Breakfast with Santa

In the past we have taken the family to Breakfast with Santa at the zoo, but this year we found out that Santa is no longer going to be stopping by the zoo before Christmas. So we decided to start a new family tradition. On Sunday, December 11th our family hosted a holiday breakfast potluck for some of our neighbors... and you will NEVER guess who showed up- SANTA!

Here is the big guy arriving at the house.

Charlie wasn't too thrilled with the idea of sitting on his lap.

Here's a group shot with all the kids.

And a Herb family picture.

The breakfast was a blast... the kids had fun, we had lots of yummy food and drinks (mimosas!) and, best of all, it was super easy for us parents. We hope Santa has enough time to stop by next year!

Elf on the Shelf

Mark and I didn't have an elf when we were growing up, but it seems like all the kids have them now. Our Elf on the Shelf joined our family last Christmas (2010) and Ella named him Frankie.

Anyway- Frankie has been showing up around our house doing silly things, but this was one of the mornings that Ella was most excited to find him...

(picture taken on Dec 10th 2011)

Even Charlie was into Frankie this year. Some mornings he would find him faster than Ella, i t was so cute to see him point and squeal with delight whenever he saw the elf.

Ella's Christmas Program @ School

The kids' school has a Christmas program every year but you have to be in the 3.5 year old class or older to participate, so this was Ella's first year. This year's program was on the evening of Wednesday, Dec 7th. It was so cute and she did a great job after practicing the songs for months in advance. (she is in the back row, red dress).

Singing with the kids.

And here she is after we got home. She looked so cute in her Christmas dress and was so excited for me to see her perform.

And then about 5 hours later she woke up with the stomach flu. Yuck! Maybe it was all that candy from St. Nick??

St. Nicholas Day

We celebrate St. Nick's Day at our house.

A little background... St. Nicholas (not to be confused with Santa) is a Catholic saint who went around putting treats in kids shoes. Not sure exactly how it evolved into the stockings... but its a tradition passed down from my Mom's side (Ruzicka) that we have decided to continue with our kids. St. Nick's feast day is every year on December 6th.

On the morning of St. Nicholas Day, the kids woke up to see their stockings waiting for them at the kitchen table. Ella was super excited and Charlie was just happy because he is always happy in the mornings!

And here's all their loot! Candy, fruit, xmas shirts and much much more. St. Nick even brought a Xmas tablecloth for Mom. Yay!

Christmas Card Picture 2011

Just wanted to post a quick note about this years Christmas card picture.

I am a sucker for the beautiful, professional photos that we have been so lucky to have the past few years thanks to my good friend Lindsey. But I promised Mark after Charlie's 1 year photos that we would take a break from the professional pics. And I was actually considering using one of those pictures from July (see them here). I really had no idea what I was going to do... and if you know me, that is very out of character.

Anyway. I was hanging out working on my headstand one night (that's normal, right?) and the kids were watching me and trying to do it too. I told Mark to grab the camera and tripod and we helped them work on their handstands against the wall. And it didn't hurt that they just happened to be wearing matching Christmas PJs (not planned, I swear!). Throw in Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer, and wallah!

O Christmas Tree, O Christmas Tree

As soon as we got home from our Thanksgiving trip, we pulled out our artificial Christmas tree to get ready to decorate, only to find out that it didn't work anymore. Poor Mark spent hours trying to find the ONE bulb that had gone out... to no avail. And it was next to impossible to pry the lights off the tree so we could replace the whole strand.

So we decided (I mean, Mark decided) that 2011 would be the year that we got a REAL Christmas tree. We headed out on Dec 3rd to find our tree. Ella was pretty excited and it took forever (it was freezing outside, by the way) to find one we could all agree on.

Here it is Mom & Dad!

Yep! That's the one.

Mark loaded her up...

...and brought here in the house.

I wish I could tell you this story ends well. Our poor tree died almost immediately after we brought her home. Apparently you are supposed to cut the stump at an angle so it can take in water? Who knew!? It was awful- if you barely touched the tree, about a thousand needles would fall off. But we made her stay until Christmas Day! Santa needed a place to put our gifts! :)

Thanksgiving 2011

I am SO SO behind in my blogging... which translates to... life is busy as HECK with 2 kids. So here goes... my attempt to catch you and myself up to date.

We visited Kansas City for Thanksgiving and my Dad's retirement party the following weekend. It was probably a bad omen when Patti called us the night before we left to tell us that Caroline had thrown up. But we decided to go anyway... needless to say, the stomach flu made the rounds at my parents house that week. First Caroline, then Charlie and Mark and finally Patti got sick. Not fun. We quarantined ourselves to the house most of the time we were there so we wouldn't infect anyone else in KC. All in all, I'm glad we went on the trip and were able to see everyone... but it was rough. It's actually good I am writing this over a month after our trip, because now I have some perspective. LOL

Here are a bunch of pics from our trip:

Charlie & Caroline had a blast playing together.

And Charlie was a huge fan of Caroline's playhouse (aka. the cardboard box).

Ella cozied up to Grandaddy (and his iPad) for some quality time.

More C&C playtime

The weekend wouldn't be complete without some yogi headstands.

Finally feeling (somewhat) healthy, we headed down to the plaza to see the holiday lights.

All of us together at the lighting. I just LOVE Mark's mustache. Don't you? (It's awful, I know... but at least he raised a couple bucks for a good cause, right?)

Ella giving Caroline an early Christmas gift-- a shopping cart. Caroline loved it! Ella did too! I think she played with it ALMOST as much as Caroline during our visit.

We finally got out of the house and went for a short lunch visit to the Cowies. Ella had a blast with Evie and Nora...

...and Charlie put up with all the girls pretty well.

Our last day we took Ella ice skating at the rink across from my parents house. This was actually her 2nd try at ice skating... which went way better than the 1st (see post here).

Most of her "skating" consisted of Tom holding one hand and me holding the other so we could pull her around the edge of the rink. Baby steps!

Thanks for taking me skating Uncle Tom!

The "Becky" sweater

Here is a picture of me at age 6 and Ella at almost 4 years in the same sweater! :)

Just wanted to share.

Snow!

We had our first big snow earlier this month and Ella LOVED it! She got all suited up and played outside FOREVER! I finally made her come in because I was afraid she was gonna freeze her bottom off.

Charlie, on the other hand, would have nothing to do with the snow and was happy to hang inside with me! LOL

Happy Halloween!

Happy Halloween from the Herbs!

We had more than enough Halloween (and candy!) to go around this year with parties at school, with friends, and even a Halloween birthday party... plus the actual day of Halloween! The kids definitely wore out their costumes!

It was especially fun because this was the first year Ella REALLY "got it". She went up and down our entire block and got all the candy she could before she was just too tired to go on! It was a blast and so fun to have our neighbors with us for the door-to-door fun.

Here are some pics from our various Halloween events...