Santa Visits!

Christmas morning was quite eventful in the Yaeger household.  I think the party got started around 6:30am.  We all first went to see if Santa had eaten the Christmas cookies and drinken the milk that the boys left out for him.  Once this was confirmed we were all ready to go into the living room to find the treasures that were left the night before.  Grant tried several times to sneak into the room by himself.  After catching him running twice we decided we would cave and let them go in, (this was of course after all the coffee was poured for adults.) 

The first thing they both spotted was George's gator, they were thrilled!

Then, Grant was led to his pile of goodies Santa had brought

Santa did not dissapoint.  Grant started screaming, "Pirate ship, Pirate ship!"

Play me a tune, Daddy-O

This fire hat drove us all bat crazy.  It has a siren and lights up, we listened to it constantly all weekend but Grant loved it!

Betty was playing with her new toys

Grant got a baseball tee and bat

George and Grant playing with Nerf guns in the gator.  Those little foam bullets were found every place imaginable over the next few days.  Several feet in the air on the ceiling, windows, mirrors, etc.

Betty was not too excited about her dress up clothes, she'll grow into them!

Grant and his pirate ship, "Arrrggghhh!"

 The hubby received lots of wonderful presents Christmas morning

 these aprons for grilling out were a hit.  They come complete with a bottle opener, cup holder, lots of pockets for oven mits and cloths.

 Jody playing Santa and passing out the presents

Pictures are always a hit with the Grandparents!

 I made it in at least one pic that morning, (only because I handed the camera to Ron and said here, take this!)  A pillow case for Grant!

 My little construction worker loves a drill! 

 Mimi loved Grant's artwork!  Overall, Christmas morning was a blast!  Grant was overwhelmed with all the presents and had a hard time moving onto the next one after opening one up. He wanted to play with his toys immediately and was not interested in opening up additional presents, he wanted to take his time and play with each one.  He did realize this year who Santa was and was often caught saying, "Ho Ho Ho, Merry Christmas!"

Christmas Eve 2011

I'm back!  Happy New Year!  Once again, I have left you hanging.  This time it was out of my control.  The Thursday before Christmas, my computers' system failed and I left my PC with Ron's IT guy over the holidays.  I just got it back last night fully restored thank goodness!  I don't have any files or pictures back upped on an external drive, lesson learned.  Since there is so much to catch up on I will first start with pictures from Christmas Eve.

Ron and I traveled to Mt. Airy to spend the holiday with his family this year.  We arrived around 2pm on Friday and enjoyed ourselves immensely with the great company, good times and excellent food.  Here's the only group shot from the weekend.  This was taken before Christmas Eve Mass, afterward, we all enjoyed a fabulous dinner at the Trio Cafe.  Wrestling three little ones in a fancy restaurant was a challenge but we had a great time nonetheless.

Jody and Jim's beautiful Christmas tree

Grant and George watching some tunes

Sweet Betty testing her limits...

Time to put out the reindeer food!  Grant was very sparing with his portions, carefully placing it all piece by piece while George chose to pour the contents of his bag out in two different spots.

Story time, Aunt Lesley read the boys, "Twas the Night Before Christmas"

 It wasn't long before Grant started goofing off!

Mimi's turn, she read the boys a different version of the beloved tale.

Off to bed they went while visions of sugar plums danced in their heads!



Bunco Christmas

I know when I've gotten two texts/emails from Ron in the course of several days to update the blog that I have indeed left you lingering.  What can I say?  It's Christmas and all the shopping, planning, partying, wrapping, going to and from has gotten the best of me.  We've had four Christmas parties this week alone, not to mention I have four houses under contract (hallelujah!) all closing within a months time.  Tonight, I'll share photos of my Bunco groups Christmas party last Friday night the 3rd.  We planned a progressive dinner in my neighborhood and took the party on the road for the different courses throughout the night.  Our bunco group meets once a month and it is truly a "girls night" we look forward to for weeks in advance.  I love these girls and I'm so fortunate to have such a great group to be a part of!

We had appetizers and salads at Lindsay's fabulously decorated pad.  Lindsay even had Santa surprise the group with presents!  All the ladies received Santa hats and the guys got lumps of coal!

Our spouses all enjoyed hanging by the fire pit

We enjoyed cobb salad, shrimp cocktail and captain rodney dip which has become my new fave

After our starters, we headed on to the my house for the main course, we had mainly pick up finger foods, it was delish!

Rachael, Joni, Allison, Claire and I

Claire, Emily, Angel and Laurie

After dinner, it was off to Rachael's we went for dessert.  By this point we were all completely stuffed and miserable.  Rachael served spiced rum and sparking grape juice for three of us that are pregnant.

This get together was the first time all of our husbands were allowed at one of our bunco festivities.  Needless to say, the night was much tamer than our usual gatherings.  It was a great night and a great start to the Christmas parties that followed which I'm now excited to say are over!  Now, we can focus on the holiday and returning to NC in a few days to be with family.

My Boys

My boys are best buds.  They have a blast being silly together.  This is how every night in our household usually goes and it is so much fun.  I'll let these photos speak for themselves...

and the sweetest of them all

Just had to throw this in there, since I've put out our Christmas nativity scene, Grant won't leave it alone.  He plays with all the animals daily and it has provided hours of entertainment for my little guy.

Earlier today I heard Grant saying, "Go cowboy, Go cowboy," and didn't think much of it.  Tonight I looked behind me and died laughing.  This is what I found.  Boys...

Kid's Christmas Craft Party

Grant and I hosted a Craft Party for all of his closest friends at our house this morning.  He's just now getting to the age where he enjoys organized fun and I thought it would be exciting to have a party just for the kiddos.  After all, they do get left out a lot of the holiday celebrations and stuck at home with babysitters! 

Grant and I ready to party!  In honor of my Mom, I wore an apron.  You couldn't catch my Mom growing up at home without her apron on!

Laurie came over the night before to help me prepare all the goodies which are all pinterest inspired.  "Pinspired"  My newest website obsession.

Chocolate covered marshmellows were a hit and left the kids with pink mouths

A good 'ole classic

Snowman donuts!  After much thought we decided to leave off their mouths.  They looked better and more recognizable this way.

Reindeer cookies.  These cookies were supposed to be made out of nutter butters but I found the traditional nutter butter cookie hard to find.  Instead we used Keebler elf cookies which were delish.

Sippy Cups for the children

Onto the crafts, we made snowman magnet picture frames

and colored as Elmo watched on

The nativity scene stickers were a hit, I think any stickers at this age would have been popular

They were able to make their own scene on construction paper

The elf hats and snowflake ornaments were a little harder to construct

Emma and Savannah coloring.  Right before this picture was taken, Savannah looked at Emma and said, "Emma, I've missed you!"  She is so sweet that little one.

Ward enjoyed playing outside most.  Here he's taking a rest and a drink after pretend mowing our lawn.

and eventually... the majority of the kiddos ended up in the sandbox.  Each and every one of them was covered from head to toe in sand but they had a blast!

Sweet Chloe played hard and ate lots of chocolate!

and for a rare glimpse at a few of the mama's.  Angel took place in a 5k before the party and came in third!

Now, we're looking forward to the grown up parties!  ;)