Christmas Day-Round Two

By the time we got everything straightened up after opening presents Christmas morning it was time for round two with Grammy. The kiddies couldn't wait for Grammy to come over to play with them. Anna especially was getting very impatient wondering when she was going to get there. In the meantime they played with some of their new toys. Gracie played with the dollhouse. She loved it. Anna played with Gracie's doodle bear because she did not want hers to get dirty. If you don't know what a doodle bear is, it is a bear that you can draw all over and then throw him in the wash to clean him off and start all over again. Noah played with his Light Strike guns. They were a big hit with him, and the girls liked them too. Thank goodness he got two, and when he opened the second one he said, "Look Anna I got one for you to play with." They all got more great toys from Grammy and enjoyed giving her her gifts and helping her open them too. Then we had our Christmas feast together and tried to figure out where we were going to put all the new toys. I think we need a bigger house (and also a bigger trash can for all the boxes from the new toys).

Anna drawing on Gracie's doodle bear.

Gracie playing with the dollhouse.

And dressing up in her new princess dress.

Anna got a cute webkinz dog.

Noah got Disney Universe game.

Anna loves her jewelry box with the dancing ballerina inside.

Gracie got Rapunzel's tower.

Some more people for the dollhouse.

Noah got a new webkinz too.

More dollhouse furniture.

A new baby doll stroller since all of theirs are falling apart.

Christmas Day-Round One

We had a wonderful Christmas, although I wasn't sure my crew was going to wake up before noon this year. They had many a nights that they were up late and Christmas Eve was no exception to that, though not for lack of trying. Our excited bunch did not want to go to sleep and kept getting up. Gracie had other reasons for not wanting to go sleep though. Her fear of Santa is apparently much worse than we thought. She kept getting out of bed and saying she didn't want to go to bed, she didn't want Christmas, and she didn't want Santa to come and bring presents. I guess she was afraid she was going to have to see him again. I sat up and waited and waited for her to go to sleep Christmas Eve so I could put out presents, but it wasn't until after midnight that she finally fell asleep. Anna was the first one to wake that morning (well, after me that is) at 8am, and she had a hard time waiting for the others once she came out and saw all of the presents. I woke up Arron as soon as I heard her coming out, and then we all went to wake up the others. Gracie, after her late night, was difficult to wake though. Arron had to carry her out and she still kept sleeping in his arms and was not very interested in opening a thing. She finally woke up and joined in when she saw how much fun Noah and Anna were having. Noah got several games he wanted like Sonic Generations, Mario Kart 3d, and Mario 3d Land. I think his favorite gift was his new Light Strike guns. He is having a blast with them, and the girls like playing with them too. The girls got a dollhouse to share and many accessories for it. They also got dress up clothes, a styling head, doodle bears, a new baby doll, and a princess cd player with a microphone which has been a big hit with them. They love playing Wiggles songs on it and dancing around the living room singing the songs. Here are several pictures from the first part of the day. My next post will have a bunch more pictures from the rest of the day.

Anna's ready and waiting not so patiently.

Gracie's only interested in more sleep, but Noah's excited in the background running from his room.

He's still a little sleepy too though, but....

...not as sleepy as this one.

The girls opening their new doll house.

Anna's doodle bear.

Anna's princess cd player with microphone.

Noah's nerf armor case for his Nintendo 3ds.

Finally waking up and getting into the present opening.

Anna got a stamp set.

Gracie opening her purple doodle bear.

Anna got a Tinkerbell snuggie.

Noah got Mario 3d Land.

Gracie opening more furniture for their dollhouse.

Anna opening more furniture for their dollhouse too.

He's been asking for that for forever.

Princess dress up clothes.

Noah also got a cd player, a Sonic one, because he loves Sonic the Hedgehog, but unfortunately it didn't work. It didn't play ANY cd's. Can you believe that? A cd player that won't play cd's.

A new baby doll.

A styling head.

Noah's Light Strike guns.

Gingerbread House and Christmas Cookies

It wouldn't be Christmas without making a gingerbread house and Christmas cookies. Unfortunately we had trouble with both this year. The roof did not want to stay on our gingerbread house and the gingerbread man and tree didn't want to stand up. Then our cookie dough was too soft and sticky so we couldn't use cookie cutters to make different shapes because when we tried to pick them up they got all messed up. We ended up just doing all round cookies and then decorating them. The kids still had fun. They love decorating.

Decorating their gingerbread house is very serious.

Putting the finishing touches on.

Our gingerbread house barely managing to stay together. It did have heart shaped candies all along the top of the roof, but when the roof started to fall off they all fell in.

Decorating their cookies.

Something was funny.

Getting serious about cookie decorating too.

All of our crazy Christmas cookies.

Christmas Parties

This past week we had lots of parties to attend. First was Noah's party at school on his last day. In the morning we went to hear him sing Christmas songs with all the classes. I didn't get any pictures of that. I won't get into that, but they did not plan that out very well at all, so pictures of Noah singing were not possible. Then we came back later in the day for an ice cream party. The kids all enjoyed that, and the girls loved getting to join their big brother at school and sit with him.

Next we had our Happy Birthday Jesus party with our friends. I reserved the party room at our Chic-Fil-A for us so that we had a private room to have our little party. It was free, so you can't beat that. We decided we would have to do that more often when we all get together since there was no mess at any of our houses to clean up at the end, and the kids had an indoor playground all to themselves to play and have fun. The kiddies listened to a story about the candy cane and how it represents Jesus, then we did a craft and all the kids made their own candy cane ornaments. After our craft we sang happy birthday to Jesus and blew out the candles on His birthday cake and ate some yummy ice cream cake. Then the kids all went wild in the indoor playground area while us moms finally had a moment to sit and chat. We all had so much fun.

Listening to the story.

Making their candy cane ornaments.

Hard at work putting beads on.

Noah's candy cane.

Grace's candy cane.

Anna's candy cane.

All the kiddies with their candy cane ornaments.

Singing Happy Birthday to Jesus.

Eating birthday cake.

Then we had a Christmas pajama party with our bestest friends. The kids all wore their Christmas pajamas, played for a little bit, listened to another Christmas story about a Christmas tree, then we did a Christmas tree craft.

Best buddies. They all really do love each other like family.

Making their Christmas trees.

Noah's Christmas tree. (He's a little tired from all the excitement this week.)

Grace's Christmas tree.

Anna's Christmas tree.

Some of them ate their Christmas tree when they were done, some of them didn't, and Gracie had fun licking hers.