An early beginning to a wonderful day

Christmas 09 was a hit! Caleb woke the family up at 1:00 am begging to go and see if Santa had been there yet. After telling him, "No! Go to sleep!" every hour for the next several hours, he finally feel asleep at 4:00 and didn't wake up again until 6:45 (not bad for us, our kids usually wake up at 6:30 anyway).

Everyone must have been good this year because Santa brought what was on each one of our wish lists. Caleb's main gift was a bike, Sam a Nintendo DS, Sophia a stroller and doll, Vanessa a fancy dancy purse and clothes. I must have been extra good because Santa brought me a new lens for my camera (yippee!). Poor Josh must have been the only naughty one because he didn't get too much (sorry honey, I will be better next year!).

Christmas day was filled with wii games, ds games, board games, lots of good food, and our favorite Christmas movie, Elf.

We were so blessed to have such a wonderful Christmas!

The kids with their gifts. They were way to busy to hold still and pose for a picture!

Caleb, Josh, and Sam

I loved this little doll and had to get it for Sophie. It stayed cute for about 2 days before Trench got a hold of it and gouged one of its eyeballs out. :( Sophia was so cute with her baby and stroller she didn't stop pushing it all day. I have to admit that because she was so cute, the camera was on her most of the day and the rest of the family was slightly neglected.

Sam playing his new DS which he loved! Caleb on the other hand, liked his new bike but was more interested in everyone else's gifts. He was very grateful for what he got though. On Christmas morning he even reminded Sammy when Sam thought Santa had forgotten his DS that it was okay, "you don't always get what you ask for."

Aliens and Nazis in Candyland

Every Christmas growing up my family had a tradition of making gingerbread houses. This was a serious event in my household where my Mom spent hours of prep time making homemade gingerbread and buying a plethora of candy. I will never forget the first year that Josh joined in the family gingerbread house making tradition and seeing the horror on my mother's face as he turned the what was to be beautiful little houses into complete mayhem with cinnamon bear armies and marshmallow robots kidnapping innocent teddy graham babies. Well I have handed down the tradition (minus the real gingerbread) to my children, Josh added his special touch and this is what we ended up with this year... (sorry mom)


Hard at work:

Thank goodness "Essa" (as Sophia calls her) is living with us to help distract Sophia. She wasn't too happy about not being able to dance on the table and gorge herself on all the candy (Yes, I'm still talking about Sophia and not Vanessa).

The finished products:

Caleb's is an US Spaceship escaping the moon after being attacked by aliens.

Sam's is a US WWII army truck fighting off an attack from Nazi gummy bears!

The close up:

The Giving Tree

On December 17th Sammy had a Christmas preschool performance. It was so cute, Sam was so proud all dressed up in his church duds. They sang a few little songs and presented their families with a "giving tree" that they had been working on. On the tree he had given each one of us a gift:

Sophia: "I am going to help her learn to talk" (lets hope he has forgotten a few of those video game words :) )
Caleb: "I will share toys with him"
Mom: "I am going to Love my Mom"
Dad got the best gift of all: "I am going to help my Dad have a good life"

Confidential Christmas

This last weekend was Josh's work Christmas party. This was exciting because we get to see where our Daddy works - there is no other time of the year that we are allowed into the building. They even let Santa in too, and the kids were thrilled about that.



PS for those of you who have never heard of the NORAD Santa Tracker you really need to check it out. It is so much fun for kids on Christmas Eve. It tells you exactly where in the worlds Santa is at every minute. There is also a call center that you can call and talk to Santa's helpers. My kids LOVE it!

Shhh... they're a secret

Don't tell Grandma and Grandpa, but here are our Christmas pics...

MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!

Thinking bad thoughts

Last week while playing a video game the boys heard the word h-e-double hockey sticks. On the drive to school the next morning the boys had a little conversation...

Sammy very matter of factly said, "Mommy, I still remember what that swear word is."
Caleb, tattle telling, "Yeah, and he's thinking it right now!"
Sammy, surprised, "Actually, I think I am!"

It was so funny to hear the surprise in Sammy's voice when he realized that he was saying a bad word in his head. I shouldn't laugh, but I couldn't help it.

Thanksgiving 2009

Thanksgiving 09 was spent this year at our home with our friends the Schneiders. We had such a great day with so much to be thankful for. For example, we thought Vanessa had ruined the turkey - who knew that turkeys can be brined for an extra 16 hours and still taste amazing! We also learned that Sammy is grateful for his head and is double grateful for temples, but is not a fan of making gum drop turkeys. Caleb was grateful to be alive, Sophia is definitely a fan of sweet potato pie and Josh and I are grateful for friends, family, and all the amazing blessings that we have received this year. Happy Thanksgiving!

Not only is Vanessa a good gum drop turkey maker - she brines a mean turkey!

A big fan of sweet potato pie.

The kids working off some tukey blues watiching "Up!"

We really pulled off that difficult balance between classy and casual with the crystal goblet/straw combination.