a dozen kids playing those huge Japanese drums, that were almost as big as they were. It was graduation weekend, so there were tons of people taking photos in their caps and gowns. 

After a pit stop at the book store we hit the road again, this time for Dixon, where Joe had an internship at the tiny local newspaper. It was fun checking out all of Joe's old landmarks as we drove through the tiny town. Afterward we stopped for lunch in Davis, followed by a cupcake, and then it was back home to our babies. 

We loved having a little kid-free time, but we also loved being reunited even more. Ez ran up and gave me a big hug when we walked through the door and kept telling me "Moppy, sit down!" Declan couldn't care less and wouldn't even look our way because Mickey was on TV. It's nice to feel missed ;)

Thanks to the grandparents and uncles for watching the kiddos!