Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas Eve!

We opened presents on Christmas Eve (games, treats, pajamas) then played our new games, watched the new Barbie DVD, ate dinner (Olive Garden style), put out their stockings and then left treats for Santa and his reindeer. Sweet dreams children!!!

Merry Christmas!!! We told the kids they couldn't get us up until 7am. Well, Kate was the first one in our room at 7:06am, but Kyle told her to go lay down again since the other kids were still asleep. Finally around 7:20 she came back in saying she couldn't wait any longer and I didn't blame her so we went and woke up the other kids and went downstairs.

Preston was excited to get Benny's spaceship lego set from the Lego movie

Lindsey was really excited about her Hello Kitty toothbrush, but she also was excited to see Sofia the First's magic school and all the figurines. Lindsey loves Sofia the Princess on TV. 

Chelsea loved her Doc McStuffins car and immediately wanted to drive it around the house. We went out later in the morning and let her ride it around. She was in heaven. 

Kate was excited for her electric scooter and also tried it out when we went outside later in the morning. Good thing Santa charged the car and scooter! Smart Santa.

Some of the mess afterwards. Not too bad really. Clean up was pretty easy except I couldn't find a pair of Chelsea's tights she got in one of her gifts. I was searching every garbage bag and box. Kyle even helped me search the big garbage can outside.. Ewww. We never did find them and I was in a bad mood about it because I knew I bought them and had tried so hard to have everything together. I calmed down after my Mom texted saying our neighbor, Merle, was basically dying at his house and that wasn't a great way to spend Christmas. Reality check real quick. Well, fast forward to the day after Christmas and Kyle and his Mom went to Target to get another pair of the tights and Dee Ann searched and found the right size. Phew. Well, then fast forward to the following week when we got home and I was unpacking and found the pair of tights in Chelsea's bag! I don't know how they got it there, but somehow they did. So now we had 2 pairs of tights. {Sigh} I overreacted for nothing. 

We spent Christmas with Kyle's family. We left after lunch on Christmas day and got to Melanie's house in the afternoon. It's about 3 1/2 hours and luckily the pass was bare and the drive went fine. The kids were excited to see their cousins and open presents. In the picture above you can see Chelsea attacking Nathan. Nathan was a good sport and let her and played with her. Dee Ann gave the kids some fun gifts. I may have been her personal shopper for it all. haha. Preston got Baymax from Big Hero 6 and the armor can be taken on and off. Kate got a couple new DS games. Lindsey got Anna and Elsa dresses for her American Girl Doll (Melanie worked some magic to get the dresses to Tri-Cities from Ephrata...long story, haha). Chelsea got a baby Elsa doll and some cute boots that I drove to multiple Targets to to get the right size. What we go through to get that right present. Dee Ann gave us cash and we got her a magnified lighted mirror and subscription to Taste of Home. We spent the night at Dee Ann's new apartment and Kate spent the night with Kathryn. Then the next morning, Kyle and Dee Ann took the kids to see Grandma Great (Arlene) and went to Target to look for those tights. I went to Melanie's and she highlighted and cut my hair. I was so thankful she had a cancellation and could fit me in before we headed to Mattawa. I felt great after getting my hair done. Ahhh. She does a good job.

 We headed to Mattawa on Friday to celebrate Christmas with my family. We got there in time for lunchtime and had a big lunch with everyone. Then after lunch we exchanged gifts with each other. 

Kyle trying to get baby Landon to smile, which he did. 

My Mom and Dad got our family an iPad air! Then my Mom did little gifts for the kids. Preston got a lego pillowcase, Kate got a new apron and cooking stuff, Lindsey got a new Rapunzel dress up dress and Chelsea got a Cinderella dress up dress (which I don't know why I don't have a picture of her). We (meaning all us siblings and spouses) got my Dad a new suit with 4 ties and 2 shirts. We got my Mom a new set of pots and pans from Costco, measuring cups and a new Church outfit. We exchanged sibling gifts. Jared gave us a shower FM/Bluetooth speaker and we got him snowboarding goggles. 

My Mom let the kids make gingerbread cookies the next day and they had fun with that. Chelsea could sit for a long time playing with dough and flour and rolling it out. She makes a mess, but it occupies her. We stayed for a few more days at my parents. Jeni and Kevin and their kids were sick on Christmas so they didn't come out for our get together. They were feeling better by Monday so we stayed an extra day so we could see them and the kids could play (Kyle was off of work for the week between Christmas and New Years). It worked out good and then we left Monday night to head home. My parents were packing up Jared and left on Tuesday to go to Utah to Jeff and Sadie's. Then they were heading up to Rexburg to take Jared to BYU-I later that week. It was a fun Christmas holiday!

December Advent Activties

We started December off with decorating the house and putting up the Christmas tree. Our fake Christmas tree looks a lot smaller in this house. We were also worried it might smell like gas because Chelsea had tipped over a gas can in the garage this summer and the Christmas tree box soaked a lot of it up. Luckily, we pulled the tree out and it smelled fine. This year the advent calendar was more tiring to do. Some things were fun, but others were a fight or the kids complained. I told them they are lucky to do something different each day and I may have threatened to stop doing it a few times throughout the month. 

My Mom made the grandkids dresses for Christmas. She mailed them to us just in time. They fit perfect and I loved them. The girls are still okay with matching...for now.

We acted out the nativity one night and oh boy was it crazy. Chelsea is playing the iphone while the other kids are somewhat acting it out while Kyle is reading. It seriously is laughable. But I loved seeing Lindsey in a white t-shirt holding a star. Kate got all the costumes for the kids. She even rode on the toy horse. haha. 

Playing the game of Life one night. There might have been some tears from one of the kids. Games just aren't fair all the time. Hard lessons to learn. 

We went swimming for one our advent activities. We tried out a new water park that opened up a year or so ago in Snohomish. We practically had the place to ourselves. It was nice. The kids were really good and loved it. We still like the Lynnwood pool a teeny bit better.

Chelsea and Lindsey were playing upstairs and came to the top of the stairs and Lindsey said, "look Mom!" I turned and saw this. I about died. I hurried and grabbed my phone to take a picture. It makes me laugh every time I see it. They dressed up very interestingly! Those hats and glasses!

I found a stool at Goodwill and repainted the legs, covered the seat with foam and fabric from Hobby Lobby. I put it in our master bedroom closet so I can sit somewhere to put nylons on. When I showed Sara this she said she would wear nylons every day so she could use it all the time. She makes me laugh. I made the reindeer glitter canvas thing because I saw it on Pinterest and needed a new Christmas decoration for my shelf. I like when crafts/projects turn out. 

Decorating the gingerbread house for one of our activities. Costco's kit is the best. 

Chelsea and Anna were matching with their sippy cups and Minnie mouse dolls. Reagan and Lindsey were taking turns playing the iPad then playing dress up and barbies. Anna and Reagan are good friends and came to play one day. We live a little further away from them (15 mins away) than we used to (around the corner) so they get excited when they have play dates. 

Kate's Christmas concert was held at the school districts big auditorium/performing arts theater. It's the same place where her ballet recital was at last year. Anyway, she had a part in one of the songs playing a reindeer. She was so excited and loves performing. The concert was good. They had some fun songs and it wasn't too long. 

I met up with Marci one night to go Christmas shopping for my parents. All of us siblings usually go in together on getting them gifts so we had to spend the rest of the money on them. We found some amazing deals and got what we needed. But funny story...I met up with her in Belleuve at the mall and we ate dinner at the Cheesecake Factory. Then we were walking to JC Penney's to do our shopping because we had free money to spend there (from Black Friday shopping deals we got) and it wasn't there!!! They had gotten rid of Penney's and we had no idea!!! We even looked on the board telling you where stores were and it was blacked out. I guess rich people don't shop at JC Penney's. We ended up driving to Southcenter mall about 15-20 miles away and met up with Marci's friend, Vicki, there to go shopping. We were being silly and tried on these furry vests. It was a fun girl's night. 

The Singles ward in our Stake had an activity for families where you donated a toy and they had some games, treats and Santa Clause. We had never been, but heard from others in our ward that it's fun. We hadn't seen Santa yet so we planned on going. They had Santa Clause and Ms Clause which was fun. The kids loved it and after seeing Santa, Preston said, "Now I know what I'm getting because I just told Santa." He is pretty confident. They made bead candy canes, played some games and did another craft. It was a simple but fun night. 

I had the kids make lollipop cookies for their craft at preschool for the letter "L". Who knew rolling dough into a snake was so hard!

 We went to the Family Fun Center one Saturday for our advent activity. I had gotten a groupon deal. They got to play in a play area, do bumper cars, ride a frog ride and play a bunch of arcade type games then pick out their prizes with all the tickets they won. 

Chelsea followed me outside when I went to get the mail. She had no shirt and put on Lindsey's cowgirl boots. I was like 4 years old and went walking down the lane when there was snow and I was naked in snow boots so I guess she's similar to me. haha. One of our neighbors has this hideous pink car and Chelsea of course gravitates towards it and has to touch it. Ugh. One time she opened the door! 

One night, Kyle and I were watching TV when we heard this awful scratching noise. It was coming from the vent behind the couch, but Kyle jumped up trying to figure out what it was. I video taped the sound because it sounded creepy. Kyle opened the crawl space lid in the closet and shined a flashlight down there. We didn't hear the sound again that night. But I had a cough and would end up sleeping on the couch through the night so I didn't keep Kyle up from all my coughing. Well after hearing this I was nervous to go downstairs and sleep on the couch in case I heard it again. Luckily, I didn't hear it, but we are still wondering what it was. Kyle put down rat traps down in the crawlspace a couple days later and ended up catching two mice. At least they were just mice. We haven't heard the noise since...knock on wood. 

Curtains, Oh yeah!

I have been on the hunt for curtains/drapes for my family room since we moved in. I couldn't find anything I loved. I even looked at several fabric stores. My sister, Sara, suggested doing black and white stripes so I googled that and fell in love with that idea. I found some really thick striped ones and knew that's what I wanted to do to make a bold statement. I like bold. :) On one of the diy blogs I found, the blogger lady said she got the panels from Ikea and then got black fabric and basically glued them on. Another blogger painted the black part. Well, since my Mom is an amazing seamstress (Vera Wang) I knew where to turn. My parents were coming over for a weekend to go to Snowflake Lane with us and then my Dad, Jared and Kyle were going to the High School football championship playoff games at the Tacoma Dome on Saturday. So while they went to that my Mom stayed with me and we sewed the curtains. Well she sewed. haha. 

Before...blah

After...love it! 

My Mom got dressed and I asked her if she purposely matched the project. She was embarrassed because she did not plan that. I thought it was hilarious so I had to get a picture and then another one of her by the curtains looking like a game of Where's Waldo. hahaha She's a good sport.

I love love love them! Thanks Mom! I seriously do!

The night before, on Friday night, we went down to Bellevue to Snowflake Lane. We go every year because the kids like it and it's festive and it's free. We met Marci down there too. It was supposed to rain in the forecast, but ended up being a great night. Not too cold and no rain at all. Last year was super cold and the kids were miserable so this year was much better. Yay!

Getting peppermint tootsie roll pops, I think Preston had a stash in his pocket. He thought he was cool for having more than one. I love that these toy soldiers walk on stilts everywhere. 

With the pretty snow princess

It was crazy this year claiming a spot in the street to watch the little parade. A couple older men were pushing and it was annoying. We had to hold our ground and keep them from pushing us out. I kind of miss how they used to do snowflake lane where they had the characters and princesses come down the sidewalks. I felt like you could fit more people that way.

Jared keeping Chelsea contained...on his shoulders. Good uncle.

Christmas music, fake snow, lots of lights and being with family makes it pretty festive.