All Aboard!

We joined some of our favorite friends this weekend for a ride on the "Santa Train" (aka: The Napa Wine Train). Despite the dreary, cold weather and the very (VERY) early morning, we (especially the boys - Luke, Jack, and Aidan) had fun!

Luke's favorite part? Eating his favorite breakfast (french toast) on his most favorite mode of transportation ... he was loving that there was a table on the train!

Of course, the early morning (coupled with a late night the night before when Luke and Jack had a sleepover), caught up with the kids (especially MINE!) by the time the ride was over and we attempted a group photo. Oh well...

Christmas comes early (again)!

Great Grandma and Papa bought Luke and Mia a darling table for Christmas this year. Since it arrived early, and because there was no way we would be taking it up to Tahoe for the 25th, we decided to present it a bit early. As you can see, they love it ... and it is so, so nice for them to have their own little space to sit, eat, and play.

Luke currently eats nearly every meal at his new table, and although Mia still needs to be in her highchair, she joins her brother at their new table after just about every meal to have a post-breakfast/lunch/dinner snack while standing!

Luke's 2010 Gingerbread House

Somehow, unbeknownst to me, we picked up a Gingerbread House kit that was much more labor intensive than the one we got last year. What this meant was that it turned into a two day project (not such a bad thing when it's raining outside).

Day 1: Mommy and Luke made the icing and constructed the house

Day 2: Day came over and helped Luke decorate his house. This actually went on for more than 2 hours. Last year I found that we didn't have enough candy and I ended up bringing out old Halloween stuff to finish off the house. So this year I bought an extra candy set. Well, needless to say, we had MORE than enough candy!

Santa Visits the Saccentos

We hosted an Italian food-themed Christmas party over the weekend at our home. It was so much fun to have so many of our friends over to celebrate the holidays. It's amazing how many kids there are now ... I think our invite list included somewhere close to 20 kids! That being said, it was pretty important to have Santa come and visit. We met Santa at the Diskin holiday party a few years back, so we decided to give him a call to see if he would be willing to come visit all of the good boys and girls at our home. Not only did he come, but he also brought Mrs. Claus along.

The Ahlemeyers

Izzy & Sadie were less than thrilled

Chloe

And after intially hiding in his room, Luke decides that Santa isn't so bad after all...

Mia gave into the whole Santa thing for about 60 seconds, which allowed me to snap a few pictures before she lost it.

Mia actually enjoyed wearing the antlers that Santa brought...

...but would shake her head to the side from time to time to try to get them to fall off

Checking out Santa from a safe place

Chloe and Mia: sweet friends

Thank you, friends, for coming to share in some holiday fun with us!

Oh, and can you guess what the kids will be wearing for Christmas this year? Hey, at least they are getting some use out of those outfits!! :)

In the blink of an eye

Hard to imagine that she's almost 1. Makes me happy-sad. I love to see the little person who she is becoming, but I hate to say goodbye to my little baby. I've loved every part of the past 11 months. Here's what is new now - just weeks before she turns ONE year old.

Mia is so much fun right now. She's just a little ball of energy. She loves to move around and seems to have little interest in walking. She just wants to go fast the best way that she knows how. That being said, I've caught her standing up without holding on to anything a few times recently.

My favorite development this month ... oh, well actually there are TWO favorites: 1 - her kissing sound. She loves to give kisses to us and her babies/stuffed animals. She starts with a "mmmm" sound and ends it with a "AH." So, so cute and sweet. 2 - this month brought what I consider to be "sleeping through the night" - 11-12 hours a night! Whoo hoo!


At 11 months Mia weighs just under 17 pounds and wears her 6-12 month or 9 month clothing well now (meaning that it fits right). She wears size 3 disposables and mediums in her cloth diapers. She's got 4 teeth now - the middle bottom two and ... get this ... the two on the top that will be on either side of her front teeth! Yes, like little fangs. Sort of funny, I guess. Although, I will be very happy when those top two middle teeth come through since she looks a little silly right now.

This girl loves to eat. She loved mexican food while we were in Cabo - beans and quesadillas were some of her favorites. She also tried fish and liked it. She LOVES lasagna, grilled cheese, sliced turkey meat, and vegetarian breakfast sausage patties. I pretty much give her "regular" food now as she isn't really a fan of baby food, and actually she really dislikes jarred baby food. She much prefers homemade purees.

She is starting to talk more. Despite my attempts to get her to sign, she hasn't picked up many signs yet. We will continue to work on it. In terms of words, she regularly says "da-da," "ma-ma," "kitty" or "cat," "bye," and occasionally "hi."

Laughs and cries - Mia is excellent at both! She loves to laugh, usually Luke can get her going so that she is laughing really, really hard. Such a sweet sound. What's not so sweet? Her screams! The girl can scream louder than any baby I have ever heard. When she is not happy, she lets us know. In fact, she threw a complete tantrum in Target last week and two people stopped to comment (although I could hardly hear what they were saying over the screaming) on her lungs. Just wonderful! I also had a lady in the parking lot at Babies R Us tell me that she could hear Mia screaming as I was pulling into a parking space through the rolled up windows and over the rest of the busy parking lot noise. So, I guess it is safe to say that Michael and I were not over exaggerating when we would tell people how she made it really difficult to sleep through her little "night wakings" for past 10 months!

What a little personality! We love her more each day - what a gift she is.

Visit with Santa, take 2

Santa visited the Mandala Children's House holiday party this week. Luke actually sat on his lap (but not for long ... and not without some encouragement), and Mia, well ... her feelings have not changed on the topic of Santa Claus.


And, speaking of Mandala Holiday parties, you may remember Luke's stellar performance at last year's show. I am pleased to report that there is no convincing him that singing in public is a good idea. In fact, this year he happily reported to us in the weeks leading up to the performance that he had absolutely no intention of singing during the show. However, he was happy to share his renditions of several holiday songs with us at just about every other inopportune time (like, for instance, bedtime and naptime).

I did take a video of him singing some of the songs at home, and for comparison, also took video of him during the performance. Never once did his mouth move. He appeared as though he had never seen any of the people there, nor heard any of those songs. Michael described his behavior as, "He acted like I do when I first arrive home from work at the end of a long day." Yep, pretty much...



Oh well ... there's always next year ...

SJCC Christmas Party

We had the opportunity to attend the children's Christmas party at the Country Club this year. It marked the first Christmas party of the year. It was a wonderful, very relaxed party - just perfect for the kids.

Neither Luke nor Mia was exactly overjoyed to meet Santa this year. Luke warmed up a bit with some coaxing from Day and did talk to Santa from the safety of Paw's arms ... Mia, on the other hand, well let's just say that she isn't yet a fan.

Chicken fingers that rival the ones that are served at the pool in the summer for Luke, french fries for Mia, a huge dessert table, a shirley temple, lollipops, and treat bags from Santa ... all of this made for very happy (um, hyper!) kids.

Some favorites...

Luke and a lollipop, a dog (or two, if you include "Sam"), and a Paw ... what more could a kid ask for?

The First Gifts of Christmas

My parents brought over gifts for Luke and Mia to open early. It is really nice for them to spread it out a bit. I know from watching Luke on Christmas that opening so many gifts on one night is almost overwhelming, and every year I feel like I am pulling his attention away from one gift so that he can open the next ... in a constant movement towards getting to bed so that he can wake up rested the next morning, only for it to start again!

So, when my mom suggested they bring a gift over for the kids, I was more than happy to have them do so.

So, this year, the first gift(s) of Christmas are (highly anticipated) Pillow Pets! Luke has been begging us for one for months now. Every time he sees one he makes sure that we know that he "really, really NEEDS one of those!" What the draw is to them, I'm not entirely sure, but they are super soft and the kids are both in LOVE! Luke carries his dog (now named Sam...as in "Uncle Sam" given his color scheme) around with him everywhere, and Mia is constantly kissing her little lamb ("mmm...aaaah").



Thank you, Day and Paw!!!

Tree huntin'

Our search for the perfect Christmas tree took us on quite the tour this year. And to think that we were planning on doing it the "easy" way. We headed out early on a Saturday morning and stopped for bagels, coffee, and jamba juice before heading to our local (and in recent years, favorite) Christmas tree lot ... only to find that it was no longer there :(

We trekked to a couple of other places before finding a lot with many silver tip pines. I happen to love the look of those particular trees, so we stopped and ended up getting our tree there.

Despite the fact that it started to rain, Luke had fun!

Loading up ... kids and the tree!

Luke "helping" Daddy get the tree set up in the house

Mia "helping" decorate

Goggles

What can I say? This kid loves goggles. Paw bought him two pairs over the summer in the hopes that it would encourage him to put his face in the water (this was prior to the swim lessons that have since turned him into a little fish). So, he asks to wear goggles during any water-related sports, including, but not limited to: swimming, running in the sprinklers, bathing, or going potty (who knows!).

Cracks me up - too cute!