Fa la la-ing around 2013

cookie making with the cookie monsters...

sharing cookies with our new friends in omaha.  mason and i had our mops pals over.  so lucky to have found a great group of momma's.  everyone is so nice.  

and our neighborhood pals.

E and langley studying their cookies.  :)  this is one of langley's pals that is in her class and our neighbor.   they do lots of playing together!

he definitely had his share of sugar this week!  and you can see i am not too good at keeping up with the haircuts!  :)  oh my!

 my sweet-ums before church one sunday morning

 Langley and I headed out for a special time together to see the nutcracker ballet.  just the girls!

She loved taking in all the ballerina's and spent the rest of the afternoon dancing around our house.

 Langley had fun at her Christmas class party.  They wore their PJ's to school that day.  

 We brought this pinterest idea for a snack...i can do this!!

 the kids made candy cane reindeer ornaments

 mason came too...

 and decorated cookies

  I went and had lunch with Langley at school for the first time.  She picked her friend E to join us.  Another favorite neighbor and class pal.  They were excited about the yummy treats i brought.  I think I could have fed the whole class!

 We visited the Durham Museum-historic train station-- to see their pretty tree.  Its a huge, real tree inside.  We loved the museum too.   They loved playing in the old train cars and and ringing the bell.  But we decided to just wave at santa.  

 I kept forgetting my good camera!   This was at the Omaha children's museum.  A light show, with Santa arriving down the chimney, snow princesses.  There is endless activities around here for kids.

and the fa la la-ing around continues!  Ho ho ho!

Tree Lighting Festive-ness

It was nice to be home through all the holidays, so we were able to check out the events around our new town...lots of Christmas spirit to be had!  The town shopping center near our house had a tree lighting that was fun and chilly!

 We bundled up and anxiously waited the countdown!

 There was a nice little parade with the high school band and lots of characters.

  A nice big real tree.  And some fireworks.  Next best thing to NYC!  :)

Run, run, run as fast as you can, you can catch me I'm the Gingerbread man!  And lady!

We've been reading lots of Jan Brett's Gingerbread Baby, so Mason and Langley were excited to see them!

A few hello's and we headed home to the warm fireplace!

Oh Christmas Tree 2013!

I think we were probably the last people on our street with our tree up around here!  It took us awhile to bounce back from Thanksgiving hosting and the stomach bug!  We are still getting a real tree over here, so it takes some coordinating.

 I love breaking out the christmas music and some hot chocolate for decorating.  Mason seemed to wear his hot chocolate all over his face and Pj's.  And OH my DEAR, one day he is really going to harass me for these PJ's.  I think they are a bit small!  :) We must have been in need of some laundry that night!  Love him!

 Langley decided that this was her favorite Christmas ornament this year.

 Now we are looking festive around here!

S-N-O-W...Our first Snowfall!

Yay, it finally snowed!!  We actually haven't gotten a whole lot since this day, so I'm so glad we were able to get out and play in it for a little while.  It was good timing on a Sunday, so the kids were off from school.  Perfect amount to get us Floridians warmed up to this stuff.  

The California boy checking out his new toy!  ;)  Yes, this is a snow blower.  Why was I picturing something that looked kind of like a leaf blower?  This thing is huge!?  Our owners left this for us and we are thankful for that!  I'm not sure he will be smiling like this when it is 6:30 AM before a work day!  

 We have an empty lot next to our house.  The perfect spot for sledding!  They had SO much fun!  A few of the neighbor kids joined in too.

Several military families have told us that Omaha was their kids favorite city of all the place they have lived, and I have to say that the snow must have lots to do with that.  Kids love snow!

Greg and I got into some sledding action too.  It was pretty darn fun!

Don't go buy the fancy sleds…our Target cheapies were the sleds all the kids were fighting over!

 It was probably just a few inches--still lots of dead grass sticking out.

Go Mason!

We are ready for some more snow!!!  We haven't seen much since this day.  So glad we got out and played when we did, because the stomach bug hit us that night!  Both Greg and I just hours apart on each end of the house…terrible!!!  We don't bounce back like the kiddos. 

Let the Christmas fun begin!

After Thanksgiving we got to experience a little bit of Christmas with the Haberkost clan before everyone left.  We opened presents with Grandma and Grandpa, so that was exciting! 

  Our town of Papillion had their annual lighting festival.   It was nice and not quite as cold this night.  Langley and Mason loved dancing to the band and making smores in the fire pits they had going.  Visiting the library for a story and songs with Ms. Claus and a craft.  Fire station had chili.  Lots of other things too, but we didn't want to wait in too many lines!  :)

All the princesses were there.  Horse and buggy rides.  I was impressed with this small town festival.  Although Santa was late! 

 Mary Lou and the Grinch!

 Real deal reindeer and Santa had a big line!  

Got us in the Christmas spirit before December even hit and before everyone had to head back home.

We had a great visit!  Good times exploring Omaha (even warren buffet's house was seen) and thankful for all the help with the kids and everything(yes, just about everything)!  We had fun!