Family Pictures

We are very fortunate to have a wonderful friend who will come and take pictures of us all (and usually have dinner with us as well).  While we didn't get an amazing shot of all six of us (she's not a miracle worker), we got great shots of the kids individually and also some good group shots.
Here you go:

Merry Christmas!

Pictures tell our Christmas day best!

Goodbye note from Ollie with the result of the magic seeds!

Coming down the stairs 

Stockings

Caleb's gifts

Sophie opening

Tyler not too thrilled with underware

Caleb getting some clothes

Sophie and her baby's bottle

Garett completely thrilled with his underware

Sophie and her new Strawberry Shortcake from Tyler

"why's the door wrapped?"

Well?

A trampoline?!?!

First jumps

And jumping with daddy

Hope everyone had a wonderful day!

Christmas Eve

For the most part today we just took it easy.  We did wake up to a note from Ollie:

"Plant these in sugar for a special treat.  They will grow into something yummy to eat!"

After a little rest time, everyone got showered and ready for church.  

When we got home from church and dinner, it was time to plant the special seeds that Ollie had left us. We also left out our cookies and milk for Santa.  

See that focus?  She was actually more interested in eating the seeds :)

All ready for Santa and bed time!

Christmas Cookies and a Bad Hair Day

Today's activity was to make Christmas cookies.  Mommy made a few different kinds and we got to help with the cut out ones.

Sophie took a little later nap today and missed out on the decorating, but no one could miss her bed head!

Cinnamon Rolls

Today was the big boys last day of school before Christmas break.  Caleb went off in his pajamas for Polar Express Day (Tyler had that yesterday), and then when they got home from school we headed out to gymnastics.   Next on the list was to grab something quick for dinner on the way home so that we could open envelope 22.  I have to say- our Christmas countdown has gone pretty well.  We've been able to do almost every planned activity with only a couple that we've found we wouldn't do the next time.

Anyway, on to today's activity.  Knowing that we don't have to go to school tomorrow, we planned to make our homemade cinnamon rolls this evening.  My grandmother taught me to make cinnamon rolls many years ago and having them was always a holiday tradition in my family.  I've made cinnamon rolls every Christmas, mostly with help from Phillip, occasional help from Caleb. This year we decided to really involve all the kiddos.  I was a little apprehensive- flour, sugar, butter, 3 active boys and their equally active sister- who wouldn't be?  I was pleasantly surprised- they did great!  Each kiddos had a chance to roll, sprinkle the cinnamon sugar, and help roll up the dough.  They all waited their turn and we did not end up with a mess of sugar and flour all over the place!

Right now our house smells like yummy cinnamon goodness, and tomorrow we'll have fresh cinnamon rolls for breakfast!  Thanks for all the help monkeys!

Visit with Santa

We opened our card #14 today and it said "visit Santa".  Yay!  We took showers and got dressed and headed out the door.  We went to see Santa at MacArthur Center.  They usually have a really nice display complete with fake snow and we weren't disappointed!  We didn't have to wait that long, but we did have plenty of time to play in the snow and explore the other parts of the display.  This year the display featured polar bears.  

After playing in the snow for a little bit and then spending several minutes dusting the snow off of us, it was our turn to see Santa.  The boys were so excited, they went right up and sat down.  Sophie, well, here was the resulting photo for this year:

Oh well, there's always next year :)

The baby

Sophie was given a baby doll bed from nana and paca that used to belong to mommy. She has really loved putting her baby to bed, but we knew it was just a matter of time before she became the baby in the crib! Although it is a little too short