Merry Christmas!

Christmas day was a lot of fun! The kids and I stayed in our pajamas all day long. Phil and I were a little disappointed that we didn't get to see Makena and Megan's reaction on Christmas morning. And this is the why we missed it....Instead of putting a gate at the top of the stairs, we decided to put pressure mounted baby gates that we already had in front of the girls' doors. When they wake up in the morning I usually hear, "Mom!!!" and I'll go let them out. They've been doing fine with the stairs but we're afraid one of them will wake up at 3am and be all sleepy-eyed and take a spill. On Christmas morning, Phil and I heard the girls awake on the baby monitors. They were saying something about reindeer. The next thing we know the girls are standing beside our bed. They were super excited and told us they had just gone to look at the toys around the Christmas tree. After very little prodding, they told us that they had both done a somersault over their baby gate and proceeded to go find their gifts from Santa. Since I missed their reaction, I'll share with you what they saw...

And this was the kids' gift from us, a craft room. I found a craft table and chairs with a paper roll. I think the bookcases definitely look like they belong in the room. We bought them from some friends that were moving for $50. And I got a good deal on the rug at Ikea. Makena and Megan could color and do arts and crafts all day long, so this is perfect for them. When we were building the house this is kind of what I was envisioning for this space. I think I'll put big cork boards on both walls at some point. All of our local friends are invited to come do arts and crafts with us sometime!

 The stockings...

 I snapped a picture when the girls went into Everett's room to tell him Santa had came. He definitely didn't know what was going on. But he was excited because they were excited. I thought it was a really cute moment.

 Discovering their stockings...

Toy Story 3 themed gifts were a hit with our crowd this year. Makena also got a Leapster Explorer from Santa. There has been a little bit of fighting over it so Megan may be getting one for Makena's birthday. :) Santa should have known better to just send one! And you may notice that Everett went without pants all morning. :)

 Ooh....I want to squeeze his cheeks!

Makena and Megan got a Tag and Tag Jr. from Nana and Popaw. The Tag was on Makena's Christmas list so she was really excited to receive it!

It started snowing on Christmas morning. I took the kids outside to run around after lunch. Neither Phil or I can remember ever having a white Christmas. It was magical. We probably got 5 or 6 inches of snow.

 Makena cleaned G-Dada's car off.

 Our first Christmas in the new house!

The next day we went out and played and made a snowman. The girls had a lot of fun playing with our neighbor, Celeste.

Christmas Eve

We had a fairly relaxing Christmas Eve. We made and decorated our cookies for Santa. Makena and Megan had a lot of fun making a mess decorating the sugar cookies.

 The kids were playing in the living room and I looked over at the fireplace and saw Makena doing this.... 

I'm sure she was trying to figure out how the big man was going to make it down the chimney. Megan went to help investigate. :)

 I told Makena a while back that they could open one gift on Christmas Eve. They chose gifts from Aunt Carol and Grammy. They chose wisely because they got to wear their pretty new dresses for Christmas Eve dinner! They absolutely love their dresses and had to put them on right away.

I was playing around with Everett and had Phil take his picture. I wanted to get a good shot of his teeth. We'll have to try again another time because you can only see 2 of the 4 teeth in this picture!

 Makena and Megan went outside to scatter their reindeer food before bedtime.

Here they are with their cookies for Santa (and carrots for the reindeer). I also transcribed a note to Santa for them. We left chocolate milk because according to Max and Ruby that's Santa's favorite. :)

The sad part of Christmas Eve was having to say goodbye to our Elf on the Shelf, Herbie. The girls love Herbie. They loved searching for him every morning after they woke up. They both said they would miss him. If you don't have an Elf on the Shelf I would highly recommend getting one for your kids. We got ours as a gift a few years ago and it has become such a fun tradition.

 Here is Makena blowing a goodbye kiss to Herbie. :)

Christmas Fun

The kids had their group gift exchange at the Pearce's on Wednesday. They drew names this year which was helpful as the group has grown quite a bit. All of the kids were really happy with the gifts they received. If you look closely you can see the big grin on Makena's face. I was impressed that we were able to get a picture of everyone together. Little Alex and Emma are even in there!

 

The kids had hot chocolate and cookies after they opened gifts.

After the gift exchange, we went to dinner at the Scott's house. We've gotten to know them playing soccer and basketball this year. Makena and Megan love Afton and Ireland and were so excited to get to go to their house. Here are the Christmas babies, Anna and Everett.

The Scott's have some awesome dress up outfits. After dinner the kids came downstairs wearing costumes telling us they were going to put on a show. Here they are working on their show.

Neighborhood Tree Lighting, Craft Day & More

The kids and I have started trying to visit the library regularly again. And we have discovered a new library. We love the Lewisville Branch Library! It is a newer facility with newer books. There is a better selection and it's usually not very busy when we visit. And parking has never been an issue as it has been in the past for us at the Central Library. We picked a great bunch of books the last time we were there. One of the girls picked up a copy of The Little Red Hen, which we have read a few times before and may honestly have at home. But this copy was a lot of fun because in the back of the book there was The Little Red Hen's guide to making bread with a recipe. The girls and I made it and it was actually pretty good. Here are the girls at our new favorite library...

Our neighborhood had it's Christmas tree lighting last weekend. Everett and Megan were both asleep so Phil stayed home with them and I took Makena. (Megan had actually fell asleep spread eagle on the floor...I lie you not.) They asked each family to bring an item to donate to the Salvation Army and bring an ornament to hang on the tree. Everyone met in the barn for snacks and went outside for the tree lighting. Everyone held hands around the Christmas tree and sang a couple of Christmas songs before they lit the tree. Makena especially liked the countdown before they lit the tree. Here she is hanging our ornament on the tree.

 One of our neighbors took this picture of the two of us. Proof I was there!

 Makena was pretending to be a Christmas star. :)

 We brought Megan a plate of goodies from the tree lighting. She didn't feel like she had missed out at all! ;)

 In an effort to keep the kids busy during Christmas break, we invited some friends over for Christmas crafts and pizza. Makena and Megan were so excited. In addition to our advent calendar we were also doing a countdown to craft day, as they asked me everyday when their friends would be coming over.

 Silly Makena.

 Later that day, I caught Everett trying to get naked in the living room. :) He's such a funny boy.

 I could love on this boy all day long!