The year 2012 has been a busy, crazy, year for us all. As I sit here and think of everything, I am reminded of my promise to post my kiddos halloween pics...... And now's a better time than any I figure. Since I am such a hilarious person, I dressed my kids up like my Favorite Chirstmas Movie's characters. Randy and Ralphy (as I have said many a times that I think Conner looks just like Ralphy). So as promised, here is our Merry Christmas Story - Shay style.
As many of you know, us Shays aren't always on top of getting things done on time. We got our first Christmas card in the mail the other day and I thought "OOOOH FUUUDEG! ONLY I DIDN'T SAY FUDGE. I SAID THE WORD, THE BIG ONE, THE QUEEN-MOTHER OF DIRTY WORDS, THE F-DASH-DASH-DASH WORD!" I had forgotten to order our Christmas Cards with the kids in their Halloween costumes. We dressed Conner up like Ralphy, in a pink bunny suit. Mark took one look at him and said "HE LOOKS LIKE A DERANGED EASTER BUNNY." I did not agree. But Mark insisted "HE DOES TOO, HE LOOKS LIKE A PINK NIGHTMARE!" Then I thought, well good I guess... since this is his Halloween costume. However, once you look at the pictures I think you will disagree with Mark. Now getting Maggie to look like Randy was something else I tell you. It was "LIKE GETTING READY FOR EXTENDED DEEP-SEA DIVING". Let's just say she was not happy. If she could talk I'm sure she would have yelled "I CAN'T PUT MY ARMS DOWN!" get me outta this suit.
Now, in these crazy holiday times, I like to reminice of the past year. We also have to sit back, take a deep breath and remind ourselves to "BE SURE TO DRINK YOUR OVALTINE". As many of you know, last year at this time I was expecting. One day, I informed Mark of a craving I was having. His response was "MEATLOAF, SMEATLOAF, DOUBLE-BEATLOAF. I HATE MEATLOAF." So needless to say, we came up with something else for dinner. Time went on, and it seemed like July was here in no time. Suddenly, our lil family of 3 turned to 4 when Maggie was born. She was soo little and "FRA-GEE-LAY". Everyone wanted to hold her of course, since she is such a cutie pie. There were times I just wanted to yell "NADDAFINGA" until you wash your hands (as we were soo used to being extra careful with Conner at that age). But we got over it, and now she is growing like a weed.
As Christmas gets closer and closer, we are busy finishing up projects around the house. Of course, when Mark was trying spruce up the man room in the basement for the boys to come over and play cards, a stool at the bar broke. When he inquired about the glue, I informed him we were out, to which I got a "YOU USED UP ALL THE GLUE ON PURPOSE". When I protested I did not, we got in a lil argument. It ended with him tellin me to go stick my tongue to a pole. After several hours of silence and a phone call, I finally had a response "HEY, SMART ASS. I ASKED MY OL' MAN ABOUT STICKING YOUR TONGUE TO A FLAGPOLE IN THE WINTER, AND HE SAYS THAT IT'LL FREEZE RIGHT TO THE POLE." To which he replied "AH, BALONEY". The rest is history.
And finally, as the snow has starts to fall, Grandma and Grandpa Servais' drive to visit becomes somewhat of a hike. The 2 hour travel time becomes even longer when the roads aren't the greatest. In fact, in order to get them to visit I had to "TRIPLE-DOG-DARE" them. By the time they got here, Toby was pretty excited. With the addition to the family, Toby has been a lil ignored. He was soo crazy excited "HE HAD YELLOW EYES! SO, HELP ME, GOD! YELLOW EYES!" Grandpa was first through the door, so Toby went crazy with hime first. Grandpa just "LAYED THERE LIKE A SLUG! IT WAS HIS ONLY DEFENSE" and let Toby jump all over him. Once things slowed down, we settled in and enjoyed the kids. They are soo cute to watch. During this play time, I am sure I heard Maggie ask Conner want he wanted for Christmas, and I swear his response was "I WANT AN OFFICIAL RED RYDER CARBINE-ACTION TWO-HUNDRED-SHOT RANGE MODEL AIR RIFLE!" This was pretty excellent, because we have been working like crazy just to get him to say Hi. But, me being a typical mom, I praized him for his new found words and then had to tell him, no "YOU'LL SHOT YOUR EYE OUT!"
So with only weeks till Christmas, we hope you all have time to enjoy your families and give thanks for all you have!
* For those of you who haven't seen "A Christmas Story" you may not get the humor in this. I suggest you watch it..... now! And yes, this was my awesome upcoming post. No "other" new news to share :)
Let me tell you, I think I really like this Christmas stuff. For starters, we got to drive when it was really dark out. We got to stay at Grandma and Grandpa's place for a bunch of days. We got to go sledding outside in the snow - I am still warming up to this idea of playing outside when it is really cold.... but the sledding part was pretty fun and my parents learned the hard way how difficult it is to walk up a big hill with a sled and a lil kid. I think they are a lil out of shape. But we don't have to let them know that. We also got to open up presents (I love the crinkly wrappings just as much as the presents inside). And, there is never a shortage of attention. I thought I would share a few pics my Aunt Kristi took during the weekend in Mondovi. We had just enough time to drive home to Cali on Xmas Eve to get to church - since me and Maggie are kinda fussy at night, my parents were pretty brave to do this. But we made it all the way through. We had Christmas morning ourselves and then packed up again to go to the Servais Christmas in La Crosse. But that's not all, stay tuned.... the Shay Christmas is coming up this weekend. So I am sure I will have a few more pics to share. Thanks for checkin in on me :) Merry Christmas and a Happy New Years! 
