The Zoe and Silas Show

12/31/13: Derek was off on New Year's Eve this year. What a treat! We made twice-baked potatoes, grilled steaks, and good ol' green bean casserole (we didn't get it for Thanksgiving this year so we decided to put it on the NYE menu). Silas was VERY excited to help Daddy with the steaks! He was also VERY hungry, so once again he was the first to be seated at the dinner table. Everything was delicious, we had a great night. And that's it folks! We did it! We made it through Project 365 for the second year in a row!!!!!!!!!!! The Best of 2013 photos coming soon!

12/30/13: Selecting a couple of new books that Grandma brought for bedtime stories.

12/29/13: Zoe & Silas have recently discovered my old iPod. With over 3500 songs to choose from, they somehow have discovered Barbara Streisand's Christmas Album. And request it over and over and over...

12/28/13: The new fishing game takes serious concentration!

12/27/13: There were power tools to be played with first thing in the morning! Mom & Dave helped us a lot with watching the kids after Christmas - I worked on the 27th and they once again held down the fort after Derek went to work.

12/26/13: I just caught a numbering issue that goes all the way back to APRIL, so I'm skipping 359 and correcting the error now with day 360. Ugh. Derek and I decided that we're done with the minivan and he's been car shopping for the last few months. We took advantage of my parents being here and headed to the Honda dealership in the morning in order to hopefully do the deal. Zoe & Silas had a fun day playing with Grandma & Grandpa (and with lots of new toys!)! After negotiating for 2-1/2 hours we finally shook hands and started the paperwork to become the happy owners of a 2014 Honda Pilot! Many thanks to Mom & Dave for holding down the fort all day with the kids - we couldn't have done it without your help!

12/25/13: S&Z were very excited on Christmas morning when they saw the gifts and candy canes that Santa left for them! They didn't want to open any presents until they each ate an entire candy cane. And a couple of hershey's kisses! Finally they started unwrapping the stocking gifts- Santa brought the kids a new craft table and chairs, a bunch of new art supplies, and a fort building kit. After the excitement of the Santa gifts died down we set up the craft table and they started working on some projects. Later in the afternoon Derek's family came over the 2nd annual Christmas Mexican Fiesta. This is a tradition we started last year , and one we will definitely continue in the future! The kids were spoiled with gifts as usual. It was a very merry Christmas indeed!

12/24/13: We frosted the tree cakes for Santa on Christmas Eve morning. Our little bakers were in fine form! Derek worked that evening and it was a quiet day otherwise. I cooked all afternoon and made a big Christmas Eve feast - chicken cordon bleu , steam-sauteed green beans, and mustard-roasted potatoes . And a Christmas meal wouldn't be complete without some of my mom's delicious homemade lefse! Silas was so hungry waiting for dinner that he sat down at the table an hour before everything was ready! One of our Christmas Eve traditions is to give the kids a new pair of pajamas. They were sooo excited! Of course we had to read a few special bedtime books. Santa's elves were busy after the kids went to bed. It was a very merry Christmas Eve!!!

12/23/13: I took advantage of my parents being here and went to the gym before getting a massage late Monday afternoon. While I was gone my mom got the kids involved in helping her wrap a few Christmas gifts. There was also time for some portraiture! Derek got silicone tree molds at the lab Yankee swap so we decided to make confetti cake trees for Santa instead of cookies this year. We baked the cakes on Monday night before bed so that we could decorate them Christmas Eve morning. I love Christmas traditions!