Christmas 2011

Christmas 2011 in pictures!  We really had a great December.  Christmas School Activities, Christmas decorating, Receiving Christmas cards,  Present Shopping, Elf On the Shelf, Cousin Activities and birthday party for Jesus, Time with family, and so many new fun treats.  Some of my favorite memories include our Elf on the Shelf- Mallory got the biggest kick out of seeing him throughout the day and would yell "ELLLLFFF!!!!".  Peyton loved watching old Christmas classics and talking about Jesus, Christmas, and Santa.  I loved continuing our tradition of opening new matching pajamas on Christmas Eve (Footie pajamas for all 3, just warms my heart:) ).  I planned to do lots of activities with them but with a 4 year old, 2 year old, and 8 month old things weren't always done the way I planned them.  A good example of this is my family's tradition of reading "A Night Before Christmas" together on the couch before bed.  I read the story as planned and Peyton listened, but Nolan slept through it, and Mallory ran around taking bites out of the carrots we left out for the reindeer- refusing to take part in the story.  :) We had a great time together this month and that is all that matters.  I really tried to enjoy the moment of Christmas morning and not be too caught up in taking too many pictures, so this is a sample of what we captured, starting with Christmas Eve.

Christmas Eve Mass. Such high expectations of everyone participating this year but he fell asleep the moment he sat down and slept through the entire mass.  Thank Goodness Gigi and Dandy were there to serve as his makeshift bed!

Adorable Nolan, He reminds me so much of Buddy the Elf from the movie Elf. He is just SO Big. He is 8 months old in this picture. Nolan's FIRST Christmas!

Precious Little Children in their Christmas Clothes

Best part of this picture- my 8 month old looks bigger than the other 2 combined!

Best 3 Christmas Presents

Matching Footed Pajamas for all

Leaving carrots for reindeer, Twix Bars for Santa, and Water- per their request

Santa came!

Waiting to see what Santa brought

A Fleet of Trucks!

A Costume Tree and Baby Gear!

Best picture I could get of the 3 of them. Too much running around looking at all the presents to sit still!

Playing the piano that Gigi gave them

Peyton is already talking about next Christmas. It still is my most favorite time of year and this year was made even better with the addition of Nolan. He had a great first Christmas and seemed most excited about the wrapping paper, the trampoline,  his walker, and his new rock n roll Elmo.   You might have also noticed multiple costume changes on Mallory in these pictures.  She tried on many of her gifts throughout the day and ended up in her Yo Gabba Gabba nightgown with bumblebee wings on. Love that girl's style! Happy New Year to all!

A Cousin Christmas- Nativity Hunt and Party

We were so blessed to have all of the Yates cousins together for Christmas this year. Thank you to Nick and Alice for making the trip to Dallas from Kansas City, there is nothing better than being with family on Christmas.  We decided to draw names for a present exchange this year and create a night devoted to the kids, making special Christmas memories with their cousins.  There are 10 cousins ranging in age from 8 months to 9 years old, so lots of fun memories to be made together.  This year we had a Nativity Scavenger Hunt with a special surprise when they found the baby Jesus.  We surprised the kids with a Jesus birthday party complete with cake and party hats and blowers, they all got to blow out the candles on his cake together.  The only thing was that we accidentally put trick candles on the cake, so they wouldn't blow out- this was actually very symbolic of Jesus's light. :) Accident?  Maybe not!

The nativity scavenger was lots of fun and a great way to talk about the real meaning of Christmas and incorporate the birth of Jesus into the fun.  I put it together using pieces of the nativity and items around Bebe and Papa's house.   We read the clues and tailored each clue for each child so that even the youngest kids had a chance to participate. When the child found their piece they were able to place it in the manger scene  We let them all search for the baby Jesus together, and Anna, number 3 of 10 Grands, was the proud finder.  Here are the clues we used in case anyone ever wants to recreate it. I did this quickly and easily, nothing too fancy :)

1.  STAR

One night 3 Wise Men saw a brand new star -they hoped this would lead them to their King from afar.  Can you find the star?  Look in the place where the Lincoln Logs Live, be careful not to dump them out, or Papa might start to pout!

2.  3 WISE MEN

You found the star! Now I wonder where the 3 Wise Men are? They packed their gifts and followed the star, to go to the place to see their Savior’s face.  Can you find the 3 wise men?  Look where we go when we get out of the pool and are cold, this always cleans and warms you up, at least I’ve been told.

3.  SHEPHERD

There weren’t many people near the manger that day, but a shepherd was tending to his flock.  Can you find the shepherd?  He is hiding in something that rhymes with flock.

4.  COW

A shepherd is lonely without his animal friends, do you know that Mary and Joseph found no rooms at the Inn?  So with animals they decided to bunk in.  Look for the animal that makes the sound “Moo”, I think you may find him in one of Papa’s shoes.

5.  DONKEY

  Mary and Joseph didn’t have a car, back then you rode a donkey to go near and far.  A donkey was there on that special day, look for him and feed him some hay. Our donkey is sleeping underneath many steps. Can you find him?  I bet you can, yep!

6.  ANGEL

 An angel appeared to tell Mary a baby would be born.  Lets find an angel and bring them to our scene, look in the place where Bebe’s clothes are cleaned.

7.  JOSEPH

Joseph helped Mary travel on their way and was looking all over for a place for them to stay.  He found their way to our very special manger, which was a safe place to keep them out of danger. The animals in the manger were happy to share their room, look for Joseph among the legumes.

8. MARY

 This brings us to Mary, the baby’s mother in this story, she came to a manger to have a baby of glory.  Mary is sitting with a very old relative- she has a picture that is like no other. See if you can find Mary near the image of your Great, Great, Great Grandmother.

9.   JESUS

The nativity has been set and everyone is ready. His mother Mary will hold him close and we will worship him with joyful hearts.  The wise men will bring their precious gifts to Him and the animals, shepherd, and angels will all rejoice and sing.  You will find the baby Jesus near the best part of the tree- the tree that has been decorated for the birth of this baby.

Here are pictures from our very fun night.  We LOVE our Yates cousins so much!!!  

Jingle Bells

This little "performance" in Mallory's class of new 2-year-olds put the biggest smile on my face.  Mallory sure loves to jingle. 

And am I dreading the day that Peyton figures out the real words to Jingle Bells.  This is his third year saying "Oh Muck Fun" instead of "Oh What Fun, it is to ride!" and I LOVE it.  He also made some other lyrical changes for this version.  

These 2 little elves are making my Christmas spirits bright. Oh Muck Fun it is to be their Mom. :) Merry Christmas!

Mallory at School

Mallory loves school.  She runs into her classroom, hardly says bye to us, and sometimes doesn't want to leave.  She loves music and dancing and coloring and she loves her teacher.  Her teacher tells us she has quite the personality. We get a slip of paper every day that tells her disposition, her diaper changes, what she ate, and what her delights were.  I've only had a "bad" report once or twice and that was when she was sick.  Almost of her reports list her as happy or with a big smiley face.

Her teacher, the amazing Mrs. Joan, sent me these pictures this weekend.  It is so interesting to see what your child does while you aren't there.  There is a story behind almost every picture, that is just life with Mallory. Most involve her wardrobe choices.

Mallory on Picture with Santa Day.  She is breaking the cardinal rule of "No White Shoes" after Labor Day.  She put on her fancy dress and INSISTED on wearing these white shoes.  It just makes me laugh that a little person that just turned 2 can have such an opinion about which shoes to wear with which dress.  And they really did match, So White Shoes it was! (they are about 2 sizes to big)

It was not wear your pajamas to school day as you might think from this photo.  In fact hey don't have a pajama day at school.  These are actually baby Nolan's jammies and Mallory wore them to bed and wore them to school.  I couldn't get them off of her to get her dressed and she looks mighty content going about her day in them.  Mrs. Joan texted me a picture later that day of Mallory in real clothes because she was  finally able to dress her.  And Yes, Mallory and Nolan wear the same size and swap jammies often :) Got to save money somewhere.

I guess they get to eat cupcakes on birthdays.  I see she didn't eat much of her lunch but is sure enjoying that frosting.

Protected from a  Rainy Day outside?  No. Mallory likes to wear her rain jacket to school most days.  It has only been worn in the actual rain once.  Such a Fashionista.

Hood and all.

Fun Times at school!

That is a rare glimpse into Mallory's life at school.  This girl has got personality. She got her ear tubes last week and is talking so much more, it has been life changing for her.  I am loving seeing her little personality unfold- wardrobe battles and all!

Coach Marshall and Player Peyton

Peyton and Marshall just finished their first soccer season with Marshall as Coach.  I feel very blessed to be married to a man that would take on the task of coaching 11 4-year-old boys.  Marshall left work early once a week to practice with the boys and had a game almost every single weekend and some week nights.  He also kept the team organized and dealt with the soccer league, not an easy task! He now has 10 4-year-old new best friends.  He had a great assistant coach, Coach Phil, who is one of our friends in the neighborhood.  We formed a team of boys Peyton's soccer age that will attend kindergarten together (these boys will start kindergarten next year, Peyton will start the year after but for soccer purposes has to play with his birth age)We had hoped Marshall coaching would get Peyton more comfortable on the field but for most of the season Peyton chose to sit on the sidelines and play at random whenever he felt like joining in.  Marshall was so patient with him and really let Peyton pick it up at his own pace.  By the end of the season Peyton was playing entire games and even making some contact with the ball! Their team, the Panthers, had the unfair advantage of accidentally being placed in the league with teams that had played previous seasons.  Our team had never played and are only 4-years old so I'm sure you can picture the chaos :)  They pretty much got their bottoms kicked every single game (like being outscored in the double digits) but they had a great time and handled it all so gracefully, thanks to their coaches.

I think Coach Marshall would say that he enjoyed the season as much as the kids did.

Here are some pictures from our final game and pizza soccer party.  The trophies were definitely the highlight of the kid's season.  Way to go Panthers!

These 2 were usually along for the ride but they usually didn't stay strapped in for long.

Coach Marshall and Coach Phil

Talking Strategy

Pizza Party after last game!

Trophy Presentation!

Recap of the season

This was from an earlier game when Marshall and Peyton wore jerseys in honor of our Aunt Nicki. Aunt Nicki is fighting breast cancer and her son's college soccer team, Davidson, made these shirts in her honor.  The silhouette on the shirt is of our cousin Chip- who is an AMAZING college goalkeeper.

Look Who's Talking.......

Nolan has a new trick. He started it yesterday and woke up doing it this morning.

Watch here and wait for it!



These are the moments that make this the BEST job in the world!

And I always guessed my larger than life baby would have a deep voice :) I was right!

8 Months and Standing

Nolan turned 8 months old on November 28th. He has learned many new things since our last post!  Nolan started crawling in his 6 month and pulling himself to standing in his 7 month.  I caught him standing in his bed and now he pulls up on everything and has started cruising along the couch.  He will be walking soon.

His first stand- he greeted me like this after a nap.

He has been sick recently and is fully in the wanting Mommy phase.  He rarely lets me put him down and he is a heavy little baby!  He likes to eat table food, is nursing twice a day, sleeps awesome at night and pretty well during the day, and loves, loves, loves baths. In fact- he climbed into the bathtub on his own the other day.  Good thing it was empty and a good reminder to keep all doors closed, always! Mallory has become more gentle with him and says "HIIII NOLIE!!!" every time she sees him.  She still tackles him a lot but they also have started interacting and laughing a lot together.  He is becoming more independent every day and is definitely not a little baby anymore.

And for all of you new Moms out there- the 8 month mark also marks the month that I officially lost every single pound of baby weight I ever gained. I'm back to pre baby weight though all moms know our bodies will never be exactly the same.  I'm proud of my mommy body though. So hang in there, it took me almost as long to get it off as it took to put it on.  And I highly recommend the Weight Watchers Plus program.  Anyone that works for weight watchers want to give me a job?  :)  I think at this point I could work for the company.


  8 Month Sibling Pictures:

Peyton, January 2008, 8 months old

Mallory, July 2010, 8 Months Old

Nolan, November 2011, 8 months old

Here is a picture of Nolan standing so you can see his height at 8 Months.

And here he is on the move.  There is no stopping this baby- he is climbing up and over a steep step to get where he needs to go. Which is usually on a hunt to find me.  There is no hiding!

LOVE YOU BABY NOLIE! Happy 8 months. Can't wait to see what the next few months bring!