New Year's Eve playdate

We were hoping to get together with the Morris family for New Year's Eve, but they already had plans, and our sitter was unavailable, so they came over for a daytime playdate.  I've mentioned this before, but Annabel is about a year older than Natalie, and Evan is only about 3 months older than Grant.  And the kids all had a blast together, totally destroying the playroom!  We love it when our friends come over, and we can wait to go to their NEW house for the next playdate!  (We feel bad they've come to us for the last two!)

Natalie and Annabel watched Frosty the Snowman.  Annabel is the cutest thing.  She teared up during the scene where Frosty melted.  That really got me thinking... is Natalie JUST like me (and let's face it... Todd too!) and just not sensitive to that kind of stuff at all? Or is she still too young to realize what happened to Frosty?  Yikes!  Meanwhile, Evan is running circles around Grant! It's unbelievable how much older Evan looked than Grant, and he's only 3 months older. All because he was walking!  They are still a little young to "play together" but they played near each other!

For a few minutes, Evan got interested in Frosty the Snowman.  I titled this next one, "Yo Grant, for real, you're missing this!"

Christmas Day 2010

Naturally, we had to wake our kids up Christmas morning. I'm not sure if I've ever mentioned it on here (I know I talk about it a lot on Facebook), but my kids can sleep super late for a 3.5 year old and a 14 month old. I'm TRULY blessed. Are they healthy? Yeah, but can they SLEEP LATE??? In all seriousness, they have slept until 9 am before. So Todd and I got up at 6 and got ready for the day. We saw that Santa had been there and had left us lots of goodies. I also had to run out and get the biggest, baddest Diet Coke around, and have a slice of sour cream coffee cake that I had made two days before. 

Of course,  Natalie was more excited about the donut she got to eat for breakfast than for the presents!  Here is the "before" scene: 

See the Weebles treehouse?  That was a present from Santa, to Grant.  However, Natalie has since claimed it as her own.  It was her favorite present... and it wasn't even for her!!!!  Grant doesn't know any better, and he preferred his trucks over anything else.  Here are some pictures of the kids on Christmas morning.  Natalie was much better about ripping off wrapping paper this year.  I did the unwrapping for Grant.

Grant got a bunch of toys that had wheels on it.  He's obsessed with wheels. He will just sit there and spin them and spin them around.  Not in a weird way, because they only hold his attention for a few minutes, but he just loves wheels. 

After opening about 4 or 5 presents, Natalie decided she'd had enough and it was time for breakfast.  So we ate.  And after breakfast, we packed up the rest of the presents, which then took us 3 days to open, and went down to Plymouth to Grami and Bean's house.

At Grami and Bean's house, Grant got to wear Bean's "Grandpa" Santa hat (which here, could probably pass for "Grant"!)  He looked so cute!

Here he goes again with the wheels...

And of course, Christmas with small children wouldn't be complete without the ubiquitous "box that we had more fun with than any of the presents we got" picture!  Seth and Natalie made a little fort, and they would hide in here.  Please pardon my daughter's appearance.  We didn't feel like brushing her hair because it was so messy.  Sometimes, we'd rather her look like this than to try to tame the beast.



Christmas Eve 2010

Now that I have kids, I am actually pretty thankful that we get to stay at home.  Santa knows if you travel, so it's not like he would forget us, but it's just hard to bring it all back home if you're flying on a plane.  So it's so nice to stay home!  So, we went to church at 4, and then went to Uno's for dinner.  Don't laugh, nothing is open Christmas Eve.  We managed to stay Paleo, amazingly.  It was actually a pretty good meal.  After dinner, we went home to get ready for Santa's visit.  Natalie had to throw some Reindeer Dust on the snow so that it would sparkle in the moonlight and the reindeer would see our house and know to stop.  Todd caught this awesome picture of her throwing it.  

Grant meanwhile, just wanted to play.  He sat on the couch with me and just laughed and fell over. He thought it was the funniest thing.  Both kids were crazy jacked up and we hadn't even given them any sugar.

So then they had to sit in Daddy's lap while he read 'Twas the Night Before Christmas.  Natalie LOVED it.  It's a fun little book that has little moving parts that move when you turn the page.  So it makes it look like a moving picture book and that things are happening in the picture (this is Todd's description of it!)

Natalie was into it... Grant, not so much. He just kept trying to climb on Daddy and get over to his sister to annoy her.

So he got banished to the Exersaucer while Daddy finished the book.  Merry Christmas!

Cookie Baking

Unlike last year, when I was on maternity leave and had lots of time on my hands to do a ton of baking, I just didn't have time to get 'er done this year.  But I didn't want the holidays to go by without doing some my baking with my best girl.  We made some slice and bake Frosty the Snowman cookies because she has an obsession this year with Frosty.  No kidding, she knows all the words to the TV show.  And most of the words to Frosty Returns (starring John Goodman as the voice of Frosty! Hysterical.)

We also made some plain sugar cookies to take down to Plymouth to decorate.  We also made these amazing chocolate cookies from scratch and then melt and Andes mint candy on top of it once it is fresh out of the oven and put some green sprinkles on them.  YUM.  These went fast in Plymouth.  I think Bean ate his weight in chocolate mint cookies! 

 

Official Santa Photo 2010

Without further ado....

Just about every picture we have these days has Grant with his fingers in his mouth or in front of his face.  Poor guy, he's getting his 1 year molars.  And it feels like he's been getting them for weeks!  Natalie had the funniest look on her face- and we must have snapped 5-7 photos and in every photo, she had the funniest look on her face!  So cute!  Both kids were very good with Santa (it helped to watch other kids hop onto his lap, totally unafraid).  Afterwards, we celebrated with some Friendly's!  (Salads and ice tea for Mommy and Daddy though.  See, you CAN do Paleo almost anywhere!)

Kids Official Christmas picture

I didn't put this one on the Christmas card that I'm sending out, so I wanted to share it here on the blog (and Facebook, and myfamily...).  Happy Holidays from the Bailey kids!

Fun times at Logan's birthday party

Since Todd and I started CrossFit, we've met some pretty cool people.  I met Chad in my Elements class, and he and his wife Liz are super awesome.  The kids got invited to their son Logan's 3rd birthday party, which was at PlayTown Express in Hopkinton.  We are definitely going back there at some point!  (Probably on a cold, windy weekend in January).  Natalie and Grant just had a blast.

Grant discovered the Cozy Coupe and didn't want to get out.  In fact, he screamed when you took him out (uh oh, here we go!) until you could find him something else cool to play with, preferably something with wheels.  He played with trucks, and rode on the Step 2 Up and Down Roller Coaster (google it if you aren't familiar with it). 

I'm sensing a reoccurring theme here with Natalie:  Daredevil!  This slide was pretty steep, and the first time she went, she wanted me to go with her.  I might have gone a few more times, because it was really, really fun, but she went all on her own (over, and over, and over again!). 

Grant and Daddy had fun too.  This is after G had his bottle, a slice of pizza, and about a half a cupcake.  He's a happy guy after he eats!

I love the chaos that is kids birthday parties.  Just food and messes everywhere, lots of screaming and movement.  Natalie is in the pink shirt with the green party hat on.  She had been waiting all day for her cupcake and quickly devoured it.  She wanted another, so I gave her half of Grant's (he never seems to care one way or the other).  Thanks for a fun party Logan!!!

Trip to Florida - part 2

The second in a two part series, the Bailey family enjoys the rest of their Florida vacation!

On the Tuesday before Thanksgiving, we all got to go out in the boat with Nana and Pop Pop.  We drove up to Clearwater and went to Frenchy's for dinner.

The weather was really nice, if maybe a bit cool with the breeze off of the cooler water.  But Natalie had a blast running around the boat and yelling, "Faster Pop Pop!"  See?  She really IS a dare devil!

Grant, on the other hand, was not as enthusiastic.  He didn't hate it, but he definitely wasn't sure of the life jacket.  And he didn't like the breeze in his face, so he sat behind the "windshield" with Daddy.  Here they are coming back from dinner.  The next morning, Pop Pop and Natalie were on the porch and they saw a big fishing boat and Pop Pop asked Natalie what the boat was doing and she replied, "Going to Frenchy's!"  Of course!!! 

The day before Thanksgiving, Uncle Coco, Aunt Brie, and Auntie Britt surprised us and showed up a day early!  So we all went to Largo Central Park and played on the playground and threw a football around without our shoes on.  Aaaaahhh, I love Florida!   Of course, Grant was too little to play, but he had a fun time on the towel (we discovered he does not like grass!) with his toys and Uncle Coco!

Thanksgiving morning, Grant caught a comfy nap on Pop Pop.  He was out for over a half hour!  He woke up all sweaty though, ha ha.  Todd, Coco, Brie and I all went to run the Turkey Trot.  I'm happy to say that I DID achieve my goal of a sub-9 mile, and ran the 1 mile in 8:49!  I also enjoyed a big, fat Diet Coke from McDonalds (they are so much better in the south) after the race, as well as 3 donuts and a hot whiskey!

After all of that running, I deserved this big plate of food.  Ok, we know it's not Paleo, but if you're eating Paleo on Thanksgiving, a day of mashed potatoes, broccoli casserole, noodles, blueberry salad, and pie, you are CRAZY!!!

Trip to Florida - Part 1

For some reason, these "trips to Florida" posts are always in a series!

We left for Florida last Sunday to enjoy a week in the sun and 82 degree weather.  Whew!  Natalie started sweating as soon as she got off the plane!  Thankfully, I hadn't packed away her shorts and short sleeved shirts yet (Grant on the other hand, didn't own any shorts that fit!  But he did have a few short sleeved polo shirts).  We got to visit the Lowery Park Zoo on Monday and really had a blast.  More than I thought we would!  Both kids were very well behaved and Natalie was all jacked up over the animals and the rides! 

Oh the rides!  Natalie is such a dare devil.  I honestly can't believe it.  She always seems a little leery, but never really even hesitates to jump on bigger, scarier rides.

Such as this roller coaster.

The funniest part of this picture (other than Todd's dramatic face) is the little hand that is sticking up to the left of Todd.  She isn't even afraid to go hands free!!!!

We also rode the carousel.  She liked that the zebra went up and down as the carousel went around and around.  Geez, I seriously need a tan!!!

Lowery Park Zoo is much cooler than it used to be.  They have this great manatee tank that also has some fish and some sea turtles in it.  The manatees were so awesome.  But Natalie took a liking to this turtle that came right up to the big glass window and hung out while Natalie got up close and personal.

On the way home, she conked out while watching a DVD.  The DVD player was leaning on her face, she was out cold.  Must have been a good day at the zoo!!!

Grant's first haircut

Big boy was starting to look a bit like Tom Brady (shagtastic!), so we decided to get his haircut before we went to Florida. He was SO well behaved!  He moved around a lot - he wanted to see the lady cutting his hair, while she was cutting his hair, so it isn't the most even of haircuts, but at least he looks nice and trim!  He might be the sweetest kid ever!