Holidays

Patrick and I took vacation from Christmas to New Years and it's been so nice to spend the time together as an entire family during the Holidays! Christmas Eve Mass at SMG was beautiful...we got there an hour and a half early but it was worth it, the children's caroling was so cute and the church looked beautiful!

We hosted Christmas Eve dinner at our house and had my parents, sisters, brothers in law, Patrick's parents and siblings as well as our neighbors over for dinner. It was fun to host and get to use all the Spode Christmas dishes I've been collecting!

We had a Birthday Cake for Baby Jesus...McMahon Family tradition!

Emma, Bryan and the Brigg's girls!

Mom & Sister pic!

A rare pic of just Patrick & ISanta came...

And the present unwrapping begins, first we opened gifts from Santa and gifts to each other from the four of us...

Then my parents, sisters and brothers in law came over for breakfast...yummy cinamon rolls from Ginger Browns!

Everyone in their PJs, stuffed from breakfast!

Lindsy and Chelsey getting excited about the tamales for breakfast!

Then the Shortalls came over and we did some more gift unwrapping!

Then we stayed in our PJs and headed over to my parents house, Patrick and I have had these for several years...always fun to take out at XMAS!

Lindsy & Juan in their PJs!

And we opened some more gifts...Emma opening a new outfit for her American Girl dolls

The super cool, super cute, activity kits that Aunt Chelsey made the kids- they worked so well at church today!!!

Mom suprised by the pearl drop necklace Dad got her!

Then we had a light lunch at my parents and since the tables were all set for dinner the kids had picnics with some of their new toys on the floor!

Didn't get any pics of XMAS dinner at my parents but we ate in our PJs!!Then on the morning after XMAS we headed back over to my parents for a brunch with Aunt Julie, Uncle Chuck, Jason, Jenna and Jessica! The kids got to bring one toy along, Bryan brought his umbrella...

And Emma brought her new American Girl doll

Chels & I

Emma, Chels, Julie, Jessica, and Jenna

All the girls!

Then we headed to Dallas for dinner at the Shortalls...the kids decided to stay for a sleep over so Patrick and I had a night alone!!! We spent the next couple days being lazy, hanging out and playing with new toys!! On Thursday it was so warm outside that we took the kids to the Zoo

We also went to the Olson's new hanger/house for an open house...Emma and Bryan both LOVED the plane Mr. Olson built, Bryan wouldn't sit inside for a pic because he was afraid it would take off!!

I didn't get any pics but we had a great New Years Eve....Patrick and I went on a date for lunch, and then we went to our neighbors for dinner!

Christmas Parade!!

We had a great time at the Adolphus Christmas Parade this past Saturday with our friends the Martinez family...the kids did great considering how long we waited for the parade to start and how early they had to get up to make it over to Dallas. Definitely going to make it an annual Christmas tradition for our family!!!

Gushy's 2nd Marathon!!

This past Sunday was cheered on Aunt Gushy as she ran her second marathon in two months!! It was chilly but the kids thought it was so fun to drive around and try to find her at the various mile markers!! Best part was she made her time to qualify for the 2012 Boston Marathon...Boston here we come!!!

We stopped between mile 10 and 20 to have Fuzzy's for breakfast!!

yards away from the finish....they were hauling!!!

She ran the marathon with Megan, her good friend from college. They wore these bright yellow/green shirts at their last marathon so we got the brightest color green shirts we could find!!

Turkey Trot, Thanksgiving, and Tamales!!

Busy past two days, but lots of fun!!!!

The First Annual Arlington Turkey Trot...brrrrr!!! But we did it!!

Tried to warm the kids up after the Trot with some hot chocolate from Starbucks, yum!!!

After the Trot we stopped by Nana & Boompa's for a "Elephant Ride"!

Thanksgiving 2010 at The Weeds, it also happened to be Bryan's real birthday and we celebrated with yet another cake!!

Cousin Jennifer has a 9 week old golden retriever so we brought Collinger with us and Emma was in LOVE with all the puppy kisses!!

Friday's night TAMALE making party at our house...Uncle Juan's parents were in town for Thanksgiving and they came over to show us how to make tamales, so fun!!

Mom looking confused by the directions!

Getting my tamale rolling on!!

The assembly line!

Juan, Boompa and Mr. Fernandez

The kids snuck away from the assembly line to fine the snacks!

Lindsy and Juan!

Old Nana making tamales!!

The Fernandez Family!

The finished product, well half of them...they were soooo yummy!!!

Emma and Boompa showing tha they had eaten the whole tamale!

Bryan eating some tamales!

My baby boy is 2!!!

OK, well not until tomorrow but I figured the next couple days would be super busy! Cannot believe my baby boy is two, where has the time gone??? He is so sweet and constantly amazing me with the things he learns to say and do every day, keep mommy on her toes!! Here are a few of my favorite Bryan pics and a couple from his Circus Bday party this past weekend!!

Glasses!!

Looks like Emma got the McMahon genes when it comes to vision...she got her first pair of glasses yesterday! We had no idea she was having trouble seeing- she never said anything and never did anything (i.e. standing close to TV, etc.) to make us think she was having trouble seeing...she even passed an eye exam at our pediatricians office during her 4 year old check up. But her school did a hearing and vision screening on Monday and her vision screening was so bad (20/30 in her right eye and 20/200 in her left) that the school nurse called me!! We got her into the pediatric opthamologist as quickly as we could and sure enough her left eye had pretty much given up trying to focus and her right eye was doing all the work. The prescription they put her in intentionally under-corrects the left eye so it has to do some work and get used to focusing again. The doctor wants to see her back in 4 months and if the glasses haven't helped to get the left eye going then they'll do some patching -patch her good eye to get the bad eye used to working. Us McMahon girls have a history of bad eyes, Haley had to patch an eye when she was little, Chelsey was in glasses by the time she was 5, and Lindsy and I got them later in elementary school; so I guess we should have expected it! Emma picked out some super cute pink frames, and I have to admit I'm kind of excited about all the cute little frames she can get in the future (on the way to school this morning we talked about getting red ones to match her school uniform next year!).

(bad iPhone pic, but this was right after we picked up the glasses yesterday afternoon, she was so excited!)