Wednesday, December 28, 2011

Crazy Days of Christmas

 We put up the tree the day after Thanksgiving as is tradition in our house.  Just like last year, we cheated and used my three piece pre-lit tree that pops up in just a few minutes.  (My mom has a nicer/bigger one, but you have to sort the branches and put them in individually and then put the lights on and it can take forever.)  We waited until the last minute to put gifts under the tree.  We kept them in the play pen so they would not get bugged.  Once presents were out, we put up a guard chicken.  You don't have a guard chicken?  Well, you need one.  Lee was holding Kim and showing her pieces of the nativity, and me, being the horrible mother that I am from time to time, scared Kim by making a loud noise when she went to touch the chicken.  This resulted in her being afraid of it so this is what we put in front of our monstrous stack of presents:
 On a side note, she is even more terrified of Mike from Monsters, Inc. for the same reason.  We got tired of her shutting off the computer while we were using it, so he guards the on/off switch:
 Since we were doing Christmas with seven adults and six children, and Christmas fell on a Sunday this year where church started at 9, we cheated and did Christmas a day early.  We took the kids to see the lights around town while Grandpa and Grandma played Santa.  Here's the note they found on the door upon returning home:
 Opening presents at our house was crazy pandemonium.  Rather than hang a bunch of individual socks, we decided to just do one REALLY big sock:
 Kim was only about 5 days old last Christmas, so she got into it a little bit more this year:
 The bigger girls had no trouble jumping into the unwrapping festivities:
 Grandpa being goofy:
(I got a good gift for him this year...I try to go for the comic value of a gift when shopping for him.  As a child he had a sock monkey so his gift from me this year was a 4 foot tall sock monkey!)
 Traditional pictures of the Christmas Gifts (Which I claim are nice when your sister tries to claim something as hers in later years...you have proof that it was yours)
 Taylor:
 Kadie:
 And Kim:
 Hope you all had a Merry Christmas. 

Monday, December 26, 2011

Sledding

 I still have to blog Christmas, but these pictures were easier to find and sort first.  My sister took the kids sledding today.  I haven't been sledding in forever, and still haven't been, but I'm glad they got a chance to go!  They all went together to the old stadium in town.  It is perfect for sledding (as long as you avoid the fences...I went sledding with friends as a teen there once.  I was going to hit the fence so I stuck my leg out in order to bounce off it but ended up going partly under it and hitting the pole with my leg.  Biggest bruise ever.  It was really funny but hurt pretty bad too.)  It looks like they had a lot of fun:
 They found a plowed snow pile in the parking lot and had just as much fun playing on that:
 Thanks Liz!

Wednesday, December 21, 2011

Kim is One!

 I can hardly believe it's been a year since we welcomed this little bundle of joy into our hearts:
 We celebrated Kim's birthday today.  While she gets really tired in the evening, she had a lot of fun.  Between everybody's work, school parties, and more, it has been a crazy few weeks so Kim got store bought cupcakes.  They were cookies and cream and actually really yummy!
She wasn't sure about opening presents but she sure liked what came out of the wrappers!
The girls had to join in on the action:
Kim didn't really have a lot of interactive/musical toys so she scored for her birthday.  She couldn't decide which one she wanted to play with first.  She also bounced her body along to the songs that played in a dance.  It was super cute.
Taylor and Kadie used to have a Step 2 red car that you push like you would a stroller, but we loved it so much that they rode it until it died.  Lee and I got Kim a new one for her birthday, but this one is even better since it has whisper tires (the other one was noisy to push).  She absolutely loved it.  (Too bad it is snowing or we could take it for a ride.)
 Kim was having so much fun with her new presents, that she wasn't interested in cake or ice cream.  It took us three tries to get her in a chair, and she cried and fussed each time.  She wasn't sure what to do with the cupcake at first:
 Haha...she also didn't like the frosting on her fingers.  She kept shaking her hand to try to get it off.
 But in the end she figure out what to do with the cupcake and enjoyed her first in depth experience with chocolate:

It's Begining to Look a Lot Like Christmas...

 One thing that has made the Christmas season fun this year is the extra decorating going on out our house.  Maybe it is because their daddy is an artist, but the girls have been coloring up a storm and taping up their decoration all over the house.
 While not as Christmasy as the rest, this one has to be my favorite.  It is Taylor's mermaid and it is hanging on our front door.  We asked her what was in the middle of the mermaid's chest and she replied "I don't know!  Those things like Ariel has."  How funny is that?!?
 And we forgot to snap a picture of these at Halloween...  
Kadie's witch and skeleton:

Sunday, December 18, 2011

Gingerbread Houses Past and Present

If you've followed my blog for a few years, you may remember this picture from my December 2008 blog post.  Lee and I made a gingerbread house together just for fun.  Lee is responsible for the adult version of gingerbread girl. (You can follow the link to see the whole post)
 For family home evening, we made a gingerbread house with the girls.  Lee carried on the tradition and made yet another adult version of a gingerbread girl.  (The girls laughed and called her Ariel.)
 The girls had a lot of fun and have enjoyed snacking on the house.  It turned out pretty cute considering we little helpers.
 Kadie's more innocent gingerbread cookie:
 Yum!!!

Thursday, December 8, 2011

Church Christmas Party

 We went to our Church Christmas party this last Saturday.  The girls all wore new Christmas shirts.  Here is Kim sporting her Christmas shirt and a pony tail!  I love how it curls on the top.
 Taylor was excited to be at the party.  She sang "The First Noel" as a solo and did such a great job.  In her modest opinion, she sounded just like an angel...
 Kadie got up on stage and sang with the rest of the primary.  I was shocked because she is super shy.  Taylor held her hand when she got scared.  It's always nice to see acts of sisterly love.
 And what's a Christmas party without Santa.  Taylor marched right up to him and had lots to say.  She wants a Princess Peach toy. (Santa has ordered one but it is on backorder of course).
 This is Kadie NOT talking to Santa.  It was too intimidating.  She said she wanted Christmas socks though.
 And here is Kim not at all happy about being on Santa's lap.  I knew she wouldn't really like it but I still wanted the picture.