The Merriest Day of the Year!

This was the first year in a while that we weren't traveling on Christmas Day.  So, it was nice to be able to wake up (before the sun came up - as usual on Christmas Day) and not have to rush anywhere after the kids ripped through their presents.  It was a lazy, wonderful day and Santa spoiled every single one of them!

We didn't do the best job of documenting the day with pictures and videos but these memories will live forever in our hearts!

These first pictures are of Christmas Eve when we made and decorated cookies for Santa, then headed to Christmas Eve Mass.  When we got home, the kids each watched their video from Santa that tells them if they made the good list or bad list.  They always watch with pure fear across their faces!  Then true relief when he announces they were on the good list (they have yet to be on the bad list) ;)

The rest of the pictures are from Christmas morning. Dex still doesn't understand Christmas but when he came down the stairs, he quickly understood that there was a LOT of new toys to play with and he couldn't wait to open each and every one.  Jake and Maddie tore through everything in a matter of minutes and had all day to enjoy the excitement of the day.  There was definitely a theme going with Maddie -- everything Santa brought was Dallas Cowboys!  She loved it all.  And Jacob got his top 2 gifts this Christmas -- an Ollie and Nintendo Switch.

Now Santa can rest until next year :)

Keystone!

Maddie has been begging to go skiing again for a couple of years now.  We have not been since we left California and she has really missed seeing the snow.  I think Jacob could take it or leave it (ha).  Now that Dex is older and the kids had off a whole week before Christmas, we decided to go to Keystone in Colorado.

Let me say something about skiing with kids.  There is not a more PHYSICALLY INTENSE task in all the world.  ALL the world I tell you.  Just getting all the darn clothes on 3 kids to keep them warm is a 2,000 calorie burner.  Then you have to CARRY THEIR SKIS and BOOTS and POLES wherever they need to go because lord forbid they are able to carry them by themselves.  Just trekking through ice and snow to get to a ski lift is exhausting!  Before you even get to go down the mountain and actually SKI!

We know this.  And we do it anyway.  Technically we are the crazy ones.

While the trip overall was extremely challenging (all 3 kids were sick with altitude sickness the first couple of days), I think Jake and Maddie really enjoyed being out there again.  And even more impressive, they hadn't skied in 3 years and by the end of this short trip, they were tackling blue runs with ease.

I am so truly proud of their willingness to try new things and travel to new places.  Our condo was adorable and we stayed right in the center of this sweet little Keystone village.  Because it was the week before Christmas, it wasn't too crowded so the lift lines were short.  The snow could have been better but for our purposes, it was perfect.  We also lucked out with decent weather which can be a deal breaker on a ski trip!

A Kansas Thanksgiving

We decided to try our hand at driving to Kansas this year for Thanksgiving and we were pleasantly surprised at how well the kids did with the drive (especially Dex!)  We had made plans to stop in Oklahoma on the way there but when we reached Oklahoma in the early afternoon, the kids were so excited to see Nanny and Papa that they asked if we could drive straight through.  It was definitely a LONG trip, but so worth it so be able to spend more time with family in Kansas!

We unfortunately did not take a lot of pictures this trip, but we had a blast hanging out with all the cousins, having a wonderful Thanksgiving day meal (along with Black Friday shopping that Nanny and I now promise to never speak of again) and ending with a fun night going to a KU game!  So many fun memories made on this trip.  And now we know we can do that drive more often in the future!

(Nanny and I in line at Target on Black Friday.  We won't talk about what happened next...)

The third wheel

Poor Dex is constantly being dragged from game to game, practice to practice, activity to activity for one of his siblings.  I guess that's part of the deal when you're the 3rd kid. Being the youngest of 3, I remember many days on the sidelines of the soccer fields watching my brothers play and even working the concession stand with my mom.  Those were actually some of my favorite memories so even though I know it's exhausting for him, I hope one day he will look back on these days and smile.  Because I tell you what, he's got YEARS ahead of him of this!

Also, it goes without saying that he's usually the HIT of the game, no matter where we are.

I did finally sign us up for a class at The Little Gym which he absolutely ADORES and he does go to his little school on Mondays and Wednesdays so little by little, he's got his own thing going on too. :)