Second Christmas

Last thursday we had our 2nd Christmas. This time it was our little family's christmas. We wanted the boys to have some time to play with their car and bike before we left on christmas vacation. It was a great morning.

We all got dressed and then headed to Northpark at 9 am. I went in and got a ticket for the boys to see santa (we were #14)

Then we went and had a nice breakfast at Breadwinners. Then back to the mall where we went through the Trains exhibit. How could you go wrong...2 boys and a room full of trains?

Then off to santa story time which ended at 11:30. Santa started taking pics with kids at 11:45. The boys were on his lap at 12:15. Quade thanked him for his stocking present (some cars)...i'm sure Santa's not used to having kids thank him for presents. =)

Price of course was not a fan of the big man in red.

"Oh McFun it is to ride..."

This is quade's version of jingle bells. His back up singer was more concerned with wardrobe than singing. please take note that due to budget cuts (ya'll know the state of the economy) we had to forego the one-horse open sleigh for a knitted blanket...enjoy.

Christmas: Take One

Or "First Christmas"...

During our trip to Houston we not only celebrated Thanksgiving, we also had Christmas Eve (on black Friday) which means a nice dinner out that evening and opened our matching pjs AND Christmas (on that Saturday) which means opening stockings, then presents (one person at a time), and then a fun family evening out (rocket city games!!).

Here are the pics from Christmas preparation and celebration:

what our car looks like with 4 boys (aged 1,2,3, & 4)

quade and price tried to help put the lights up, but unfortunately too many lights were broken during the experience...so they stuck to decorating.

The cousin pj picture, which you saw video of in a previous post

I was going to post a video here but it really deserves it's own post, see post below!!

Merry First Christmas!

DDR toddler style

dance dance revolution is no longer for adults only...

The fun continues...

Cousins pj photo session...help me!

For your viewing enjoyment...a window into my thanksgiving and now christmas adventure with the macfadyens.

gobble gobble...

Last Friday Quade had his little thanksgiving program. it was super cute..it was a combination performance from songs he learned in his music class and things he's learned from Bodyrhythmics.
There is a video clip that one of the mom's posted on youtube:
http://www.youtube.com/debtex

wearing his Indian headdress

quade with his class and his teacher

myself and another mom were in charge of the thanksgiving party. She made these adorable little sandwiches that looked like turkey they had peas for eyes cheese for a beak and cut up pepperoni for a waddle then she had peppers and parsley for the feathers

A family tradition...a little early

Even before kids, the weekend after thanksgiving Bruce and I would crank the christmas music, warm up some wassel, and put up the christmas tree and decorations.
When Quade was born the tradition continued...as a baby he watched us from his swing, as a toddler he helped me put balls on the tree ("more ba") and last year he enjoyed helping out a little more.
This year i had two active helpers...AND we put up the tree before thanksgiving.
We were going to be away for awhile after thanksgiving b/c bruce's oldest sister is having a c-section and we wanted to stick around.
Then we head out of town early for christmas. So i realized that if i waited until the weekend after thanksgiving we'd only have the tree up for less than 2 weeks before we had to take it down.
Thus the early christmas tree decorating...it was a simpler and more fun process this year.

The traditional family pic in front of the tree

Quade decided that most of the ornaments should go in this lower quadrant.

proud of his work

nothing like a good cup of wassel!
HAPPY THANKSGIVING!

Girls can be fun!

A month ago we had our sweet little niece, Makenna, come stay with us
for the night. We had a great time and it was nice to put bows in hair...but don't be fooled this girl can hold her own with those boys.

that's a lot of britax in one car!

ahhh...well said, well said...i feel the burden lifting

A friend just forwarded a clipping from a newspaper Q&A article.

The reason i'm posting this is b/c it made me feel better today. Days can be long, especially when you have the kids from the moment they wake-up until you put them to bed.

I'm not posting it to make my friends without kids feel bad or to make stay-at-home moms look like saints...i'm just hoping it will make someone else who is tired...feel a little better. =)

I don't know if anyone can read it but here is my favorite part:

"When you have young kids your typical day is:

constant attention, from getting them out of bed, fed, cleaned, dressed; to keeping them out of harm's way; to answering their coos, cries, questions; to having two arms and carrying one kid, one set of car keys, and supplies for even the quickest trips, including the latest to be declared-essential piece of molded plastic gear; to keeping them from unshelving books at the library; to enforcing nap times; to staying one step ahead of them lest they get too hungry, tired, or bored, any of which could produce check-out line screaming.

It's needing 45 minutes to do what takes others 15.

It's constant vigilance, constant touch, constant use of your voice, constant relegation of your needs to the second tier.

It's constant scrutiny and second-guessing from your family and friends. It's resisting constant temptation to seek short-term relief to everyone's long-term expense.

It's doing all this while constantly teaching virtually everything-language, manners, resourcefulness, safety, discipline, creativity, curiosity. Empathy. Everything.

It's also a choice, yes and a JOY!!

But if you spend all day, every day with this brand of joy, and then, when you got your first 10 minutes to yourself, wanted to be alone with your thoughts instead of calling a good friend, a good friend wouldn't judge you, complain about you or marvel at how much more productively she uses her time."

something about this article just made me feel so much better today!

gotta love democracy and dentistry

This morning we got the boys dressed and hopped in the car to get to our polling location as close to 7 am as possible (to beat the lines).
Unlike your stereotypical voting location at a school gymnasium, we vote at a nursing home. I love it b/c the residents enjoy seeing our boys and it is such a warm environment (this morning it was actually HOT in the voting room, but that's another story).

Quade is a definite "swing voter". He's been saying he is voting for Obama...then today he decided he was a "CuhCain" guy. He kept telling everyone in the voting area that that's who he was voting for...i'm sure that breaks some rule, somehow.

I'm the precinct chair for our precinct for Dan Branch's campaign. So when we left the building i noticed there were no Branch signs. So i ran home grabbed signs, came back to the polling location, and then stayed to hand out "push cards" (pamphlets about Rep Branch).

Then we headed to the dentist for Quade's first cleaning. Thanks Christy for an awesome recommendation!! it was FABULOUS!! quade didn't shed a single tear. they were perfect! AND....

They had a voting booth set up for kids so that they could vote for the president! it was completely enclosed, had pictures of the 2 presidential candidates, voting ballots and a box to put them in. Quade LOVED being able to vote (since he was disappointed this morning when he wasn't allowed to vote for CuhCain.
He was so excited to use the pen to mark his choice and put it in the box.
They said they would have the voting results on their website tomorrow...such a great idea!!

After the dentist we headed back to the polling location to pass out more push cards.
we came home for naps...when the boys wake up we'll try to go back and pass out more cards.
Then tonight bruce and i are going to a GOP watch party...should be interesting.

Go eat some free ice cream (ben & jerrys), free donuts (krispy kreme) and drink some free coffee (starbucks) to celebrate our freedoms!!

may i recommend...?

After much thought here are some of my current favorite things (i realized they are all related to food and children):

what to serve--

1) Allergaroo

I found this at Krogers and i love it. It's like a healthy substitution for canned pasta. it's also great b/c it is gluten free, milk free and soy free (for my friends out there who need good options for kids with allergies). Price especially loves it.

i usually serve it on nights when bruce and i are going out on a date or i need a quick dinner for price before the rest of us eat.

how to clean up--

1) Dustbuster

this little hand held device saves me from getting frustrated after 1 preschooler and 1 toddler eat at their little table.

Now as soon as they are finished eating i just grab this little gizmo, that i received as a wedding present 10 years ago, and WHALLA! the mess is gone. it's like mommy magic!

where to eat saturday morning breakfast (with or without kids)--

2) Garden Cafe

one of our family traditions is to go out to saturday morning breakfast. Well with the weather getting nicer we decided to branch out from our usual rotation (cafe brazil, dream cafe, etc) to go to the Garden Cafe.

This is definitely going to the top of our list for the following reasons:

a) you order at the counter, so less waiting...always a good thing with kids

b) while you wait for your food you can grab a table out back in the real garden and your kids can play in the enclosed playground back there.

c) delicious food! i'm not usually an omelet fan...this was the best omelet i've had

d) when you get there early you have the place practically to yourself, so while enjoying your fabulous food you can soak in a very peaceful environment (garden setting with birds chirping and a gentle fountain bubbling).

e) a roll of papertowels at every table! thank you!!

here's the info:

www.gardencafe.net 5310 Junius StDallas, TX 75214 (214) 887-8330

so there are the recommendations! bon appetit!

Table for two please

Price has officially boycotted the high chair and only wants to dine with his brother.
Despite the inconvenience of not being able to contain a busy toddler during mealtime, it makes me smile every time i see them both sitting at that little table.

what to do with a pumpkin

So during our trip to the arboretum we (i mean quade) chose a pumpkin
to adopt and bring home with us.
While price was sleeping one morning Quade and i had our
pumpkin carving adventure.
I have always hated grabbing slimy, stinky seeds out from the pumpkin, but
now that i am the mom i had to set a good example and be brave.
I boldly plunged my hand into that orange abyss and withdrew the
aforementioned disgusting mass of stringy seeds.


Quade attempted to pull out seeds using a children's spoon.

We (i mean I) then cut out the cliche pumpkin eyes, nose, and mouth.
But it was completely worth it when i put the candle inside and
watched quade's face also light up to see our glowing creation.


We decided to clean and dry the pumpkin seeds overnight. Then the next day we mixed them (~1 cup)
in melted butter (1 Tablespoon) and salt (1 teaspoon) and baked them on a cookie sheet for 50 minutes at 250 degrees, stirring every 10 minutes until the seeds were lightly brown.

Unfortunately the jack 'o lantern only lasted about a week before it started to rot =(. I guess that's what happens when you live in texas and it's in the upper 80's in October!!

make-up artist?

This is the result of the following scenario...
1) Mom and younger son out running an errand
2) Dad outside uprooting two dead trees
3) Mom's make-up left on downstairs bathroom counter
4) curious toddler with creative enthusiasm left alone inside the house...


we are grateful that this was the worst that happened.

Pumpkin time!

So it's that time of year...my FAVORITE time of year! FALL!
Here are a couple of pics from a visit several weeks ago to the Arboretum with about 30 of our closest friends. =)


Bree, Dylan and Quade...here's a pic from last year:

The bro pic...and here is last year's pic:

This is how i found them...

Quade handing Bree a mum...Holly and i decided that if they ever end up getting married this picture will be priceless.