Stockings

By Christmas Eve the kids were VERY excited to open presents!  In keeping with tradition, we opened our “stockings”.  We used to go around the room and open presents one at a time so we could all see what everyone got, but with 6 kiddos chomping at the bit we’ve pushed that tradition to the side and let them have at it. :)  They’re quite thrilled with this arrangement.

Peanut got a little help from Daddy. :)

Princess stuff!  Perfect!

Peanut watched the older kids for a while and then decided to give it a go.  Here is her picture tutorial on how to open presents.

1. Stare it down!  Maybe it will open!

2. Work at the end.

3. When that doesn’t work, gnaw.

4. Keep gnawing.  It’ll give eventually.

5. Get Mommy to tear part of the paper off...after she fishes the wet paper bits out of your mouth of course.

6. Remove present.  Gnaw.

:)

Peanut’s first Christmas Eve!

Grandma continued the tradition of making everyone Christmas pajamas!  SO cute!  And we actually got a picture of all six kids looking, with no one crying!  It was a Christmas miracle! :)

Silly Daddy with his silly girls!

Peanut had to be fed at that point so we took a break and got our kiddos into bed.  Then it was time for the adults to enjoy a little present opening! 

Uncle B and Auntie M.

Waylon was the only kid still awake, and he quickly figured out that the adults would let him open their presents for them, so he went back and forth between us all.  He was so cute.  We were going in order from oldest to youngest and he quickly figured out the pattern of who to go to next. He would guess what the present was…or if it was from his family he would tell us what it was.  Haha :)

What a great Christmas Eve!

The North Pole

On the night before Christmas Eve Grandma got us all tickets to go to the “North Pole”!  The kids were SO excited! 

To get to the “North Pole” you get on a small cruise ship and it takes you across the lake.

There are over a million lights set up on the boardwalk.

The girls’ favorite….Ariel’s castle.

I love this picture of Auntie Nae and Waylon.  So cute!

The snow was coming down in huge fat flakes.  So fun!  When you get there Santa reads the “Nice List” and the kids got SO excited when they heard their names.

When we got there Santa pointed out the three wise men and said that they were in honor of the first Christmas.  I thought that was nice.

After the cruise we walked around the boardwalk.  It was such a fun night!  Thanks Grandma!

Gingerbread

One of the fun activities Grandma had for the kids to do was building gingerbread houses!  She had two houses and a train.  The boys worked on the train, cousin S and Bug worked on one house, and Boo got to decorate a house by herself.  The kids were excited to get started! 

I need to get Bug some anti-reflective lenses…several of our Christmas pictures looked like this…otherwise a cute picture.

Love that face!

Workin’ hard!

Boo getting a little help from Auntie M.

She was so precise with her decorating.  She knew exactly where she wanted each piece of candy.

And she diligently stuck with it…decorating her whole house.

The boys are both into trains so they loved theirs.

She stuck every one of those pieces on by herself!

The big girls did everything on their own…including their frosting.

Boo was so happy while we were doing these that she started singing.

I got a little video of it.  It’s not straight on her face because I didn’t want her to see me and stop singing. :)

Funny girl. :)

The finished product!  Pretty good!  You can tell Boo got a hold of the frosting there at the end. :)

They actually ate some of it too.  Boo thought it was yummy. :)

To Grandmother’s House We Go…

The morning after the dance recital (two weeks ago) we woke up, packed the car, and headed out!  It was the start of our festivities and the girls were beyond excited to get to Grandma and Grandpa’s house.  Who can blame them?  The house was quite the sight with Grandma’s FIVE Christmas trees set up in the living room!

There were crafts…

Games.  Puzzles.  And best of all…COUSINS!  It is SO much fun to watch the kids grow and change each time they get together.  This was definitely the best year ever!  They are all growing up and as they get older (and out of the young years of not sharing, etc.) they get along so well!  There was none of the usual getting left out, just lots of fun!

T pulled the oldest three around on sleds/tubes one day during the little ones’ naps.  They had a blast!

It was so pretty out at the farm!  These pictures do not do it justice!

Grandma and her girls!

Peanut enjoying some Grandpa time.

They had a Dicken’s village set up, complete with a working train that the kids could play with.

T made “fun pancakes” one morning.

Penguin.

Boo said, “Yummy!  Super yummy!”

Snuggle time with Grandma.

I learned something new about T’s childhood (that doesn’t happen very often since we’ve been together since we were 13!).  His Grandma Dot used to play a game called “Hide the Thimble” where she would hide a thimble somewhere in the house and they would look for it so Grandma went and got three of her sewing thimbles and the kids played.  They loved it!  Something so simple, but they had a ball!

Boo took this picture of cousin E.

I have lots more pictures to put up, but these were the random ones that didn’t fit into any other post.  Many more to come!

13 Days of Christmas

Whew!  We have been go go going around here!  Today is the first full day we have been home in two weeks!  I’m not gonna lie…the re-entry has been a bit painful!  Haha :) 

Peanut doesn’t seem to understand why there is not someone holding her every waking second, as she has become accustomed to these past two weeks.  Bug and Boo don’t seem to understand that I only have two hands and one body and, therefore, cannot be in three places at once.  They really enjoyed the extra family around to play with them and meet their needs in a more timely manner than I can on my own.

They are going to have to, once again, get used to the fact that they may have to wait a few minutes before Mommy is able to help them.  We’ve already had one pee-on-the-floor incident this morning when I was changing a diaper and couldn’t help Boo get her jammies off in time. :P

Anyway, we did have a wonderful two weeks full of fun and family!  I will start posting about it tomorrow.  For now, here are a few pictures that missed getting into previous posts.

A group shot of everyone that came to see our three little actresses perform at the Christmas play…

The girls with two of their good friends (also sisters) at the dance recital…

And our two little reindeer…with one still missing her ears. :)

More pictures to come!

Pascal

The girls have been calling Peanut “Pascal” a lot lately because she has discovered her tongue. If you haven’t seen the movie Rapunzel, he is the chameleon, and one of their favorite parts is when he sticks his tongue in Eugene’s ear. 

Since we’re always playing Rapunzel around here, and since Peanut’s tongue is constantly moving, she gets the honor of being Pascal. :) 

I usually play Maximus, the horse. I hope there is no similar connection. :P

P.S. Aunt Karen is leaving today…so sad. :(  We’ll be settling back into a routine and I’ll have time to get some holiday posts together.  I’m sure they’ll be lots and lots of pictures!

Wordless Wednesday