We were party animals this weekend. Caleb and I headed over to his friend Teresa's house for her little sister's birthday. Caleb usually asks to see Teresa at least every other week. "Mom i go see Teresa!" Well Addison's first birthday gave us another reason to hang out with our friends. Teresa's parents had a huge bounce house set up and cute little table and chairs for the kids outside.
Unfortunately, the cold front decided to come through about the same time. We finally had to move the fun inside. (Sorry Sarah) They had a face painter there as well. Caleb picked out the tomato face, it reminded him of veggie tales.
He was such a good boy, sitting very still while she painted his face.
Later Teresa and Caleb snuck back outside for more jumping time in the bounce house with Teresa's dad, Ken.
Caleb had so much fun, I finally had to drag him away.
Sunday I wanted to make cookies. I know shocking huh. Well it became a family affair. I made the dough while Caleb was napping to let it chill for a while. When Caleb woke we got down to business. Greg and I attempted to roll out the dough so we could cut out Christmas shapes.
We made a huge mess, thankfully we had the foresight to put down plastic on the floor.Though we initially thought the plastic would be useful for just Caleb's part, we were wrong, we all needed it. The dough kept sticking, so we just kept adding more flour.
Finally we were able to cut out wonderful bells, angels, candy canes, and more. Then after they baked, we let Caleb help decorate.
He had so much fun with all the different color sprinkles. After he would decorate a cookie, he would hold it up and ask "can I eat this one?" I would say no, so he would put it down and start on another one, "can I eat this one?" Finally I let him try one of his creations.
He ate the frosting off and left the cookie behind. He takes after his aunt Dani in that way too.
See if you can tell which ones Caleb decorated. The great part is they actually tasted good.
Later that night we had our Christmas party with our neighbors. They have included us in their tradition of going from house to house to enjoy each others decorations and company while sharing hors d'oeuvres, while the boys exchange gifts.
The boys had way too many sweets I think, they were going bonkers; but they really enjoyed themselves as did us adults.
Caleb held onto the balcony and watched in wonder, though he did run back in his room once when Santa said "Ho, Ho, Ho." But then we watched Santa eat the cookies we had left him and drop off the presents before going up the chimney. (Though if you tell Caleb this he will say"no, not chimney, Santa goes up the fireplace.")
Then off to bed Caleb went with a smile on his face. "I saw Santa, mommy", and then as I tucked him back in, he said " wake me mommy". I guess he thought Santa might come back again. We actually got to sleep in to almost 8am this morning which was great, at least he isn't waking us at 5am yet wanting to see what Santa brought. As we took him downstairs this morning, he looked down and saw his Triceratops dinosaur. "Santa brought my dinosaur!" he yelled. And right away ran to his new friend. 
After that every other gift he shared with his "ceratops". "Here you go" as he sat one of his two puzzles in front of the dinosaur. 
Then we had a wonderful pancake breakfast and enjoyed a leisure morning together. 
Later since the weather was perfect, we took Caleb to the park to play for a while. 
He ended up getting a black eye after he fell on some steps, but otherwise we had a wonderful time out. 
Then it was time to prepare Christmas dinner. Greg and I baked our first turkey this year, and it turned out great. We were so excited! We had a delicious dinner and tons of left over food. It was a great end to a wonderful Christmas day. I hope everyone else had a Merry Christmas too!
Here's some pictures from last week's effort to see Santa.
Caleb has been getting over a cold this weekend, so we stayed close to home most of the weekend. Fortunately the weather was wonderful so Greg finally had a chance to put the lights up outside, while Caleb enjoyed playing in the leaves. He's been very agreeable recently saying "hmm", (while he puts one finger at his lips as if deep in thought), then he says "good idea mom". I have no idea where he got that from. But it makes me laugh every time. 
Today after nap time, we headed over to the Heard Museum in McKinney to see the Dinosaur Alive exhibit. I went in to get him from his nap and Caleb sat up immediately and said "i go see the dinosaurs mommy." 
He was so excited when we got on the trail, running from dinosaur to dinosaur. 
There were a few that scared him with their roars, but then he was off to see the next one.
One in particular (the Dilophosaurus) spits toward the trail as you pass, scaring Caleb to death, and initially Greg too. 
After Caleb and Greg crossed the path, Caleb continued to cry and point his stick toward the dinosaur yelling "my mommy", then Greg realized Caleb was worried about me. So I ran across the path to Caleb, then he stopped crying and was fine. He even wanted to stay and watch the dinosaur spit water again. He's my little hero, even willing to fight off a dinosaur for me. Though once we reached the very, very large and scary T-Rex, he didn't seem concerned. I don't get it. 
Later we went through their inside exhibits and saw lots of scary reptiles, which the boys enjoyed more than I. 
Tonight Caleb decided he wanted to cook. So he grabbed a few cooking utensils and a cook book. 
As he flipped through he said "I need to cook a cake mommy." Maybe he'll have more motivation than I to be successful in the kitchen. After dinner, we got bundled up to go look at Christmas lights. He really loved all the wonderful lights and decorations
.
Since it was so nice outside this afternoon, we went for a walk by a pond to watch the ducks. 
It was a little windy, but we had a wonderful time. Caleb was really excited to see the different Christmas trees decorated along the pond.
So we bought a new artificial tree this year, with multiple parts unfortunately. Caleb helped bring the color coded branches to me, then eventually felt he should also put them in himself. 
So the task took us a "little" longer than usual. He said " i step on mommy like a big boy" to place each branch on the tree. So we waited until the next night to decorate with ornaments, which was also scary. 
He lined the ornaments next to each other at the bottom of the tree where he could reach. Also a slow task since most lost their hanging hooks during the process. 
Then, as is tradition, he helped daddy place Santa on top of the tree, which he was very proud of doing. 
Finally, we plugged in the lights and enjoyed our finished product. Caleb continues to watch for more Christmas lights on our way home each day. He enjoys pointing them out to me along the way. Earlier this week he pointed to a street light and said "look mommy another Christmas light" and, before I could correct him, he said "no, that's just a light". I thought that was pretty cute.
