Christmas 2011 - Video

I'll apologize now ... the video is 10 minutes long, but if you consider that it took us 3.5 hours to open presents, I would say that I cut down the footage considerably :-)

A few notes .. We were up several times with Max the night before. We aren't exactly sure what was up with him, but he demanded milk about 3 times during the night and then woke up at 5:30am. A little after 6:00am I gave up hope of getting him back to sleep and then it wasn't long before he woke up Alia. She was not ready to be up yet and not very pleased initially. It took her a little bit to wake up and realize what was going on. Once we got going and got some breakfast in her belly, she was in much better spirits.

Also, the "Emily" train that was in Alia's stocking has been deemed too sacred to play with and is in a special little box with Alia in her bed ... she sleeps with it! We kind of saw that one coming :-)

Enjoy!

Christmas 2011 - Part 2

More pictures from Christmas day.

One of Alia's very favorite presents of the day was this camera from Mommy and Daddy. You'll see she's holding it in a lot of the other pictures.

Max being silly and Alia checking out her camera.

Taking a break. All this present opening can be exhausting!

CHEESE!

Super neat gift ... the "Family Rules". We love them!

Max got his very own U of M football jersey from Papaw ... not sure how I feel about it :-)

Alia was so excited to see this Thomas coloring book! She ran into the other room and sat up on the couch with it to protect it from Max. It wasn't long before she had to break it in :-)

This picture just about sums up Max on Christmas morning. He woke up 3 times the night before asking for milk and ate like a tank for the 24 hours before and after. We are assuming it was a growth spurt or something. He made it through present opening and then went down for a nap at 10:30am, which is pretty unusual.

A wonderful summary of how we all felt after 3.5 hours of present opening!

Christmas 2011 - Part 1

We had a wonderful (relatively) quiet Christmas at home with the kids this year. On Christmas Eve morning we did our usual Saturday routine of BodyPump at the gym and then bagels at Panera. Later that day we went to church and then made cookies for Santa. Alia didn't nap that day (too much excitement) which actually worked out beautifully because she fell right asleep and Santa was able to arrive right on schedule.

Making forts with Daddy

Douglas Family gingerbread house experiment 2011 - Mommy and Daddy put the frosting on, applied candies, Max moved all the candies and Alia ate all the candies. A good time was had by all!

Alia was kind enough to volunteer to taste test one of Santa's cookies. She wanted to make sure they were extra delicious before choosing some to leave out for him!

The kids must have been VERY good this year!

Definitely one of their favorite gifts of the day was this ride-on toy from Nana and Sir. It was really for Max, but around here everything is shared.

Max was very good and very into helping open presents. Next year we are going to have to strap him to a chair or something!

Another one of the surprise favorite gifts of the day was this silly and very adorable little snoring pig from Lyndey (the kids great-step-aunt if you want to get technical). Again, it was really for Max, but Alia has taken over all of the duties of caring for him.

Both kids got ridiculously adorable hats from Gaga. Max's was a sock monkey ... PERFECT!

"Hedgehog" Holiday Party

If you look closely, you'll notice a certain little brother managed to get in on the fun!

Alia is 3!

It is so hard to believe, but our little jellybean is now a 3 year old! She had most of her birthday fun on her "party day" but did take some cupcakes to school on Tuesday and got a few more birthday presents on her actual birthday. She spent the morning playing at Outdoors In with her best friend Carson (and Max and Landon of course). We are so proud of our silly, sweet, caring, considerate, smart and gorgeous little girl!

I'll add a few fun facts about life with the 3 year old just for the sake of documentation :-) Alia is now VERY into Thomas the Train. He has taken over the throne of favorite cartoon from Dora. She loves watching Thomas, singing the songs and playing with trains. She also loves playing pretend with just about anything, making Max play Ring Around the Rosey and dancing. She is constantly asking us to play music so that she can dance around the house. Sometimes she practices stuff from dance class and other times she just wants to do "silly moves".

Alia still really loves books. She has the most amazing memory. She can "read" (recite) us whole entire books word for word. We think its pretty amazing! Her favorite books right now are her princess book, Cat In The Hat, Pinkalicious and Miss Bindergarten Gets Ready for Kindergarten. She also still really enjoys art projects like coloring, painting, play-doh, etc. We have started really practicing the correct way to hold a pencil so that we can get ready for writing. She is starting to really experiment with writing and trying to draw actual pictures.

Today was Alia's last day in the "Hedgehogs" class at school. When we return from break, she will move up to the "Frogs" class with the rest of the 3 year old crowd. I think she is a tiny bit nervous, but mostly very excited and ready. Also, when we return from winter break, Alia's dance class will find out what their song and costume will be for their dance recital that will take place in June. Lots of excitement around here.

Favorite color - The color of whatever she happens to be wearing that day

Favorite outfit - striped pants and butterfly shirt

Favorite pjs - purple Dora pjs

Favorite breakfast - oatmeal/french toast bagels from Panera

Favorite songs - "Blue Mama", "Sleep All Day, Party All Night" (don't ask :-)

Favorite part about school - painting and playing outside

Favorite part of dance class - ballet

Best Friend - Carson, of course

Favorite stuffed animal - Piggie

Enjoying her new doll house from Mommy and Daddy

Important and essential princess gear from Papaw and Mimi

Her birthday crown that her teachers at school made her on Tuesday

Picture with Santa 2011

I just realized that I never posted this picture. We ventured out to the mall a few weeks ago to do the whole picture with Santa thing. We had a positive attitude but were prepared for the worst. Luckily for us, the line was short! We only waited about 10-15 minutes! The kids did a great job. Alia was shy, but told Santa that she wanted "Thomas and all the trains" for Christmas. She was even cool with sitting on his lap until Max started to get nervous. Once we got him situated, she was just fine. This picture was attempt #4 I think :-)

The Polar Express

Yesterday our family had a very busy, fun and special day. It started with some play time at one of our favorite spots, Outdoors In. Next we went out to lunch and then got cozy in the car for a road trip to Hood River to board the Polar Express.

We actually got there a hair early, so we walked around the downtown area just a little bit and managed to discover a toy store! I picked up two small and special surprises for the kids to open once we were on the train. (We kind of had a feeling that Alia would be nervous at first, and thought a special something might ease the nerves ... which it did.)

We enjoyed hot chocolate, cookies, a reading of the book Polar Express, a visit from Santa and singing Christmas songs all on our train ride. We finished off our night with dinner at a local brewery and then headed back home. Everyone stayed awake on the train and fell asleep in the car on the way home ... perfect!

Max and Mommy having snacks and waiting for our train to depart.

Alia stayed close to Daddy the entire trip. I think Jason's leg fell asleep several times.

Max playing with his new train, "Toby"

Alia loved her new train "Edward" (and Max's train too)

I love this picture! Max was giving Santa quite the look.

Alia told Santa she wanted "Thomas" for Christmas and "all the trains". Santa gave Alia a special bell and then told her she was pretty much guaranteed to get her wish :-)

Alia's School "Performance"

Each class at Alia's school did a very brief little performance for parents last week. Alia's class sang a few songs and then their Mandarin teacher came in and showed us what they have been working on. Alia's teachers said that they were surprised how shy she was during the performance, because apparently in class she was really singing and moving while they were practicing. Oh, well :-)

Also, as you can see, Alia is pretty much the tallest kid in her class. That is partly because she is the oldest. She has just two more days in the Hedgehogs class before she moves on and becomes a Frog in the new year!

Alia and Uncle Monkey

Birthday Party - Video

Here is some video from Alia's birthday party today ....

Alia's 3rd Birthday Party

We celebrated Alia's 3rd birthday at home this afternoon with 3 of her closest friends. A few months back Alia requested a "Dora" party for her birthday and I happily complied (with the help of Miss Jamie, of course). Since then, she has become much more interested in Thomas the Train than in Dora, but was still very excited about her Dora party. We started out by doing some exploring outside (luckily, the weather was dry), then we played Pin The Tail On Swiper, we ate dinner, enjoyed cupcakes and opened presents. Overall, I would say that the party was a success. The kids all seemed to have a great time!

Alia all ready for her party and awaiting her guests

Daddy, Alia and Mommy on party day

The table all set up for the kids

Outside on our exploring walk - I made a map and Jason helped me plant little surprises at each point. The kids had little backpacks to collect their surprises and flashlights to help them search and explore.

Everyone gathered around as we open up one of the boxes to discover our surprise

Kaylee, Carson, Alia and Nick

Alia playing "Pin The Tail On Swiper"

Alia requested back up while blowing out her candles.

The most beautiful (almost) 3 year old little girl in the world!

One very happy little boy that he got to have a cupcake too!

"ALIA"

Guess who can write her name all by herself?

Alia totally surprised us by picking up a crayon and writing her name this afternoon! I'm thinking I might cut it out and save it in her baby book :-)

(I should note that the "Max" you see on the left hand side was written by a grown-up.)

Swim Lessons

This morning we had our final swim lesson of this session. The next time we take swim lessons, Alia will be in Catfish 1 all by herself with no Mommy or Daddy. On the last day of class, the kids can go down the big water slide with their parents if they want to. Alia was not remotely interested in doing it! Max however, really enjoyed it and even went back for a second turn! We were lucky to have Uncle Monkey in town for the weekend working the camera for us :-)

The "Get Ready For Bed" Dance

Alia invented this silly dance one night and it's really caught on :-) First you brush your teeth, then you comb your hair and then you fall asleep!

Children's Museum

This morning Alia, Max and I went to the Children's Museum for the first time in quite a while. It was a whole new experience for me having two fully mobile children there ... and no stroller. I was exhausted after just two hours. As you can tell from the pictures, Max absolutely loved it and couldn't really control his excitement. The water play area was the big hit!

Photographic evidence of Max struggling to control his excitement!

Splashing and splashing and splashing

Max was just tall enough to enjoy this little spot.

We had tons of fun at this water table. Alia is getting to the stage where she really enjoys putting in the little dividers to see what happens and Max enjoyed watching the boats float down the different paths we made. We got to the museum early and so had this area all to ourselves the whole time.

The dig pit is another one of our favorite spots.

Max did a much better job shoveling the "dirt" rather than eating it this time!