Christmas 2011

We had an awesome Christmas this year! Santa, Patrick and I really went a tad overboard, but isn't that how Christmas is supposed to be??

I was the first one up Christmas morning, which is a surprise because I'm usually the last one lately! It wasn't long before Aiden was up and I spied him peeking down the stairs as I was on my way to the bathroom. I sent him to wake Patrick up and then we heard Emma.  Everyone was excited to see what Santa brought so we headed downstairs!

Em has no clue what's going on

"Wow!" was her response when she finally saw everything!

The Mario pillow and shopping cart were the first things that caught their eyes

And she's gone shopping...

After the initial wow's and Emma taking her cart for a stroll we got down to business. I took about a million pictures, don't worry I tried to narrow them down.  Emma got a lot of clothes and babies/baby stuff (stroller, crib, bottles). This year she was really into opening her presents.  She would rip off tiny pieces and then hand them to us to throw away. And she's such a girl that when she found her necklace and hair bows in her stocking, we had to stop and immediately put them on! :-)

Aiden also had a great Christmas and got all kinds of stuff! Santa came through and got him the 3 things he wanted the most: a talking Lightning McQueen, a color changing Lightning McQueen, and a DS!  He wasn't too impressed with his new clothes unless they came with SpongeBob or Mario on them.

A fire power Mario was in his stocking!

Insisting we stop and put on one of her new hair bows

All dolled up

Going through stockings

Hanging out in her new princess tent

Here's some trash

Opening presents

He liked something a lot!

Christmas morning

Em's too busy for pictures

Checking out her new clothes

Sitting in her new chair opening presents

Aiden was very excited to show Emma what he picked out for her

His talking Lightning McQueen

Good little Mommy

What is it, Aiden?

A DS!!!!!!

Taking her babies shopping

Aiden picked out Mario pajamas to give to Patrick : )

It took forever to open all those gifts.  Here's what Emma thought about being done and having no more to open...

Is that perfect or what??

After presents we were able to hang out and play with their toys before heading to my grandmothers.  We were planning on heading over to the cemetery to visit Mom & Kevin but after opening gifts there just wasn't enough time and it was probably better to keep this as a happy day.

Here's a couple pictures of the kids in their Christmas outfits before we headed out.

Handsome Aiden

Pretty Emma

I love this one!

She's more interested in his feet

And now he's gotta check her out

Funny face time!

The Christmas Grouch!

Merry Christmas (2011)

 

Y3W: Miss Ghetto America

This weekend Miss America comes on tv, for my cousins/friends and I that means it's time for Miss Ghetto America.  Each year, for the past 5 years we get together on this night and watch the real one and have our own pageant.  I've got to admit, it may sound silly, but it is one of the BEST nights of the year. 

We all have been given our "ghetto" nicknames.  "The Shiz" aka Aimee came up with this event and puts SO much work into it! My nickname is "Pookie D", Kelly is "Lil Mama", Kaye is "Glammie Grammie", and Candi is "The Candi Shoppe".

The smack talk of who is going to win lasts all year long. When we get to Miss Ghetto America's Pink Palace the pictures begin and the smack talk continues, as does the eating of all things junk food which are deemed calorie free for the night!

As it gets closer to show time we draw numbers for our draft picks. Then the "real" girls cards are laid out and we take turns picking "our girls".  When the show starts we have a board to keep our picks on until they get eliminated. Whoever picked the Miss America wins Miss Ghetto America and takes the crown. Yes, we have a real crown. This is serious people! 

Here are some pictures from last year, I wish I had some from all the years past on this computer, but I don't. 

Pictures of the past winners...see the one in the middle...that's me!!

Go Pookie D!

We all get our local titles as well, here is Miss Po-Po Ho

The Shiz was VERY pumped for this to start, unfortunately, she didn't take the crown...again!

All the Contestants before the show

My ladies (which were a bunch of losers by the way!)

Did The Shiz pick the winner?

The Candi Shoppe thinks she's got this

Lil' Mama wants to take the crown back home

Glammie Grammie showing off her picks

Here's the top 15 board, we pull them off as they get elimated...

And the loser crown (first out). Sadly Kelly and I shared this crown last year

My final walk as Miss Ghetto America 2010

The final 3 and Aimee's out...as you can see, it get SUPER serious at this point!!

And Miss Ghetto America 2011 is Glammie Grammie

Posing with the girls

And the official catch phrase and winner's shirt

And because I have to include my winning moment...

MGA 2010...Miss Baby Mama Drama

I love this night!!! It is SO much fun!! And this year that crown is coming back home with me!!! Stay tuned for lots of pictures of our night!

Christmas Eve 2011

Shew! I guess I've taken some sort of break from blogging.  While it's a great way to keep track of things for myself and the kids, it's tough to keep up with sometimes.  I usually sit down one day and write everything that I'm going to for the week, that way when that day comes around, I just need to post it, no brain work required.  Every time I've thought about sitting down to write anything since Christmas I'll just tell myself, I'll do it later.  I've always been a bit of a procrastinator!!

So here we go...I'm finally getting around to blogging again.  Let's hope this isn't just a one time thing! :-)

Christmas has always been super busy for us, running all around to three different houses, not including doing our own Christmas here.  With the kids getting older, it just doesn't seem fair to pull them away from all of their Christmas goodies Santa brought them to run all around so we decided to try and start a new Christmas tradition...have my in-laws over here Christmas Eve and have our Christmas with them.

When every one came over we ate dinner, ran our mouths, and then after the kids insisted we opened the presents!!  Here are a couple pictures from the night!

Putting out the reindeer food before everyone got here

Putting out the reindeer food before everyone got here

Patrick after getting his eat on

Brothers

Brotherly Love

Yam's ready to watch the kids open presents

Aunt Bailee and Uncle Jon

Rosalynn

Opening his gift from Papa

Opening her gift from Papa

A cool camping expedition set!

Rock Band Elmo!

She loves him!

I see you, Aiden!

A little of the chaos

Em's cool car ramp from Grampy

Grampy got Aiden the Batman toy he wanted

Roz opening presents

A new panini maker...yum!!

 It was awesome having them over Christmas Eve! Then they were able to stay and watch the kids play with their new toys. Things weren't rushed at all! Yay!

After they went home it was time to get Santa's cookies ready, take pictures by the tree and get to bed so Santa could come!!!

Picking out the perfect cookies for Santa

Aiden's letter to Santa

Christmas Eve 2011

Christmas Eve 2011

Em had to take her new dolly to bed with her

And Aiden insisted on sleeping in his new tent

Overall, it was a great night to be followed by a great day! Let's hope it doesn't take me so long to get that post done!!!

I'm a Slacker!

I know it's been forever since I've written a new post! My brain is sort of fried at the moment and I have gotten so lazy!! There is probably so much to write about! Christmas Eve, Christmas, New Years...I'll get to it some day soon.  I hope. 

Just wanted you to know I'm still alive...just lazy! :-)