Christmas at our House

This weekend we celebrated Christmas at our house. It was so much fun for Troy and I! The kids are a great age because they are so excited which makes it lots of fun. We used the Christmas dishes my mom has been gifting us since we were married for the first time so the table looked very pretty for our Christmas Eve dinner. (Thanks Momma!)

The dishes are Winter berry from Phaltzsgraft and I love them. They made the simple meal of Lasagna, salad and bread seem very special. Don and Mary ate with us which was very nice!Sam was so excited this year! He wore his cat in the hat Christmas hat and made us all laugh most of the evening. Maddie was a big helper this year and helped me get dinner ready and set the table.

Megan just hung out all night!After dinner we went downtown to see the lights and the Nativity.Daddy read us all the Christmas story. After the kids went to bed we put out the presents and filled the stockings!

Sam woke up first around 3:45 am ready to go! We put him in bed with us but he just tossed and turned singing 'jingle bells' and 'away in a manger'! After about 2 hours of that we let him get up and go get Maddie. Then the chaos started!

Christmas Morning picture. The kids had a great Christmas.

Maddie got a Leapster. She loves it!

Sam with his Light Saber chap stick.

Megan with her paci's.

After we all caught up on some sleep Daddy took us to eat at the Bone fish and then we went to our church to see the Living Christmas Tree presentation. It was a wonderful performance! We all had a great Christmas.

Twirly Skirts

This past weekend I made the girls some matching Christmas skirts. I had this material from last Christmas, but I guess if you finally use it, it's alright! I told Sam I would make him a little green neck tie to match but he said "I won't wear it mom." I'm sure he was being honest so I decided not to waste my time.They looked like little doll babies dressed up.
My sewing machine actually broke a few weeks ago and Troy got my Grandmother's 1943 singer out of the attic and that thing works like a charm. It has so many presser foot attachments that I thought I would try a few out. I used the 'ruffler' on Maddie's skirt and it made it very full and twirly. She twirled when she tried it on. She twirled when we were on our way to the car for the church Christmas program. She twirled into an elderly lady in the aisle of the church. And she twirled and jumped when we got home.

Girls love twirl!

Trimming the Tree

We decorated our Christmas tree right after Thanksgiving, but somehow I forgot to post it...oops!

We went to Lowes to get our tree and the kids picked it out- That is pretty much as close to a Christmas tree farm as we get around here.
Maddie was pretty serious about the decorations this year. She was better at spreading things out and putting heavy things on a strong branch. She got a new Precious Moments Tinker Bell ornament this year. Sam really got into it this year too. He remembered most of his ornaments from last year and really loved his new John Deere ornament. Alot of his ornaments ended up on the same branch. (Mommy spread them out after the kids went to bed because I couldn't stand them all being bunched up!)

Megan got a porcelain baby rattle for her first Christmas ornament. Here she is hanging it up. She just liked to relax and take in the chaos!

Our Family in front of the tree.

(Check out Baby girls dimple in this picture! Looks like her Auntie Melissa!)

Just the kiddos! We all had a great time and were glad Don and Mary were over to help make it a special time!

Gingerbread Fun!

Last Saturday we decorated our Gingerbread house. I want to shout out a big 'thank-you' to Target for supplying these little kits. They definitely took some of the stress out of my holiday! Daddy was a big help to get all the sides up. The icing really held together well and smelled a little like Elmer's glue.....Then the fun part, putting on the candy.Approximately half of the candy supplied was put on the house and half was consumed by the kids!
The finished product...The kids were very proud of their creation. Good Christmas memories!

Christmas Program

Maddie and Sam performed in their Christmas Program at church last night. Her is a link to one of the songs they did.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=syns2c8kQIY

Maddie is on the top row and Sam is on the bottom left. At the beginning of this song they give each other a thumbs up which was super cute! We are very proud of all they are learning in their Church choir.

In this one you can see them both a little better. Notice Maddie gives a little wave at the beginning. They LOVE being on the big stage at church!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wpzOaMpOULg

This last one was their favorite. We have all been singing it around the house for a month. You can see them both near the end of this video.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8fYEY2ZOTso

Bath Time

We had to document Megan smiling during bath time because she has hated baths since birth. Usually when I go to give her a bath the kids and Troy and I dread it because we know it will involve lots of screaming! But last week she actually took a bath without screaming and even seemed to enjoy it.This is one part of her growing up I will admit that I have actually enjoyed!

4 months

Megan Joy is four months old today. Boy oh Boy that four months just flew by! She is growing up so fast. She loves to smile, coo and even laugh out loud now. The kids think she is talking to them so that makes it funny. They are constantly running in and telling me what they think she has said! She is still sleeping well through the night and takes three naps a day which is helps a busy mommy out alot! Troy and I have joked alot that Maddie was a terrible baby, but I think we have come to realize that we were just terrible parents! We are so much more relaxed with Megan and she is a much more relaxed baby. Which is great because the third one seems to just be along for the ride. Her nap schedule is constantly being interfered with by ballet, Tae kwon do, dentist appts, ect and she just keeps smiling.

She is just the perfect holding size with lots of chubs to squeeze. Her hair is blond, supper soft and fuzzy. She has big blue eyes and just look at those cheeks!
Looks like she is ready to kick up her heels and have a great birthday.

Thanksgiving

We were very excited to have my brother John and his family down for Thanksgiving this year! As always when I'm hosting, I didn't take very many pictures :-( Luckily Troy and Jen took over with my camera and captured some of the fun! While I was finishing up with the Thanksgiving dinner, Jen helped the kids to make Turkey cookies. They loved it! As you can see from the picture it was quite warm on Thanksgiving day. John smoked our turkey and it was amazing! After dinner we went to the Southport Bridge to fish. The kids had a great time and even got to see some wild dolphins.

Logan is growing up quick! He was good to play with the younger kids, but also enjoyed playing the play station with Daddy and Uncle Troy. His one goal of the trip was to find some sea shells and a crab to take back to show his class and he found them both!Gabe loves babies! He was a big help with Megan. He also loves dressing up and was in a different outfit every time I saw him.

Owen was lots of fun for Maddie and Sam to play with. He is right in between them in age and they had lots of the same interests. His favorite thing to play was definitely the Thomas Train set.Kyndal is a little doll baby who keeps her brothers in line. She is a great self entertainer and I barely knew she was around! She loved the kitchen center and playing like she was Maddie's baby.On Saturday we went to the beach. It was a LOT colder than it had been on Thanksgiving, so the kids had to bundle up against the wind. They still had a good time and found lots and lots of shells.

Sam with his load of Shells- the kids are just as excited to find tons of broken shells as we are to find nice whole ones!Kyndal had to barrow Sam's shark hat for the beach to keep the wind out of her ears! On Friday John and Troy took the older kids to a state park and Jen and I braved the black Friday crowds with Kyndal and Megan. There is no photo documentation of this because the boys didn't want to drag a camera around and keep up with 5 kids and I didn't want to show you Jen throwing elbows over half priced merchandise! But we all had alot of fun that day.

All the kids waiting for the boat parade of lights the last night they were here. We are so glad they spent the Holiday with us and helped us build some special memories.