Christmas Day

The kids let us sleep until 7 Christmas morning - Shocking!

Usually they are up at four begging to open presents.

 

Santa left the kids a lengthy list about how he gave them a freebie but if they want to be on the nice list next year they are going to have to work harder at being good.

 

I always love to see the tree with all of the gifts around it before it is touched.

I know they are totally spoiled

(no these are not all from us, my family sends gifts for me to wrap for the kids too.)

 

 

Madie got her blue hula hoop from Santa.

She also got a purple Barbie Unicorn from us.

Slade got his Bladewheelz from Santa.

 

And he got a remote control truck from us.

Santa brought Abbi a musical flashlight.

Abbi's big gift from us was a toy lawn mower, but this Tinkerbell chair that her Uncle Mike and Aunt Monica got her is by far her favorite.

She does just about everything in this chair.

She totally freaks if either if the big kids sit in it. She will sit there forever looking at books or playing with her toys.

 

The kids got Ben a photo book for him to take in his semi that has a bunch of pictures of them in it and I got him a Sirius radio with a years subscription.

 

I got a bunch of stuff for the kitchen and some new clothes. After Christmas Ben also got me some awesome boots.

 

We took our time getting ready and then headed over to Ben's Mom's house for the afternoon.

We had a great Christmas and it was so nice to spend it together.



Christmas Eve

The morning of Christmas Eve the kids found Ralphie hanging on our Christmas countdown.

We packed a lot into Christmas Eve. Ben got home the day before so we ran to Idaho Falls so he could finish up his shopping.

 

We got home and the big kids played in the snow and spread their magic reindeer food.

Every Monday night is pizza night at our house so we made homemade pizzas.



We let the kids open their Christmas Eve presents.

We always get them new jammies.

 

This year superheros are a pretty big deal at our house so Slade and Madie both got Batman PJ's with CAPES!!! Seriously why didn't jammies have capes when I was a kid?

Then we made some Grinch juice and watched the Grinch.

 

Santa really Struggled to get into our house this night.

THESE KIDS WOULD NOT GO TO BED!

After Madie got up for the third time Daddy had to lay down with her so that she would stay in her bed long enough for Santa to come - not an easy task when the Christmas tree could be seen from her bed.

23 Days of Christmas

This morning the kids found Ralphie in the pantry drinking maple syrup through a straw.

 

 

That night we made some magic reindeer food for Christmas Eve.

22 Days of Christmas

Ralphie painted Rudolph noses on the kids with lipstick.

Madie was a good sport about it and wore it around until it was time to take a bath.

Slade on the other hand washed it off before he even talked to me in the morning.
Super embarrassed again. 

That night I scored some huge awesome mom points. I made a huge fort in the living room and I let the kids sleep in it. They thought it was the best ever and now they beg for a fort every night.

21 Days of Christmas

 

Ralphie was sitting on top of our coat rack by our front door this morning.

 

We had to run a ton of errands in Idaho Falls so we drove around and looked at Christmas lights.

20 Days of Chritmas

We found Ralphie hanging out on top of the TV. 

 

We boxed up some of the cookies we made and took them to some of our friends and family that live in the area.

 

The kids loved running to the door and wishing people a

Merry Christmas!

19 Days of Christmas

We found Ralphie sitting on the towel bar in the bathroom. 

He apparently had to relieve himself and forgot to flush.

 



 

The kids thought this was pretty gross and kept telling me that there must be something wrong with Ralphie that he pees green.

 

That night we decorated all of the cookies that we made.

 

 

I gave each of the big kids a plate that they could decorate themselves. I got some cheap condiment bottles, melted the frosting in the microwave a little and frosted them that way. It worked so much better and to my surprise the store bought frosting (gasp - I know) dried hard. It was pretty much awesome!

The look in Madie's eyes here was pure sugar high. She laid the frosting on the cookies about as thick as the cookie itself and then would put about a third of a bottle of sprinkles on her cookies. Yikes!

 

I had them each pick out a cookie to save for Santa and then I put their cookies in a container here at home.

 

Those of you that got some cookies from us will be glad to know that the ones we gave out I decorated myself.

We made a ton of cookies!

18 Days of Christmas

We found Ralphie hiding in a toilet papered mess on our our Christmas tree.

That day we made Christmas cookies. The kids thought it was the best, it took forever but they loved cutting out the cookies. We made about 7 dozen!

17 Days of Christmas

Since Slade keeps busting Ralphie before he gets a chance to hide Ralphie thought he would try to get Slade last night. So he put string across Slade's bedroom door so Slade couldn't get out and he left him a note. I took pictures when I go up with Abbi just in case Slade took it down in the morning.

 

Slade thought it was great and had to come running in to tell me all about it in the wee hours of the morning.

Flying Glass

The girls and I were driving to Walmart. Madie and I were jamming out to Pink (because that is how we roll) and Abbi was dancing in her car seat. All of a sudden there was a load pop, glass flying everywhere, and a lot of wind in my face. By the time I had processed that my driver side window had completely shattered I heard Madie screaming "mommy my eyes" from behind me. I quickly pulled into the Walmart parking lot, jumped out and fling Madie's door open. I looked her over and realized there was very little glass around her. She had been yelling because of the sudden burst of wind. I checked Abbi and she was just chilling in her seat watching us.

 

 

So I took a step back and started bawling. I had no clue what to do. I called Ben - no answer. Then I called my mom. By the time Ben called back I had calmed down and just needed to know whether Ben wanted me to just take it home or to take the van to the shop. He said take it home so I went into Walmart, bought some plastic, tape and blankets and went back to the van. I loaded the girls up and wrapped them each in a blanket. Then I started trying to tape up the window... Don't worry there were only hurricane force winds that day so it was totally an easy task. Luckily one of the cart guys from Walmart came and helped me out, he was totally an answer to my prayers.

 

We got home and I called the insurance company. 3 days later they came to my house and replaced my window. I was so grateful that Ben had hitched a ride to North Dakota so his truck was home. I will say this though - I LOVE MY MINIVAN! Ben's truck is obviously the cooler choice in a vehicle but Mini (yes that is her name) is so much more convenient!

16 Days of Christmas

Ralphie may have fallen asleep again and had to quickly jump on to the key hooks. Slade keeps catching him in the old spot because he keeps getting up super early.

 

Tonight we made some little paper trees, angels, and snowmen. I found the pattern on Pinterest and the kids loved this one too! Madie is banned from scissors unless I am sitting right there with her (she had a little issue with her scissors and my curtains - I was no to happy with her) so she about did a cartwheel when I told her that she got to use her scissors.

 

Do you love how Madie will never look at the camera?

 

 

My house is starting to look a little like a classroom with all of the projects we have done but the kids love seeing all of there work hanging around the house. Tonight's project got hung on their bedroom doors.

 

Madie and Abbi's Door

 

Slade's Door

15 Days of Christmas

So Ralphie may or may not have fallen asleep and forgot to move to a new spot during the night. When he woke up and realized it he quickly jumped on top of the fridge. I also forgot to get a picture but I am sure you can imagine what he looked like on top of the fridge.

We spent the entire day at home in our lazy clothes since Slade was sick. For our Christmas activity the kids painted their snowflakes and the ornaments they had made earlier in the week. I scored some major mom points with this one. They love anything messy. It just makes me have a nervous tick.

 

Nevermind Madie's Belly shirt, her normal painting shirst was in the wash.

 

As long as Abbi has snacks she is happy to just sit in her highchair and watch.