sausage squares, Christmas french toast, stories....
still working on the puzzle....and then presents. Cailey requested that they open stockings first this year.
ephram LOVED the rattle aka. m&m's that he found in
his stocking. now that i think about it they were never eaten...
just used as a musical instrument. they all loved their ornaments we
got them in Korea!
cailey had the funniest reactions to Christmas presents this year:). she said she wanted to act like a grown up (since in August she'll be HALF a grown up as she reminds me daily). i guess
this is how she thinks we react! she was VERY excited about her OWN bottle of bubble bath from nonny...who knew??:) could've saved a lot of money:)
he's always been fascinated with faces of people and real/stuffed animals...
elmo was no different. he went through and touched each facial feature.
nonny got knives from WS and a new (ORGANIZED coupon binder from us). Poppy got a website designed by Brian for all the chip carving he does (http://www.artisticchipcarving.com)
Brian put it up on the TV for the big reveal.
ephram LOVES pandas...always has. (see him checking
out Shanghai's face?)
the kiddos got me a handprint platter that
they made with brian earlier in the week that wasn't
quite ready. i got a picture of it though and can't wait to
get it!
love all the excitement! braden loves legos and got a small firetruck set and a HUGE spiderman set. cailey wanted a bathrobe...so kinsey shared hers:).
cailey REALLY wanted an American girl doll. kit to be exact. she knew she wasn't getting one. but granny surprised her and the look on her face was AWESOME! it's the same look braden had when he opened his DSi (except i thought he was opening a book so i wasn't camera ready.) seeing as though we have no video games of any sort and don't 'do' tv he was SHOCKED and excited! about the same reaction they ALL had when they found out daddy got a wii for Christmas. swagbucks has been AWESOME this year and allowed us to be able to get lots of fun (free) things from amazon! Oh...and kinsey...sweet kinsey! She ALSO got an American girl doll from Granny! She got Ivy (who happens to be Asian).
ephram took a little break with poppy and played with the wrapping
paper...and checked out poppy's face. i caught him when he was
saying, 'teeth'
daddy and braden got a remote controlled helicopter this year! it's been played with a LOT by daddy...he loves it:). he also got one from hunt! oh...and braden got a controlled car from granny with he LOVES... so between the 5 zhu zhu pets, 2 helicopters, dump truck, soccer ball, football, and remote controlled car there are all sorts of things flying/rolling around our house! in the pic on the right they are checking out the microscope that nonny and poppy got them (which braden asks to look at on an hourly basis)
this is the funniest picture to me. i had a bunch of $10 coupons to use on anything at Hallmark. (so being the cheap me i just kept spending $10 and getting it all free.) after getting all their stocking stuffers, wrapping paper, decorations, and Brian's peppermint bark i couldn't figure out what to get with the rest of my coupons. (i had a TON). i saw that zhu zhu pets were on sale and picked up one for kinsey and cailey and a ?thing? for it to crawl through. this FREE present that i picked up at the last minute ended up being one of the FAVORITE things they got! all FOUR of them played and played with it and continue to walk around with their hamsters/skunks/bunnies chattering away. it just makes me laugh! glad i got it, though! oh...and when uncle matt and aunt leigh came they gave EACH of the kids another one. yep...that's a lot of zhu zhu pets crawling around:)
the dress nonny made
i found the girls in their room after they got dressed just hanging out reading their books and playing with their dolls. kinsey told me she was looking for the word 'the' in her book all day. she kept her nose in her book the ENTIRE time it took for cailey to read hers. love it! their dolls got hats, jewelry, and and purses too:).
reading with daddy...and being silly
playing Christmas carols and DSi
we saved their biggest (i know...how can it get bigger??)
presents for last. we ordered them back in the summer and
they've just been sitting in their brown boxes since then. the kids
knew they were Christmas presents but thankfully never thought to
READ the labels. these were things the kids 'needed' but we hadn't
gotten around to getting them. they were things i wanted to get the best 'quality'
wise so they weren't gonna be free...but they were on sale at least!
they all (minus ephram) got sleeping bags and...
four new sleds (both from ll bean)! we've never bought sleds before and always regret it when it snows. last year brian PROMISED we'd have them. i got them on a great sale and we always use ll bean for stuff like this because of their awesome lifetime guarantee. we assumed that since we finally got them that this would be the year it wouldn't snow....ha!
the finished puzzle! and a helicopter flying all
around:)
my brother's family came around 3. the cousins had a
great time playing together while i was getting things ready
for dinner. then they opened more presents.
abby and braden playing with the nativity
(i wish i had pics of the other kiddos but was too
busy cooking!)
Christmas dinner: ham, turkey, mashed potatoes,
pineapple casserole, pistachio salad, stuffing, sweet potato casserole,
green bean casserole, and TONS of different kinds of cookies. We made
the table big enough for all the grown ups while the kids (minus ephram)
ate in the kitchen.
after dinner we did presents with the eshleman's while brian, mom,
and leigh cleaned up the dishes....no easy task!
and leigh cleaned up the dishes....no easy task!
full bellies and full hearts
after dinner the whole family and the eshleman's played apples to apples together. then the boys did sword fighting on the wii (which was HILARIOUS) and dave, tricia, brian, and i bowled. we all chatted for a while until the eshleman's left. when we went to sleep there was a little snow on the ground...which i guess means we had a white Christmas!
No comments:
Post a Comment