Monday, December 31, 2012

Grammy and Pappa Tom come to visit

We were relived that Grammy and Pappa Tom safely arrived on Friday morning following the winter storm "Draco" (named by The Weather Channel) that swept through from the South through Ohio and up into the Northeast. With them came Grandparents' love, playfulness, and of course Christmas presents!

Friday was filled with present opening, toy playing, and Big Bright Light Show in Rochester, MI. Saturday was sledding, toy playing, lunch out with Grammy and Papa Tom, and an evening of the feature film (and Noah's current favorite movie) "Cars 2".

It was a great weekend and we were thrilled to have them visit. We can't wait to see them again!

More pics can be found near the end of the December 2012 album :)

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
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Wednesday, December 26, 2012

Christmas Present Marathon

Holy Presents, Batman!  One thing is for certain - Christmas at the Kosakowski household is NEVER boring.  And NEVER short.  The present marathon for lack of a better way to describe it lasted for 7 hours this year.  No joke.  And while we did have maybe an hour or 'breaks' built in there's no denying that even 6 hours is crazy nutso!  But we had a blast!

We successfully made it from Rockford to Fremont on Monday evening, visited with Uncle Bill and Aunt MaryAnne, made sure everything was laid out for Santa and snuggled two adorable munchkins into their beds.  Grant and I decided we want Santa to come every night as we had not one single issue over getting them into bed that night.

Bright and early Christmas morning we were thrilled to see that Sarah had arrived sometime after midnight and Shell and Dudley also joined us to watch Noah and Kayla check out their loot from Santa.  Present of the year - Noah's drum set.  The kid is a natural!

Then began the present opening which last 'til (I kid you not) sometime after 3pm.  Many thanks to all for the great day.  My kids are officially spoiled rotten and once everything makes it here (keep reading for this one...) I may never be able to find the floor of my playroom again.

During the day we're all starting to gather information on the supposed snowstorm/blizzard that is to hit some time on Wednesday.  At first they were saying it wasn't going to start 'til after noon, but as the day went on the time creeped up and the amount of snowfall continued to increase.  While we were originally intending to leave sometime mid-day on Wednesday this suddenly wasn't looking like the best idea ever...  After a lot of hemming, hawing, tears and then manic chaos, we decided to pack up as much stuff as we could in the car and head back to Farmington to avoid getting 'stuck' in Fremont since Grant's Mom and step-Dad were slated to arrive sometime on Thursday.  Since the forecast was calling for between 8-12 inches of snow in Fremont and 3-6 inches here in Farmington, we figured we should be safe rather than sorry.

With many thanks to Dudley and Scott for the assist on getting as much as possible in the car and Shell for corralling two very tired kiddos, (and my Mama for putting up with me...) we headed back here around 9pm last night, safely arriving shortly before 11.  Unfortunately we left at least one full carload of 'stuff' back in Fremont yet.  Not sure when that'll be making its way here!

In the meantime as I type this on Wednesday evening, we currently have somewhere between 5-6 inches of snow piled up here.  My kids are PSYCHED about heading out in it tomorrow while Grant and I are looking oh so forward to shoveling out the driveway.

So while it wasn't exactly Christmas as we planned or expected it, all's well that ends well.  There are tons of pictures in the album link that Grant has set up below.  Hope that everyone had a blessed Christmas!

More pictures can be found in the 2012 Christmas Album.


Yes, those really are presents EVERYWHERE


Noah trying out his new Waldo costume (Uncle Dudley was super jealous)

Mikayla's 'varisty' Ariel jacket

He's a natural

Princess Mikayla decked out in multiple tutus and singing on her new mini karaoke machine

I have no idea what Sarah just opened but it must have been really cool!  (ooooh, aaaahhh)

And the village continues to grow

Dudley's favorite gift of the day from his wife

Yes, it really is a Peanuts nativity

Happy Grandma


Big Boots firetruck!  (Thank goodness for Aunt Sarah)

And there was much Michigan gear for sure

Did I mention we had fun? (Check out Shell's PINK golf clubs in the background)



Thanks to Noah including it in his letter to Santa I was set with not one, but two new pairs of Michigan sunglasses!


Sarah's favorite present of the day

Dudley now has a Home Depot to go with his Lowe's village piece - love it!

Aunt Diane - Noah LOVED the dog and Cars PJ's

So my kid

BOUNCY!

I love you, Bouncy!



Noah's ready for kid kitchen

Many thanks to Miss Stephanie - Mikayla has worn the Hello Kitty back pack non-stop since this morning

Hugs for Miss Stephanie

Cousins Cullen and Calib did an excellent job shopping

Mikayla decked out as Belle 

Monday, December 24, 2012

Christmas Eve Eve (and Eve)

The last few days have been really busy travelling to Illinois and such. We've visited Grandpa Gary, made and ate Krup Kakar (Wikipedia). It was delicious as always, though there were casualties as half of the potato starch was lost to the floor... :-(

We also had fun sledding and making snow angels with Abby, Grandpa Gary, Aunt Sally, and Keith at Aldeen Park in Rockford, IL.

Here are some of the pictures taken so far. Thanks to Dad for supplementing a few pictures in the album. More pictures will be posted soon (likely tomorrow) so check back again soon.




space bunnies!!!