Decorating the Tree

We set up our Christmas trees after Zach's party on Sunday. We don't decorate for Christmas until after Zach's party with family. That way it's only about his Birthday.
Riley helped Jeff set up the big tree in the family room. I don't have pictures of this. I have no idea where I was during that. Seriously. Lily helped Jeff set up the smaller tree in the living room. (Yes, I have 2 trees. One with all of the kids' handmade decorations, decorations they have been given, and decorations that are mine & Jeff's. The other one is a "pretty tree" that matches.) Anyway.....Lily was super excited to be helping. She hasn't gotten to help put the tree up before.

Why yes, she is wearing a tiara.....is that odd? ;0) I like how she cheeses up for the camera whenever I have it out.

Yes, that is a very cluttered TV cabinet.........why do you ask? ;0)
After both trees were up, they kids got into their boxes of ornaments. They each have their own now so there was no more fighting this year over someone putting up someone elses' ornament. It made putting up the tree so much more fun.

There was a mad dash to get their ornament on the tree first though. Riley put a gingerbread man he made in Kindergarten last year on first. He is so proud of it. =)

After the coveted front and top of the tree spots were taken, they settled down and carefully put their ornaments on. Zach took the longest. He has a ton of ornaments. Not only is he the oldest, but because his Birthday is so close to Christmas, he got a lot of ornaments as presents when he was a baby.

Lily picked out this glittery ballerina with a feather tutu for her ornament this year. It just screams Lily. She has a tendency to pick out the most girly things.....

Towards the end of them decorating, (and while they were starting to put up ornaments that are Jeff's & mine) I noticed the front was pretty full. I told them that they had to put some of their ornaments in the back too, that they couldn't all go in the front. Lily then said to me, "We're not putting them all in the front. We're putting yours & dad's in the back." She is such a sweetheart. ;0)

Elf Yourself!

If you click on Elf Yourself below:

Elf Yourself

you can see our family elf video.

(sponsered by Office Max)

You can also make one of your own!

**If you tried this earlier, it works now

Christmas

It looks like Santa's Workshop exploded in our Family room.....and I am not in the least bit interested in cleaning it up yet. Santa (and grandparents, aunts, uncles, cousins, Godparents.....) were all very generous to the kids this year. They are very lucky to have so many people who love them!!

They started this free for all of gifts on Christmas morning when they woke up (early) to see what Santa had brought them.

Here they all are sitting contently with what they were given......

....and here they all are (5 minutes later) playing with something their sibling was given..... =)

After breakfast (candy), it was time to open presents from each other.

Then we headed off to my parent's house for more presents and a yummy dinner.

The kids got to play with their many gifts that night, and then it was off to Jeff's parents house the next morning for even more yummy food and gifts.

My camera battery died at Jeff's parents house, so sadly, I have no pictures of that, and it is usually mass chaos at my parent's house with the 30-some people who are there, so I did not get too many pictures there either. =(

We recuperated yesterday and the kids are in full playing mode today.

No one should be bored around here for at least a few more days..... =)

I hope you all had a very Merry Christmas and spent lots of time with loved ones!!!

Christmas Eve Pictures

Every Christmas Eve, we get our "Christmas clothes" on, and take pictures in front of the Christmas tree before going to Christmas Eve Mass.

And I had to throw this one in too, because it cracked me up. =)

Merry Christmas!

From the Logan's

The children were sleeping, all snug in their beds....

.....when we remembered that we forgot to put out cookies and milk for Santa!!!

Ok, they weren't actually asleep, and they had just gone to bed, but still! I can't believe we forgot! Jeff was the one to remind me, so we called the kids downstairs and told them to each choose a cookie and then they decided that Santa would like chocolate milk.

Now the kids really are sleeping, all snug in their beds, waiting for Santa to come.

Field Trip & Parties

Yesterday and today were busy days at Zach and Riley's schools.
Zach had a field trip to the Museum of World Treasures, and Riley had his class Christmas party yesterday.
Jeff went with Zach & I went with Riley (and Lily).

We have never been to the Museum of World Treasures before. Jeff said it was interesting and that Zach enjoyed it.

This is one of the things he got to see!

While Jeff was there, I was partying with Riley and Lily. =)

After some yummy snacks, Santa came by to hand out presents!!!

Lily was super excited and was the first in line to sit on Santa's lap......even though it was not her class party......

Riley couldn't even wait for Lily to get down. He just jumped up on Santa and gave him a BIG hug!

We finally got him to stop hugging long enough for him to turn around for a picture.

Then today was Zach's class party.

They made Santa magnets for an art project.

Then Santa showed up here too!!! He is SUCH a busy guy! ;-)

Every child got a present from Santa.

After Santa moved on to another classroom, the kids got to dig into their snacks.

Both boys (and Lily) had fun at their parties.

Now they are off until January 5th!

Getting Closer.....

Christmas is less than a week away!
We lit all four candles on our Advent Wreath tonight.
The kids were very excited about this. It means that Christmas is really, really close.....and it means they get to blow out four candles when it is their turn.
It's amazing how important that is. =)

This week I plan on doing a lot of Christmas stuff, but I want to try to slow down and enjoy it more than I did the last week. Last week was so jam-packed with events, that I didn't have time to just enjoy it.

I started today by doing a little baking and taking the kids to a special storytime at the library where they got cookies, hot chocolate, and take-home art projects.
When we got home, we watched The Polar Express, and wrapped presents to Jeff from the kids.
(Jeff was taking a much needed break in KC with his brothers to watch the Chief's game.)

Other things I am going to try to accomplish this week before Friday:

More baking.....

reading Christmas stories....

listening to Christmas music.....

wrapping a few more presents....

watching Christmas movies.....

and doing more art projects.....

with these three cuties.

We still have parties at school with both boys, the house needs to be cleaned and I have some laundry that is piling up, but hopefully all of us can just enjoy each other this week.

Have a GREAT week!!

Christmas Art Projects

Here are some of the art projects we have been doing around here lately. I am sure we will do lots more next week, especially since Zach will be out of school and he LOVES to do art, but here are the ones we have done so far.

This one was super easy.....I just bought foam stickers from Michael's. Still counts as an art project though, right? ;-)

Another thing we made was wreaths. Just a small paper plate with the middle cut out, cut up pieces of green paper, and red glitter glue for the berries.

The kids liked this one the best. Anything using their hands and/or feet is funny to them. =)

The next thing we made was Santa faces with cotton balls.

Then we decorated paper gingerbread men.

Poor Zach only got to make two of these things since we seem to be SUPER busy in the evenings running to meetings, Christmas parties, Christmas concerts, and Boy Scout stuff. All fun and good things, they just have been keeping us busy. So, hopefully Zach can catch up next week. =)

Gingerbread Houses

Yesterday we invited some cousins over to make gingerbread houses.
OK, we actually made graham cracker houses, but it's basically the same thing. =)
We started with all of these yummy goodies!

We used frosting to stick the graham crackers to little orange juice boxes, and then used more frosting to add all of the details.

The kids had a lot of fun making their houses look good!

They all did a GREAT job!!!

After dinner, Zach, Riley, and Lily got to eat their houses.

I think that was as much fun for them as making them!