It Ain't Christmas Until Santa Gets A Giftcard In The Butt

Christmas Eve usually consists of eating pizza, wadding up wrapping paper to chuck at the unsuspecting, and yelling at my Uncle Ed to wait until it's his turn to open a present. My family is crazy and I love them to bits.

A staged and not so great shot of us

Jer

Irish Matt, Michael and Jer

Dani and Kate

Miles

Bren and Jim

Aunt Yosh and Uncle Ed

Ah, yes - the "got milk" jokes just kept on coming

Miles loved Dave - mostly because he had possession of the snacks

Bubble wrap... one of Kate's favorite gifts

Bren and Miles

Christmas Eve Eve... I'm Getting There, Sheesh!

Uncle Jake, Aunt Jocelyn and Gavin came over to exchange gifts, eat fajitas and play an intense game of Cootie.

Miles and Gavin in the cage. Don't knock it 'till you've tried it.

It might look like he's been standing there for a while, but in reality it was only for the nanosecond it took to capture it on film. He really enjoyed the falling down part more.

Kate being tickled by Aunt Jocelyn

Winter Buncoland

Robyn hosted this month and, as usual, it was snow much fun. We ate homemade lasagna and padded around barefoot because I, for one, forgot to bring socks and it's always Hawaiian style at Robyns.

I totally won the prize for Most Buncos and will be spending my money and free time drowning in Starbucks peppermint mochas.

Kelly, Jen and Robyn

Robyn and I in our "holiday attire"

Heather and Cathy

Jen wasn't feeling that great, so a certain person suggested that she carry hand sanitizer around for the duration of the evening. Despite the ick, Jen totally won some Starbucks cash too.

Ummm, also a note to that Certain Person - you still owe five bucks for a fine. Mahalo.

It's Showtime, Super Beasts!

Wednesday was Show Night at The Little Gym and it was also Kate's last Super Beast class. She will henceforth be known as a Funny Bug. Our beloved Miss Maryn was out with valley fever, but the kiddos had a great time showing off for friends and family.

"Oh, Let's Play Our Bells!"

Warm ups - the video is of her class "stepsliding." There's no sound, but feel free to hum to yourself as you watch it.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-dI4cUaxmaY

Handstand

Forward roll video:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k3oqN9p-h-s

She learned this trick all by herself. Crazy kid.

On the uneven bars:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6tvFMM_-iHM

and the balance beam:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sSEJ7RU6Eg8

Bubble time - if you look closely, you can tell that some of the kids have their shirts pulled up. It's a big thing to get bubbles on your tummy... I've even seen leotards taken off to make sure it happens.

Circle time with Miss Melody. There's a lot of high five'n that goes on here at the Gym.

The Graduate

We're Pretty Sure that Kate's a Gamer

Yep, I'm behind on the blog. I totally feel your "Where's Christmas??" pain - however, the control freak that lives in my brain needs to present the happenings of our household in an orderly and sequential manner, so...

Robyn and Company bought Kate a game called Elefun for her birthday. It's this blue plastic elephant head with a rather tall trunk that shoots "butterflies" into the air. The object, naturally, is to catch them in the nets provided.

The warning label says," Hair entanglement may result if child's hair comes in contact with moving parts."

We had a Ele-Fun.

ps - please refrain from commenting on the fact that it looks like Kate's trying to create cleavege in picture #1. Thank you.

Tenenbaum

Josh insists on a real tree at Christmas - mostly because of the smell. I do like real trees, but, good grief (as Charlie Brown would say), they are a lot of work for such a little time. We had fun picking out the best one as Kate ran around getting lost in all the folige.



Miles posing as the "star"

Kate had only put about four ornaments on when I heard her say, "Well, that's enough ornaments for me!" She then retired to the couch to watch the rest of Rudolf. Her other Christmas favorites are "Frosting the Snowman" and BNL's version of "Jingle Bells." That's my girl. Oh, and when the snowman wasn't available, she wanted to know if she could watch "Frosting the Penguin."

For some reason, I had a really hard time putting the lights on the tree this year. I ended up with what Josh kept calling the "female end" of the string and no matter what society says, it just doesn't turn anything on that way.

The finished project.

The Bouncer Place

We had Kate's birthday at Pump It Up, or "the bouncer place" as she likes to call it. We had a great time, even though we were missing my mom and some of our friends due to high temperatures and green snotty noses. Miles even braved the big slide all by himself - that's how we raise these fearless kiddos of ours...

Miles

Watching the safety video

Mommy and Kate heading up the slide

The Birthday Girl

Astraea and Tre

Kate and Grace

Katie and "crazy" Scott

Her very own throne... and cupcake that she had been waiting for all day

Katie and Astraea got some great pictures as well. Be sure to check them out.

Three Is The Magic Number

Our Kate turned three on Saturday. What do I say about Kate? She's crazy, independant, head-strong, really funny, quite sharp, and the most beautiful creature I have ever laid eyes on. In a lot of ways, she is a lot like me - she loves to tease and would probably love a microphone if she ever got a hold of one. In some ways, though, she's nothing like me - Kate could absolutely care less about rules of any sort and that makes for a very interesting combination with my control issues. God is growing us both up!!!

For her birthday, I thought I'd just post my favorite pictures of her since she entered our lives three years ago. Happy Birthday, Kater.

Kate Noelle Wallace - December 16th, 2003 - 10:11 am - 7lbs 14 oz - 21 inches

Our first Christmas as a family of 3 - one week old

Amelia and Kate

6 months old

Kate's first Thanksgiving - 11 months old

1st Birthday!!

18 months old

2nd Birthday

A big sister - 26 months old

Her first trip to the movies

And here we go...