Happy New Year

we went to bed at 9:30pm.

Snow babies

It has been a cold and snowy weekend in Kansas City. The weather started to turn while we were at Christmas Eve mass on Thursday. It had rained all day and was generally dreary but when mass let out it had started to sleet and the roads were really starting to get icy. Overnight it snowed and was just cold.

Cabin fever started to set in on Christmas morning so I suited Steven up in his brand new snow pants (I bought them in October - just in case), boots and mittens - of course, he had a jacket on, too. When we got outside all he wanted to do was stomp around on the front porch. I finally convinced him to slide down the front steps and he ended up getting snow under his coat and up his back. Oops.

We ended up recovering from that and just stomped around in the front yard for awhile.

On Saturday, cabin fever continued. This time Tommy took Steven outside as it seemed that it was getting a little warmer and a snowman might be possible. It wasn't quite warm enough for the snow to pack into balls. However, the neighbors shoveled enough to make a fort in the front yard for the grandkids to play in. Steven likes going over there to pet the reindeer decorations they have. You can see them all lit up at the top of the photo.

While Tommy was out with Steven, I suited Lyla up and took her outside for her first romp in the snow. It was slightly reminiscent of Steven's first visit to the ocean. A lot of apprehension and when Mommy put her down a little bit of crying ensued. Unfortunately, the little pockets that go over her hands and feet had worked themselves open and the shock of cold snow on her delicate skin was too much for her to handle. But doesn't she look cute?

Cookies for Santa

It might appear that our photos are out of order but this year's cookie factory took a little longer in production than originally predicted so we had to use the plate of cookies from our neighbor as a snack for Santa!

Thanks to Tommy's current carrot kick we did have a snack for Santa's reindeer, too. But you can't see the teeth marks that Steven put in them when we were talking to him about how the reindeer eat carrots! And of course, we had to let Thomas the train take a prominent spot on the plate of cookies to see what we were talking about.

We started on the dough on Christmas Eve. Put it in the fridge to cool and before you know it the kids took an extra long nap and it was time for church and then dinner. Christmas morning we got out the rock hard dough and rolled it only to have Steven eat a ton of raw dough before the cookies were baked. Then on Saturday we finally got to the glazing and decorating admist a little eating, too!

All I want for Christmas is my two front teeth

This year we celebrated Christmas at home in Kansas City, just the four of us and Kira, too. We had such a fun time starting our family traditions and just being together as a family.

On Christmas Eve we played around the house, made cookie dough, went to church, ate dinner and opened presents. For many years, my mom has made cheese stuffed pasta shells and mandarin orange salad for the Leitner family Christmas Eve dinner. This year was my chance to make it. I was really upset when I went to the grocery store the weekend before and didn't find jumbo shells. But my wonderful husband went to the "fancy" grocery store on Tuesday and bought a box. When I saw it, I told him that I regretted not telling him to buy two boxes because I was afraid too many of the shells would tear during production. In the end, I am very glad that he didn't buy two boxes because we had enough shells to feed a small army. We finally finished them today at lunch after eating them for the third lunch in a row!

No fancy table cloth for us this year - too much danger with a two year old running around! Poor Lyla, all she got was some gerber puffs!

We opened all of our family gifts after dinner. The first gift Steven opened was a battery powered Thomas train from Aunt Heather, Uncle Charley, Cousins Ava and Bridget. We immediately had to stop everything and put it together - all other presents for "Santa's Birthday Party" had to be put on hold. What a winner! So we let Lyla open her presents while Steven played with Thomas.

And not surprising, Lyla enjoyed the wrapping paper and boxes more than the actual presents. Why do we spend money?



Christmas morning we woke to more presents from Santa under the tree. What fun to continue the paper ripping and children squealing. Then it was off to playing in the snow, cookie baking and napping. Tommy was in charge of Christmas dinner which ended up really being our late meal as naps and playing forced us in to a stuffed shells leftover lunch (no complaining from me, though)!

Tommy is really coming in to his own in the chef department. He roasted a lamb, made a fancy potato dish with mushrooms and cherry tomatoes, and creamed peas. Cherry tomatoes, you say? - yes, they were from our crazily fruitful plant; we ended up freezing several bags to enjoy over the winter, yummy! Oh, by the way, I did eat the lamb - I am expanding my horizons and it was very delicious.
On Christmas night we settled the kids to bed and Tommy and I laid on the couch and watched a movie. Julie and Julia. It was really good and fed both of our recent fascinations - blogs and food! Over the weekend we even got to watch a few DVR'd episodes of West Wing during naps. What a great show, even 10 years later. We watched an episode where Josh got caught up in a blog about him, the deputy chief of staff. Tommy thought it was hilarious that they were talking about blogs on the West Wing - we probably didn't even understand what blogs were the first time we watched those shows.

What a wonderful Christmas weekend for the Clarks! Merry Christmas, everyone!

Oh, and the title of this entry ... maybe it should be "All Mommy wants for Christmas is Lyla's two front teeth." Poor little girl has spent Christmas cutting one of her top front teeth - nights have been long but she is going to make it through. Me on the other hand...

First presents of Christmas

The first presents of Christmas were opened early on Christmas Eve ... not because Steven and Lyla were anxious but Daddy had little bit of Santa fever! I do have to admit that I was pretty anxious to get the festivities started, too. Steven picked the gift bags from Tia Maija and Uncle Phil and proceeded to pull the tissue paper as fast a child on Christmas - oh, wait, that is what he was!

The kids got animal backpacks. Steven got a frog with a brown backpack and Lyla got a monkey with a green backpack. Maija told us later on the phone that the animals and backpacks were mix and match; so it was okay that Steven told Lyla that he wanted the green backpack because it matched his frog better. Steven liked it so much he insisted on sleeping with the frog that night!

Thank you Tia Maija and Uncle Phil!

Tommy on Children's Vitamins

"I like them. They're yummy!"

Merry Christmas to All!

They did it! Lyla and Steven happily sat on Santa's lap this year! What a fun time for all of us!

Look at my Knitted Pants!

Tracy sent knitted pants for Lyla when she was born back in April. They were too big back then but now that it has gotten chilly they fit perfect!

Decorating the tree

Since our house now must be babyproof for a crawling little girl we got creative and decided to put the tree on the window seat. It is up high enough that Lyla can't reach it and it is out of the way when Steven runs the bases.

I got all the ornaments out from the basement while Steven was napping and we put most of the non-breakable ones up before he woke up. Our strategy was "Prevention." We wanted everything done before he learned what it was like to touch the tree and put things on it - if he didn't see it happen, he wouldn't be interested. So far we've been pretty lucky!

The one oops moment was that I didn't realize the tree skirt was packed away in the window seat until we were done putting the tree up!

Our Family Tree

Today we picked out our Christmas tree from the Boy Scout lot at the kids daycare. It was very urban - not the nostalgic, trod through the forest, use the saw kind of experience but we had a good time. And it even made the journey back home tied to the roof of the subaru (forgot to take a photo).