Friday, December 26, 2014

The day after...

 Nonny loves her grandpuppies :)

 Playing Candy Land with Nonny while Cailey was sleeping in:)

 Maisy and Zoe got pretty new matching sweaters for Christmas...which they couldn't wait to show off:)
 Cailey got a Nu Me curling stick for Christmas and couldn't WAIT to try it out. Now she's looking forward to her perm growing out so she can curl her own hair but she did a great job on Kinsey's.

 the boys were showing Poppy their finished LEGO sets

 ta da!

 the girls spent a good amount of time playing with their American Girl Dolls.

 Matt, Leigh, and the kids drove up for lunch at 12

 It was another gorgeous day so the kids spent most of it outside.

 the girlies

 they played school for a LONG.TIME. I went out for a while and I have to say it looked pretty fun! Cailey even made up a worksheet for them which was 'homework'. It had a section for math, spelling, handwriting, and English...I was impressed!


 I took these during recess

 Then told the kiddos it was picture day at school...YAY! :)

 Ephram showed Uncle Matt all the books he's written

 homework time before archery

 Ephram challenged Uncle Matt to a scooter race

 then all too soon it was time for them to leave.



 After dinner Cailey played Pente with Poppy while Nonny, Braden and I played 500.

 i don't really think this requires a caption...i mean....

the evening ended with pizza and Home Alone 2...this time I was smart enough to get pictures because it was so awesome watching them laugh as much as they did!

Thursday, December 25, 2014

Christmas Day


 Since the kiddos stayed up to watch The Christmas Story with Brian last night they slept in a bit and woke to the smells of Monkey Bread and Sausage Balls.

 Per tradition they opened stocking before digging in. They were so sweet and made some great gifts for each other this year.

 ALL the boys were super excited about these Star Wars figures!

 Kinsey was SUPER excited to get her first pair of TOMS...hot pink polka dots, of course!

 And little guy loved his GIANT nerf gun

 Opening my Jim Shore Nativity figure from Ephram

 Someone was SHOCKED when they opened an American Girl Doll this year!  Kinsey got Elizabeth.


 Now it was Ephram's turn to be excited when he opened a giant LEGO set. I love looking
at everyone's faces in this picture because they are so happy for him.

 And Cailey got Elizabeth's best friend...Felicity!  They have both been retired for years but I bought them years ago BEFORE they retired and just had them hanging out in my closet for a good time.

 Braden's excitement over his giant LEGO set!

 Cailey sewed each of the kiddos a gift..pillows for the boys and American Girl clothes for Kinsey. I love that she took time to choose fabric she knew each one of them would love.

 TOMS!!

 Ephram said this was his favorite gift after opening everything. My sweet boy does love to use tape for his inventions.

 pretty pup taking it all in


 Brian used scraps to wrap my gift and I loved it :) I don't like wasting wrapping paper so this was awesome!

 We said we weren't going to do a big Christmas this year because we got the dogs AND because we are wanting to travel a bit and do experiences together as our gifts. BUT...I had all this great stuff in my closet plus gave a few 'needed items' as gifts. So much for a 'small' Christmas!



 All SIX of my Christmas babies

 after Christmas it was time for the scavenger hunt so they could find the family gift. they followed eight clues which led to....

 a plasma car!! They have been asking for one of these all year and I finally found a great deal then surprised them.

 Braden was thrilled about his new art sets (especially the charcoal set and the watercolor pencils)

 Thankfully it was a gorgeous day so they were able to spend it playing outside

 Nonny and Poppy came around 12 and gave the kiddos more gifts to open.

 and they were able to open our gifts to them.

 the boys wanted to get started on their LEGO sets right away and spent hours building them.  (ephram is also sporting the new slippers he got from Nonny and Poppy)

 Mom helped Cailey fix her sewing machine (YAY)

 then played games

 We ate dinner around 4 but Cailey was napping. I was afraid she was getting
sick again but I think she was just really tired...because she NEVER naps


 multi tasking..the baby wanted to be held while I cooked :)

 Dinner is served.

 family picture

We got the kids the Home Alone Trilogy for Christmas and watched the first one that night. They thought it was HILARIOUS and I had a blast watching them laugh :). It's moms favorite movie so I knew she would want to watch it with them.