christmas wrap-up part three

on friday, we all headed out to the arizona-sonoran desert museum!!  the semraus headed back up to phoenix, but jeanne came to visit!!

 a very very entertaining otter

will work on getting a hold of a better group shot and posting that one!

thanks for visiting bailey - it was so good to see you!!!

saturday, we spent a relaxing day with jeanne - she read books to the kids and built an awesome marble tower!  the kids had a blast with you!!

sunday was the perfect way to recover from the holidays - a 10 mile run with my fave girls and about 10 hours parked on the couch watching the last of the football regular season with my hubby.  that, my friends, wraps up our christmas!!!

christmas wrap-up part two

christmas day!!!!!  thank you for all of the pics from auntie elaine's awesome new camera.

santa claus came!!!!

after delicious breakfast casseroles (our tradition), the kids opened their gifts from santa.  they both wanted janimals - stuffed animals that unfold into pajamas.  it's seriously all ella has talked about for months - so she got the unicorn and max got the giraffe.

OMG they were huge.  :-)

santa also brought a bike for ella!!

and a lego plate top for the train table for max.  :-)

unfortunately santa was a bit inebriated when he 'measured' ella for the bike and the number of plates needed for the lego table, so some adjustments will be required on roger's part.  :-)

we spent the rest of the morning opening presents - their favorite gifts included books, outfits, magnatiles, a marble chute toy and max's despicable me minion fart blaster.  highly entertaining.

we love our gift from max and ella.  ella gave us a picture frame with a picture of her and her handprint.  <3

max and his fart blaster.

so this year steve refused to give me any ideas for his christmas gift.  rather than racking my brain for a sentimental, thoughtful gift, i put together a scavenger hunt through the house.  he followed the clues to 3 different activities.  first, i 'froze' his assets - i froze $19 in change in ice cubes and he took on our version of the ice bucket challenge:

next, i gave him some 'dough' - multiple play-doh containers with $20 in change mixed in.

finally, he had 11 singles from each person at christmas and he had to 'mingle' - go to each person and they thought of something to do for him to earn his dollar from them.  some people took it easy on him - my mom asked for a coke and a hug.  boo.

auntie elaine had him play ring-around-the-rosie with the kids.

ok, ok, we also had some business to get to: eating yummy appetizers and making dinner!

ella asked him to show her where her room was.  and max asked him to hold him like a baby.

alan had steve compete in a handstand contest:

and i, requested steve get max to open the rest of his gifts that he refused to touch.  so much fun and i kinda hope someone asks for nothing again next year!!  :-)

so...max, as you've seen from pictures, has really enjoyed running around the house naked.  little did he know, that he was going to be in good company:

homemade whipped cream!  

we had a fabulous christmas and are so thankful.  merry christmas ella and max!!!!!!!

christmas wrap-up part one

what a crazy few days.  unfortunately max's flu lasted through sunday and we cancelled our sonoran/southwestern christmas party.  he did feel well enough to build a gingerbread house with ella and the help of uncle steve and auntie breanna!!  i think that was sunday?  i'm confused.  because then i came down with the flu and slept all day on monday.  :-(

on monday night, uncle steve and auntie breanna came over to take the kiddos out for a special just-them outing to agua caliente park and a pizza dinner!!!  so appreciated it and glad they got to spend time with just them.  

thank you again - the kids had an awesome time!!

meanwhile, roger was amazing and took care of me, the kids and prepped for christmas both monday and tuesday.  love you my wonderful hubby!!!!

on wednesday (christmas eve) we headed over the my parents' house.  unfortunately, right after we got there, ella accidentally took a bite of a cookie that contained peanuts and had an allergic reaction.  :-(  so off to urgent care we went.

she was a trooper, and thanks to the dose of benadryl we gave her before leaving the house, the reaction had subsided by the time the doctor saw her. 

she even got a purple otter pop!!

back home to hang out with the fam (including auntie elaine, uncle norm and alan!).  then off to christmas eve mass.

this is how max spent most of christmas eve.

oh so glad you're okay, els!!!!

and they clean up quite nicely!

after mass, we had a yummy dinner at my parents' to celebrate christmas eve.  i'll be back next post to chronicle the rest of our christmas.  :-)