Christmas (Finally!!)

Our Christmas was fabulous - I love this holiday! We opted for a real tree again this year and found the most beautiful one. We had a great time decorating it together and it looked so pretty and peaceful, I never wanted it to come down.

A few weeks before Christmas Brayden lost his first tooth. Boy did he think he was grown up! At his dentist appointment in November the dentist saw that it was a little loose and Brayden obsessed over it and wiggled it until he wiggled it out. He looked so cute with a little missing tooth.

We had our family Christmas party on the 23rd (I had to work on Christmas Eve - boo!!) and it was so fun. There were even a few celebrities that made an appearance! Santa came with presents and all the kids were in awe! We even had our China and California cousins on Skype and Santa was able to send them a present using Christmas Magic - it was amazing! All the kids personally received their Christmas pajama's from Santa himself. Then, the Dancing Doll and the Dumb Baby made their appearances. Good times were had by all. Christmas morning was spent opening presents and visiting family.

A few days after Christmas Mark and the rest of the guys in the family went snowmobiling in Yellowstone for 3 days - BRRRRR!! The high during the day was 15-18 degrees. Surprisingly, no one froze. They had such a great time and look forward to doing more activities together.

My attempt to catch up...

A few months ago I was working on my laptop on the couch as we all watched a movie. In the excitement of the movie, one of my dear children accidentally knocked the small table that had my computer on it and spilled my drink....all over my laptop!! Apparently, rootbeer + laptop = fried motherboard. Bummer!! Sadly, my internet capabilities were greatly hindered by this. But, I am now back up, sort of. I have another computer that is several years old and sooooo slow, but it works! YAY!!

Well, the title says it all. I am waaaayyyy behind in blogging and have missed several major events. Let's see if I can catch them all now.

November 17th was Brayden's birthday. He's 5!! I can't believe it! He is so grown up, it just amazes me everyday. He started kindergarten this year and is doing amazing. He is learning math (addition and subtraction) and is reading. He gets so excited when he realizes he CAN do these things. So, for his birthday we just had a small party - grandma and grandad came over for Brayden's favorite dinner, spaghetti and meatballs. (The second picture was the present that grandma and granddad gave Brayden - it was a Star Wars toy wrapped to look like a robot! It was the greatest thing!)

November 20th was Landon's 3rd birthday. He is growing up so fast too and changes everyday. He is definitely feeling comfortable and part of our family and is, most often, a typical 3 yr old. He can be the sweetest thing but can be a terror too. Then he smiles and it's so hard to get mad at him - and he knows it so he uses it to his advantage! He loves to play and is always laughing - sometimes I'm not sure he knows what he is laughing at but that laugh is so cute! For his birthday, we had to celebrate a little late because Landon was sick but we did celebrate. Thanksgiving morning we met with grandma and granddad for a "Birthday Breakfast". Landon picked out his favorite doughnuts for everyone - he loved it.

The last day of school in December was Brayden's school performance and it was just too cute! His class sang "Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer" and looked so adorable! He was pretty nervous at first but quickly got into the routine and did awesome.

(here is Landon waiting patiently for the performance)

Brayden is the youngest kid in his class but notice how much bigger he is? He is at least a head taller than everyone else. Hopefully one day all the other kids will catch up to him.

Ok, I think that gets us caught up until Christmas so that will come next.

Well folks....it happened! On December 31st at approximately 9:15AM, Landon Jameson Mariano officially became a Mariano! We are so happy! He has been part of our family since February so it's feels so good to have it be official now. Yay!!! Now, take a look at that face - isn't he a cutie?!?!?!

P.S. I realize that I am super far behind in blogging....I have 3 birthdays, a school program, Christmas, and I'm sure many other things to blog about and I will get to it eventually. Maybe I will even share the ill-fated story of my laptop and the reason I am so far behind....someday!