December Daily | 31

With our actual move to Maryland rapidly approaching, I've been finding myself wanting to squeeze in as much time with family as possible. Sometimes it's hard to do because of schedules, naps, and life, but today we were able to have lunch with Grami and Papa Snow and then have them over to Mom and Daddy-Man's before the kids went down for their naps.

It. was. wonderful.

I've been on a video kick lately and this afternoon was no different - I hope that the kids will cherish these videos as much as I already do.

***

Nearly every New Year's Eve, for probably the last 20 years{?}, has been spent with our friends, the Bullards. The kids were super excited to get to spend the evening with Addy. I had no plans for how long I'd let them stay up. Truthfully, I anticipated that Ellie would crash around 9PM and that Noah would follow some time after that.

Boy, was I wrong.

The three little RockStars made it until midnight, doing everything in their power to stay awake: chasing each other, watching VeggieTales, blowing on their horns {which were, eventually, confined to their room}, and playing lots and lots of dress up.

My favorite dress up time? When they were playing SuperHeroes and Princesses. Notice how Addy is totally feeling Noah's muscles.

Close runner-up for my favorite dress-up time:

The rest of us were tired when midnight hit and after a little short celebration outside with sparklers and horns, we were back inside, putting the kiddos down for bed and asleep ourselves, all before 12:45.

Goodbye 2011,

Hello 2012!

Determan Family | Mini-session

When Marlene helped us wrangle the kiddos during their Christmas mini last week, I offered that the next time she had Addy, to let me know and I'd get some for her as well. She mentioned it to Lesa, who mentioned that it might be nice to get some of all three of them, so, here we are! I had a great time, especially since Addy is quite the little poser - only once did I really have to "pose" her.

{It's a toss up between these two for my favorite of her!}

♥

Friends.

This afternoon, after Ellie and I picked Noah up from school, we were excited to get back home to have a visit from David, Stephanie, and Baby Jonah! Back in August when Erin and I went out to meet Jonah and visit his parents, we made plans for the Prysock's and the Carroll's to come up to OKC for a MUTEMATH concert and some friend time.

It was the first time the kids met each other. Ellie was in love. She liked sitting next to him. She liked kissing him. She especially liked showing him the picture of her Daddy on my phone.

But most of all, she just liked him. Can't say that I blame her - he's too cute!

The Prysock's left just before dinner so they could eat dinner with her family and get Jonah settled before we met up at the concert. But not long after they left, we had another set of visitors! Marlene and David were taking care of Addy this weekend, so they walked around for a little visit. Both of my kids just adore Addy!

After they left, Noah asked, "Who's coming over now, Mommy?"

♥

Baths and bedtime for the kids, and then I headed out the door to meet our friends for the MUTEMATH concert!

I was more than grateful to see my friends, listen to a new-to-me band, have some earplugs, and even enjoy part of the concert while outside in the cool air with Erin and Jadyn!

A Busy, Busy Sunday

After church and lunch at home with the family, I left the kiddos in Mom and Daddy-Man's care and headed over to St. Andrew's Catholic church to take some photos for one of Jessie's childhood friends, Monica. She and her husband were renewing their vows and were having both of their children baptised after the Sunday Mass. It was a lot of fun getting to play photographer... especially when the subjects were as cute as Junior!

{Eliza slept right through her baptism!}

Once I got back home and relaxed a little, we decided to make dinner easy and go to McDonald's. Noah was excited to get to eat in the play area... especially since they had a cartoon episode of Batman and Robin playing.

Ellie was just happy that I let her have ketchup... which doesn't always happen when I forget to bring a bib.

And both kiddos were thrilled when Addy {and Marlene and David} showed up to play with them in the play area. They only stopped chasing each other long enough to take quick bites of ice cream or sips of their drinks before running back up the treehouse stairs to the slide.

We came back to Papa and Nana's house to give the kids a quick bath, Skype with Daddy for a few minutes, and then Noah and I got back into the car and headed over to Aunt BB's house for Noah's first "sleepover party".

Noah was pretty happy that he got to take his Lightening McQueen sleeping bag.

After a little bit of playtime for Noah, he finally went to sleep {NOT in his sleeping bag...} and Aunt BB and I got to enjoy a movie - the Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants 2! ♥

OKC Zoo

Nana, BB, the kids and I all went to the Oklahoma City Zoo today with Addy and Marlene {aka Ms. Marley, as Noah calls her}. Noah had told Daddy this morning on Skype that he wanted to see the monkeys and giraffes, but once he realized we were going to be there with Addy, it was all he talked about. The rest of us were most excited about getting to see the new elephant habitat and baby Malee, the first Asian elephant calf born to the zoo.

We had to ride the carousel, of course!

The new elephant habitat was amazing - it looks like something straight out of Jurassic Park!

And Malee? DARLING! Lines from Tarzan kept popping into my head as we watched her walk around with her Aunt and Mom.

One of the keepers told Aunt BB that she spends more time with her Aunt than she does with her Mom. Someone must have told Malee that Aunts like to spoil their nieces...

...maybe it was Ellie that told her?

Noah was pretty excited to finally see the "monkeys"... the rest of us were just too hot to argue that he was a gorilla.

Luckily, thanks to Ms. Marley, we had gotten into the zoo free, so it didn't bug us in the least to leave after having been there only a couple of hours.

But we did stop for some lunch at McDonald's...

and realized that we're going to have our hands full with these two!

♥

New Year's Eve

After getting him doughnuts and then going to get groceries, Aunt Jessie sat down with Noah to let him get a little arts and crafty.

Good fun and great times had by all.

And, can you just imagine with me the sheer joy that this boy had at having THREE "candy j's" open at one time?

New Year's Eve tradition, since as far back as I can remember {as in, like elementary school!} has been spent with our good friends, the Bullard's. Lesa and I were friends throughout the school years {we met when we were not too much than Noah and Addy are now!} and Mom and Marlene have been friends ever since. It's so much fun to see our little ones now carrying on the same traditions.

Our dinner party was just a little too big, so Bryan, Jessie, BB and Ben ended up sitting at the "kid" table... and pestering me to boot.

Once back home, we tried to get to a cute picture of Noah and Ellie, but only Noah would kinda cooperate.

He would smile and then immediately want to look at his picture.

Before Ellie went to bed, we got our last family photo of 2010:

And one last one of Bryan and Jessie too...

Marlene, David, and Addy arrived at our house and the two kiddos had. a. blast.

But there was no way that they were going to make it to midnight.

We barely were, ourselves!

So, we celebrated with the kiddos early...

passed out hugs and kisses, and said goodnight to 2010 {and the kiddos}.

The rest of us {Ben, BB, Mom, Daddy-Man, KK, and I} stayed up the rest of the time til midnight talking...

doled out New Year's kisses and hugs...

and said goodnight and goodbye to 2010 and Hello 2011!

2010, you've been a great year. 2011, we hope you treat us just as well. ♥