Merry Christmas 2012!

Christmas Eve

 We went to Granny's today, for Christmas Eve to celebrate with them! 

 I got a pic of Brian and his sissy:).

 Ephram wasn't feeling great but I LOVED seeing him in this hat he found!

 He's been asking for a drum set for a month now and drums on anything he can find with everything from spoons to tinkertoys. His face LIT UP when he got a hold of a REAL drum set! I'm pretty sure he'd still be banging on them if we didn't have to leave.  Look at that Joy!

 Cousins!! (Minus Ellen Grace)

 they boys got great spy sets from Granny and played with them as soon as we got home. The girls got craft/weaving kits and they had theirs out in the van...lol!

 I cooked dinner while they were playing with their new gifts. I made a traditional seafood/Italian meal...YUM!

 It was just our little family but so nice to be together. Sparkling grape is another tradition pulled from my childhood for Christmas Eve and Christmas Day. The kids drank out of glasses and loved toasting each other!

 After dinner Cailey and Braden helped me prep sides for tomorrow. Braden did the topping for sweet potato casserole and Cailey did the pistachio salad.

 Then we set the table and made it so all 12 of us could fit in the dining room together for Christmas dinner.

 With everything all set we spent the rest of the night singing, reading together, doing Jesse tree, the kids played piano, and  most exciting for Braden was the opening of Jesus gifts! 

The kids are very excited...but Ephram fell asleep right away so I'm guessing he still doesn't fully understand what will happen tomorrow. Blessed.

Christmas Crafts

The kids created a Christmas tree farm this year by doing all sorts of fun crafts. The did a toilet paper roll stamped tree, triangle trees, stained glass ones, and regular jazzed up trees.

I love having an endless supply of arts and crafts for the kids to use!

 

I was showing Ephram how to cut this paper and put it in order then Kinsey decided that she wanted to make one too:)! They are totally different from each other and I love them!

As usual there was ornament making.  These are a few of the ones they made. I love craft time together and am glad we have time to fit it in our day:). (We made other ones but I didn't always take pictures)

Gingerbread Party

 This year Molly hosted our gingerbread party and it was so much more fun since we all had our houses put together! With the nightmares we've had over the last few years because of our houses falling apart it was nice to focus on just the kids having fun. (Though there was a TON of laughing involved in years past) lol! The kids decided they wanted to use the cake decorator to make the roof a little exciting this year.

Cailey and Braden wanted a specific plan on their parts and Kinsey and Ephram just had fun throwing everything on it.

The finished house!

(This shows Kinsey's side and Cailey's blue end)

 

This is a view of Braden's peppermint side and ephram's everything side.

 Sweet buddies

All of our houses and kiddos together. It was such a warm day that the kids played outside after they were finished making their houses.

The next morning our house was DEVOURED for breakfast!! I've decided that with all the work they put into it I think they should wait at least a couple more days before eating it next time!

poor sick baby boy

 Ephram has spent the past couple days snuggling with me because he's been a very sick boy. I took him to the doctor yesterday to be sure it wasn't the flu and sure enough the test came back negative.  He's had a fever, bad cough, clear runny nose, and teardrop eyes.  Poor guy keeps one tissue for his nose and one for his runny eyes. I tried to rest with him on the couch and turned on Sesame Street but he wanted nothing to do with that and just wanted to "wock in the wocking chair" with me. I had NO problem snuggling my sad boy.

 He slept with me last night and had a pretty rough night..waking up and almost delirious.  He would scream things out and just cry and cry unable to be calmed easily.  Today he wanted to just be held all day until about 1:00 when the motrin must have FINALLY kicked in and he ate two pancakes and played Legos for a while with Brian. He's been great about drinking juice all day but has no appetite.

When he was feeling better (around 1pm) the kids gave him this set of three Jake's Neverland pirate set which made him smile:). It was the FIRST smile I had seen from him in two days!

As I type he's crying out in his bed again...I'm praying for a better boy tomorrow because I just feel terrible when any of my babies feel sick!

For Sale!

 Cailey and Kinsey (and perhaps, mommy) worked very hard making crafts to sell at their AHG Christmas Bazaar. They had bell necklaces, pizzelle cookies, magnets, and bell making sets for sale.

 They did a GREAT job selling and their prices were right. All the cookies sold out first and then the bell making kits. They loved seeing all their hard work being purchased.

My AHG girls

Santa Cow Night

 We couldn't miss the Santa Cow at Chick Fil A!  I had never thought of it until this year when we went but it just cracks me up that while we don't 'do' Santa and don't get pictures of the kids on his lap that I have years worth of Santa Cow pics.

 Yup...that's the 10 year old right up in front on his lap while Ephram has to squeeze in the side...lol!

These are the hats they decorated while waiting for their food

snapshots

 Ephram loves banging on things. He asks for drums almost daily. This was while i was baking cookies...he pulled out bowls (then pots and pans) and banged away.  I love how it looks like he isn't holding a drum stick because he was playing so fast!

 This was a fun December day full o' girls fun!

 Playing games with my baby boy...I love playing games with the kiddos!

 December 1..time to pull out the gingerbread placemats Nonny made for us!

 Cailey was so excited for Rebecca because she got an Ipod touch for her birthday. This means the girls can chat and facetime much easier! They also play games, send funny videos, and send pictures to each other.

 Braeden is tracked out in December and we've been able to set up two sleepovers so far!  We've also been able to get the boys together for playdates.

 Ms. Jewel came over to our house so she could fit in an extra lesson before their recital.  The kids loved having her teach here.

Braden has had some fun scout field trips this month but now that he's in the older group
he can just go with his leader and chaperone's so I don't have pictures of the events. His
favorite (and the one he can't stop talking about) was a field trip to the recycling center. He was
fascinated about how it all works and thrilled to be given a scarf made from recycled plastic bottles.  I
love seeing the joy on his face as he talks about all the fun times he has with scouting!

The girls were fighting and fighting one Friday so I decided to try this idea that I saw on Pinterest. I modified what I wrote on the shirt but thought it was such a great idea. Unfortunately they were not as pleased and CRIED and SCREAMED when I first put it on them. After a while they warmed up to the idea. I ended up taking the shirt off shortly after because it was choking Kinsey and hurting her neck. I think it would only work on children who are the same height. I did, however, have them hold hands whenever they went somewhere and they had to play together for the rest of the day.