Christmas Day and After

Christmas Day, we spend with Dan's family at his mom and dads house. It is always such a great time, with really GOOD food and such wonderful family. The kids always look forward to going to Mimi and Pappys house. All their cousins were there to play with too.

There's Maddie, Uncle Charlie, cousins Avery, Cole, Gracie, Joey, Uncle Chad, Haylee, Ethan and Hayden. I think it may be a little tight next year with all of the kids at this table when Eli and the twins join in on the meal! I think Em, next year Chad will have to move to the grown up table!! It is so great to have this many little kids in the family. My cousins lived too far away to grow up with when I was younger. I am so thankful for my kids, Charlie and all of their cousins and that they will get to grow up together.

This is Hayden after he opened the snack pack Emma gave to all of the kids. Thank you Em, all the kids loved them. As you can see, Hayden found a very creative way to use his stickers!

My granma gave Maddie a dollhouse for Christmas. She and Haylee haven't stopped playing with it since we got it set up! It is so funny to watch them role play with those little doll house people and the things they say. Today the mom and dad figures were Mimi and Pappy!

Yesterday Dan and I got out Granny and Pas snowmobiles. The last time they were used was back in 2003 when Dan and I took Hayden and Ethan for a ride on them. I was pregnant with Haylee. Seems like yesterday!! It took a little bit to get them running, but we got a little bit of riding in before the snow was completely gone!

Christmas at our home

Each year we celebrate Christmas with my family on Christmas Eve. Well, we had heard it was going to be freezing rain on Christmas Eve night and we thought we may not make it back to our house for Christmas morning, so that morning we let our kids open their gifts. We asked them if that would be alright and we had no objections, so the wrapping paper started flying off!

They were all super excited about everything they got. I should add in there, that each year we have a couple traditions that we started with our kids. Each year, Christmas Eve morning, the kids open one gift. That gift is a Hallmark ornament that was picked out for each one of them and then they get to hang it up on the tree. Christmas Eve night, they each open a package that contains pajamas that they'll wear that night while waiting for Santa Claus.

Ethans' reaction when he opened his last gift(I didn't plan it that way, I couldn't remember what was in each wrapped gift) was priceless. I wish we had the video camera going at that point. The one thing he really wanted was, you guessed it, Lego Star Wars! He started uncontrollably laughing in extreme excitement as his eyes set upon the Star Wars Spiderdroid lego set! That will be a moment I know I will never forget. There's nothing like the smiles and laughter of a child. Especially in a moment you know they have been waiting for for a long time!

Maddie loves dolls! She is totally all girl! Those snap on dolls I think are the best thing we have ever gotton the girls. They will sit and play a long time with them interchanging their outfits! They already had the baby ones, so they were excited to see the bigger ones.

Well, we made it home the night of Christmas Eve. We didn't get rain at all like they had said, but we didi get some more snow. So the next morning the kids woke up to find that Santa had been to their house and had left them each a gift.

I had forgotton my camera when we went to my parents house, so we stopped and bought a disposable camera. I will have to add pictures of that later when I develop them.

All I want is my two front teeth!

On Thursday, Ethan went to eat dinner and his front tooth was hanging by a thread. He made quite the fuss about this tooth. The four teeth before he pulled out with no complaints at all. this tooth was different. He did not want it touched at all.

Friday, he jumped off the bus and you could tell he was really excited. He jumped in the car and was yelling "Look at this, look at this!" He had gotton a tooth necklace with his tooth in it. He thought that was pretty cool. So I'm glad he put up the fuss, so he had something more exciting for the next day at school.

Ready for the Snow

When we got our first snow a week and a half ago, the kids were really excited to go out and play. Dan had gone on a fishing trip, so it was the kids and I ready for some snow fun!

Well, out the door the kids went and I got my boots and coat on and out I went. I no further made it around our back deck and Ethan was already begging to go back inside! I checked later and it was only 10 degrees! The other kids played and played and never asked to go in. I had to pull them inside! The mystery kid in the above picture is Ethan. He thought that might keep him warm!