Santa

After the kids' nap we headed over to the San tan Village to see Santa and we also heard this rumor that it was going to snow. We went and saw Santa first. The kids were excited to tell Santa's brother what they wanted for Christmas. Hayden was questioning how Santa could be at so many places. So we told him that Santa's brothers helped him out and told Santa what all the little boys and girls wanted for Christmas. That seemed to satisfy him. He's too smart for his own good and I don't know how long we will be able to keep him believing in Santa. He asked me last month if Santa was even real. Hayden asked Santa for a Razor scooter and Phedora asked for the big bear at Sam's club that she wants. I hope they are happy with what Santa brings them this year. They have decided to go and ask for something completely different than they originally wanted.

After seeing Santa they went and played for a few minutes in the play area and then it started snowing. Everyone ran for the snow and enjoyed it. Hayden on the other had pointed out rather upset that it wasn't really snow it was just bubbles. So he was a little let down about the snow. But they still had a fun time trying to catch the "snow bubbles." We are going to go to Chandler Mall and see the other Santa. Phedora and I saw him last weekend and he looks much more realistic than this one did. Plus I like the way Chandler did their Santa set up better.

Phoenix Children's Museum

Back in June, the Phoenix Children's Museum opened its doors. We have been meaning to go but never made it up there. Well we finally went yesterday and we were not disappointed. We went with my friend Nicole and her two kids Kelsey and Bennett. We all had a great time. The museum is housed by an old school house. Its 3 floors and very open and inviting. Its an old historic building in Phoenix. I loved how open it was and even though there were 3 buses in the parking lot and a bunch of cars it didn't feel overwhelmingly busy like the Everett Children's Museum did when it was busy. On the bottom floor they had a play area with the tubes that you can crawl through and these tubes that had air flowing through them. The kids all had fun putting balls and scarfs in to see where they would come out at. My favorite was the scarfs. I loved seeing them gracefully float to the ground.

On the second floor there was tricycles of all sizes and a car wash for the kids to drive through. They all had their favorite trike and of course there was never enough to go around. There was also an art room where the kids painted the house and made gingerbread men. Phedora also did some stamping and traced her hand print to put on the wall as the birds tail feather. I should have taken a picture of the bird but I didn't.

On the third floor there was a grocery store complete with the checkout isles and cash registers. Next door to that was the restaurant and the kids spent quite a bit of time in this room. They had 3 kitchen stations set up and a wood fire pizza oven. There was also a bunch of tables around the outside for the parents to sit at and be waited on. Nicole and I got a lot of food brought to us. I guess we looked hungry. Next door to the restaurant was a ball room. Very similar to the one in Everett. They had a little tree house that the bigger kids could climb into to let the balls roll. Outside of the ball room there was a car area. It was a couple of big race tracks with cars to let roll. The boys had a lot of fun in here. In the main area of the third floor there was a bunch of those pool noodles hanging from the ceiling. It was a little weird wandering through hundreds of pool noodles. You just didn't know where you were going to end up at and that was a little unsettling for me. Once you made it through it opened into a sitting area. The kids had a great time running through and trying to find each other. I think it would be pretty cool to have a room like this for the kids. Then have an open area in the back of the room for toys of some sort.

The kids are anxious to go back so I am sure we will be back soon. It was definitely worth the $9 a piece to get in. Plus we were there for 4 hours. On the way home Hayden started to fall asleep so I told him no please don't fall asleep. He said I'm too tired I cant stay awake. He made it home though and that was nice. There's no way I could have carried him into the house and he gets really mad when you wake him up.

Snow Day...

Whoever said it didn't snow in the desert of Arizona was so wrong. It turns out that it does snow here and I'm not joking. Apparently back in 1992 and 1994 it really did snow here in the Chandler area. This morning my friend Fawn invited us to go to a snow party. We jumped at the opportunity to go play in the snow. Fawn's neighbor down the road has a snow party ever year. They bring in snow from White Mountain and all the kids had a great time sledding and throwing snow balls. The only problem was the snow they were throwing was more like ice balls. Poor little Wade got hit in the eye by one of them. After playing in the snow we had pizza and hot chocolate followed by decorating a sugar cookie for dessert. All in all a great time and I am so glad that we were able to go. I got a few shots of the kids and had a great time talking with the other parents there.

Mom! There really is snow!

Hayden positioning himself on the sled.

Coming down the slope

Mmm, Pizza. Hayden and Christian

Getting ready to decorate his cookie.

Wade, Phedora and Christian

Flying the airplane

Phedora's turn to fly

Hayden's Dr.'s Appointment

I completely forgot to tell you just how much our little guy has grown in the last year! I wasn't quite as surprised as I thought I would be. His appointment went great and he is growing great. We will probably take him in to see the eye doctor soon as his vision could be better. He 20/25 in his right eye I think it was and 20/40 in the other. The doctor didn't come right out and say we needed to take him to a eye doctor but implied the recommendation. He said that if their eyes are worse than 20/40 to take them so I took that as a we should. Poor kids are going to end up in glasses someday anyway :)

On to the other stats! Last year Hayden was 41" and 44 lbs. This year he is 44" and 50.9 lbs. I thought for sure he had grown more than a mere 3 inches!

All in all it was a great appointment. And we all really liked the Dr that we ended up choosing. He didn't have to get any shots as he was promised last year. Though I did try and talk him into a Chicken Pox booster. He said absolutely not so we will be taking care of that one next year instead.

A little sad and disappointed

Well, you will all be happy to know that we will not be moving out to Pittsburgh :( We didn't get the job and while I am happy that we will be eventually moving home I was really excited about being able to spend sometime in a completely foreign area so to speak. We plan on staying here through the end of April when our lease expires. The rent here is unbeatable and the sun is a added plus. Hopefully it will keep us from getting to depressed as it looks like Dan will yet again be out of work for some time to come. I am looking forward to coming home though as we miss everyone so much. We contemplated coming back now but the kids are happy in their preschool and again the rent here is unbeatable at a mere $1100. We wouldn't be able to find much up there for this price. We are going to hopefully get out to a few of the places I want to see and take the kids to.

Also I got a new camera yesterday and I have been taking lots of pics again. I hated that the screen on my old one was broken so I tended to not use it. I bought a case this time for the camera to hopefully avoid breaking the screen. Send some prayers my way though cause I have had really bad camera luck the last few years :)

One last little thing

I forgot to mention.... I am going to be an auntie again! My little sister Olivia and her husband John are expecting their first little bundle of joy in July! Congrats again to Liv and John! We love you both and I cant wait till July!

Updates Updates Updates

OK, I know I have been slacking off on here and not updating. But to be perfectly honest there's really been nothing too exciting going. OK there had been nothing exciting going. We have had more excitement in the last week and a half then in the last month.

Friday, November 21

First things first, the kids had their program for Apples to Zebra's . It was really cute. Hayden's class was scheduled to go on Thursday and Phedora's on Friday. We opted to have Hayden go with Phedora's class so that Dan could come along as well. They sang all the songs that they had learned over the 2 1/2-3 months. They even learned how to sign a song. We got it on video so I will have to see if I can post it. Hayden was being really shy and didn't want to participate at all. He said he didn't know there was going to be so many people watching. A little stage fright I guess. At the end they both got a certificate of completion. They are anxious to get back, we start back on January 12th.

Saturday, November 22

The next day we had Hayden's 5th birthday party! I cant believe that he is already 5, its already been 5 years. It feels like just yesterday, I was in the hospital. I remember it all vividly, just like it was yesterday. We rented a jumpy house and had a few of his friends from preschool and playgroup over. We were a little shocked that the jumpy house didn't get used very much. Phedora and Kelsey were really the only ones in there for the most part. The boys pretty much just played in the dirt with the construction toys. Boys will be boys though. Us parents had a good time sitting around chatting and it was nice to meet all the dad's. I think Dan had a good time talking with them???? I hope he did at least. All in all it was a great party and the perfect amount of time. I was afraid that 2 hours wouldn't be long enough but it was. I'll tell you what I was ready for a nap though afterwards.

Tuesday, November 25

On Tuesday night, Dan's parents and Grandma Bev arrived. We were all very excited to see them. They ended up getting here at about 7 and the kids were more than happy to get to stay up. Dan stayed up visiting until we turned on Dancing with the Stars then he was off to bed. He doesn't like to watch so that's pretty much the norm for him. Plus he had to go into work the morning for a few hours to get the guys situated.

Wednesday, November 26

Happy 5th Birthday Hayden!
Hayden requested breakfast in bed for his birthday. He wanted pancakes with sausage, eggs and orange juice. He was really excited about it. So I got up early to make his breakfast. He likes his pancakes with the sausage sprinkled on top before the flip so that's what he got. I let the pancake mix sit a little too long though so they were really fluffy, but oh so yummy. He was already up so we sent him back to bed and I took him his breakfast. Then he came out to the table to actually eat. He ate it all and I was shocked, it was a lot of food! We spent the morning doing a little prep work for Thanksgiving and I made a pumpkin pie. Then we headed out to Makutu's Island to play. He loves going there. I was a little weary because he had been fighting off a cold and I didn't want him to get sicker but he had a lot of fun nonetheless. We just made sure to take lots of tissue with us. After Makutu's Island we went out to dinner at the Melting Pot. Both the kids had a great time dipping and cooking their own food. All was great until dessert came and Hayden just couldn't control himself. He ended up eating way too much way too fast and about half way through everything came back up. I felt so terrible for him. After we got him all cleaned up he said he was hungry. Poor guy. Dan and Tom brought him and Phedora home and gave him some turkey broth. Peg, Grandma and I headed out to get a few last items for Thanksgiving and to find a card table and chairs since we were short about 3 spots for dinner. Hayden has is check up on the 4th so I will post them how much he has grown in the last year. According to our bathroom scale he is already 50 pounds! He is a big boy.

Thursday, November 27

Happy Thanksgiving!
We had a full house and a lot of yummy food. We had 10 people including the kids. Dan's turkey was the best one yet and I swear he made a good 8 pounds of mashed potatoes and there were very few leftover :( A few weeks ago he made roasted mashed potatoes so he decided to make half roasted and half regular. He also made his green bean casserole. I made a pecan pie and the dressing. I found this yummy dressing recipe last year and just had to have it again this year. Peg took care of the salad and the cranberry sauce. I am still bummed out that I ate too much and didn't have any room for the salad. But I know it was also very yummy. While we were all cooking up a storm we did get to watch some football and we were all disappointed that our Seahawks lost again. I don't know whats going on this year but I can only hope next year will be better.

Friday, November 28

Tom, Peg and Grandma had to go home today. They left at about noon and we were all very sad to see them go. Time flew by and they were gone before we knew it. I am so thankful that they were able to come and enjoy Thanksgiving and Hayden's birthday with us though. We all wished they could have stayed longer. We spent the rest of the day just relaxing. It was really nice.

Saturday, November 29

We decided that the kids needed new clothes so we took them out shopping. We decided that we would get them new clothes for Christmas but wanted to have them with us since they are both so big. Phedora is in a 4T and Hayden is wearing sizes 6 and 7 boys! I am so thankful that we took them with us or we would probably be going back. As we were leaving the store we told them Merry Christmas. Hayden then asked us if we were going to wrap them up and put them under the tree for Christmas. We told him that we would if he wanted us to but that we were really just going to give them to them now since they both needed new clothes. Neither one of them have any winter clothes that fit. Yes I said winter, it does get cold here believe it or not! We ended up getting them both 3 pairs of pants and 4 or 5 new shirts. Hayden decided that he wanted to wear his new clothes that fit. Since he was afraid there would be nothing to open on Christmas we reminded him that Santa was coming and Nana and Grampee, Grandma and Grandpa and Auntie Kiki and Uncle John all had presents for him too. Then he was ok with getting our presents early. Both of them are loving their new clothes. Phedora picked out these brown cords with "diamonds" on the buttons and she wears them all the time. They are here "diamond pants" Hayden got a bunch of Tony Hawk stuff and he loves to wear his "Hawk clothes" They are too cute.

After shopping we went out to lunch at Mimi's Cafe and then came home for a nap. We were going to go see Madagascar 2 but Phedora was fitting over everything. So we opted to not go. While they were all sleeping Santa went out and got their presents. It was a great feeling to know that they were all done except for little stocking stuffers.

Sunday, November 29

I finished up all of my Christmas shopping today and boy did it feel good. I think that everyone is going to love their gifts this year. At least I hope so :)

Monday, December 1

Happy Holidays! The countdown is officially on here in the Posey house. Peg brought both of the kids an advent calendar and the kids and I made our own a while back. We made snowmen with cotton balls. I cut out snowmen and then glued contact paper onto the paper. Then all we had to do was pull it apart and attach the cotton balls to the sticky side. Easy and no mess. Then we made chains out of construction paper. They turned out really cute. I will have to take a picture of them.
This morning the kids and I headed out to Walmart to get some stuff to decorate with. We have a ton of lights so we bought some tinsel garlands and 4 lighted candy canes for the walkway. Then we came home and I cleaned out the garage. I had to go through and break down all the moving boxes. That was quite the chore it took me about 3 hours to do it. We have a ton of boxes. I hate to say though that we will still be in need of more boxes when we move. Its amazing how much stuff you can accumulate in a year. Dan is going to have to bring all of his stuff here from this job and store it. So our garage will only be clean for probably the next day or two.
Afterwards, we hung up some Christmas lights outside and put up a lighted candy cane walkway. Before bed they did their advent calendars and were all excited that they got train candy today. Now they are anxious to see what tomorrow's candy will be.

Now you are all up to date. I will post pictures and what nots soon. The change in the weather has taken its toll on me and I have been a little blah lately. So for now I hope you have enjoyed your walk through the last week and a half or so.