Christmas fun

Its hard to believe its almost the middle of January.  I thought I'd post a few pictures of some of the christmas things we went to.  

We went with some friends to a Dickens Christmas at nauticus and had a lot of fun. Colin was really into the scavenger hunt and considering we got weeks of rain it was a great indoor activity for the kids to run around and explore.

And dance.  This was unprompted and really cute.  They had a play on this stage at one point and all the kids sat mesmerized.

we made gingerbread houses.



We went and watched the christmas parade

.

One night we tried to go to the Triple R ranch with the Fosters and it was the only night it was closed.  So after changing plans several times (thanks laura for being so flexible!) we ended up at ice scream and then went to see a really cool house.  The kids loved it and kept talking about that night for weeks) 

And then we do go back to the Triple R ranch and the kids went on a few pony rides.

It was a great christmas season and sad to see it end.

Mud brothers return

A few weeks ago Brent took out a dead tree in our side yard. He said there was a lot of water at the bottom of the hole so the kids quickly turned this 

Into this

I had locked myself in my closet to work on making some felt strawberries for Norah for Christmas. Brent came in to say the kids were playing in the mud so I went out to see after hearing squeals of laughter from the kids. 

A neighbor girl also joined in the fun until we hosed them all off. 

Christmas

Merry Christmas! 
 

 This was before Christmas.  The kids had fun shaking presents and trying to guess.  It makes me laugh seeing this picture with Joel's smaller present and his face while looking at Colin's.  Everything has to be fair with Joel - but the present Joel's holding is from Norah and Colin has one from mommy and daddy and our budget is higher than Norah's! ha!

 Here he is unwrapping that gift from Norah.

 And then this happened!  Love.  That tiny present wasn't to bad after all. 

 I was woken up Christmas morning around 2 or 3am (after going to bed at midnight) by Norah asking why there was a castle fort in the other room and it took her a while to go back to sleep.  I told her Santa must have come but that it wasn't time to get up yet  Then at 5am Colin woke me up jumping up and down saying "its Christmas Its Christmas!!!!"  So I got up with the boys for a few hours before Brent and Norah got up.  I did send the boys into wake Brent up with these screaming flying monkeys Santa left them two hours later. 

 Colin kept trying to figure out what the package that had the bacon shirt in and I told him it was something to wear and something he loved and if he guessed it correctly I would give him $10.  He tried for a week to guess it right.  And never got the $10 but he loves the shirt.  It was fun having him guess all week. 

It was so fun watching them open presents.  At one point Joel was trying to help Norah open one of hers and she kept yelling at him "Don't tell me!" she wanted to be surprised and to see it herself. 

 After we opened presents Joel went into his room and started putting legos together. 

 Then Ma-ma-Maa, Grandpa, Ant Ant and Uncle Jeff came over for the rest of the day.

 It was a wonderful day and we are so blessed and thankful for everything. 

Christmas Eve

Christmas Eve we went to see grandma and then met mom and dad and Sarah for their Christmas Eve service.  I also got the secret for how to make Grandmas Christmas Cherry Bourbon cake.  Its always my favorite every year and I tried to make it - and while it tastes good it wasn't like grandmas.  Thankfully she remembered and I have to chop the cherries with the bourbon and leave the cherry juice in (putting it here for me to remember next year) 

Then we went to Pop's house for Christmas with him. He lives right on the beach and the kids were dying to get out on the water. I couldn't blame them with the really warm weather. We've had our air conditioning on the past few days. We pried the kids from the dock (his condo has a lock on the steps to the beach that residents need a key to open and Pops didn't have the key so that helped drag the kids upstairs)

After dinner we came back home and the kids tried so hard to go to sleep so Santa could get here.  Also for the first night I didn't have to reassure Norah that Krampus wasn't coming. Grandpa taught the kids about Krampus over thanksgiving and Norah had to be reassured every night that Krampus is only in Germany and that Krampus doesn't swim or ride a boat - I told her he was scared of the water and didn't have Santa's flying reindeer.  She would have to look at a world map to make sure Germany was as far away as I said.  Then after a while she started having to be reassured that Isaiah was a good boy and Krampus wasn't going to eat him.  It was sweet how worried she was about her cousin. 

 

Joel was also a little worried about being on the naughty list.  He told Brent one night before bed that it would be ok if he got coal in his stocking.  He could use the coal to make Frosty the snowman's eyes when it snows.  Sweet boy - he was preparing himself I think for it. He also fully admitted at times he should be on the naughty list.  At dinner with Pops I downloaded a naughty/nice app that scanned your finger so that you were either naughty or nice.  Joel's always came up nice and I wish I had taken a picture of the relief on his face.  He was so excited that he was yelling at all of us the whole way home because he was trying to sleep so he wasn't missed by Santa and we kept talking so he couldn't sleep.  Haha!!  I wish he had been that easy to fall asleep but he had such a hard time falling asleep and Norah had slept the whole way home so that was a quick nap for her and she was wired until real late.  So Santa didn't get to our house until much much later.

 

Colin this year wasn't so sure about Santa.  We didn't make a big deal about it - Santa fills our stockings and the rest of the presents are from us. We didn't get to go see the real Santa by the farm this year and I think next year we need to make that trip.  Colin came home from school one day after library and asked if Santa was real then why were all the Santa books in the fiction side of the library and not the nonfiction.  I never thought of it like that.  We did get to "catch" Santa on my phone that night in our family room and have a few videos of proof this year. 

Recital

Norah's ballet class had a Christmas recital before Christmas. Norah's teacher quit halfway through and the new teacher was awful (this new girl didn't even bother to learn the kids names) but Norah still wanted to keep going to ballet class. 

This was Norah's thoughts on the new teacher. Sadly all the parents were in agreement with her too! 

But she loved her tutu ballerina class and her friends.

So we weren't sure come recital day how she'd do. But she wanted to go out with her class and dance the whole thing. 

She cried the whole time. But she did her whole dance and we were so proud of her. she didn't miss a step in her dance but sobbed the whole time. We are so proud of her.

Her love of dancing out weighed her fear of all the people watching her.