Merry Christmas

Christmas morning was so much fun with Olivia this year. This is the first Christmas that she actually knew Santa was coming and was excited about it. She had gone to bed late on Christmas Eve. Scott woke up around 8am Christmas morning and I fed him breakfast and my mom came over and we had some coffee and waited for Olivia and Erik to wake up. At 9:30 am we couldn't wait any longer so we woke them up. She came downstairs and was crying because I didn't move her back into her bed the night before and she thought maybe Santa didn't come because she wasn't in her own bed (we let her fall asleep in our bed the night before and told her we would move her back into her bed but of course we were so tired that never happened). I told her not to worry that Santa came anyway! She checked to make sure he ate her cookies and drank the milk she left for him and then moved to the tree. She was so excited!

We opened presents and then it was Erik's job to put everything together! LOL We also have an addition to the family, Daddy gave Olivia her first pet! A fish, and Olivia named her Katie, not sure why, but that's her name. She also got a a robot puppy and she is still thinking of name for the puppy, but don't worry, we didn't leave her home alone, she came with us for Christmas dinner (the puppy)!

We then went to my inlaws later in the afternoon and exchanged gifts with them and had dinner. Erik made his mom something homemade which was a replica of the key from their old home in South Salem, NY for her to hang in the house and put their keys on. She really loved it and those are the kind of gifts that really touch you. He worked on it for so long and sanded and painted and sanded and painted and was so proud of it. It really came out nice. I took a couple of pics of Olivia, Scott and Sammy in their matching handmade hats and Olivia's poncho that Bestema made for them. So cute!!

Merry Christmas Everyone!

Christmas Eve & Happy 13th Birthday Chris!

We had our annual Christmas Eve at Aunt Laura and John's and celebrated Chris's 13th birthday. We had a really nice night with family and a late night! Scott and Olivia didn't go to bed until 10:30 and they were soooo wound up and on over drive. They had a blast though. The food was fantastic of course!! Thanks Aunt Laura, you are the best! We missed Andrew and Heidi :( They are in WI this year with Heidi's family.

It was so cute because Olivia was playing with Marissa and Chris's little cousin Angelo who is 4 as well and as soon as Olivia walked in the door they clicked right away. It was like they had just scene each other yesterday. They were absolutely adorable together. It was funny because Olivia didn't give Marissa, Katie or Meagan the time of day which normally she is right on top of them. No worries for Marissa, Katie and Meagan though, they took care of Scott and Sam all night! :) Thank goodness for those girls!! When it was time to eat Angelo and Olivia had to sit at the same table together. Really precious.

Enjoy the pics, I know there are a lot, but what cdo you expect from me?

I will update later with Christmas morning and Christmas Day.

Merry Christmas!

Make sure if click on "view larger" to view the pics, that you scroll down all the way to read the captions of the pics. There is a pic of Olivia dancing on Marissa's bed that we are going to put on her 21st birthday cake. Look closely at the picture! LOL

Congratulations Kelly!

My sister Kelly graduated last week with her MASTERS! That's right, I said masters. I am so proud of her. She has accomplished so much in her life and she has such a wonderful future ahead of her. She is living out in Chicago and is teaching English as a 2nd language right now. Really cool!

We went to her graduation party today. I am terrible and only took a few pictures! We got a good one though of the 3 Stryker gals. Christmas Eve is Heidi's 21st birthday!! Yikes, my baby sister is 21. Thanks to her big sis, me, she can't have a 21st birthday celebration in NYC. I ruined that for her! Ha! Ha! I won't elaborate since my children may read this one day...those of you who were fortunate or unfortunate to have been there, you know what I mean!

Congratulations Kelly!

p.s. Since I haven't added an entry in so long, I added 5 tonight to bring everyone up to date, so enjoy the next 4 entries after this one! :)

Happy Anniversary!

Yesterday was mine and Erik's 5 year wedding anniversary. After Olivia's Christmas show Bestema took the kids home with her for the weekend so Erik and I have been children free since yesterday afternoon. We had a nice dinner out and a nice quiet evening. Today we spent the day waiting for the Sear's repair serviceman to come and fix our 4 year old refrigerator!! We have been without a refrigerator and freezer for 4 days. It's fixed now and working great AND to top it off the ice maker that stopped working 3 years ago now works. LOL We also, I mean I also, wrapped presents all day!

We then headed off today to my sisters graduation party. I will add an entry for that next!

Olivia's Christmas Show

Olivia had her Christmas Show at her school yesterday. So cute! She was the 5 golden rings with her friend Elizabeth in the 12 Days of Christmas. They sang about 8 songs. I couldn't get very many pictures because they came out dark and I couldn't get zoomed in far enough, but I got a couple.

Wrestling with Mason

LOL, I just had to put a couple of these pics up of Mason and Scott wrestling, well more like Mason kicking Scott's butt! :) They were laughing hysterically and just kept on doing it. It was so cute. Can't wait for them to be 10 and doing this and waiting for the black eyes! UGH!

As you can see Scott has a nice little gash on his forehead but it was not from wrestling with Mason. He pulled a stocking down and the stocking holder came crashing down on his head! He is a trooper though and is fine.

Visit with Santa

We took the kids to visit Santa. Olivia was so excited and think she was even more excited when we got there and Mrs. Claus was there! Scott screamed like a monster when I put him on Santa's lap. He went nuts. The girl taking the photo jingled some bells and it got his attention for a split second and she took the picture. Olivia made a funny face, so we tried to get another one but Scott wriggled himself out of Santa's grip, so I had to catch him and he was DONE. So I got the picture with Olivia making a funny face, but if you look closely at the picture from last year, she is doing the same exact thing with her lip. It's weird! Scott looks hysterical in last year's photo, he so little!

Enjoy!

The Gang

These are the folks I spend more time with than my own family unfortunately!!! LOL My team at work had our Christmas party last night. It was horrible weather out and it took us 45 minutes to go from our work to Chuck's Steakhouse which is normally a 4 minute ride. We were missing a few people: Our other manager Matt, Susan, George (who works offsite from home and thankfully turned around and made it safely back home) and Jim who also works offsite from home in AZ! We missed them tremendously, but us other crazy cats made it there. It was nice to be out of work and relaxing and not talking shop. We exchanged secret Santa gifts and had a really nice time.

Our Advent Wreath

Olivia made an Advent Wreath in school this week on Monday. They "lit" the first candle for week one and sent home the "flames" to light at home for the remaining weeks It should be a white candle in the center, but I didn't have one! So I put our green Christmas candle in the center to light for our Christmas dinner.

Week 1: Purple-Hope (Romans 15: 12-13)

"We can hope because God is faithful, will keep the promises. Our hope comes from God."

Week 2: Purple-Preparation (Luke 3: 4-6)

"Help us to be ready to welcome you, O God."

Week 3: Pink-Joy (Luke 2: 7-15)

"The Angels sang a message of Joy."

Week 4: Purple-Love (John 3: 16-17)

"God sent His only Son to earth to save us , because He loves Us."

My Baby is 4!!!

Olivia turned 4 yesterday!! We had a really nice birthday party for her with family and close friends. She had a sleep over that night with her little cousins and big cousins. She had an absolute blast and is so exhausted today. We had such a great day. She helped bake her birthday cakes in the morning with Grandma and then decorated them herself. She wore her birthday crown all day that she got from school on Friday. Her class celebrated her birthday on Friday and she shared munchkins with her friends that she brought in.

She is so funny too because she made sure to take the card from each gift and made it a point to hand it to me for me to read it to her before she opened the gift and she truly was listening to each word of the card and looking at the pictures. So cute!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY OLIVIA! We also need to say a special happy birthday to the new mom...Aunt Karen who got to go home from the hospital with Makenna on her birthday. It is very special that Olivia gets to share her birthday with Aunt Karen. We love you!