Snow Princesses

The day after Christmas was simply stunning! Every branch on every tree was frosted with tiny white snowflakes--dazzling! The girls wore the dresses my sister gave them for Christmas to church, topped with the little white stoles my mom gave them. Too cute!

I told them I would like a picture of them wearing their fancy clothes. Gabby came up with the idea of taking the picture outside! A great idea! Graysen of course wanted in on the fun (wearing a gift from Grandma Judi, the cute choo choo sweater). He however chose to continue his new habit of always smiling for pictures with his eyes closed :)

After we took the pictures with the stoles on the girls shoulders, I wanted to get a picture of the sashes on the dresses. This meant they had to stand bare-armed in the snow--they thought this was hilarious! Isn't it pretty how the hair accessories our friend Alexis gave the girls for Christmas stand out against all the pure white of the world around them? Sigh. So pretty!

Fashion Show

While the kids haven't made it into all their Christmas clothes, I'll put up the pictures I've taken so far. Grandma J lets me do the shopping off of the gift cards she sends, so this is her chance to see what she gave the kids for Christmas :)

 LUV the Iron Man face, ha!

 Graysen didn't get these jammies for Christmas, but how can you pass up a picture as lovely as this one?

Actually, here I am enjoying one of Graysen's gifts from Grandma J :) Hee-hee :) I mentioned I got a lot of chocolates for Christmas right . . . ? 

Buck gave me a Snuggie last year. Graysen calls it a "snuggle." So anytime I actually find a minute to sit down on the couch, he runs over to me with my "blankie" so we can snuggle. So with Grandma Judi's gift card, I found this little Buzz Light Year snuggie just for Graysen :) He's been sleeping with it at night. Gabby got this picture of us, which I have to say, might be one of my favorites from Christmas this year :)

Christmas Morn

Buck and I debated back and forth whether or not to build the girls their doll house before Christmas or on Christmas Day. In the end, we stayed up til past midnight assembling the giant addition to our home :) It looked so much smaller at the store . . . covered in sheets, the girls had a good chance at guessing what it might be since this has topped their Christmas list for months!!

This year we managed to sleep in to a decent hour, yeah! Before breakfast, we dug into the Christmas stockings which gave the children something to enjoy while daddy worked on breakfast. Thanks to our new four waffle waffle iron (thanks Grandpa Perry!) breakfast took half the time it normally does. With our tummies full, we began the fun and blessedly unrushed process of opening gifts. Rather than just tearing off paper, we ask the kids who the gift is from (because so many family members send them special things this time of year). Once it is opened, we debox it and let them play with it right away.

Because of the good guessing on the doll house, this was the first to be revealed. Next came the Barbie dolls "with respectable careers" that Grandma Judi sent for the girls :) (I love that she picked ones with respectable careers :) And to complete the set--the girls opened up a Ken doll, because the Barbies needed someone to be married to--I guess I should have thought that through and purchased two Ken dolls--hmm. That might be on the post-Christmas shopping list :)

By this time, the boys were beginning to wonder if they were going to be opening any gifts, so we let them pick out their own brightly wrapped packages. I tell you what, it was like excitement after excitement as each gift was opened.

By 10 AM we were only about half way though, when there came a knock at the door! Uncle Cory arrived early (there was a lot of snow on Christmas Eve which made for a BEAUTIFUL sparkly white Christmas!) My brother likes to find gifts that parents might not think to buy their kids, but are always really cool. This year, (think back to the movie "Big") he found the girls an FAO Schwartz floor piano! It comes in a sturdy red cloth case and plays all sorts of songs in addition to the happy feet being able to play individual notes. We didn't break out the "chopsticks" on the first go, but the girls have figured out how to keep the music rolling--what a fun present!

The boys have an endless collection of Hot Wheels (partially due to potty training :) My brother realized we didn't have any tracks for the wee little cars to fly down, duh! Never even crossed my mind! But Buck remembers building with the neon orange plastic roadways, and my bro strung them across his room for years! The look on the boys' faces is pretty telling of their reaction to this sweet gift! The other is a magnetic car that does loops on a track with a zip line feature--totally awesome!

Cory stayed and watched as the kids continued opening their special gifts from family and from us. Buck gave me a really cute new Broncos shirt and lots of chocolate! :) The kids went shopping for me with their own money and apparently the shop owners in town were charmed by their shoppin' for mama efforts and threw in some extras. They are so excited to see me nibbling their chocolates (I got a lot of chocolates :) and wearing the shirt they picked out for me. Fun stuff!

Buck's co-workers are very amused that he likes to have a cigar, oh about once every year or so :) When we were having Caelan's birthday party, my brother and I made a quick visit to a smoker's outlet--a place I've never set foot into before! But the humidor filled with cigars was kind of a fun experience. I got to pick out several varieties (mostly by how cool the label looked, ha!) and discovered there are flavored cigars--like vanilla and cherry. Months ago, Buck saw an Antiques Roadshow where a man brought in a collection of antique Zippo lighters. He got so excited about them, that I ordered him one for Christmas. Unfortunately it didn't arrive until after Christmas, but I told him about it on Christmas Day and he says its the coolest gift he got, yeah! I did good! :)

After all the gifts were open, we let the kids just enjoy them. We three grown ups moved into the kitchen to learn a new board game my bro brought along--7 Wonders. Lots of rules, but very interesting! We had fun playing while the kids had fun playing :)

When lunchtime approached, Cory headed for the hills and we put together a quick lunch. The kids went down for rest time and Buck and I got ready for the next phase of our wonderful Christmas--dinner with friends.

Christmas Eve (again :)

Baby Turns 8

Chronologically speaking, blogs don't have a very steady flow, so the fact that I am now writing about events before Christmas Eve followed by events after Christmas Eve is just going to have to be the way it is (Cory :) Besides, Caelan's 8th birthday comes with a lot of pictures because it was also Christmas with my mom and sister!

So I've been telling Caelan that she didn't get to turn eight, that she would just remain 7 and we might count up the days beyond that, but never years. "OH mom!" was her steady reply. Despite my best efforts our first baby is now half way to a drivers license--can you believe it?!

We began her special day with the traditional balloons in her room and off-key birthday song sung by her doting family :) Daddy made her some gluten free pancakes WITH chocolate chips--yummy! She opened a sparkly gift from us (the green shirt she's wearing in the picture) pre-breakfast, then after breakfast we opened gifts from Grandma J and our family. Girl was excited when she opened up a stack of books (Boxcar Children and Betsy) she's so like her mother :) Those were from Grandma. From us she unwrapped ballet clothes, just cuz she wanted some. She looks so tall in the picture we snapped of her showing off her new gear!

Snow was in the forecast, so we rounded up her birthday cake and the gifts heading for our Christmas/birthday party at my parents' house. First we needed to make a little stop or two. The first stop was at Kohls--don't you love Kohls? With Christmas money from Grandpa Perry, we stocked up on our kitchen needs--first order of business a four-waffle-making waffle iron! We've been using our single belgium waffler since it arrived as a wedding gift (thank you Ryan :) We also found a hashbrown maker, far superior to our knuckle grating grater, measuring cups that our dishwasher has yet to melt into unusual shapes, three sizes of funnels (which will come in handy for school as well as cooking), and a can opener that doesn't leave shredded labels in our food. On top of all that we got $10 in Kohls cash-whoo-hoo!

Our second stop was the busy, busy, busy shopping mall. Caelan asked weeks ago to visit the Santa there, so we surprised her with a trip to see Mr. Claus. We waited in line, and waited, and waited. Buck went to get his watch fixed while we waited. Eventually we made it to the front of the line and the kids enjoyed visiting with the snowy bearded fellow. We watched Miracle on 34th Street and so they were in the Santa mood.

Next objective: send dad to the car with the boys. The girls and I had a little bit of shopping to do :) Caelan really wanted to go into Claire's so we stopped their first. All their holiday earrings were buy one get one free, so practical Caelan picked out a set that had 8 pairs, fancy girl Gab got in on the deal and picked some flashy dangly snowflakes (I would wear them, they are super cute :)

We went up the escalator to the sports store to grab a gift I saw for Buck while I was in looking for something else. I found what I wanted online cheap enough that I could go back for the other thing. But, as Buck was with us, I had Gabby stick her arms through the handles on the shopping bag like a backpack and then put her coat over the top of this. I cannot believe mall security didn't stop and ask us questions, ha!

At the van, the girls showed off their earrings and wished daddy well at his 9th straight day of work. We climbed in the van, revved up the engine, and headed for Maga's house.

Christmas Eve Service

The three oldest kids were excited to sing on stage for our church's Christmas Eve service. Buck was working, so despite my best planning efforts--we still arrived as the rest of the kids were already standing on stage. Ugh! We found four open chairs dropped the coats and the C G & B scurried to the front to join their friends.

My camera doesn't do so well in low lighting, but I wanted to grab a couple of pictures for Buck since he couldn't be there. Well, after Graysen watched me go to the front of the church, I guess he figured it was okay for him to do the same. While I was attempting to video tape a little bit of the singing (it is super bouncy, sorry about that!) Graysen decided he was going to visit his brother up front. So there he went, fearless, on a friendly visit.

What I didn't know until we arrived, with the snow beginning to fall, and the coats quickly bundled, was that Graysen brought a toy gun we'd borrowed from my younger brothers. Yes, to church. Now not only did he bring his toy gun to church, but he also took it with him to visit his brother at the front of the church during the singing. Oh dear.

When we returned home, I was able to catch a couple of quick pictures of the kids. Graysen kept closing his eyes, on purpose, and smiling big. I told him if he wanted presents the next morning, he better choose to open his eyes for the next photo. It worked. In fact look at how big all the kids' eyes became--they weren't taking any chances :) Ha!

For Grandma J

Each year my mother-in-law sends me some birthday money to pick out a Willow Tree figurine. I've been gathering up the Nativity scene for several years, and now have all the pieces (unless they come out with an angel, which I think they should :) So this year, I went to our local mercantile and found this little guy who to me looked so much like Brennen! Most of the figures I have are the ones with pregnant bellies or tiny babies, and since we've moved on from that stage, it was fun to find a little boy.

I've been wanting to get a picture of B with the Willow Tree boy side-by-side, but kept forgetting. Then the other day I noticed B was naturally sitting the way the little figure guy is sitting and I grabbed my camera to snap a picture. Brennen was very accommodating and once he realized what I was doing, he copied the hands of the little figurine (which is not a way he would normally sit, but very thougthful of him for my picture :)

So here you go Grandma J! Brennen with a little memory I will always have of him :)