Christmas fun with Our Family

As tradition goes we host Christmas Eve at our house. This year it was our family, Uncle Chuck & Susan, and my Mom & Darrell aka Gaga & Poppy. Auntie Judes & Uncle Denver stopped by for some dessert too. Rick's Dad decided not to come to Chicago this year and that was sad. The kids missed having him. Any time they hear the word Arizona they say, that's where Grampy Bill lives or that's where Daddy's Dad lives, so cute. Anyway, you were missed Grampy Bill.

Rick cooked us a nice meal and afterwards we had lots of goodies from neighbor Deb (my Mom's neighbor) and the creme brulee that Rick made. The kids were a little on the wild side by the time dessert was being served so we decided not to open any more gifts. They had already opened gifts from Uncle Chuck, but they usually open their gifts from Gaga & Poppy on Christmas Eve as well. I love having everyone over and having a little time to catch up and enjoy the company. I am glad the overexcited children didn't scare them away early. We are so blessed to have such a wonderful family!

My Mom & I had the challenging task of waiting for the kids to sleep before we could go out to Rick's office to get gifts wrapped. All I kept doing for weeks was dropping things into Rick's office thinking I would get back out there and get wrapping before Christmas Eve. That never happened, I hadn't wrapped a single gift. D'Angelo wanted to wait up to see Santa even though I assured him no child has ever stayed up late enough to see him because he waits until he KNOWS your sleeping...please go to sleep little ones. Adeline was up the latest. She was so excited that she couldn't fall asleep. It was after 11 when my Mom & I finally snuck out to wrap, but we got the job done, and I was snuggling into my pillow around 3:30am.

Adeline & Uncle Chuck

Cookies for Santa Auggie had already fallen asleep so D'Angelo & Adeline made sure to leave a plate of cookies from Auggie as well. Yep, that's right, there had to be one plate of cookies from each of the big kids this year!

Christmas Morning... D'Angelo was the first to wake just before 7:00. He woke me up exclaiming, It's Christmas, Santa was here! I was so tired that I tried to convince him that we should sleep for a while longer. He then almost started to cry and said, "Mommy, it's Christmas you have to get up!". That made me feel so bad. I got up and let him open up his stocking, just him and I in the quiet house full of sleeping people. He was excited with what he received, but, it didn't have the yellow train, you know, THE TOY he wanted for Christmas. I told him Santa probably left it under the tree somewhere. His next comment was, well then lets dive in and open these presents.

Oliver really getting his teeth into it

Auggie very happy with his new train

I laughed at all the blueberry stained faces from the breakfast of french toast and blueberry sauce Daddy made us.

Xavier enjoying his raisins that were in his stocking

All 6 of our kids playing with the Ball Popper that Tia got for Christmas.

The girls and Poppy with his & Gaga's gift

(thanks to Charlie for taking all the wonderful pictures of our family)

Miss Tia's first Christmas!

Santa delivered some dress-up outfits too Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; He is Christ the Lord. Luke 2:11

naughty, naughty, naughty

So, is it just my kids or do other kids do things that really make you angry but at the same time give you a giggle?

a small sampling of my crazy hahaha funny life.

Xavier James managed to get this done while I dressed Oliver in the bedroom upstairs. Took him maybe 5 minutes of alone time to get this job done. Very sad for me because this was a brand new jar, just got it the week before, and it was $20.00 swept right into the trash. Okay, maybe it was more like $19.50; Xavier was eating it.

Angry, a little. On the upside his ability to imitate is fantastic :) Thought he was the cutest kid ever. He was sitting on the floor stirring the spice in the pot and eating it. He looked at me, smiled, stirred, tasted some of the spices and said, "mmmmmmmm".

but later that same day Oliver decided he could not let Xavier have all the fun so...

he added Coffee mate to our art projects and then all over the floor.

Auggie- well, Auggie is an interesting kid.

In the past two weeks he has performed plastic surgery on Mickey Mouse.

he also dropped a car into the oven. This is what happens when you heat to 425 degrees!
And I think this was my favorite. Sunday night all I wanted to do was make cookies with the kids. I already had my butter softened on the counter. I came home from the grocery store and my 1# block of butter was missing. Adeline told me Auggie was making a BIG mess with my butter. Panic...run upstairs. He had it across the entire train table top, two of the sides, two walls were decorated, D'Angelo's bed and bedding were a mess and my cookies did not get made. Auggie and I spent lots of time cleaning the bedroom. Ask the kid why he did it. His reply, "cuz it's tasty".

Snow day...

Friday was a fun filled snow day! The big three headed out to play in the snow with Daddy.

Oliver was running a fever so we had the big guys go out while X & O napped. There is major meltdowns here if the babies can't go out to play when the big guys go. If we so much as mention the word shoe Oliver is quick to grab his boots and unlock the door.

Brookfield Zoo *Holiday Magic*

We had such nice weather yesterday that we decided that I would take the big three kids to Brookfield Zoo to experience Holiday Magic. We planned to go last weekend as a family but it was too cold! Last night it was still 44 degrees at 9:00pm when were leaving the zoo; very windy and raining but at least it wasn't freezing yet! This morning it is 5 degrees here. Brrrrr, we didn't even venture out to playgroup. They all wanted to see Santa so we waited just about 30 minutes which wasn't too bad. Once it was our turn Auggie ran, really ran, into Santa and Adeline wouldn't even go near him. D'Angelo let him know that he wants the yellow train (Geotracks) and Auggie wants the green train. We tried to get our picture with the reindeer but they switch animals ever hour and we were two familes short of seeing the reindeer... I wasn't paying for a picture with a llama wearing a scarf! All in all it was a good time. The kids wanted to go so that always makes it worth the effort.

This was funny, they were trying not to get bit by the alligator! D'Angelo

Auggie

Adeline

Gingerbread Fun **Dec 6th**

We had a fun time decorating gingerbread houses, men, and girls with The Miller's. We were all supposed to go to the zoo and see the lights but the weather was so cold that we decided to stay inside and have a gingerbread party instead. Taylor, Adeline and Debbie worked on one house together while D'Angelo, Auggie and I worked on a house together. There is a reason gingerbread houses are for decoration only! The kids were really enjoying the icing and candies during the decorating. Once our houses were complete the kids each made gingerbread people.

Advent begins

December 1st already! Get started on your Advent calendars :)

We enjoyed a nice quiet Thanksgiving at home and my Mom made almost all of the food which was so nice. We had such an easy time preparing the few things we did contribute. The big kids went home with Gaga & Poppy and won't be home until tomorrow! They were going to come home today but the weather was not favorable for driving. I'd rather they stay there longer & know they are safe. It seems like the first snowfall triggers an inability in people's driving skills. It always amazes me how people who live here act like they have never driven in snow before. It certainly was slick out there last night though. I had to run out to the store around 9pm and my big car was sliding on the ice. Not so fun.

So, here is what I did yesterday. Instead of getting out the Christmas tree I decided hey, I've got nothing but time, why don't I go through the kids clothes, toys, etc and get rid of what we don't need. This is what I wound up with; Yikes!

The bags are sitting on top of our couch and table -those are not piled high from the floor.

This is what we woke up to this morning. Our first real snowfall of the season.