Christmas Morning

MERRY {BELATED} CHRISTMAS EVERYONE!!!

Nick and I were up late cleaning up after our little dinner and doing a little last minute gift wrapping.  So the morning came quickly for us. For me, especially. Tyler was up at 5:30AM to eat. Luckily, he fell right back asleep. Me, however.... no... I was too excited. I lay in bed just listening for those little footsteps to come shuffling down the hall and waited for our bedroom door to burst open with some excited kiddos.... But it wasn't until after 7:45 that they started waking up.  I even had to send Addison in to wake up McKenzie.


But before we knew it, we were in a mess of wrapping paper and wonderful gifts!!!

Addison was wonderful at opening presents. But her only problem was getting her past the first one. She opened a gift, then wanted Daddy to "unshackle" it from the box so she could play with it RIGHT NOW!  We had to beg her to come back and open another one!  (Note to self: Addison is totally happy with one present)

But, have no fear, each gift she opened after that had the equal reaction, and thus we had to play/wear it all at once:

Trevor and McKenzie had fun sorting through the gifts under the tree and then opening each one with the biggest grins on their faces.

 

 

Santa had just one last gift for the little ones in the basement when all the dust settled...

Tyler slept through all the excitement and had his own gift opening after he woke up mid morning! 


Thank you to everyone for the wonderful gifts and cards! We miss not being with all our family during this time of year, but I'm grateful we were able to have Nick with us and be together as a family!


Christmas night, we had a fabulous lamb dinner with our neighbor's, the Vilas'. It was fabulous! She put on quite a spread! Moving in next to them has been an absolute blessing!

Christmas Eve Dinner

Last night we had our dear friends (and neighbors) the Vila's over for Christmas Eve dinner.  I made a couple hams, mashed potatoes, corn, green bean casserole, jello salad, rolls, and of course, a wide spread of goodies.

McKenzie was Addison's stylist for the evening and got her dressed in her new outfit from Grandma and Grandpa "Bob"..... and even got her to sit still long enough to curl her hair.

 

(Mom, does she not totally look like me in the photos of me wearing that purple dress I think I wore in DeAnne's wedding?... I should find it and post it)

The picture I took of the kids mysteriously has disappeared off my camera (argh!)... but here is the "adult" table.

And some goodies displayed on my new serving piece! (Thank you Larry & Judy!)

And a pic of me and my girls!!!!

Gingerbread House Fun

The last few days have been full of lots of Christmas fun... Wednesday the kids decorated a Gingerbread House before bed.

 

 

Addison had a little help from Daddy, but the older two were on their own.  Tyler napped through this fun event.

 

 

 

They did a great job!!! They wanted to eat it right away, but I made them wait until after Christmas... hmm, maybe we'll break into it today!

 

My Kids...

The other day, McKenzie snuck away with Addison and gave her a 'makeover'.  She straightened her already whispy thin hair, put in a clippy, got her dressed and painted her dainty little fingernails.

McKenzie must have stressed to her the importance of NOT messing up her nailpolish or touching anything until it dries:

Daddy brought home McDonalds for lunch and she struggled to eat her french fries (even though her nailpolish was dry long before!)  Later that afternoon after her nap, I went to get her out of bed, and she was holding out her arms and spreading her fingers as to not mess up the polish. SO FUNNY!

And, tonight....

Nick and Trevor had a little fun with poor defenseless Tyler. 

*Please note no alcohol was consumed by any minors!

Snowman (actually made of snow, not sand)

Today was a beautiful, chilly, sunny day.  The snow was starting to melt a little, and so everyone in the neighborhood bundled up to scoop snow.  Our 20 inches was shrinking before our eyes and was down to 18 inches by mid morning.

 

Trevor went out front to help Nick  scoop the walk,

 

and ended up playing in the snow with his friend, Lea. Here is the snow pile in our street across from the house.

And here is the snowman Trevor and Kuane made.  Trevor was so proud!

One of our neighbors was sweet enough to snowblow the street in front of the house near the mailbox so we could get our mail. (If you don't scoop access to the box, the mailman doesn't deliver) So, after clearing our driveway and sidewalks, Nick did his good deed for the day and helped our neighbor across the street scoop his snow.  Nick is such a good man!

I think Nick was outside for nearly 3 hours. And yes, he is feeling it in his shoulders tonight!  But, he did take a quick break to try out the sledding hill in our back yard with McKenzie and Maliah.

Trevor ventured out again in the afternoon to scope out the back deck.  I had to literally THROW him out the door as to not cause an avalanche INTO my kitchen.... because of the depth of the snow up against my doors.

 

 

 

 

He made it! Then he tried his hand at body sledding...

But it was more like body CRAWLING.

By noon today, the schools were cancelled throughout the county and surrounding areas already for Monday AND Tuesday. So...the kids' Christmas Break starts NOW! They won't return to school until the 4th! I can't believe Christmas is 5 days away!

Tyler's First Tooth

Yesterday I discovered that Tyler finally sprouted his first tooth! All those sleepless nights and fussy days... this is why:

And the tooth next to it is not far behind. You can see it, but it hasn't come through the gums yet.

The kids are up and around today... church has been cancelled. The wind hasn't come in yet so it's a beautiful sunny day.... but just barely 30 degrees.  We are waiting for it to get a little warmer before they go out to play... but Addison wanted to wear her snow boots anyways.

 

Trevor jammin on his iPod. Oh, how I wish I could upload video again on here because he is so funny to watch dance around and sing at the top of his lungs.

And McKenzie doing the dishes.... doesn't she looked so happy to be helping out?!

The Snow Today...

So, if you've been following the blog, you'll know we had quite a day yesterday. It was never blistery and blowing, it just snowed ALL...DAY....LONG.  It was so pretty.  I spent the entire day baking! I made:

White House Cookies
Rich Cookies (Nick's fav)
Candy Cane Cookies
Almond Biscotti
(Nick made) Fudge
Caramel Chocolate covered apples
and mixed up sugar cookies.

It was awesome! The kids helped quite a bit throughout the day when they were in between outings. Here, Trevor and Addison helped with the candy cane cookies.  These, you make up red dough and white dough, then roll out two equal wormies, one of each color, then twist them together to make a candy cane.

Nick caught a few pics for us.  In this next one, you'll see I left the area to place some cookies on the baking sheet.  Addison is no kidding watching me to time a cookie dough swipe!  I can't tell you how many cookies disappeared while on the cooling rack!  The evidence (mostly on her face) was a dead giveaway! Well, that, and her big grin with cookie falling out of her mouth.... oh, and the running away when I caught her.
 

Like my tie-dye "Wilson" volleyball shirt from high school? I found that the other day while going through a dusty 'winter clothes' tote that we haven't been in for about 6 years! We are busy rolling candy canes.

Now, onto the snow. Here are some pictures taken first thing this morning.  And yes, we made it to the 20 inch mark! As seen here my Nick's high tech snow-mometer gage-y thing.

Here you will see that the snow held on the table. Jim, I was worried it would collapse too!

 

The front drive...and Nick's truck....and our tracks from late last night coming back from the neighbors after a night of CatchPhrase. The boys beat the girls.. but that was only after like 3 or 4 rounds of 'practice'... funny how the rules changed so much as we went along. Hmmmmmm.  What was the bet? Oh, well, losers just have to do a little caroling on Christmas Eve to a minimum of 5 houses in our neighborhood. Better start practicing. But I think I may feel a little laryngitis coming on....

McKenzie and Maliah walked in the house yesterday munching on some icicles. Ick. Here are some hanging off my house!  And I think I may have mentioned Nick making a snow angel at the neighbors the night it started snowing. Here is his mobile picture of that:

If he were to do that now, he would disappear in 20 inches of snow... and I think it would be a lot colder. He DOES make a nice snow angel, though!