December 30, Thursday

Why is Sam covered in ice cream and cookies?

 Because...

 My little buddy is six months old today!

 He looks like such a fat kid here! I LOVE IT!!!

 He is serious about some blocks.

December 29, Wednesday

Sam had a great time playing with his Papa Joe tonight.

 Pork Chop showed off all his mad developmental skills like crawling, sitting up and pulling up.

 Either Elmo had a horrible bender with Oscar the Grouch last night or Sam got revenge on Elliott by vomiting in the mouth of her beloved Elmo puppet.

December 28, Tuesday

Brothers don't shake hands...brothers got to hug.

 That did the trick!

 I don't think that you can blame this mess on your sister, pal.

 When we put him to bed tonight Sam rolled over, pulled his seahorse in closer and scooted further under the blanket.

December 27, Monday

Mommy achievement points unlocked; came home from work and cleaned kitchen, did laundry, made dinner, fed both children at the same time and then bathed them at the same time.

 And we only had one near-submersion injury. Sometimes Elliott's little toddler body cannot be controlled by  her brain. Her brain knows that she shouldn't try to shove her brother's face into the water; you can see the hesitation as the internal battle for control rages on. But her body is just too strong a force right now.

 Parenting win for Daddy tonight was completion of Elliott's new toddler bed...farmhouse style. He plans to build us a matching bed in the near future. I do not know if he is aware of afore mentioned plan. Tiny detail.

December 26, Sunday

While Elliott was asleep, Sam not only got to play with his toys but her toys as well.

 Check out those bottom chompers!

 I cannot wait for his little face to clear up. It stays red and chapped because he drools all the stinkin' time! If you ever wonder where he has crawled off to, then just walk around in bare feet and follow the path of the moist carpeting. I don't know how mothers lived before the carpet steam cleaner.

 Elliott waiting on Daddy to come home from Lowe's. He is picking up lumber to make her a toddler bed.

Christmas Morning

My sleepy babies didn't want to get up because it was all chilly-cold in the house so I had to wake them up at 9:30. Elliott carried cow into the living room, paused to wonder why Daddy had out the camera,

and then proceeded to pick up her Elmo remote and play with it. She is not the most observant child. She bypassed all the presents because she was on a mission.

Once we put her in front of all the gifts, it was nothing but gameface.

She is working on her surprise face. We had already told her it was clothes from Grandma.

(Check out the chunk. He weighs 5 lbs less than she does!!)

He did get to investigate one of his presents before it got snatched up.

Elliott still working on Operation: Presents

while her doofy brother chases the cat.

Poor Ophelia had to seek sanctuary under the tree.

She was serious about this whole gift thing.

And of course the fat kid just sat there eating the only thing he could find.

My Strange Addiction... I eat holiday wrapping paper.

Sam got a bow stuck on his hiney because he was rolling around in all the wrapping paper.

And then we decided to stick one on Elliott to see if she would notice. The answer: no.

Apparently the bow was from David Copperfield because she didn't even notice the kitchen until I took her over to it and "unwrapped it".

Too fast, son. You are growing up too fast.

After presents has been opened, Andrew and I were in the kitchen making coffee because Santa's elves have unionized. Back in the day they used to make, wrap and set up all the packages under the tree while another elf would clean up the house for you. Well, the male elves that did well in woodshop dropped out of elf school and could no longer be hired on to work in the toy factory without their GED (General Elf Degree). The lady elves who wrapped the gifts burned their stockings in protest of the sexist roles that elf society placed them. The package display technicians complained to HR about the stereotyping of the gay elf population. And then they decided to subcontract the cleaning of the home to "undocumented workers" who then refused to work on Christmas. I blame the problems with the elfen society on the Obama Administration and I foresee future legislation being passed to solve all the socio-economic problems plaguing the Elfen-Americans.

But back to my story...

We were preparing coffee after a late night and hear several loud thumps. Andrew was near the kitchen window and yelled for me. An SUV had overturned on the hill. He ran to check on the passengers while I called 911 and secured our children so that I could go check on the couple. Thankfully, no one was seriously hurt and we sat with them until EMS arrived. Then what did we do? We took pictures from our window and posed them on Facebook!!

Christmas Day

We had a white Christmas, sort of.  This picture was taken seconds before Elliott took off running full speed through the front yard.

 And Mr. Monkey Man looks more like an elf than he does Santa with his ears all goofy because of the hat.

 Elliott got down to business as soon as the presents came out.

 Look at her go to work!

 Sam was taking too long so she just handled the business.

 "Hey, wait a minute. That is mine!"

 What has him so interested and happy that he busted out the dimples?

 CALEB!!

 Of course he had to hang with his girl Taran as well.

 Elliott making silly faces while playing with her puppy. I think he was a hit because she took him to MeMe's room for naptime.

 Sam was more interested in his people than his new boom box.

 PopPop and his Cookie Monsterette

 Blowing raspberries at one another

 Time to play some Kinect

 Elliott couldn't let Daddy have all the fun.

 Riding the "gray mare"

 And Sam spent a great deal of time in the jump-jump watching all the silly Barckleys play XBox.

 Being a ladies man

 Elliott reading a book with Daniel. I wonder if the book was "Everyone Poops" because ELLIOTT WENT POOPIE IN THE POTTY!!!! It was a Christmas miracle!!

 And Sam missed it all...