Santa's on vacation!

Whew! We survived. It was a long weekend for many reasons, but one that was still full of fun and joy. Cole keeps asking about Santa and we have told him that he is on vacation, sipping margaritas, until next November. I've slowly been trying to put away the Christmas books, Elmo Christmas DVD, Santa cups, etc. to make Santa not be the first thing on Cole's mind when he wakes up. So far, not doing so good...he's still asking!

Festivities started at 3pm on Thursday heading to the "Children's" service at church. Hmm...nothing really "children-y" about it, other than they handed out cute necklaces and goodie bags to the kids. It was still over an hour long, half of which I spent in the cry room. Cole figured out if he said "I do potty" he could leave the sanctuary and Daddy would take him to the bathroom where he would flush the toilets over and over, which he enjoyed. So...he said, "I do potty" several time, very loud throughout the service. Joy to the World!

Kenleigh all dressed up in her little velour dress for church. At least one of us looks happy it's Christmas Eve?

Before Cole went to bed he put out his cookies for Santa, quite a few cookies! He was so stinkin' happy on Christmas morning to see that Santa ate nearly ALL the cookies and drank half the milk.

We don't have a chimney, but he still left a haul at our house!

Elmo was the present of the year. If it comes in Elmo we now have it...a talking Elmo, stuffed Elmo, a rolling Elmo backpack, Elmo sheets, Elmo Potty Books, etc. Cole will tell anyone that will listen that Santa came, brought presents and the presents were Elmo. Don't worry Auntie, he liked the Cars stuff, too. :)

Here is Sis hanging out in her holiday best. She had just finished rolling over...SURPRISE!

Trust me, she's celebrating on the inside...

As much as I love the holidays, now that they are over we are moving on. Up next...Valentine's Day!

Making memories...

I love traditions, especially around the holidays. Even though I can't be with my family (parents, sister, etc) on Christmas, I still love to celebrate our traditions. Seems like those revolve around food! Chex mix, lemon bars, meatballs, lefsa and Cougar Gold cheese...all important components of Christmas Eve around here.

So...yesterday we made the Chex mix and lemon bars. Lucky me I had a super great helper! Only once did he touch the pan and say "HOT!" He was right, it was hot and I probably shouldn't have let him stir in the hot pan. But...for the sake of tradition...

I had the kids in their holiday shirts yesterday and thought it would be cute to get a picture of them. Wow, didn't realize how impossible that would be. This is as close as I could get to both looking (somewhat) at the camera. Kenleigh looks like a wax figure! Also note the Snoopy sock on Cole's hand. He LOVES to wear socks on his hands. The Snoopy is a current fav since we lost 1 sock, so he can't wear them on his feet anymore. They now make a perfect fit for his hand.

Sis was reading books with Grammy while sitting in her Bumbo. Oh, I stopped a potential disaster yesterday. I looked up and Cole had stripped off his pants and his pull up and was getting ready to sit in the Bumbo thinking it was a potty seat. YIKES! Crisis averted.

Another great joy with kids at the holidays are the lovely crafts they make a school and bring home to pass off as "presents." Last year we got an snowflake ornament that Cole decorated with his picture in it. It is hanging on the tree this year and Cole walks up to it and says "Hole see Hole!" This means Cole wants to see and hold the picture of Cole. Check out this years treasure...hmm...?

Tonight is church, dinner and finishing Santa's work. The load of presents he is leaving at our house this year is overwhelming. The kids are getting spoiled, no doubt. Tonight at 5:30pm Santa is calling our house. I found a website that sends you a personalized call from Santa. I can hardly wait to see the look on Cole's face...!

MERRY CHRISTMAS EVE!!

Grandpa is coming to town...

We enjoyed a great weekend with Grandpa Fromhold in town. What a joy to watch Cole and Grandpa play and get ready for the holidays!

The fun started on Saturday morning when they made Christmas cookies. Cole was in charge of cutting out the cookies and sometimes got a little aggressive with the santa cookie cutter. In the end, the cookies turned out not half bad for 2 guys...ages 2 and 67! :)

I have no pictures to prove we went to ZooLights, but trust me...we went. Us and 2000 of our closest friends in the Valley of the Sun. I am not joking when I say we walked nearly a mile...just to get from our car to the zoo. Then walked the entire zoo admiring the lights. The kids had fun and both zonked out in the car. That was the latest Kenleigh had ever been up. She normally is snoozeville by 7pm!

Sunday morning we had Grandpa Pancakes. My dad's pancakes are a favorite childhood memory. Girlfriends that stayed the night would wake in morning to pancakes specially made in the shape of their initials and bunnies and more. Grandpa made Cole special pancakes shaped like Christmas tree's, wreath's and the ever famous bunnies (no molds used!). Mom and Dad ate standard model pancakes...YUM!

We had a great visit with Grandpa and miss him already. When I was getting Cole dressed for school yesterday he said, "Cole see Grandpa?" Sad...

Also...we are ready to put out our cookies for Santa! I painted this plate last week at a paint your own pottery place. Now, if we can just restrain ourselves from eating ALL the cookies before Thursday night so there are some left for Santa...

Please note...we really do have a baby girl named Kenleigh. She seems to always be sleeping when I have the camera out. I promise to get pictures of her on Christmas and prove that she is a happy member of our family! :)

It's almost Christmas!!

Happy Holidays!

We have had some festive activities this week. The fun started on Tuesday when we met our friends Sean, Rachel and Haley for dinner and snow watching. We took Cole to see it snow last year and he loved it...good news it was a hit again this year! When you live in Arizona it only snows for 10 minutes per night, from 7:00pm-7:10pm and you don't need snow boots, thank you Tempe Marketplace!

Before the snow we had dinner. While mom's and dad's enjoyed wine, beer and catching up...Cole and Haley decided to feed each other broccoli. Couldn't have been cuter! These two have been hanging out since Haley was 6 months old and they are now starting to really interact. They've been to the Children's Museum, the Zoo, Birthday parties...but turns out we just needed to give them broccoli to get them to play!

Wednesday the entire Blubaum clan (Grammy and Papa, too!) packed up and went to Cole's school for the Holiday Concert. Cole had been practicing his songs and was prepared to perform Jingle Bells, Let it Snow and Santa Claus is Coming to Town. Wouldn't you know when his big moment came he just smiled and waved, but never opened his mouth and sang one word. Huh? Gotta love 2 year olds! I still consider it a success since my kid wasn't one of the ones that came screaming and crying to mom as soon as they saw her. Cole actually stayed "on stage" the entire time. Good job Cole! The best was when we got in the car, he sang all of Jingle Bells. I told him it was a little late to try and get an applause. Look how cute they dressed up the kids for the performance!

Grandpa Fromhold arrives today and we plan on taking the kids to Zoo Lights and celebrating our own Christmas while he is here. Hard to believe Christmas is already a week away!

I don't have any new pictures of Kenleigh to post, but she is as fat and happy as ever! She is the biggest smiler, giggler and just a darn happy little girl. She loves her time with Grammy but I can tell she misses mommy. That is why she's getting up in the middle of the night, right? To see me? ;)

Mom's on the town!

Last weekend while Shawn was in Seattle, the kids and enjoyed an Auntie Weekend! My sister came (sans kids) and spend the weekend with us -- what a treat!

The bigger treat was that Grammy watched the kids on Saturday night while Kristie and I went out for dinner and a movie. We couldn't remember the last time we went somewhere with no husbands and no kids...had to have been at least 4 years. We treated ourselves to another viewing (her 3rd, my 2nd) of New Moon. Really, a girl can't see Jacob Black shirtless too many times. ;)

3 month twins!

My girlfriend Karla found this picture of Autumn (taken on her 3 month birthday) on my blog and was entertained by how much Autumn and Kenleigh looked alike (think it's just the big cheeks). So...I decided on Kenleigh's 3 month birthday I would dress her in the same outfit and see how much these girls really look alike. Again, I think they are both just BIG baby girls!!

Kenleigh was at the doctor last week and is already weighing in at 14lb 6oz. Holy big baby....

Happy 3 month birthday sis!

Turkey Day

Thanksgiving fun started on Tuesday with a "Thanksgiving Feast" at Phoenix Children's Academy where Cole goes to school. Shawn and I both joined Cole for a traditional Thanksgiving meal with all the fixin's! We were so excited to be able to eat lunch with him and his little friends. He's only been going to his new school for about 2 months, so we are still getting to know all the other kids, etc.

When we showed up I had to giggle that eating lunch with the kids meant eating at the kids table. We actually sat at chairs that were about 6" off the ground and were barely big enough for 1 butt cheek. What a riot! All the kids and parents sat around the tables passing food and enjoying the company. Then there was my kid, shouting through the whole lunch "MORE CORN, MORE CORN!" You can see from his plate that he had plenty of corn, but he wasn't going to be happy until all of the corn was his. He also loved eating the "puntin hie."

Later that day Cole entertained us by putting on my shoes and walking through the house. Shawn's wasn't amused as I was...

I feel like I need to comment on the fact that my child never has pants on in any pictures. I didn't realize what a trend this was until I looked back at the blog posts. I think this must be a function of potty training for him. He is constantly pulling off his pull up to go "potty toilet" and in order to go potty the pants and pull up must both be pulled off entirely. Cole can't have them around the ankles while he goes. Thus we end up with no pants quite often. Most the time he just goes "potty toilet" so he can get an M&M.

On Thanksgiving day Shawns parents came over for our own feast. Here is Kenleigh enjoying her first Thanksgiving. I squeezed her into this 3 month outfit and assured her she would never have to wear it again. She's so serious...and so bald!

Wait...here she is smiling! CHEEKS! :)
We taught Cole the joys of putting olives on your fingers. He LOVES olives and ate almost the whole can. Excuse his wet shirt, he had just dumped a glass of water down his shirt. He's experimenting with using a big boy cup...not going so well as you can see.
Now that Thanksgiving is over, you can see "it's beginning to look a lot like Christmas" here at the Blubaum's!

You have to love the holidays in Arizona. Where else can you go swimming the day after Thanksgiving? After 12 wonderful weeks at home with my kiddos, I am back to work. Kenleigh is going to be spending her days with her Grammy. Lucky gal...they seem to be getting along nicely...

What, isn't this how everyone spends Sunday morning?

Elmo jammies with no pants...a pull up...Elmo slippers and a bike helmet...riding his bike in the garage. Awesome.

Later in the day he was spotted wearing his Seahawks t-shirt, no pants (what is with no pants!?!) and his dad's giant sneakers...mowing the lawn.

Ahh...life when you are 2!

So...it's a little early...

I love Christmas. I start celebrating it on November 1st. I don't care what others say...I just love Christmas.

So, today I was shopping with my mother in law looking for the Blubaum Family Christmas Tree. I finally convinced Shawn (after 5 years!) to get an artificial tree. It goes against everything I was raised to believe, but I have become a fake tree lover and am thrilled to finally purchase my very own. I love the ease that in a moment, POOF, it can be Christmas in my house...then magically on December 27th or 28th, when I am over Christmas, with one swoop it can be gone. No cleaning up needles, or waiting for the Boy Scouts to come pick up the tree. I am so excited!

Anyways...while shopping for our tree I stumbled upon these trees. LOVE THEM! Growing up Shawn always had his own tree in his room, so it was important to him that the kids have them too. Perfect blue and pink for my little boy and baby girl.

Sure, we haven't even purchased our turkey for Thanksgiving...but the kids are rockin' their trees. I LOVE CHRISTMAS!!

The BIG update

A lot has happened since our last post...Cole turned 2, Kenleigh turned 2 months and the kids had a visit with their Great Grandma!

On November 3rd we had the official celebration of Cole's 2nd birthday. To kick off his birthday right, Cole hit a major milestone. He went #1 and #2 in the toilet at school. Woo hoo! Potty training has begun. I never thought I could do so much potty talk! Cole is doing great...we have a long road ahead of us but we are so happy he's starting so soon!

He opened his presents when he got home from school and loved his bike! He loved his helmet almost more than the bike. He tried to wear it to dinner!

We celebrated his birthday at Red Robin, just like we celebrated his 1st birthday. Cole loves the food, the balloons and the Robin himself. Once again he didn't eat his birthday sundae...oh well, we all took care of that for him!

This weekend we enjoyed a visit from Great Grandma Jay (Shawn's Grandma). She came in from California to stay with Al & Virginia. It was so wonderful to spend time with her and Kenleigh just loved her! Smiles, smiles and more smiles.

On Sunday Miss Kenleigh turned 2 months old! This is where the blog post gets it's title...we have ourselves one big baby! Here are the 2 month stats:

Weight: 13lb 6.5oz (97th percentile)

Height 23" (75th percentile)

Here is a picture to prove just how big she is getting...CHEEKS!!!

Elmo's World!

One thing is for certain...our Coley loves his Elmo. This weekend we celebrated Halloween and Cole's birthday Elmo style!

Saturday we picked up Grandpa and Nana at the airport for a visit. This was the first time they met little Kenleigh and she took to them both right away. She enjoyed snuggle time with both and I got one picture of Grandpa with his girl!

Halloween night was crazy but fun. Everything happened at once...between getting the baby in the bath, fed and put to bed, making dinner, getting Cole dressed in costume and on his way AND dealing with the doorbell ringing with Trick or Treaters...I was a little stressed! Daddy took Cole out on his first Trick or Treating adventure and the report was great! He said "Trick or Treat" at every house AND said "thank you" to everyone after they gave him candy. Wow, an Elmo with great manners...he was a total hit with the neighbors! They hit all the houses on our street and then called it a night. Good news is he kept the costume on the entire time, SUCCESS! We are holding onto the Elmo costume, just in case little Kenleigh ends up loving the red furry monster, too.Sunday morning we raced around to get ready for Cole's 2nd Birthday Party. Elmo was the star of Sunday as well. This fantastic cake was made by my girlfriend Rachel -- she did a great job! The kids spent a lot of time playing in Cole's new sandbox (thank you Auntie) and running around outside enjoying the sun. Nice to have on shorts on November 1st! Cole wasn't into blowing out his candle...scared of the flame I guess. Good news is he was into the cake! Kenleigh enjoyed the party, too!

He is also very into opening presents. We let him open a few last night, he's really got the hang of ripping open the paper. He got very upset when we wouldn't let him open more presents. Even this morning he kept saying "more presents, more presents." Ugh!

I also thought it was funny that on Sunday morning around 4:15am he woke up and was in his room crying (not the funny part). He was of course asking for Mama, but at one point through his tears also said, "candy" he then fell back asleep. Gotta hand it to a kid who knows what he wants!


More pictures after Tuesday's birthday festivities!