Random Pictures from this month

Because every once in a while, I don't take enough pictures to warrant a full post, and so has been the month of December. I have been terrible at capturing pictures, and videos, and on top of it, my phone, the main camera in my possession, is running out of storage space, which of course is due to the fact that I have not uploaded all my content to the blog. So its a circular problem. Let's clear the cache on the phone, and the air with some much awaited (well, you were waiting weren't you?) pictures.

The boys with their singing toys from Aunt Lynn. They rounded out last year with a late arrival, and started this year with them right off the bat. 

All the boys- Lazy, possibly sick, day on the couch.

Elijah just before his Christmas performance

Quick still picture of Elijah during his Christmas performance (fall left, standing in the red shirt, back row)

Luke eating Colleen's famous Christmas Crack - a myriad of cereals, m&m's, peanuts and pretzel sticks, all mixed with white chocolate.

Annual Tree lighting on First st., the boys got a few minutes in the old fire truck

The boys waiting to get their advent calendars, and Elijah in his new christmas pj's - Lucas wouldn't wear them, he wanted his Captain America Jammies on .

My co-worker Kristin in our lobby, that they decorate every year with some new dreamed up scene.

Soo cute!

My cubicle all decorated for the season.

Gingerbread House? No....Rice Crispy Treat House!

We were shopping at the grocery store earlier this month, when Elijah found Rice Crispy Treat House Kits at the end of an aisle and asked if we could get it.  I hadn't even starting thinking about gingerbread houses or Christmas activities yet, but thought, sure why not, lets get this out of the way. HAHA. So we bought the kits and went home to build the houses. 

I didn't even think to check when we were in the store as to how many houses the kit would build, but thank goodness, it was made for two. The kids had a great time creating their master pieces, and I had an equally great time eating the left over rice crispy treats. The kits were a little barren, so we added some goodies we STILL had left over from Halloween, to make our houses a little more unique. Since it came with a mold, next year we will be able to do it again (ps soooo much easier and yummier than gingerbread houses)! Hooray.

Lucas' Creation

Elijah's Creation

A boy and his house...the beginning

A different boy and his house...in the middle

Merry Christmas

Double post day! Its like the daily double in Jeopardy, but everyone wins!

Merry Christmas from these two rug rats.

Merry Christmas to all!  In all my efforts to make Christmas less crazy and to have less Christmas's, we wound up with the same amount of Christmas' and almost the same amount of craziness as in years past. Back to the drawing board I think, though I'm not sure how we can make that any better than it is.
You see, our first Christmas is always with my dad on Christmas Eve- so there is that, then I thought this Christmas, instead of trying to do one Christmas for the four of us on Christmas morning that we would just do it Christmas eve with my dad- yes that does make sense, until you throw the SANTA card in there and then you have to figure out how to explain that Santa came early...and didn't eat your kids' cookies, etc. So I said "I have two  presents from Santa ready to go, so lets just throw those out after the kids go to bed and they can have a Santa's gifts Christmas in the morning which should be short and quick and we will throw in the stockings too. So that was fine, and went smoothly. Then we went to Aaron's parent's house for Christmas #3, and we are currently, at this very moment at Vicki's house for Christmas #4 with my my mom, step-dad and aunt, and Katie and Igor too. Whew. But! its over, and that is great, I mean save for a few stockings that need to be opened (not ours).

Rug Rat #2

The kids have been spoiled as always, but people have toned it down a bit (thank god, though we are thankful for you gifts, you have managed to restrain your self from OVER spoiling these boys, and that we are grateful for). They love everything from ninja turtle figures and clothing to Avengers, to coloring books, to castles, and play doh, and especially the light sabers that Santa brought them. They have already wore their new jammies that papa Mike got them, and some of their new Ninja turtle and Paw Patrol shirts that others got them. They too are grateful for all the gifts, and I see a old toys purging session coming Tuesday when we get home.

Rug Rat #1

Thank you again for those of you who spoiled us this year, and Merry Christmas to all of you. We hope you had a great time with your family and friends and that your New Year is filled with love and hope and prosperity.

-The De Mers

p.s. Elijah is currently in the kitchen helping Omama with her famous sticky buns...mmmm...you should be jealous. LOL

The coveted light sabers from Santa

Stocking Reveal

Couch potatoes

Opening Gigi's gifts! What a HIT!

Lucas' gift from Gigi! 

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Catching Up, Starting with Lucas

Just some cute pictures of Lucas, the bottom are with his uncle James, who sang at our church last weekend.  Lucas definitely enjoyed his time with him.

Elijah's Pre-K Christmas Program

Alright, I failed at proactively un-procrastinating. But guess what?! It doesn't matter because this happened today...yes TODAY and its sure to warm your heart and you will want to watch it about 5 times. LOL.

Elijah is all the way to the left in the red shirt and our friend Cohen is standing right in front of him.  His cousin Lizzie is two girls over in the black shirt.  I CANNOT BELIEVE IT BUT ELIJAH DID IT ALL -ALL. OF.IT! Our little introvert got out of his shell and said he had a great time....can you tell?

P.S. The Hawaiian Christmas song was not a hit, so its very very short. LOL.

P.S. Lucas has another ear infection and possibly mild pneumonia...say a little prayer for a quick recovery. This kid, I swear, gets the worst of it.

Procrastination Post 1- Phoenix Day 1-3

 You know when airline sales are super good and you are like "I better book now, or I'll miss this deal?" Well that is what started off my adventure of taking two kids by myself on two airplane rides, with Aaron arriving only one day later....oh boy.
I got a great deal on some plane tickets and new that aaron would have to come later due to the fact that he had school and couldn't miss. A series of other events happened and as it turned out instead of the original 2 days before and 2 days after aaron was supposed to join us, it turned in to me going the day before and the day after him, which seemed so silly in the end, but whatever it was what it was.

The boys did exceptional through the airport and on the plane. They kept their feet down (for the most part) and kept their headphones on and watched shows most of the time.  People thought they were cute, so that helped too.

Frequent Flier 1

Frequent Flier 2

 What wasn't so great was the hold up we had at the car rental place- The messed up my car type (wanted to put me in a fiat 500...yeah right) and then the credit card company put a hold on my card...so that was fun.

Sleepy Boys

We made it to the hotel around 11 pm and the boys were beat. Can you see them to the right? They are hide-sleeping, while I checked in....which was fun too. They put me in the last double room they had- right next to the elevators, so we hear that all the first night (and promptly were moved in the morning).
 The other mishap was that the complimentary breakfast was not complimentary afterall. So I took the boys out for a more affordable breakfast and then we did a quick shopping trip for our next four breakfasts and lunches.

Breakfast with the dudes

Just a quick shot of me in this gorgeous necklace Emery bought me for christmas a few years ago and I finally had a chance to wear it.

Aaron was supposed to come in on the 9:00pm flight, but had missed it, so I got to enjoy dinner with his entire extended family (Bridget's side). The upside was that Brother James was scheduled on the next flight out with Aaron so they got to be traveling companions.

The next day was the wedding day- the day we were all there for. Aaron's cousin Ryan got married to a lovely lady and all the O'Connell sisters were together in one place in who knows how many years, so I had to capture a picture of this momentous occasion.

Katie(4?), Bridget(3?), Nancy(5), MaryAnne (1), Helen (2)

The boys did ok, all in all. I had come prepared with snacks and coloring for them to make it through the long Catholic Service. It was really beautiful and intimate. You could tell the priest was someone who had known these two people for a while, so that made it extra special.

Wild and crazy boys- post wedding

 And then we hit the reception! And got what will soon become our Christmas card....

And so this concludes part 1 of Procrastination Posts- Phoenix. I'll leave you with this silly boy playing in my glasses.

Advent Day 1

 These sweet boys got a little surprise tonight. Omama sent an advent calendar for them, and the best part is our church had given one to Elijah in Sunday school this week too, so now each boy has his own to open. On the side of the pictures you see something hanging. Those are our advent count down rings as well, that we made at church this week. They are super sweet. Each one has a little saying on it, tonight's was" Smile at 10 people today". I love this time of year and I love carrying on traditions like the advent calendars. 

Thank you mom! 

Love K

Showing off their calendars.