Christmas Break

Having most of Christmas break after Christmas can be hard. I like having a good amount of time before Christmas because there are so many Christmas things to do, and once its over you don't want to do any of those so you have to find a way to keep all the crazy bored children occupied. Thankfully this year my sister Chanelle and her family came to visit the day after Christmas and stayed until New Year's Eve so the kids were perfectly happy to be with their cousins. One of the days the guys went to the movies and so we needed to find something to do with the kids. There is this pizza place called Johns Incredible Pizza that is like a big version of Chuck E Cheese. It has big games to play and has a big buffet. So we took the kids and it was well worth the money rather than taking them to a moive. I put Annie in the baby Bjorn so that I would have two hands to take care of Russy. It was just too hard to get many pictures because there was just so much going on and I was afraid that I was going to lose a kid in all the commotion. Nellie was incredibly hard to keep track of because she had her own card that is basically like tokens, that she got from a birthday party she went to and didn't get to use so she was always off on her own. I kept saying "Nellie I need you to stay by me" but then I would look up and she was gone. It drove me crazy!! I had the token card that was for everyone else so they had to stay by me if they wanted to do anything.

The kids really enjoyed the buffet. Any time they can get whatever they want they are in heaven. Jane and Jack were pretty much inseperable. They are so darn cute!

Russy really enjoyed his ice cream cone. I am just glad that I remember to keep a bib in my diaper bag because he needs it so bad.

The kids really had such a good time riding the rides and playing the games.

I think that this little carousel was one of the favorites for these three. Although there was a little roller coaster that was a train and Russy thought it was the coolest thing ever. It went pretty fast too, so I thought he might be scared but he wasn't. It was funny because i had to ride with the kids for them to get to go, so I had to take Russ and then I had to take jane, and when I was taking Jane Russy was crying the whole time "Train train!" becuase he wanted to go again so bad.

The big kids went back at the end before it was time to go and went back and got more dessert. Hey they have to take advantage right?

Thankfully we didn't have a million tickets to feed through the thing. Ours gave ours electronically so our card kept track of them. Of course Nellies didnt so they had to do this. It kills me though everytime how the kids are so much more concerned about getting tickets to win something then they are toactually enjoy themselves. So silly! And they end up with the dumbest stuff. Oh well thats the way kids are, I was the same way I know.

The kids had a lot of fun just hanging out and playing with their new toys they got. Carson got a Chess set and they all had fun trying to learn to play it.

The last night they were here we went out to eat. I always get excited to go out because 1. It's a break from cooking and 2. we don't get to go out very much. But everytime we do I think, " What was I thinking? why was I wanting to do this?"This is torture with kids!!" It really is, trying to keep them quiet and happy is so darn hard. Its like Chinese water torture. But thankfully we went to Red Robin which is about the best place you can take kids.

I really love to see my kids with their cousins. It is so special that they love each other so much. It is something I never had growing up so I am so grateful my kids do.

Kevy is the baby wrangler. I sure love him, he is such a good dad and husband.

 

Christmas

We had a great Christmas this year! Everything is always more fun when you get to spend it with more family! My parents and brothers Joe and McKay came and stayed with us for a couple of days before Christmas and we seriously had such a blast having them around. My kids love when there are extra people around!

Annie was so tired one night that she just laid on Grandpa, which is so unlike her! It was really sweet.

Christmas Eve we did our traditional Shepherds dinner and our little progam. I love these little puppets that my sister made for me. They are so perfect and its nice to not have to do the whole dress up thing. We had some friends over too this year which was so fun to have more people! It was such a busy day for me, by far one of my busiest days, I have to do a lot of cooking, so its a good thing that I like to cook. It was also so nice to have my mom here this year to help with the cooking.

I always struggle every year with trying to take pictures. I want to but I just get all involved with watching the kids. This was the year of Frozen for Janie. She asked for Frozen stuff before she even saw the movie. But she was pretty sure she was going to love it and of course she did. And she loved getting all that Frozen stuff too!

It is such a struggle every year with what to get Nellie. She always asks for things that she never uses and I end up feeling really frustrated that we just wasted a bunch of money. Pogo stick from last year anyone? So this year I decided to steer her towards something that wouldn't be a waste. She got a new bedspread and lamp for her room and we also painted her room. She has loved having nicer things and has actually started taking a lot better care of her room since she got them. Heres to hoping she keeps it up.

Lizzy is getting so grown up. How did that happen. She is now half way out of the house which is just too crazy to think about. She got taylor Swift purfume which she just loved.

I knew Russy would like this fire truck becuse he loves trucks and fireman stuff. But he really loved it! He even decided that it was a good ride on toy and rides it all over the house.

It was extra speical to have so many guests stay with us for Christmas and participate on Christmas morning. We were so spoiled and I hope that we can have guests stay for Chrismas again next year because it was just too much fun.

 

Annie didnt think much of the whole Christmas thing but she sat really well with Grandpa. I love that she went through her stranger anxiety really early so now when she would be going through it she is totally fine.

 

 

Russ seriously loved his tools he got for Christmas. He even likes wearing the safety googles whcih I thought for sure he wouldn't wear. He likes to "fixit" he takes his tools in his little tent and takes a truck or something and fixes them. Way too cute. I am seriously loving the boy thing!!

Jane was very excited that Gradma gave her this Elsa doll. It was the thing she wanted more than anything else for Christmas.

Uncle Joe gave Nellie this game and it has been so much fun to play. We have loved it. Joe was so nice to give the kids each a present.

One of the things I try and get the kids every year is a game and a book. We love playing games together so much and it is always money well spent. We have loved this game of Life that we got Lizzy. The girls absolutely love to play it and we have so much fun. We were lucky becuse it came without cards so we had to take it back and I was worried that they wouldnt, because the girls had already destroyed the box. :( But luckily they did.

It was another super christmas! I am amazed at how fast the season goes by. It is so much fun to have kids and watch them enjoy all the magic and fun that comes each year at this time.

 

 

Christmas festivities

I just had to put this picture in because it was just so darn cute seeing these two out there raking the leaves. They just decided themselves that they would go out there and do it. so funny

Because we had our thanksgiving early we decided to decorate the house before the thanksgiving holiday. Getting out all the decorations is one of my favorite things to do. I love it so much. The other thing I love is when we take them down. I just am ready to have the clutter put away by the end of the season.

It is always fun to decorate the tree with the kids. This year we decided to get a new tree because our old one is so small. So we took it upstairs for the kids and let them decorate it with their decorations and we decorated ours with ours. The crazy thing is that we had plenty of decorations for both trees. which is crazy to think all those were on the small tree last year.

Dad has to always put the angel on top. It's tradition.

I try to have a different activity for the kids to do most nights during the christmas season. I just have such good memories growing up from all the activities we did, and I want to make sure I do the same thing for my kids.I saw this cute idea somewhere to make rice crispy wreaths and the kids could form them and then decorate them with m&ms. Sometimes things don't work out as good as you hope, but oh well. Nellie of course had to put 50m&ms on hers. Memories were made though I guess.

On Thursday Dec. 5th was the Annual Roseville Christmas Tree Lighting. I have always wanted to go to one of those, sometimes I feel like there is so much offered that we can do and we never take advantage of it. Well maybe we should have just stayed home that night. It was during the really cold snap that we had, and us California folk are just not adjusted to that. Especially because it just hadn't gotten cold yet. So 30 degrees for us was soo dang cold! But we decided to go anyway. The traffic and parking were insane and we almost got stuck in the parking garage where there were no spots but a million people trying to park. Luckily because Kevin works down there he knew where there was a hidden parking lot that was actually pretty close to the event. We missed the actual tree lighting but oh well maybe next year. They had a whole bunch of activities but the kids were just too cold to want to do any of them. So we got this picture by the pretty tree. It was really nice of a lady to take our picture of our family for us, but it was funny that Annie's hat was over her eyes and she didn't notice. Annie's hat was a little on the big side, but it was a really warm hat thats why I put it on her.

 

there was a choir there so we stayed and listened to it. After that they gave us some snow. Which was actually just bubbles that looked like snow, but it was fun for the kids. That was pretty much it for us. We just couldn't handle the cold. On the way back to the car we saw a giant possum and we told the girls how we had those all over the place in Kansas and they thought it was pretty cool. They were a little freaked out that it was going to attack us though.

One night we decorated gingerbread men. I decided that what the kids really want to do is eat the treats we decorate, so instead of decorating gingerbread houses that they can't eat, I found a really good recipe for soft gingerbread men and we decorated them. I am not a huge gingerbread fan, but these were good!

Daddy holding the baby girl. She needs to be part of the action too! She is getting so big on us so fast!

We had some friends invite us for family night to go walk around a neighborhood and see all the lights. It was pretty warm and so it was a really nice night to walk around. Russy really enjoyed looking at the lights this year. He is at that really fun age where he is starting to understand and everything is getting so magical!

I took cute little Annie around in the bjorn and she was super good. It was just the prefect size of neighborhood so it didn't take too long to walk around, then we went back to the Waldrons house for donuts and hot cocoa. It was a fun night.

Janie had a couple of programs with her two different preschools that she goes to. She goes to Miss Pattys on Tuesday and Thursdays and then she goes to Miss Wattys (our friends from church) on Fridays while I watch her little boy for a trade. So at Miss Watty's she did a little Nativity and Jane played Mary because she is the only girl. It was really cute.

Then that night Jane had her Miss Patty's program that was so darn cute, but there are so many kids that are there that it was really hard to see and even harder to get any pictures. I did record it and I did get this cute picture of her with Santa. She is such a cute little singer and she does such a good job. I love my little Janie girl.

We had such a good Christmas season this year. I love all the fun memories that we make as a family!