Todd's Georgia Aquarium Adventure!

Not knowing what to get Todd for Christmas, I ended up buying him a snorkeling session with whale sharks, manta rays, sharks and other various fish for Christmas :) Why not huh? the Georgia Aquarium offers snorkeling or scuba diving in the big tank. It ended up being an all day affair for both Todd and our family with tours, behind the scenes actions, and of course, watching Todd actually snorkel with the whales. Todd said it was awesome, and it looked awesome. I am so happy he enjoyed his adventure!!

I don't know about you, but personally this is not something I would sign up for anytime soon. The whale sharks are big. The manta rays are huge, no thank you. But... glad he liked it :)

Here is Hannah, Drew and Grandma and Grandpa in front of the tropical fish tank.

This isn't the best picture with the sun in everyone's eyes, but a little christmas photo outside the aquarium before we left, and headed straight to the Atlanta icon, The Varsity restaurant. We had some really greasy burgers, hotdogs, onion rings and fries. They were about what we expected, but glad we got to try another Atlanta landmark. 

And, the holiday season is almost done.... a New Years eve party at our house, then Hannah's birthday party at our house.  Then... phew. Rest. 

Merry Christmas 2013!

The presents arrived.

The stockings were filled.

Santa left a bag of goodies for Hannah and Drew, directly from the North Pole.

The cookies were eaten. The milk was drank.

The kids woke up with excitement, running downstairs, overwhelmed with excitement. The two biggest hits, Drew's lion and cheetah stuffed animals - see his smile!

And Hannah got exactly what she asked for. A treasure box full of candy. Yes, Santa brought a 6 year old a treasure box full of candy of snickers, reeses, good coins, smarties, pop rocks.. you name it. Hananh is currently on sugar detox for a little while now :)

The kids had such a wonderful Christmas, and so did we. We hope Grandma and Grandpa did too!!The kids tore through their presents so fast I these were actually the only pictures I took of Christmas morning, it was over before I knew it. Hannah ended up getting lots of little crafty projects to do, and Drew got lots of legos, army guys, and an ATV "monster truck" along with his monster jam tickets at the Georgia Dome in January ( uh huh... ).

After all the fun and excitement of the morning, the kids played while we cooked a nice lunch/ dinner for the family. We were so full afterwards we spent the rest of the day relaxing on the couch!

It was a perfect Christmas, and we hope everyone else's was as wonderful and special as ours.

Christmas Eve!

Merry Christmas everyone! We had a wonderful Christmas, and hope everyone else did too!!! Grandma and Grandpa Dice came to celebrate Christmas with us! The kids were so excited!! On Christmas eve we went to a 3pm church service and then came back and ate dinner and opened family gifts on Christmas eve. The picture above is before church, and Drew wanted to be a snowman :) Hannah thought it was pretty funny. 

This is one of my new favorite pictures of Hannah and Drew. So happy so cute, so excited about Christmas!!

One of the very few family photos we have!!

My little buddy Drew

My little sweet heart Hannah

Finally after a lot of begging and pleading, after dinner it was time to open some presents. Drew loved all his army stuff from the Wikstroms, and Hannah loved all her hair suppliers and beads for the Wikstroms and Grandpa John. They also got a goodie bag from Grandma and Grandpa that Drew swears he didn't look at before it was opening time, however, he could recite everything int there :)

Twas the night before Christmas, the the kids were full of sugar and exhausted from all the excitement. We actually got them into bed sound asleep by 9pm. Not bad for a Christmas eve!!

It's starting to look a lot like Christmas....

It isn't exactly looking like Christmas on the outside without any snow, but on the inside, we are ready for Santa. The house ( and cookies) has been decorated,  a few presents wrapped, but more importantly, Elfie has arrived. The little red elf, that both Hannah and Drew love, is back.

Even more exciting than all of Elfie's adventures this week, is a short little visit from cousin Ashley. Ashley was in town for a work training meeting and was able to carve a night out for us to see the kids and go to dinner. Ashley let Hannah paint her nail, and put legos together with the kids too, always a big hit!

The adventures of Elfie have been fun so far this season. He was sitting on our kitchen island when we returned home from Ohio last weekend. The kids were jumping up and down with excitement.   One night last week, Elfie got into the marshmallows and baking goods and dipped marshmallows ini white chocolate and decorated them. The kids woke up to a big mess and so yummies. Hannah wrapped them up and brought the marshmallows to the bus stop to share.

Another day, he left two new ornaments for the kids. Drew got a chihuaha and Hannah got an owl ornament. Elfie wrote them a little card too.

Not surprising, but one night Drew wasn't a very good listener, wouldn't you know, Elfie left him a little note. Hannah was such an angel this week, Elfie left her "elfie kisses" a few days ( hershey kisses that look like santa hats) and was she ever excited!!

Today, Hannah lost her 4th tooth. She keeps asking if Elfie will meet the tooth fairy tonight and wants to know what will happen? todd and I have some fun ideas of what could happen :)

We are looking forward to christmas with the kids, they are so excited, and each year it gets more and more fun with them. Now, we just have to find some time to go see the big man himself and drop off those lists!