Since we missed our movie at the Science Center, we took the afternoon (actually, 15 minutes!) to play in the snow.
I don't know if you know .. it's COLD outside!!
Weeee!
Wipe out!
"Coldy"Mommy and Carter
"Snowy" Daddy and Carter
Chilly Chalupa's!
... more like the Love Continent! This foamy-bean bag is seriously so big it needs its own zip code! A colleague of Andy's is moving from snowy IA to sunny CA, and she didn't want to move her Love Sac bean bag (somehow, it converts to a king-size futon! Nuts!). She heard from someone who talks with Andy that we considering getting one for the theater room, and she made us a cozy deal we couldn't resist! We spent most of the evening curled up (yes, all 3 of us fit comfortably!) watching Desperate Housewives, season 3.
Speaking of the Desperate Housewives ...
* Who locks children in their basement? Or dumps them on a deserted roadside? Or lets them have affairs with their history teacher? Hello - call DHS or YESS!
* Tom's old girlfriend, Kayla's mom, TOTAL crazy .. but we both GASPED when Aunt Jackie shot her at the grocery store.
* Despite what Andy tells me, I still hate Edit. She's gross. But I kinda heart Mike and his road to coma recovery.
* If Carlos, or anyone else, took a sledge hammer to my walls, I would kick their butt into his or her throat (FYI: that's a Lynette line - she's my favorite!)
* We're half-way through season 3, so you can only talk about things after the grocery store shooting. At this rate, we'll be on season four by the end of our winter break (don't call it "Christmas break," it offends people) and caught up by the end of the writer's strike!
Let's move our cozy new Love Sac, and everything else, to Wisteria Lane!!
Carter helped Andy and I lug this beast of a bean bag down the hall and to the theater room! Hands down, this is the best $10 I've ever spent!!
Who knew the simple act of eating breakfast could turn into such an exciting ordeal? Well ... okay ... if you have ever spent any amount of time with a toddler, I guess you know it's completely possible!
While eating breakfast, Carter carried on conversations between herself and her Pop Tart. Crazy, I know, but really cute!
"Hey Op Top! How you doing?" Seriously ... she asked her Pop Tart this!
"I silly!" There's no doubt about that!!
Carter may be on her way to replacing you with a new BFF: Mickey! I guess that just means we'll have to schedule more play dates and adventures so that she realizes what she's missing (girl's respond to jealousy!)!
"I love Mickey!" Two peas in a pod!
Despite rumors and heresay, Santa did, indeed, stop at the Chalupa household. Carter's terribly two, so I wasn't so sure!!
He left her a Mickey Mouse Club House play house and a MMCH bowling set! That Santa .. right on!
Merry Christmas!!
Enjoying the Mickey Mouse Club House Bowling Set
Andy taught her to properly hold and roll the ball, versus tossing it at the slider!
When you miss, just smack 'em over!
And then ..
The MMCH play house!
What a Mickey-tacular holiday!
Nothing beats Christmas Ebe with a toddler! It's magic and amazement packed into one evening!
Andy made a delicious dinner (baked tater soup) while Carter and I played blocks. After supper, we opened gifts while listening to Christmas music and watching the Grinch. Everything I asked for and more was under the tree! Andy also faired nicely, but Carter was, again, 100% spoiled! The smile on her face, the precious giggle, and the thankful hug make parting with the pennies easy!
Cheeser by the Tree
Carter ... I mean I ... got fuzzy purple slippers because our house is always freezing!
Andy got 1 Versus 100, and a Carter with a bow!
MAG-A-NETS!
This is all the present we need!
A very-wired Sammy also got into the spirit
Carter's "finale:" dress up items
Clothes, props - like handcuffs for her police costume and pom-pom's for her cheerleader gear - and make-up to be a princess!
Happy and Merry from the Chalupa's!
No, my feet aren't that big ... but they sure look huge, don't they?!?
All of the boys and girls, with our girls, gathered for Christmas breakfast and gifts this morning. Let the spoiling continue! From navitiy scenes to DVD's to scooters - yes scooters, plural! - everyone got all they wanted and more. The "more:" we all got to spend the day together. I can't remember the last time that happened!
Our fluffy, snuggly girls, ready to open presents!!
What's that???
Courtney diligently opens girl supplies - nail polish and chapstick
Scooters! That's cool!
Cool .. but what a mess!
The best gift of all: Carter's bag! And our best gift: what's in the bag!
Merry Christmas!!
Despite the bad weather (and I mean bad - in the .4 mile drive from Andy's parent's to his aunt and uncle's, we could see nothing, and would've ended up in the ditch had our guardian angels - Kevin and Katie - not been behind us!), Chalupa's of all shapes and sizes gathered for Christmas. We ate well (that was the best pork loin ever!), caught up and laughed lots, and enjoyed gift exchanges - men and women, and watched our favorite toddlers continue to be spoiled!
The crazy's under the table!
(Cousin Courtney - isn't she too cute?!?)
Grandma joins in Under-the-Table Fishing with the girls!
Uncle Kevin and Carter work on Courtney's Dora puzzle (see - spoiled!!)
Uncle Andy and Courtney, who still isn't too sure about him!
See?! Tony rocks!
I think we all played about a billion games of Tic Tac Tony Saturday afternoon!
One word sums up our Christmas at Grandma and Poppy's: SPOILED! Everyone got the best gifts (games galore!!), and we got to spend time together, which is the best gift of all!
Tic Tac Tony is definitely a winner! We love Tony!!
Carter and Grandma read Pooh
And Poppy opens Carter's match game while she plays with her tub toys!
As an extension of our classwork (and to ultimately keep them occupied this week!), a few special education classrooms put together The Cookie Cook-off! Teams of kids organized, prepared, baked and presented cookies, and we celebrated today with their treats, games, and special guests: Carter, Luke & Mike Posegate and Zada Williams (children and grandchildren of my special ed team mates). It's was fun to have the overlap of my favorite students and wonderful children! Every day should be this fun!
Carter's "happy," with a mouthful of cookie!
Our 8th graders, with Luke & Mikey Posegate and Carter Kay
Two of the greatest 8th graders, with Zada and Carter
The rest of our crew ... each as squirrley and silly as the next!
We love 'em, but thank goodness for break!
Tonight was Carter's Christmas Program - too cute!
The babies were angels, literally, the toddlers were adorable, but the two's totally took the cake! Carter was last to enter, but first to wonder around the top part of the stage where they weren't supposed to be! She was great!
Her proud patrons: Andy, Daddy and I
Welcome back to Chalupas.net!
Sorry for the short outage there. The main computer hosting chalupas.net decided to stop working. It has been working its way to that state for quite some time now. I was about two weeks from completing its transition to a new home when it gave out. I pushed up the schedule a bit by dropping some things I was going to do. I'll give a fair warning though: It may be unavailable at times as I work to complete the move. If its not available just try again later.
Andy
This is all you get, and I can tell you nothing other than we had fun!
Roll it! Note: the flour/salt mixture all over her and her nose! Cute 
Precision
"Made" with love!
We braved the cold for a car-ride through Cutty's Christmas display. Our favorite:
Blue's Clues, in lights!
Carter and I enjoyed it ... Daddy Scrooge did not!
Today is Poppy's birthday! On the way home, around 4:00, I told her we'd call Poppy later. All evening it's been, "Poppy!" and "I need call Poppy!"
Happy birthday, Poppy! We hope you had a wonderful day! We love you!
HAPPY BERTDAY!!
FOR REAL: this is, like, the third time this week we've BAKED! Okay .. I don't know if I'd classify FUDGE as BAKING, but we've made something other than hot dogs many times this week! it must be the holiday baking bug (no, that does not imply there are BUGS in our cooking!).
Carter unwraps chocolates. Amazingly enough, she didn't lick a single one!
Carter adds chocolate while I crunch peanuts
Stir baby, stir!
It really couldn't have worked out much better. Carter had a puke episode Monday night and was a bit sluggish and icky Tuesday .. during the snow day! Seriously. in my 5 years at Johnston, this is only our 2nd snow day! I would have never guessed! But sleeping in and the Price Is Right was awesome!
See - no school!
We watched Clifford, Thomas and Dr. Phil
Later, these yahoo's braved the cold to scoop and play!
Snow = good
Ice = NO good!
Yes, she sleeps! Naps are short, and 8am is early, but this is proof she does run down at some point!
Night, night, termite!
It's official: I'm reinventing the Food Pyramid. The base, the "group" which you require the most servings: Cheesy Hot Dogs!
I don't know what's cuter: the "speared" hot dog, or the glob of ketchup on her face!
HOT DOGS!!
Zach, Stephanie, and Isaac braved the weather for "family Christmas" at Andy and Rory's. It was a day full of good food, fun presents, great buddies, and, unfortunately, a little barf!
"PB:" Pre-barf. Isaac would chase, and be chased by, Carter. After what seemed like 819 laps between the living room and the kitchen, an exhausted Carter finally came for a snuggle .. and a barf! After a break, some water, and gifts, all was well again!
The excited look on Isaac's face says all: PRESENT TIME!
For Isaac, animal cards and dress up costumes ..
.. and for Carter .. bubble wrap, a delightful doggy book, and Sarah, the red-head baby!
Games Galore! Isaac got his own Tato head, and Carter got a game (that I can't even begin to spell correctly!). But most content: Rinky, in the smack-dab middle of it all!
"DORA!"
Carter, in her baby's box!
As for our adult white elephant "exchange," nothing was taken or stolen! I was looking forward to swiping a present or two! But we all got some great goodies (Andy and I enjoyed white hot chocolates this evening!). I received musical Catch Phrase. The ticker gives you a song from the chose category, and you can give clues to or sing a chunk of the song for others to guess. Andy 2, Stephanie and I rocked! Andy Chalupa, being extremely literal and somewhat fun-hating, was a hoot to watch!!
Happy and Merry all! Thanks for braving the weather to come up, thanks for hosting, thanks for being the best BBFF (Baby Best Friend Forever!) and thanks for being great pals! Merry Christmas!
Saturday is round one of Christmas - Zach, Stephanie, and Isaac are coming up, and the three of them, Andy and Rory, and Andy, Carter and I are having our "family Christmas." In preparation of the festivities, Carter and I made Snow-man'y Cookies! Yummy!
BUSTED sneaking M & M's!
Carter got her own bowl of melted almond bar, and dipped her own pretzels (cause she's gross, and I doubt anyone wants to eat her cookies!)
"Lick it??" How do you say no when she asks permission?!?
Chalupa Cookie Confectioners!
Two of our favoritest people have birthday's today: Grandma and Rory! We hope both of your days were wonderful and full of fun!
HAPPY BURFDAY TO YOU!!
That's right, she's G L A M O R O U S!
Bare tummies and jewelry - nothing matches better?!?
For days, as we've driven around town in the evening, Carter has been yelling, "CHRISTMAS!" every time she sees lights. She's got such a positive holiday spirit! So this evening, we all packed in the car, tuned into the Christmas songs, and went looking at "CHRISTMAS!" We saved the best for last - www.sandersonfamilychristmas.com - a crazy CHRISTMAS display on 18th Street. They've got lights synced to music, and it was so cool! Even Ba-hum-bug, I mean Andy, enjoyed this one!
Carter, armed with her ducky, looks at the Sanderson's lights
Carter and her little tree!
Carter and Andy love making mommy lego flowers. She loves, loves the single flower lego. Almost too much!
Yes, that's her monkey-tongue, poking out of the flower lego hole! Cheeser, cheeser baby!
Carter loves Isaac. Today Isaac turns 2. Carter celebrated!
We spent the day in Newton, with the Alexander's, who kindly cooked for us, played ping pong, chatted, and introduced us to the wonderfulness that can only be summed up with "More Bruce!" The kiddies had a wonderful time, and I'm doubly excited for ice skating with the clan this weekend (and present stealing!!).
PRESENT!
Stephanie, Isaac, and birthday happiness!
Even though it wasn't her birthday, Carter helped open, too! Sneak!
Today was going to be super!
I was going to put up lights along the porch with Carter's close (and helpful) supervision, then we were going to go with Andy and Rory to Newton to visit Zach, Stephanie and Isaac for his 2nd birthday party.
Yeah! Good times!
But THIS was the view from the window this morning. At 9am, it was totally ice covered everywhere! Our lights were flickering and we expected to lose power (we didn't, thankfully!). So the "fun" day was spent catching up on TiVo and playing Cooties!
Bad weather sucks!
