Most Fun Day EVER

London LOVES Santa (Santuk) this year. She can not get enough of him. Every day we drive home from school and she does the sign language sign for 'more' and says 'Santuk, Christmas Tree' over and over again! I imagined the twins love Santa too... I was right. So, the whole Rhea/Lane clan packed up in the Swagger Waggon and headed to Bass Pro Shop for free pictures with Santa last weekend!

Well, the line to see Santa was outrageous, so we walked to the front of the line and waved at Santa then played in the store for a few hours! We had an absolute blast. That place is AWESOME. Here are the kids watching the fish in the fish tank. Lizzy thinks catfish 'meow' because her Andaddy told her they meow under water! I love his stories! They are so entertaining! 

Gross. What is this???

She knows EXACTLY what to do when you pull the camera out!

Seeing Santa for the very first time! She was spellbound! 

Kris Kringle 

As always, hard to get pics of this guy because he was racing around the train table to watch it run!

My new favorite picture of my baby girl! Ahahahaha!

Hard to see what's going on, but they had boats out on display. We put the kids in each of them and they LOVED it! They had so much fun sitting in the seats and 'driving'!

Pretending to be a dead fish! :)

Sorry I look so creepy but we saw Rudolph and London was SO EXCITED!! She waved and laughed and talked about him UNTIL he got within a foot of her and she monkey gripped into me and was petrified! I could feel her little feet and fingers gripping and of me that they could grab hold of! As soon as he backed up a few feet, she was all about Rudolph again!

King Caden and Queen Lizzy at lunch!

Saturday night, Powers, Lulu and I went to our church's small group end of the semester party at one of the members parents house. This. place. was. amazing. The house was beautiful and had this gorgeous wrap around porch, it was on a 20 acre plot with a lake, super nice barn, play ground, game room, green fields to run in, horses, geese, dogs, cats, ducks.. you name it. Every one of us.... of all ages... were in heaven. So we spent the next 5 hours with all of our new best friends, living life exactly how it was meant to be lived! Great food, lots of running around and 'adventuring', laughing, and great friends. We left so satisfied that God is good and places us exactly where he wants us in life. He has allowed us to grow and He has absolutely lavished us with His goodness. We have spent the last 4 months developing life giving relationships with a group of amazing people and we thank God for his faithfulness to us in that. 

It was a GREAT weekend! Full of fun, and love, and laughter, and excitement! I love the holidays!

Lane Family Thanksgiving

Fast forward a day to the Lane family thanksgiving! I was still sick, London was as hoarse as could be, Powers was on his way to getting sick, but luckily, we walked in the door and M-I-L said 'we have NO PLANS for the rest of the week!' Cue angels singing from the heavenly gates. So, I continued SLEEP FEST 2011, called Dad in a tearful plea to 'please fix this daddy', he approved some meds that my father in law had on hand and voila! 24 hours later the whole family was back up and running.. but I was still sleeping like a champ because when you've got a legitimate pass to nap 2 times per day, you TAKE IT!!

We had a great time at the in-laws! We slept, ate, slept, shopped, watched a super depressing movie, slept, ate, had girls night and watched a total chick flick (green facials included!), slept, and ate. It was pretty much my favorite schedule ever. 

Renny was adorable and so much fun, as always. I was also so incredibly proud of her! We asked her to make a christmas list a month or so ago and it contained roughly $5,000 worth of gifts. Magically, one month later, I asked her for her list again and it had 6 items on it. SIX!!! And she even said, "I thought about it and I don't need all that stuff". Cue angels singing again. She is literally the best step daughter a mom could ever wish for. She is amazing and I love her so much. I am so proud of her for not getting wrapped up in the materialism that is Christmas these days. She's growing up so fast. 

Funny from the weekend, London sleeps in the guest bedroom in a pack-n-play at the grandparents house.  She is always so easy to put to sleep. She just lays down and goes to sleep. However, in this room, she can reach the door handle, so you get about 10 minutes of door handle wiggling before she gives up and goes to bed! Also, I would check on her every night before I went to bed and noticed that the fan was on in her room. It was always freezing and I would secretly accuse her dad of turning the fan on, since we fight over the temperature at home all the time! THEN, the last night we were there, I had put London to bed about 30 minutes earlier, and was walking from our room into the den. London's door opens, lights on, fan blasting and London said 'Hey Momma!' I stopped dead in my tracks and we all died laughing! Sneaky little thing! 

 Opening Christmas presents from Aunt Melanie's family! Disclaimer, London had JUST stepped out of a hair washing so her hair's a mess! Mel, I got a video of her saying "Thank you, Melanie" but she was so hoarse you can't hear her at all! :(

 You can't see it, but this is 25 minutes into trying to put a diaper on by herself! She's just laying on top of it waiting for it to be on her! So funny! She was committed though!

 Coloring with the christmas tree lights!

 My sweet girls! 

 Renny showing us how flexible she is! Amazing! I wouldn't walk for a week if I did that!

 Looking good in Mr. Potato Head's glasses! 

We had a great vacation. It was just what the doctor ordered! Thank you Nana and Poppi for being such great grandparents/in laws! Ya'll rock!!

Rhea Family Thanksgiving

London and I jumped on over to Booper and Andaddy's house for a pre-thanksgiving visit. It would have been a lovely trip, but I think I came down with strep throat while we were there so I slept straight through the visit. Boo. We did get to have a great night/dinner with Din Din, my uncle Barry and aunt Doreen though! They are precious. Truth be told, I forget how delightful my uncle is when I'm not around him all the time, then, we visit and I'm completely rejuvenated by him! He is so much fun and says the most clever things! Example: he told a story about his dog being dogatonic... (instead of CATatonic!! Har har! I loved it!) He has all these little quips that are so unexpected and funny! I loved visiting with him, even if I did look like death warmed over!

The next day, we had grand plans for a good ole family christmas tree decorating party. I'm sure it was lovely, but again... slept through the whole thing. Atta girl for bucking up and making family memories. I'm still upset with myself for missing out! Here are a few pictures I snapped before I was dead to the world...

 Pictures mom took from Din Din's annual Thanksgiving feast. I think this was my first year ever to miss out on this grand event! We had a lovely Thanksgiving but I did miss this visit! It's always so much fun! (Not to mention the food is out of this world!!)

London's thanksgiving feast

Wow. I have a lot of blog posts to update. Instead of doing one massive post like normal, Im going to break these into subjects, which usually annoys me because you get like 12 email alerts, so I apologize for being a pain today! Trying to keep all these thoughts organized!

Well, it's official. I should not go to any of London's mid-afternoon events. This is #2 for the year and apparently when I come and see her, and she gets all excited, then I quickly leave to go back to work, London makes it known for the rest of the day that she is NOT okay with how these events are taking place. Event #2 of sobbing for the rest of the day! Poor teachers!

London's class had a pre-thanksgiving feast, which was so fun! I love watching these kids in their zone... it's totally parent free and they just act different... act like themselves, I presume!

They provided a lovely lunch of ham roll ups, crackers, cheese, cookies, etc. London's meal was as follows: 1 piece of chocolate candy (that she held in her mouth until it oozed down her chin and onto everything she touched), 4 oreos, and 1 chocolate cupcake. That's it. She is her father's child.

She is stinking cute though and I love her!