Watch Out, This One is a Novel!

Cozy up, grab a cup of coffee (or Pibb Zero if you've never tried it) and I'll try to fill you in on the last month.

So I obviously haven't done a great job with the ole blog lately. I really do have the best intentions, but somehow they just get lost somewhere. When people who only check my blog every *other* month don't see anything new, there's a problem.

Because I'm anal retentive, I most certainly will go backwards and fill you in on everything since I last posted on 12/20. I know, I know, but please, just try to contain your excitement.

It's a bit difficult for someone with Mommy memory like myself to even remember what I did yesterday, much less a month ago. I actually didn't take very many pictures over Christmas. For those of you that scrapbook with me, you know that I don't actually enjoy scrapbooking Christmas. I think that makes me subconsciously not want to take pictures either. I think I took maybe 20 pictures on Christmas day. Oh yeah, step aside all you other moms, that Mom-Of-The-Year for 2009 is ALL MINE.

Katherine goes in spurts with her toys. I'm sure most kids do that, right? She won't even give a certain toy a 2nd glance for weeks and then all of the sudden plays with it all the time. Well, she did that with this phone that Paw Paw got her. She would sit in that chair forever and just push the buttons ("butts" as she calls them!!) over and over.

Probably most of you know that we had a white Christmas this year! It was so cool - apparently we haven't had one here since 1927, so it was a very special occasion. However, it was also COLD, so we didn't actually go play in it. In our defense, there wasn't actually much snow on the ground, there was just a lot falling, so it really wouldn't have been that much fun. I know, I know, a *good* mom would have sent them out to build a snowman...but keep reading.
This picture was actually taken on Christmas Eve which is when the snow was falling.

Here's a funny pre-Christmas story for you. For those of you that know me, I do not like surprises. I don't even really like presents that I don't know what they are. Call me anal, call me a stick-in-the-mud, whatever, but I just don't like to be caught off guard. So I remember like it was yesterday being David's age and wanting SO BADLY to open my Christmas presents that were RIGHT THERE UNDER THE TREE AND I COULD SEE THEM BUT THEY HAVE THIS SILLY PAPER AROUND THEM SO I CAN'T TELL WHAT THEY ARE!!! AARGH, THE HUMANITY!!!! Not that I'm bitter.

Anyway, since I remember that so well, I totally have a weak spot in my heart for Christmas and I said once to David, "Maybe Mommy will let you open a present today" On 12/20. David would NOT have it. He told me that we have to wait for Christmas and he wasn't going to open them. So then it became the joke in our house - I would tell the kids, "I'm bored, let's open Christmas presents!" And David would say, "No WAY Mommy, we have to wait until Christmas!!" He's such a rule follower . Unless of course the rule is no talking. Then he's not a follower at all, just ask his 1st grade teacher.

Also on Christmas Eve, we traditionally (for two years now, that counts, right?) let the kids each open one present. Here they are tearing into it:
Yep, Pajamas. We're sooooo creative, no? I don't care what anyone thinks - if David makes that face over pajamas, then pajamas it will be!
Since Mommy's a BIG softy when it comes to opening presents, we let them open one more of their choosing (we retained veto power) on Christmas Eve. Of course, David picked the biggest one under the tree. David chose Katherine's for her and he picked the one that was from him.
She didn't totally understand how to tear into a present quite yet...stay tuned...
And this was our house on Christmas morning. I DID actually walk across the street in my pajamas and house shoes and take a picture. Oh yes, the neighbors, they LOVE me.
Santa thought it would be a funny joke to leave Elmo (Katherine's Christmas Eve present) talking on the phone. That Santa, such a prankster!
Here's David's reaction when he walked into the living room and saw a trampoline drawn on his new easel from Santa!! WAHOO!!!

And Katherine coming around the corner of the couch to see her new car!
OF COURSE, on Christmas morning, my flash batteries ran out so these pictures aren't that great, but you can see the mile-wide smile on her face over her new car - she LOVES it.
More of that smile. Come on, that's just pure happiness. Doncha love it!??!
So she didn't really get that she's supposed to face FORWARD while she's driving. No woman-driver jokes, please.
David got a Razr scooter too and he loved it. We let them ride inside since (did I mention yet) it was COLD outside.
The day after Christmas, we headed west to see the fam. It was our first roadtrip in the new car and John actually fit all our luggage AND Katherine's new car in the back. I still don't have any idea how he pulled that off. Some things are better left to the imagination.

David enjoyed his new personal DVD player and headphones.
Good grief, it's hard to believe that my sister & I traveled that road at least 4 times per year when we were young and we had to read a book, play license plate games or SLEEP on the drive!! Such deprivation.

And Katherine with her sunglasses and her own personal fashion statement. She also enjoys her own personal DVD player. She doesn't quite get the headphones yet, so we all listen to her video, but the adults can at least deal with it and David can't hear it over his headphones, so (in general) there is peace on the road. Isn't that really the ultimate goal of a roadtrip?
When we got there, look who showed up!! Aren't they all just so cute with their antlers?!?!
For those of you that don't know, they are (left to right) Josh, Chris, Katherine, David and Lauren. These are John's sister's kids. Our kids LOVE to go play with their cousins. In fact, JoshChrisandLauren is really one word in our house.

Then we have a several day lag of no pictures. Sorry, but we were just too busy to photograph?

Of course, they got snow there and it was the perfect kind - powdery and in abundance. The kids thought it was Christmas all over!
Watch out!!
Daddy had to go shopping for the perfect attire for his little princess. Yeah, I'm SURE she'll wear that again. But, hey, she looked CUTE!!
And here was the product of the kids' labor. They made two snowmen - both are over 6' tall. I told you, there was a LOT of snow. And this totally makes up for not going out on Christmas Eve, right?
I have several pictures of David & Katherine watching a video in the toy room. They just look so cute when they're sitting there still & engrossed in the show! This time, I actually got them to pose for me a little bit.
And you'll have to imagine this one without David's head chopped off. This would have been an awesome picture if I could aim the picture, hold my head sideways and make a funny face all at the same time. See my earlier comment about that 2009 Mommy-of-the-Year prize.
After we got home (and our new fence was complete!!), Daddy and David put up the trampoline. I knew David would love it and I thought Katherine would like it okay, but I had no idea she would LOVE it. She asks every day to "Jump on trampoline?"
Jumping now to Katherine's 2nd Birthday!! Get it? "Jump"?

John and I went to her day-care the Friday before her birthday on Sunday and took some cupcakes for her to have with her friends. She was just waking up from her nap when we got there.

I think she was confused as to why Mommy & Daddy were there with cameras in the middle of the day.
Oh, she figured it out quickly. The girl has a SWEET tooth!!
Look at that smile!
After dinner that night, she got another cupcake.
Finger licking good!
Posing as a BIG TWO YEAR OLD!!!
More trampoline pictures!
We took Katherine to her 2 year check up today and the doctor asked what her favorite Christmas present was. When I told him the trampoline, John said, "You're not supposed to tell the doctor we have a trampoline!" WHY didn't I say the pink car?? Silly Mommy! Of course, he did his duty and confirmed we had a safety net. Little did he know the extent of John's paranoia. We have a net, the entire structure is tethered to the ground probably 4 feet deep and John could throw himself into it and it wouldn't even shake. If our kids get hurt on this thing, it's their own fault.

Clearly, Katherine doesn't bother herself with worries about such silly things...
On Sunday, Katherine's actual birthday, we let her open her presents right after she got donuts for breakfast. The first one was her "official" princess crown. Oh goodness, here we go. She loves that crown.
Then she took a survey of her stash and planned her attack. David looks on with extreme eagerness to help should his sister need it.
She did just fine...note the paper all over the place.
I think this was probably her favorite gift. It's a microphone that amplifies her voice. Oh yes, we did.
See, aren't they just adorable when they're sitting so nicely watching a video!?!?
Later that morning, we took Katherine to Chuck E Cheese to let her play for her birthday. Being the 2nd child, she does get short-changed on these early birthdays. David had a big shin-dig at our house with tons of people & presents and Katherine gets cupcakes at daycare and Chuck E Cheese with the family. In the morning. Before the crowd arrives.

She did seem to enjoy it though!
She really didn't like the moving cars all that much. She's not the adventure seeker that her brother seems to be.

Even this "roller coaster"...right after I took this picture, she looked at John with absolute horror on her face and started crying to get off! Ummm, maybe the Yeti at Disney World is NOT for her.
When we got home, we had MORE cupcakes, this time, complete with candles.
I love this picture - if you look close, you can see that she's blowing up. Look at her hair.
David ended up helping with the candles. She didn't care, she just wanted to dig in to the cupcake!!
One of her teachers at daycare (who also babysits for us quite a bit) gave her this sit-n-spin. I took this picture to give her with the thank you note. She loves that thing!
Woooooooo!!!!!
Lastly, I'll leave you with a video. This was taken at Joe's Crab Shack where we went for dinner on Katherine's birthday. They sang to her and she laid her head down on the table all shy until right after they were done, then she did this:

Oh wait - I'm not done YET! We have a little bragging to do on our David! He was accepted into the Gifted & Talented program at school! He started last week and so far he really enjoys it. He's pulled out of his class for a couple of hours every Monday (with 6 or 7 other 1st graders) to do some different work.

Two more stories to tell. One David-ism and one Katherine-ism!!

So if I say to Katherine, "You're SO CUTE!!!" all enthusiastic like, she'll say back to me, "And so smart! And so pret-ty!!" Come on, where does she get this stuff?!?! No one will confess to teaching her this. I'm a little afraid she came up with it all on her own. The first time she did it was at the dinner table one night. John and I cracked up laughing!

This isn't really a story so much as an event. We let David stay up until midnight on New Year's Eve. He watched the New York show at 11pm (live) and the local show at midnight. He thought that was pretty cool to get to stay up that late. I'm pretty sure that means we'll have to keep letting him do that which presents a problem since we usually don't even make it to midnight!

So there you go - you'll have to leave in the comments exactly how many cups of coffee it took you to make it all the way through this post!! It was a long one! I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas and a Happy New Year!!