10 Days

The last 10 days have been a holiday for the family (in more ways than one).  I have to say, it went by super fast, but looking back at it, we did so much, and it seems so long ago.  Isn't that how time goes.  So, here is a flash back of the last 10 days. 

Saturday: We picked Brandon up from the airport in the afternoon!  Hugging him after a month of not seeing him at all was probably the best Christmas present I could have asked for.

Sunday: We had the Smithson Family Christmas party.  Everyone on Brandon's family got together to put together a Christmas for two families that would be doing without this year.  I love the service project.  I took a few pictures from the party.

Here are some of the cousins (Adle, Emma , Hannah, Chelsea, Hadhie, and Ashley) 

Here are some of my in-laws wrapping and sorting.

I did my wrapping in the kitchen.

Monday (Christmas Eve): We got ready for Christmas by making Santa his giant cookie. 

Monday night we had the annual Christmas Eve party at my mother's house.  I didn't get any pictures that night, but it was a fun time.

Christmas Day: The morning started out fun.  The kids had to walk through the birthday decorations.

Then they saw the tree and all the presents! WOW!

Santa brought Oliver a wagon!

And the girls got princess barbies from Santa.  Thank you Santa!

Christmas at our house ends at noon, and Birthday celebrations begin.  This year, we had a mini birthday party at my mother's house.  We made individual pizzas and had chocolate cake (per Noelle's request).

It was fun, but I have to admit, Noelle was disappointed.  She was hoping that Santa would make an appearance at her party.  I explained to her that he was taking a nap after a really long nap.

 Even Oliver got into the fun!  He was so funny, trying to eat his cake off the plate by lifting the plate to his face and eating it.  Silly boy!

 Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday were spent working around the house, but Saturday we got out again.  We went to the Phoenix Children's Museum with a Groupon I bought months ago.  It was perfect!  Hardly anyone at all when we got there.  We played for about 2 hours.  We started on the 3rd floor and made our way down.  I think it's the best way to do this museum.  Here are some pictures of the fun we had:

 I think my favorite thing at the museum this visit was pretending to be at a restaurant while my kids made our pizzas.  Here is our little waitress now.

 Me and my date.

 The pizza chef.

And the bus boy.

 On the second floor, they had a giant rocket ship for the children to paint.  It was really neat.

We definitely had a good Saturday!

Monday (New Year's Eve): We went to the Science Center, were they were having Snow Week.  They had snow outside the front and the kids had fun running around in it.  I told them they would see a lot of it next year!

 Inside the museum, we started on the top floor and worked our way down (yep, it's a pattern).

I'm glad we started on the 3rd floor, because we were the only ones up there... and they had face painting and a craft to celebrate snow week.

 

Check out that giant snowflake.  It's going up in the girlies' room as soon as I get to it.  It was so fun to make.

 I think this has to be my favorite picture from the museum.  Too funny!

Can't you tell Brandon was having fun?

 Monday night was our little family New Years Eve Party!  We had party hats (made by Noelle with a little parental help).  We ate appetizers, we watched a movie, played games, and we did fire works.

 So, some of us didn't really like the fire works (Noelle isn't pictured because she went running for the door).

 Melanie did enjoy watching dad play with the sparklers.

Tuesday was New Years Day, and the last day we got to spend with daddy home (on this visit).  We took some fun pictures, played more games and ended the day with a family dessert cook off (which Brandon and Noelle won).

 It has been an exciting and eventful 10 days with Brandon. 

Happy New Years!

(Noelle's birthday interview will follow shortly)