I BELIEVE.

Our 2nd Annual trip to visit Santa at the Von Maur 

Department store near our house was a complete success!

It snowed 8 inches the night before and apparently we were the only crazy ones to go out that day 

so there was basically no line and we had Santa all to ourselves.

JACKPOT.

Maeryn was SO excited to see Santa again!

Johnny wasn't so sure...

Just like last year, Santa knocked it out of the park.

He is absolutely precious...

Very soft spoken and as genuine and sweet as can be.

If there ever really was a REAL Santa, this is him.

I am 34 years old and for the first time and almost 3 decades, I BELIEVE! 

Look at that face.  I'm telling you, it's really him. 

Gobble till ya wobble!

Thanksgiving 2013

Found this picture and loved it, so I had to share... LOL!

Gobble Gobble

After a relaxing morning watching parades and dog shows and cutting black Friday coupons,

Maeryn and Johnny (and Kevin and I) got all cleaned up 

and ready for dinner at Grandma and Papa's house. 

This year I attempted to make Nana Linda's famous pineapple souffle',

not the same, but still pretty darn good! 

Grandma with Uncle Bob - pinkies out!

Me and my handsome boy 

Before dinner Maeryn was very busy coloring pictures for everyone. 

Take notes Johnny boy. 

Maeryn loves when Jim and Sarah are home. 

Food time.  

Leave it to Kevin to take a whole turkey leg... 

Cute!

(wait, what's in your cheeks Kev?) 

The kiddo's playing with their presents from Grandma and Aunt Susie. 

And the big kids playing with their cell phones... 

Somehow I don't have any pictures of the annual Rob your Neighbor game.  :-(

It was as epic as ever, we robbed from Jim and tried to keep the little girls from throwing fits!

Good times, as always!

Tubby Time

These two are generally really good at entertaining themselves in general,

but especially in the bathtub!

I think they would stay and play in there for hours if I would let them.

It is one of my absolute favorite times of the day...

They are happy and peaceful and relatively calm and quiet.

It is the perfect nighttime activity to get them to wind down and get ready for bed.

It's so great, in fact, that this guy has figured out how to get himself in there 

even when it's not time for a bath!

Buddy the Elf... HE'S BAAAAACK!

Our Elf on the Shelf, "Buddy",

returned to our house again this year and he brought a whole new bag of tricks with him!

I tried to take pictures of his silly stunts...

Here were some of our favorites:

Buddy the Super-Hero Elf

Enjoying a relaxing marshmallow bubble bath (in the dollhouse...). 

He must have been really tired these nights,

not all that creative...

Gone fishin... 

(They LOVED this one!)

On one of the nights Maeryn slept in her sleeping bag in our room,

Buddy tucked himself in her bed with some of his friends.  

He was a baaaaad boy this night... 

 Buddy's got a sweet tooth - he hit the Halloween candy pretty hard.

More shenanigans...

Ziplining through the house with some friends! 

Marshmallow Snowball fight with Jessie the cowgirl. 

He's not all trouble though.

We also caught him reading the Christmas Story in Maer's bible. 

Admiring the snow outside... 

Making a Sprinkle-Angel.  

One of my personal favorites...

Graffiti-ing our family pictures!

Another classic, one week before Jesus' Birthday... 

A home-made Christmas card from Buddy and his friends.

And on the night before we left for Arizona, he wrote a special note... 

(with a little surprise)

And finally, on Christmas morning he landed at Nana's house for one last day with us

before he had to leave and return to the North Pole with Santa!  

Thank you so much for all the fun this year Buddy, we can't wait to see you again next December.