Christmas at the Monkeys' House

 We had another wonderful Christmas in the monkey house!  We had a whirlwind visit with family the weekend before, but I forgot to take my camera so no photos until we got back home on Christmas Eve. 

 I helped the kids make cookies for Santa, then that evening, Eric helped them get out an assortment of yummy treats for The Jolly Old Elf and his flying reindeer crew.  I didn't catch a photo until after Santa had made his visit.  Boy, that guy is FAST!  He ate all the celery with peanut butter dip, all the cookies, most of the milk, and carried all the carrots and oats out to the raindeer while Eric and I were in the basement.  We didn't hear a thing!

 Santa left some frosty footprints when he visited us.  He brought each of the kids their own tablet, filled their stockings with candy, and hid our Christmas pickle quick as a wink.  Our little elf Elmer also left with Santa.  He left us a note letting us know that he would be back again next year, but the kids sure will miss him! : )

Notice the dark strip on our tree?  This is the year that our prelit tree gave up the good fight.  It had lots of lights burnt out when we set it up, and I replaced all that I could, but we ran out of bulbs and they don't make that kind anymore... after we fixed the worst of it, we put all our ornaments on like usual and a week later, an entire section of lights went black!  Oh well, it was too late by that point to do anything about it, so we just lived with it.  It's the year of the stripe!  : )

 Last year Logan woke up at 4 am... this year we told him not to wake us until 7.  He still woke up super early (around 5 I think) and he saw all the foot prints then promptly woke up his sister to share the joy and wonder.  What a swell brother, huh?  : )  But being such an obedient son, he let us sleep until 7 as requested...

 The toys were kept to a minimum this year, since my two seem to be growing out of the traditional toy stage.

They had their eyes on these comfy chairs since August...  : ) 

 And the dogs could smell these GIANT rawhide chew bones from across the house!  They begged for them for weeks!!!

 Here are some other random gift photos...

 Bed pillows (so they will leave mine ALONE!!!)

 Logan got a case for his compound bow.

 Clip board for homework in our comfy chairs!

 FAMILY GAME TIME!  This one is really fun!

 slippers

 And Mom gifts... I got a mug from Logan and a ring, key chain, and jewelry box from Amanda.  They picked them out for me at the Holiday Shop at school.  They also shopped with Eric for earrings and a new necklace for me.

 Logan bought Amanda three puppies... and I did't get a photo of it, but Amanda bought Logan the new Big Game Hunter from Cabela's.  I think he spent the rest of Christmas playing it!

Billow for a fireplace .. but we're going to use it for our campfire... Logan loves playing with the one at Grandma and Grandpa's.  He is constantly asking if he can fan the flames.  Now my little pyro can blow to his heart's content!

 Eric got lots of cool stuff... sleeping pants, shirts, tools, but the thing he enjoyed the most was the brain teaser puzzles I got him.  : )

And I enjoyed putting together a Christmas puzzle Gayle gave us.  The kids and Eric help some too, but it was mostly a Diane project.

So there you have it.  Christmas 2012.  Now you know why it took me so long to post this.  I think I spent an hour getting this ready!

Gifts for the Animals at the Zoo

Last weekend we took the kids to the zoo to see the animals get their Christmas gifts.
Here is the best chimpanzee video... getting photos was hard because of the lighting and the activity level of these little critters.  It was a very entertaining morning for both humans and animals alike.


I have another video of the gorillas I would like to share but the video is taking FOREVER to upload.  I'll have to try to get that posted tonight because it doesn't look like it will be ready before I go to work!

Our Elf Named Elmer

This year our family has adopted an Elf on the Shelf we have named Elmer.  If you are not familiar with the Elf, let me enlighten you.  You receive this cute little elf package that includes a book that tells you the magic of the elf and the rules you need to abide by.  

The biggest and hardest rule for my kids is NO TOUCHING!  Apparently you will rub off all of Elmer's magic if you touch him.  So where ever you find him he has to stay.  Each night as the children sleep, Elmer will visit Santa and tell him if you've been good or bad and update him on your Christmas wishes.  (A little tattle tale if you ask me, but a very useful one!)

Each morning, when Elmer returns to our home, he finds a different hiding place to observe the kids from.  I have heard that some people get a naughty little elf that likes to cause mischief  but our little Elmer is very well behaved.  He is trying to set a good example, after all.  : )

When the elf hid in the kids room(s) it was amazing how quickly they cleaned it up when I made the comment "Wow.  Elmer is in there looking at your mess.  Guess Santa is going to hear about THAT tonight."  Hee hee hee.

Some of the places Elmer has hid include a plant, in our kitchen cabinet, behind Rovers hat (he was very well camouflaged that day.  The kids never found him!), in the wine rack, up in the light fixtures, in Logan's room (hanging from the his curtain rod, but I didn't get a photo) and in Amanda's room up in her night light.  Then this morning we got up and Elmer was hiding behind the fish tank watching all the little fishes swim around.  Logan found that one pretty quickly, surprisingly.

Gorilla Behind the Scenes Tour

I signed the family up for a behind the scenes tour of the gorilla exhibit at the zoo.

We learned lots of cool stuff about this fellas and got to see them demonstrate their training.

We couldn't take any photos while "behind the scene" so I shot a few after the program.

 Amanda was pretending to swing on the vine like Tarzan.

In addition to seeing the gorilla building, we were able to tour the Okapi barn, feed, and pet these awesome animals!  It was a very nice surprise and the kids fed this one fella until he just couldn't eat another bite.  

 The whole family really enjoyed the experience... we will definitely have to do another tour soon.

Halloween 2012!!

This year Amanda wanted to be a "jungle cat"  after running through the list of known "jungle cats" she settled on leopard.  She was very upset at the number of people who didn't know what she was.  : )    

But in defence of all the people who couldn't figure it out... how many leopards do you see in the wild wearing a black tutu?  But regardless, she was very cute!  She designed the whole outfit and carefully supervised the sewing and painting.


Logan wanted to be a NASA Astronaut.  We ended up purchasing his orange jumpsuit and had to scour the internet for the matching hat.   He was also a little put out when someone assumed he was a NASCAR Driver.  "I mean REALLY!"

The coolest part?  The zippers really worked and the ones on the sides unzipped straight through to is shorts underneath!!  : o

 I was the Itsy Bitsy Spider!  I got to wear my costume to work and I scared a lot of preschoolers!  I just  LOVE Halloween!!!

Eric, sadly, had to got to school Halloween night.  He was very bummed and put zero effort into his costume.  He dug out an old mask from the decoration box and called it good.  He did get to join us for an hour while we toured Trick or Treat Street here in Wichita, but then we had to part ways while the kids went trick-or-treating. 

Every year I am surprised by how satisfied the children are with only trick-or-treating a few houses and calling it a night.  We made it home with only a small amount of candy for each child.  They are happy with that, and I'm happy with that too.

Pumpkin Patch...

 We made our traditional trek to our favorite area pumpkin patch on a lovely, sunny, but warm October day.

 This giant "hamster wheel" was a new addition this year...

 ... as was this pully feeding system for the goats.  Logan spent a lot of time feeding the little guys.

Then it was Monkey See, Monkey Do... jumping off this tallest stacked hay bales.

 Amanda made us all have a blowup horse race around the track.

Then we roasted some kids over an open fire!!!  : )

 LOOK!!!!  Even I got in the photos!!!!

 Eric was the biggest kid of us all!!!