Thursday, December 31, 2009

Christmas in N.C.

On Christmas Eve, we hopped a plane (two actually) to North Carolina to spend the holiday with Ted's family. Once again, we had multiple cameras snapping pictures, so I have a LOT of pictures to post and will therefore try to minimize the commentary. Thankfully we didn't have the pictures from Madigan's camera as well or I'd never be able to sort through them all!
These aren't all in order of when they actually occurred, but I didn't figure that would matter. One night, we went to a little town called Meadow that has an amazing light display. You get on a train and ride through the lights. Madigan loved it!
I should probably explain why she's dressed like a little Orphan Annie. Mommy didn't think about it getting a LOT colder after the sun went down and we left the house with just a little sweater. So, she's wearing Daddy's coat. And the hat? Well, it was pink and sparkly. That should be enough of an explanation.We got a family picture made in front of Meadow's little country store. And while looking at Christmas lights was fun, the highlight for Madigan was, of course, opening presents on Christmas morning! Here's the pre-present opening picture. My sweet kiddos...As always, we got way too many presents but had a blast sharing Christmas with everyone. Ted modeled his new NC State winter hat...while David sported his festive red suspenders. :)And Paxton again just hung out and enjoyed the fun!
Madigan got too many presents to mention, but the "big one" was a Princess scooter. Check out this pose - what are we going to do with her?!Paxton wonders that a lot as well...Other things we did during the week...
The kiddos cuddled with Grandi,Aunt Kate,
and Gramps. Madigan and Grandi bonded over some teddy bear stories. And Paxton played on Grandi and Gramps' cool toys. Here's our standard before-Sunday-morning-church picture. One thing we love to do while in N.C. is play NERTZ with Grandi and Kate. Gramps has never played with us despite repeated invitations. Turns out this works out well now that we need someone to watch the kids while we play. :) When we told Paxton that Gramps would be in charge of them, he was a little concerned.
But after some good conversations with Gramps, it was decided that he made a great babysitter!We also learned that while Gramps won't play games with the grown ups, he enjoys games like Candyland. This worked out well for Madigan. Madigan ended up winning the game, although Gramps was a little confused on why she got two turns to every one of his... :)On our last day there, Aunt Kate took Madigan to see the Princess and the Frog. This is really the first movie that Madigan has seen in a theater. She was quite excited!Plus there were fun things in the lobby to play with! This picture turned out a bit blurry, but since Madigan has talked about standing by Alvin and his brothers for 5 solid days now, I had to include it!A princess movie at a real theater would have been exciting enough, but when you couple that with an outing with just Aunt Kate and getting to wear her sunglasses...well there's just no way to compete!And even though Kate won't be thrilled with me, I had to post this picture as well. Grandi snapped it after one of our meals. Apparently this is the Bowsman sibling after-dinner pose. :)We had a wonderful trip and are so glad everything worked out for us to go. Thanks to Grandi, Gramps and Aunt Kate for making it fun and memorable! We love you all!

Sunday, December 27, 2009

Santa Came!

After a month of preparing for Christmas, it finally arrived! The kids were unbelievably excited. Here's a video of Paxton on Christmas morning telling you all about it...

(FYI - he was fine at the end of the video. Just a little hairball. :) )

And yet, even that excitement couldn't quite compare to his sister's. Madigan had asked Santa for a kitchen set and guess what...

She got it! To say she was excited would be an understatement.
Here she is talking about the good job the elves did. (Excuse the plumber pants at the start of the video. We have problems with that!)

Paxton, on the other hand, just laid back and took it all in. After about 10 minutes, we were finally able to tear Madigan away from the kitchen set and she dug into her stocking and other presents. Some of this stuff requires a lot of concentration!Plus she had to help Mommy and Daddy open presents. What would we do without her?!Paxton continued to just take it all in. Madigan helped him out by surrounding him with his presents. It was a lot of fun celebrating our family Christmas this year. It's amazing what a 3 year old's excitement and energy can add to the whole experience. All in all, Madigan gave it 2 thumbs up and Paxton was very pleased as well!More Christmas fun coming soon!

Friday, December 25, 2009

Christmas Fashion Parade

Somehow we accumulated a lot of Christmas outfits for the kids this year, so this post will be dedicated to the pictures we have of them in their holiday attire.

Madigan
Outfit #1 - Here Madigan is modeling her Christmas present shirt. (The snowman frame is in the background because I was trying to send her some subliminal messages.)
Outfit #2 - Next we have Madigan in her Rudolph shirt. Rudolph's red nose blinked constantly...during playtime, naptime and even Bible class.

Outfit #3 - If you read our blog, you've already seen this in the last post about seeing Santa. But I hated to not include this outfit in the fashion parade and I didn't get any other pictures of her in it. Grandi gave her this one. Outfit #4 - Grandi also made this green snowman dress, which I unfortunately did not get a picture of without the coat on. But the red and green still looks Christmas-y, so I'm posting it.Outfit #5 - And last but not least, here's Madigan in her Christmas pajamas. She's actually still in these right now...even though it's after lunch time. Don't judge me - Christmas Day is a great day to stay in your pajamas!
Paxton

Outfit #1 - Even though you can't see all of his outfit here, I thought this was a sweet picture. Paxton is wearing his Christmas sleeper with reindeer on the feet.

Outfit #2 - The "Elf in Training" sleeper. This is the first picture I've had of him looking a little mischievous. Maybe he does have a little of his sister in him... :)
Outfit #3 - Again, you've seen this outfit in the Santa pictures. But I LOVE the "Little Elf" written across the bottom. Outfit #4 - This is an outfit that has been passed down among our church friends. He wore it to church on a Wednesday night and several people said, "My kid had that outfit." Then we figured out that it was the same one. :) (Look familiar, Marie?!)
Outfit #5 - Last but not least is his snowman outfit. This is the best picture I had of the outfit...But this was my favorite picture of him in it. I think he was saying, "Enough with the pictures, Mom!"And there actually was one more Christmas outfit for Paxton that he wore to church last Sunday, but sadly I didn't get any pictures that morning. I may try to put it back on him sometime and take some pictures. :)

Posts about Christmas fun coming soon. Hope you all had a very Merry Christmas!

Sunday, December 20, 2009

You Better Watch Out...

"You'd better not cry. Better not pout, I'm telling you why. Santa Claus is coming to town."
Madigan has heard these words many times over the last few weeks. Hey, might as well use it while it will work!

But on Saturday, Santa Claus really did come to town and even spent a couple of hours at our church for "Santa Day". Madigan was SO excited to see him and to give him the card she'd made for him. Until he arrived, that is. Then it took about 2 hours and 10 adults trying all of the tricks to convince her to sit with him and get her picture made. This picture does a good job of capturing this struggle...
FINALLY, our efforts paid off and she sat with him. What finally changed her mind? I told her that Santa wouldn't know what to bring her for Christmas if she didn't sit with him and tell him. And if he didn't know what to bring her, she might not get anything. Does that make me a bad mom? Don't answer that. Anyway, it worked, but she was still a little nervous...But after only a minute or two she figured out that Santa was pretty cool. She even talked to him and smiled for the camera!Paxton had no issues with fear. He happily lounged with Santa and shared with him his Christmas wishes. "So here's what I've been thinking Santa..."Santa was also sweet enough to oblige me and hold Paxton up on his shoulder so that we could get a picture of the "Little Elf" on the bottom of his outfit. Isn't that cute?!All in all, a great Santa Day. Santa, if you're reading this, thanks for spending the day with us at Levy! Everyone had a wonderful time!