Merry Christmas to all and to all a good night!

Whew!!! What a day! It was another success Thomas/Little Christmas! We started the day off at home where the girls thankfully didn't get up until around 9am! I was really surprised, but we all got up and gazed at the goodies that Santa brought us. Emaline got a Barbie Glam Jet and Piper got a new bike (among other things). Then we opened our gifts to each other, thanks Josh for my new Xbox Kinect! I love it and it is so fun to play with the kids. We then hopped in the car and headed to the Littles where we enjoyed a wonderful breakfast (Thanks Audrey!) and opening gifts with everyone, including Madisyn, our niece. It was really laid back and we didn't even get out of our jammies! I love that about our Christmases.
Then after taking a short break at home (dropping off gifts) and grabbing the dog, we went over to my parents' house with my sisters and opened MORE gifts. It took us quite a bit of time to get through everyone! The kids loved playing with each others' new games and books and we adults laid back waiting for an awesome dinner by Nana. We had a great day, but it really was long. Piper of course had no nap, so she was really tired by the time we went home and Emaline was ready for some rest too, not to mention Mom & Dad. :-) We came home and put the girls to bed and enjoyed some down time.

I only wish we could see my CA family at the holidays. That would be the only thing I would change about our holidays. Otherwise, I think me and my family have very blessed times together. We have food in our bellies, roofs over our heads and enough love to choke an elephant! Christmas is one of my favorite times of the year and I only hope my girls learn that love of family and friends is what keeps that going, oh and believing in the Christmas spirit! Santa is always watching ;-) Merry Christmas!!

Thomas Christmas Party 2010

We had our annual Thomas Family Christmas party this past weekend and had yet again a wonderful turn out! It was so good to see friends and family members that we didn't even remember to take any pictures! Geesh, horrible blogger, but fantastic partier!! At least that's something. This year it was a little rough though because the girls and I had been so sick the week before and quite honestly Emaline was still not feeling well on Saturday night. Not enough sleep added to the fire and she was not her happy-go-lucky self for the first part of the night, but she picked herself up by her bootstraps and got downstairs with all the rest of the kids. It was madness now that so many little ones come to the event! Thanks to everyone who came and spent time with us. It is so wonderful to know that we have friends like you all!

Huntin' for a Christmas Tree

On Sunday following our dinosaur excursion, we got up early ( waited for Josh to get home from work) and got dressed and headed west for our annual Christmas tree hunt. We met the fam at the IHOP in Lake Saint Louis and had some awesome cinnastack pancakes. Mmmm, delish! Thankfully, all the kids ate and were fueled up for our big outing into the 29 degree weather! Think Randy from A Christmas Story, that's how I bundled up my girls. I'm surprised they moved at all...We went to a new place this year, Valley Farms in Foristell. It was actually their first year with Christmas trees and I think we did pretty well for ourselves. The price wasn't too bad either, I think it was $6/foot, which is pretty normal for tree farms. We decided because it was cold that we shouldn't dawdle and of course everyone got a tree before I did. I was the last to pick, as usual. Finally, Piper and I found the perfect one and Josh and the girls did their duty and cut it down like experienced little lumberjacks. Then my sister and I proceeded to put the tree up on the roof of my car and tie it down. Where was my husband you say? Yeah, talking trash and watching from the sidelines with my brother-in-law. That's cause us Thomas girls get it done!! :-) I let him slide considering he was up for 24hours straight. We all got home at a decent hour and got our respective trees up and ready for decorating. Another year a success! So happy that we have this wonderful tradition. I wouldn't have it any other way! Merry Christmas everyone!!!

Digging for Dinosaurs

This past Saturday, me and girls went to meet Aunt Stephy, Uncle Adham, Kaya & Kellen for some digging for dinosaurs! It was at Bowles Elementary in Fenton, so it wasn't too far of a jaunt for me, but quite a haul for the Ahmads! Thanks to them for joining us it was so much fun and the kids loved every minute of it. I couldn't believe how well they were all behaving and helping each other. These Parents as Teachers events are really something fun to get into and you meet people and the kids have such a good time. Real cheap fun too, it was only $5 per family! The kids got to do fun activities such as: digging for dinos, obstacle courses, games, playdoh, stamping, painting, coloring, puzzles, blocks, reading, etc. They had it all! Such a fun time, can't wait to do the next one!

Kellen's First Birthday!

The young man has finally turned one! I can't believe it. Steph and Adham did a great job of serving us brunch the Sunday after Thanksgiving. Everything was really good (plus the cheesy potatoes that I brought) and there was a super hero kinda theme. The cake was awesome, but I unfortunately didn't get a picture of before we cut into it. The little man opened his gifts, with obvious help from his sister, cousins and friends. It was madness, but so much fun for the kiddos! I enjoyed seeing our little prince dig into his little cake and then get so upset that he was dirty! Good times.

Happy Thanksgiving!

We had another very thankful holiday this year and the only thing I could have wished for was to have Joshua spend it with us and not working. Although, he will have Christmas AND New Year's off! I'm very excited about that one. As I was saying, we have much to be thankful for this year: being surrounded by family and friends and having all of them in excellent health. I'm grateful for my two wonderful girls, my loving husband, having a roof over our heads and pretty much able to do what ever our little hearts desire. I tried to explain to Emaline that not everyone is as lucky as we are. We did some donating this November to the Rockwood Early Childhood Food bank, Goodwill and the Boy Scouts Food Drive. We are also going to go through our toys and clothes and donate them to others. Em kinda had a hard time understanding giving up her things, but realizes that other kids would like to enjoy them too :-) Hopefully this year we will be able to adopt a family with my sister for the Christmas season. We have so much and I know that so many have so little. Its not much, but its something. :-) I truly hope that all of you out there reading this have been as lucky as we have over these years and had a wonderful Thanksgiving and a very happy holiday season to come!

Fun Day at Magic House with Friends!

Way back in May sometime, I purchased a package of five tickets from Groupon for the Magic House to use before the end of the year. Well, when that reminder email came from Groupon to use it up before it expired (love that), I decided to ask my friend Sarah and her daughter, Mimi to join us for a day of fun and learning. The kids always love going to the Magic House and I can't blame them, it is a pretty fun place to run around and do hands on music making, experimenting and pretend play. Thankfully we went right when it opened on a Saturday and that was the best because it wasn't as crowded as it usually was and then decided to have lunch at McDonald's afterward and play in the playplace . It was perfect timing since the kids were asleep by the time we got home! It was great to spend time with my friend (whom I am so happy is back in STL!) and to see the girls playing together. Thanks Sarah and Mimi for a wonderful day and we can't wait to do it again!Mimi & PJ on the pulleys

PJ and Mimi getting ready for the watertable

Emaline weighing and measuring her baby in the nursery

Mimers and PJ taking care of their babies

Emaline's Thanksgiving Party

Yesterday was Emaline's class Thanksgiving party at school. I volunteered to bring a book to read and helped out in the classroom. So, Piper and I joined in the fun and brought Thanksgiving Day by Anne Rockwell, which was a really cute book about the history of Thanksgiving. I got to read it in front of the class while Piper had the biggest poop explosion ever...so much for helping out. We ran to the bathroom and got cleaned up and THEN helped with a very cute craft of making turkeys out of Dixie cups and paper plates. The kids had a fun game of Egg & Spoon Race and then we all sang songs and it was a lot of fun. I was really glad we were all there to share these new things that school has to offer with her. I'm excited for when she goes to kindergarten and we get to do these types of parties for all holidays. Although, I'm not so ready for her to grow up, I know I will be good at helping her for these types of things, cause I loved it so much when my parents came to help out. It was fun sharing those experiences with them and I hope Em and PJ will have the same feelings with me and Josh. :-)

I also love that Emaline is the only one holding up her place mat she made to make sure everyone sees it. I trained her well.

Happy Birthday Josers!

After our first birthday party of the day, we took a drive and headed towards the CWE for our friend Josie's fourth birthday. Hats off to her genius parents for having the Scooby Doo party at their photography studio where the kids got to watch Scooby movies on the wall, eat Dum Dums, draw all over the floor and have Scooby cupcakes. I think my kids went into sugar hyperdrive! Thanks to John for all the fun pics of the day. We had a fantastic time! Love you guys!

Happy 2nd Birthday Mallory P!

Our friend Mallory is going to have her second birthday this year, but her and her parents (Conor & Trish) are going to be in Brazil for her big day! They get to visit Conor's sister, Erin for the holidays with her husband and his family--so exciting! So...Mallory had an early birthday party :-) We went to the House of P and got to spend a wonderful morning/afternoon with their family and friends. Abbie Cadabbie was the party theme and Piper thought it was the best! The girls had such a fun time spending some play time with their friend and I thoroughly enjoyed hanging out with friends. :-) Thanks to Trish & Conor and their family for such a great day! Hope that you all enjoy yourselves down South!!

Happy 25th Birthday Kayleigh!

The second of the fall birthdays is Kayleigh's and we all went out to dinner for a fantastic Mexican feast at Mi Ranchito in University City. We packed up all the kids and took Kayleigh's friend Tania with us. So we were definitely a full table! Thankfully, everyone behaved and sat to eat a wonderful meal. I had a cheese enchilada and pork tamale and they were great! We all came back to the house to get cake and ice cream and sing Aunt Kayleigh Happy Birthday! It was laid back, but just perfect for this crew.

Hot sauce!! Watch out! :-)

Halloween 2010

It was another low key Halloween at the Little house this year, mainly because Josh always works on Halloween night. Hopefully one of these days he'll be able to stay home and take his girls trick-or-treating! My sister and I have decided to alternate houses on Halloween so that the kids can be all together when out soliciting for sweet treats. So this year was my house and my parents, in-laws, sisters, brother-in-law and friends Robyn & Craig came over to share in some meatball subs and "meat whiz" (as Adham calls it-Velveeta with Rotel and hamburger meat, its delish!) I of course made little ghost cakes for dessert and then CANDY! A whole bunch of it. I was a little disappointed at my turn out in the neighborhood, usually we run out of treats completely, but I guess everyone was in different places this year. We tend to have a lot of kids running up and down our street because one of the neighbors does a full and complete haunted house in their backyard. I mean, people line up for this one and its all free, they do ask for donations to keep it going though. They do a great job and this time it was scary!! We all dressed up some way or another and I think the kids had a wonderful night. Thankfully it wasn't freezing cold either! Here's to next year!!
Josh and I actually got to have a night to ourselves at Six Flags for Fright Fest too with three other couples and it was so much fun! Hopefully we'll get to do it again next year.