Merry Christmas

Here are a few photos of the boys on Christmas Eve and Christmas morning. We let them open the gifts from us on Christmas Eve and then Santa brought some things on Christmas morning. They had a blast opening all the gifts (of course!). I was kind of surprised that they both left the presents alone that were under the tree until Christmas Eve. They really didn't try to open them until it was time. Then they went on a gift-opening spree. On Christmas morning, before Adam even asked about if Santa brought any presents, he wanted to know if Santa had eaten the cookies that we left (of course he did...). I just thought it was funny that he was so concerned about those cookies. He was very excited when he saw that the cookies were gone.

I've posted a bunch more pictures of Christmas and also other December pictures on my web album:

http://picasaweb.google.com/amykerkemeyer/Dec07

Merry Christmas to all!

Another new digital scrapbook page

Here is a page I did from the pictures of the boys playing in Lake Superior when we went up to MN in September.

Snow and Santa!

We got our first big snowfall of the season on Friday night. We woke up Saturday morning with an inch or two on the ground. We had a good time going to the playground and lunch at Burger King pulling the kids there in the sled while it was still light snow. Then Saturday night was the Santa walk at Suson park. By then, the snow was coming down heavy again and there really weren't very many kids there to visit Santa, I think the snow kept a lot of people away. We hadn't done this event before, I couldn't believe you could actually find any Santas anymore that you could actually take your own snapshots and not pay $7 for a lousy photo taken by the people who hired the Santa. So I thought it was great! Cole was less than thrilled though... Adam sat with Santa but wouldn't tell him what he wanted for Christmas and wouldn't take the toy that Santa's elf offered him. By the time we left the park an hour later it was really snowing hard and it was a long, slow drive home. The next morning we had ~6 inches of snow, so the kids were out playing in it again Sunday morning. Adam really enjoyed it, Cole couldn't get around very well in his jacket and snowsuit, so he got tired of it quick. As usual in St. Louis, this snow won't last long, it will be close to 40 degrees the next couple days, so we have to enjoy it while it lasts!

Kids will surprise you

Today we went to Monkey Joe's which is one of those bounce house places for kids to have a holiday pizza party. Adam had a great time and was just a gem the entire time. Then when it was time to leave he had a big time fit, wouldn't put his shoes on, etc. and I ended up chasing him down and carrying him kicking and screaming back to put his shoes on and repeat out to the car. He spent the afternoon in his room once we got home to cool off and take a nap if he wanted (yeah, right). After he apologized for his behavior later, he got to come out and play. Then if he didn't go and vacuum the whole breakfast room floor for me. He said he wanted to vacuum and he crawled around and got every little speck of food on the floor. Then he went and vacuumed the family room too. Just when you're ready to sell them to the highest (or any) bidder, they go and do something sweet.

Flooring fiasco

Well I finally got at putting the pergo in the entry hall today. On Saturday, I started pulling up some of the old parquet flooring and it was going pretty slow. Then on Sunday, Dan took over the floor demolition and within an hour the rest of the floor was stripped of parquet. So today I got most of the hallway done and then I ran out of underlayment and the flooring planks. I can get the underlayment at the hardware store, but the planks I ordered and they don't carry them online anymore. I guess I'll have to see if the local flooring store can special order me a carton. If I can't get it anymore, not sure what I'll do. Maybe I'll put tile in for the last few feet by the front door. Aaaargh....