Christmas!

I love that moment when the kids see their big present on Christmas morning. Buggy is especially expressive. (see the video from yesterday, haha!).

It was hard to figure out what to get everybody this year because we usually go with a theme and get them all dolls, or all Legos, etc. This year they all wanted something different so we ended up going with it. Bug wanted an art set, Boo wanted Legos, and Peanut wanted this Calico Critter house with real working lights.

Buggy is our little artist. She loves to draw and this set has already kept her busy for hours and hours.

Boo and Peanut liked their gifts too.

Working lights!

Boo is a girl after Daddy's own heart with her love of Legos!

They all had to show off their gifts to everyone.

Peaches woke up in the midst of all the excitement and I went down to get her. I put her down so we could get a picture of her seeing her toys but the crowd of people startled her and she bee-lined after me. When she did see her present she was super excited though. She LOVES babies right now!

 

Right away she wanted her out and rocked her back and forth.

 

Then she gave the baby a bottle and put her to bed. :)

 

So sweet!

 I didn't get to hold Baby B very much because Peaches was slightly jealous. A few times she was distracted enough that I was able to get some sweet baby snuggles. ;)

So fun to have a big gathering for Christmas!

Noni fixed yummy cinnamon rolls so we grabbed a picture while she was getting them on the table.

Next up...stockings!

Christmas Preview

Cousins on Christmas Eve

We had a big treat this year! For the first time we were able to spend Christmas with Auntie N, Uncle M, and their two cuties! Noni and Papa went to New Mexico when baby B was born, but this was the first time the rest of us got to meet her. She is SO cute!

The girls desperately wanted to hold her, but I warned them not to overwhelm her. Here they are waiting eagerly.

Edging closer. Haha!

She was super sweet and didn't seem to mind them clamoring to hold her, though I tried to keep them in check.

SO happy!

Her nickname is Boo too so here are the two Boos. :)

Peaches was asleep when they first arrived so they got to meet when she woke up. She was still pretty sleepy, but liked the "bay-beeee!"

She's a little snuggler too. So sweet.

The cousins got right to work playing, working puzzles, and jumping on the bed.

This was also Christmas Eve so Noni gave them the traditional present.

Which they ripped into...

...and quickly went to put on!

It was so fun to be able to spend Christmas with these cousins!

Noni read them some bedtime books.

It took a while to get everybody to settle down after the excitement, but eventually they crashed.

And were able to dream of sugar plum fairies. :)

There's something magical about going to sleep on Christmas Eve!

:)

Leftover Thursday

I found this wagon in the breezeway and thought Peaches would like pulling her stuffed animals around...she thought something a little more lively would be fun. 

Poor Cocoa. We only let her do it once. :P

Grabby hands are quick to spy when someone leaves a $12.99 box of fancy Christmas cookies in a random spot at Costco. I offered to pay for them, but they said I didn't have to. :P

Auntie Nae texted us about a crazy black Friday deal Penny's was having on couches so even though we won't be moving for another 6 months we snatched up a full sized couch and two loveseats for the new house for $700! Pretty!

One of our advent activities was driving to town and looking at Christmas lights. We picked up Mama and took her out to Chinese food. Then we met up with Noni and Papa and drove around looking at lights for a while before heading home. I took these on the way home. It was past bedtime and the girls were getting slap happy. 

Not sure what is going on with Bug...did somebody toot?? :P

The girls participated in the library's children's shopping day again and were SO excited to go pick out presents for the family. This was part of Peanut's list. She added Grandma and Grandpa. So sweet.

This was the "menu" Peanut made for people to know what kind of sugar cookie options there were. :)

Happy Thursday!

O Children Come

For the Christmas service Noni worked with the children and taught them a new song with a lot of percussion. We have a new guitarist on the worship team who also plays something called a Kahone. He's been teaching some of the kids how to play it and Buggy has a natural talent. One of the boys actually bought his own so he played that and Buggy played Mr. L's.

Peaches wasn't sure what to do with all this activity. She just stood there and stared at the kids. :)

I think this was the most uneventful Christmas program yet. Usually there is one kid who acts up and makes everybody laugh, but this year everyone behaved and stood in their proper places. :)

I don't know why sometimes my phone flips the video to the side and sometimes it doesn't. Unfortunately this is one of the times it didn't, but you can still get the idea. The kids did a great job and so did Noni getting them all to learn this challenging song!

They also did a version of Jesus loves the little children. But I won't upload it since it's flipped too. Great job kids!

Cookie Bakers

The girls were super excited to make the traditional sugar cookies. Boo and Peanut made the dough with a little help and supervision. :)

 

I found an awesome sugar cookie recipe during VBS. It's definitely the best I've ever tried and it doesn't require chilling the dough so it's more fun for the girls.

 

We doubled the batch so they all were able to cut out lots of cookies.

Cheese!

While we got them all baked Bug helped me make the frosting and then we were ready to go.

Daddy and Boo ran to the store while they were baking and picked up four new bottles of sprinkles.

They frosted and sprinkled for over an hour and made some pretty sugary concoctions.

And then they took off and left a big mess. This is one of those times when I feel like a good mom would make them come back and clean up their mess, but I know that will just make even more of a mess as they "clean". 

I probably should have made them help, but T and I finished frosting them ourselves and I got the mess cleaned up efficiently. Maybe next year. :P