She's a goof ball!

I don't know what it is about these glasses, but our kids sure do like them!

Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas!

We've had a great Christmas so far and we hope you do too!

Thank you to everyone who sent a gift for the kids. We really appreciate it and they loved everything! We can't wait until Grandpa & Grandma Richards get here tomorrow!

Preparing for Santa

We started the evening preparing for Santa by baking him cookies.

After a burnt plate incident in the microwave (by Abigail), Austin was afraid Santa wasn't going to come to his house. After a chat with the big guy himself (aka Grandpa Ringman) and being told it was just an accident, Austin was ready for Santa to come.

We continued our preparations by making food for Santa's reindeer.

We spread it on the lawn in hopes that Santa's reindeer would be guided to our house.

Abigail wasn't too happy that she couldn't spread any more reindeer food!

When our cookies cooled off, the kids placed them on the plate for Santa.

Santa sure wouldn't walk away from our house hungry.

It took Austin awhile to go to sleep. He was still a little shaken up by the burnt plate. I had to lay with him to get him to fall asleep. I think I heard Santa just as Austin was drifting off to sleep...

Pre-K Christmas Program

Austin had his Christmas Program today at school. I also video taped this performance, I just need to figure out how to get it onto the computer!

All the Pre-K students

Can you spot him?

He was very animated during the entire performance. They even got to do it twice. I guess some parents walked in the door as it was ending the first time so the teachers decided to do it again.

After the program I headed back to work and Austin got ready to ride the bus to the CDC.

I'm so glad I only work a block from Austin's school and was able to attend the program.

He did such a great job. I'm so proud of him!

FRG Christmas Party

After Austin's daycare Christmas party, we left post to pick up Abigail. We dropped Daddy's car off at home and headed to our FRG Christmas party. We ate again, socialized and waited for Santa to make an appearance. Abigail happened to be sitting in Santa's chair when he arrived at the party. As he headed to his seat to sit down, Abigail screamed bloody murder and wouldn't go near the guy after that. Austin was all about sitting on Santa's lap so he could get a candy cane and a present from under the tree.

We're not sure what he was telling Santa, but he was telling him something!

Daycare Christmas Party

When Austin gets out of school, he rides a bus to one of the Child Development Centers (CDC) on post. Once I get out of work, I swing by and pick him up before leaving post to go get Abigail. Yesterday Michael and I attended his Christmas party at the CDC. They started the party by singing a handful of Christmas songs. They then received gifts from their teachers and got something to eat with everything the parents brought. Here are some pictures from the party.

I have a video of the singing, but I have to figure out how to get it off my camcorder.

{Anybody have any knowledge of this?}

A long day

Yesterday was a very long and busy day.

Michael and I celebrated our 5 year wedding anniversary. I was pleasantly surprised when a dozen roses were delivered to my work. They're absolutely gorgeous.

At 4:15 we joined Austin at the daycare he attends after school for their Christmas party. They started the party by singing Christmas songs. It was so cute. We stayed long enough to eat and win a couple of door prizes. Also, Austin got a present, reindeer ears and a goody bag from his teachers.

After the party we headed to pick up Abigail. After getting Abigail we were off to Michael's Christmas party at work. We had a nice dinner and a visit from the big guy we all call Santa. Austin was the only one {between our two} to sit on his lap, Abigail wanted nothing to do with him. I really wanted to take the kids to the mall to see Santa, but Abigail will probably freak out like she did last night. I'll probably take them anyways, I can't miss a year!

I stayed up last night way longer than I should have getting packages around to put in the mail this morning. The news reported that the last day for shipping priority mail was December 20th so that it would arrive before Christmas. I'm doing pretty good, 2 days ahead of schedule!

I have yet to upload the pictures from yesterday. Austin has a Christmas program today at school, so I'll have pictures from that also. I video taped the performance yesterday and will be doing the same today. Of course if you were to watch the video, you'd here me sniffling as there's nothing like seeing your baby do something for the first time. He's growing so fast!

Baby, it's cold outside

With the weather dipping down below 30 degrees and freezing rain in the forcast, the kids bundled up to watch Abigail's newest obsession, Barney!

They are so silly when they're together!

22 Months

It's that time again! Our baby girl is 22 months old today. Let's see if I can remember all of the fun things she's doing now.

She's still talking up a storm. Like I said before, once she starts putting sentences together, she'll never shut up! Some of the fun things she says are, "Go Mommy" when we're stopped in the car. "No no Austin" when he's doing something wrong. "Milk please" when she wants chocolate milk. When Michael or I walk in the door by ourselves she'll say our name and come running.

She just got a new Dora backpack so she loves saying "backpack". She has to compare her "Dora backpack" to "Austin's backpack" every morning when we leave the house.

Monday I stayed home with her because she wasn't feeling well. When I took her to the doctor, she weighed 22 lbs 6 oz with her clothes on. She also came away from the doctors office with an ear infection in both ears and a prescription for amoxicillin. She's been taking her medicine like a champ and showing no signs that her ears are still bothering her.

In a couple months we'll be celebrating her 2nd birthday. And this year, we'll be in Michigan for her birthday!!!!! I can't wait to see everyone!

Her wild hair

While Abigail's hair is growing, it's getting harder to tame. I just wish the top would grow as fast as the back is so I can start doing fun stuff with it!

Here she is after a nap one day:

Whoa mama!

And who says Daddy's can't do their daughter's hair?

Now if I could just get him to put a pony tail in her hair...

The out takes

I attempted to capture the kids picture the other night for our Christmas card. I think I ended up with more out takes than anything!

For example:

I made our card out of the semi-decent pictures! I'm so excited to get them back and send them out. Hopefully they'll be here by the end of the week!

Just relaxing

I have a ton of pictures to put up on the blog. I just need to get them off my camera! Until then, enjoy this picture of Abigail relaxing!

I love him!

Check out my newest cleaning helper!

And something cute

.

On Thanksgiving, Austin was sitting in a chair writing on a piece of paper. As he was writing he was saying

.

100

200

300

400

500

600

700

800

900

1000

...

That's exactly what he had written on his paper too. He's such a smarty pants! He's retaining so much at school, it's amazing. I'm so proud of him.