Christmas Artwork

Here is mostly Alex's artwork again. I love that his school does so many crafts. The top two center pieces are Ella's. She came up with the ideas on her own and made this beautiful three dimensional angel and a pretty great Santa, too.

Cousins

We got to have Cameron, Austin, and Eden over during Christmas break. The kids loved it! Cameron and Will played Chess, Austin and Alex played like crazy, and Eden and Ella had fun, too. Ella and Eden took a movie upstairs on the computer so the rest could play Wii downstairs. I really enjoyed having them over. We also went to see Puss in Boots at the dollar theater which was fun. It was a good way to spend Christmas Break.

Merry Christmas!

For Christmas Alex asked Santa for a big dog. Santa came through! The dog was big enough for Alex to lay his whole body on!

A happy dance!

Will was really excited about the Wii Sports Resort game he got.

Ella loved her new hair accessories and also the sweet Tangled blanket that Mom tied.

Ian was pretty excited to open presents, too. Of course, he wanted them all opened and ready to go immediately after seeing what they were!

We got some fun movies to watch, too. It was a great day.

Christmas Jammies!

I love giving the kids new jammies for Christmas. I get a kick out of finding some I think they'll like. This year turned out pretty good. Will got Phineas and Ferb, Alex got Mario Kart, Ella got princesses, and Ian, cute little dinosaurs, which also happened to be soooo soft. He often requests them! All cozy and ready for bed! =)

Christmas Eve at Grandma's

I just love all these snapshots of our families with the kids and their presents.

Adam is opening the book Mom gave everyone (with great help from Breanne) of our scanned childhood photos. It was really fun to look through the photos.

Will and Ella and Alex wanted to give their cousins something this year. It was fun to watch them open up the presents.

Ella got tired after helping Grandma clean up all afternoon. I think her festive mood sort of unraveled as the night wore on. Luckily, sweet cousin Matti was so kind and patient with her and helped her open her presents and feel better.

We had to sing the 12 Days of Christmas (since we refused at the caroling party). It was actually pretty fun. And nice that it was the only song... Alex got really into it. Apparently, there's a Muppets Movie where they sing it and animal gets funky after 5 Gold Rings. So that will help explain this link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ed6fMxaZ78U

Here's another just for fun: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p019vwe2pIY

Ian put on my shoes and went walking around. He had a bit of a challenge managing it without falling over, but it was really cute.

Doug and a Christmas tree of girls!

Holiday Fun

We roasted mini marshmallows with toothpicks and these Christmas candles. It was pretty fun. Ian kept pointing to the marshmallows, but he preferred not having to wait for them to cool down!

Nothing says "Happy" like a marshmallow mustache.

Alex had the cutest little Christmas program at his preschool. They did cute songs and a dance and even displayed some karate moves. Alex really got into it and did a great job!

Of course, the best part is seeing Santa!

Will cleaned his room really nice and took a picture for documentation! He really did a good job of grouping all the stuffed animals by height! And his violin trophies don't look too shabby either.

We held our annual caroling party at my house this year! The kids got to show off their mad skills at piano and violin and we sang some fun carols.

I love these little reindeer slippers. Ian really liked them, too! He kept pointing to them and smiling and he actually kept them on most of the day!

Cameron and Eden played a really sweet duet together and Will got to play his violin, too.

After the songs we had some really yummy treats upstairs. It was a fun night and good to see that we mostly fit everyone in our new house!