Christmas Morning

So I hardly took any pictures on Christmas I am just now realizing!! Oh well, I just enjoyed the day instead of trying to get the perfect picture. I do love these pics of Alex and Avery opening their Santa gifts. As you can see they got what they asked for! Dance Star Mickey has been on Avery's list for months and Alex has wanted a keyboard for a long time. Oh and Alex does have stocking from my Grandma with his name on it but there was a little mix up with getting it sent so he was happy to use Daddy's! I told the kiddos they could eat whatever they wanted on Christmas. Karis requested steak and cookies. The other 3 asked for scrambled eggs. I guess kiddos who eat pop-tarts, fruit snacks, and Doritos on a daily basis ask for healthy food as a treat!

Scooters and Christmas Story

The first thing each of the kiddos got to see when they got up on Christmas morning was their new scooter from Papa and Grandma. They were so thrilled. We let them ride around in the house and in the garage since it was so cold! In fact they are still riding them around the house which I'm not too thrilled about but what's a mom to do? It at least gets a little energy out!

Next Scott attempted to read the Christmas Story to them from the adult Bible. Thinking next year we will use the Children's Bible. As he was reading louder and louder and the kiddos were getting sillier and sillier I just had to get the camera out and snap a quick pic. As you can see Alex was very moved by the story of Baby Jesus. ☺

Christmas Eve

Christmas Eve was a very relaxing day. We decided not to travel this year because travelling at Christmas is soooo much work and we thought it'd be fun to just have our own Christmas at home. It was very nice...we were a little homesick but had a really good time as just a family of 6. Especially since this was Alex's first Christmas with us! It was so nice not to have it feel a little sad like someone was missing. In fact just hearing the song "I'll Be Home For Christmas" made me well up with tears...so grateful he is home.

Events of Christmas Eve:

•Went out for breakfast. Something we never do but thought would be fun and it was. Then we walked around downtown Boise and went in some shops. This didn't last too long as shopping with four little ones is not exactly shopping but more crowd control.

•Had a scavenger hunt. I set up clues all around the house and at the end the kiddos each found a new Pillow Pet to help them get to sleep on Christmas Eve. They were thrilled as they had been begging for Pillow Pets for months!

•Watched Christmas movies upstairs and ate popcorn. I LOVE homemade popcorn with real butter and salt. So do the children. I made a really big batch and we feasted away!

•Got in the car at 4:30 to go to Christmas Eve church and then to our friend Angie's house for dinner. Partway there was texting a friend to meet at church and thanks to her realized it didn't start until 6! Since dinner was at 6 at Angie's we all of a sudden had an hour to kill....not wanting to show up early for dinner...so we went to Starbucks and had Hot Chocolate and tried to keep the excited children under control. Scott says next year he'll be in charge of figuring out what time church is! ☺

•Went to Angie's for a yummy dinner and delicious dessert. Then went with Angie and her son Dillon to the Botanical Gardens which were all lit up for Christmas. It was so pretty and the weather was so nice so none of us froze. They even had hot cider and cocoa. Dillon is 12 and is really sweet with the kiddos so he took Alex and Karis (who kept looking up adoringly at him) and walked around with them. It was lots of fun and really beautiful.

•Everyone but Karis fell asleep on the way home...so we carried them to bed and got things set up for the next morning....I mean went to bed and waited for Santa to show up...after setting out some delicious cookies on the floor near the fireplace....and amazingly Santa ate every single one and even licked the crumbs. Gracie assured us that Santa was the one who ate all the cookies!!

•After Santa came and the gifts were out and I couldn't keep from crying. Seeing 4 scooters sitting out, and packages for 4 kiddos just made me so happy and so at peace. I couldn't wait for the next day for them to all open their gifts!!

Christmas Eve Eve

A couple pics from the day before Christmas Eve. My mom made all the kiddos some OSU jammies so I meant to get a picture of all of them in them but looks like I didn't! Instead I have Alex in his and Avery holding her prized Mickey Mouse decor also courtesy of Grandma! And Avery with her baby in her Christmas dress...the baby...not Avery.

Christmas Cookies

So I decided today we would make cookies for Santa. It is one of our favorite Christmas traditions and we couldn't wait to introduce it to Alex. It is one of those things that I know will be a ton of work and a big mess but is so fun that I just can't not do it! So while the kiddos played this morning with neighbor kids- some here...some there...I baked the cookies and made the frosting.

Then I had my little mother's helper come over this afternoon to assist me! (Little tip....11 year olds are great mother's helpers. Rowan is a friend of our's daughter and she wanted to start earning some money and practice babysitting so I hired her this summer to come help me out. She also comes when Scott is out of town to help with dinner and bedtime and even when we just have tons to do and need an extra hand with the kiddos. They listen really well to her and she is able to entertain them. Right now she is putting on a play production with them while I blog. I encourage all of you stressed out mamas to find an eager 11 year old. She seems to enjoy it as much as our kiddos enjoy having her! And she charges less than a babysitter!)

Anyway we had so much fun decorating. It actually went very well. Everyone had fun, no tears over cookies breaking or not looking right, everyone was just really happy to decorate and sprinkle to their hearts content. They even made a plate just for Santa. As you can tell some children chose to decorate their hands too. And then I caught the 4 year olds "cleaning" the table by licking it. Oh and of course Karis sucked frosting out of one of the tubes and dumped a whole container of sprinkles on 1 cookie. But other than that it was disaster free. And while I spent an hour cleaning it up....Rowan entertained the kiddos....so it was a rather peaceful and productive hour. It was worth it! Life is good.

Christmas Crafting

So these photos aren't necessarily blog worthy but this craft sure was....so for all you mamas looking for an easy Christmas craft....here you go. This is the Wilton candy necklace kit. I loved it for the following reasons:
1. Got it half price at Joanne's.
2. Came ready to go....8 little packages of candy beads and precut string so I didn't have to assemble anything while 4 eager little children sat around grabbing pieces, trying to start early, saying "me first" and so on. I just passed it out. I did put the candy in little bowls so it didn't roll off the table.
3. It's edible! So after they made it they could eat it.....no extra Christmas crafty clutter....cuz with 4 kids in school/preschool we already have a TON of Christmas crafts to find places for.
4. All four kids could do it and enjoy it!!!
The only negative was the little kids had a hard time stringing at first but we put tape around the end of the string and it worked just fine!
So there you have it. As you can tell one little guy had more fun eating his beads than stringing them. He did eventually make a partial necklace. ☺
(I just realized Karis' picture has nothing to do with the necklace but she has been wearing this outfit for the last 2 days declaring she is a chef and will help me in the kitchen. I know one of my faithful blog readers will see the picture and since she gave Karis it I thought she would enjoy it. ☺)

Merry Christmas!

What a crazy month December has been!! I am using my "I have 4 kids" excuse which I find comes in really handy....especially with those who have less than 4 kids. And actually even with those who do or even have more....they are most sympathetic! In fact I said, "I'm pulling out my I have 4 kids card and not going to do that this year" to a neighbor who said, "It's not an excuse. It's reality. Don't feel guilty!! I can barely handle two."

So anyway that's why I haven't done Christmas cards this year!! Hailey informed me that it "wasn't very nice not to send cards to people who send us one" to which I kindly replied, "Do you want Mommy to have time to wrap your gifts, make and decorate cookies, and make fudge this year?" That was the last I heard about my unkindness over not sending cards. So here you have it....my feeble attempt at a Christmas card. Thanks so much to all of you that have sent us one (i've actually put them all on a ring and the kiddos love to flip through them and tell me how much they love or miss the person they are looking at)....and I'll try really hard to get some in the mail next Christmas!! Because by then they'll all be a year older and life will be so much easier....right??!!

Snow Day and Coziness

Yesterday was a Snow Day! The kiddos were so excited to get to stay home and play in the snow. I was excited too....until I realized how much work Snow Days are for the Mama!! Scott went into work, got there and found out he could have had a 4 hour delay....darn it! But then right around lunch time they closed the office so he came home. Lets just say the afternoon went a lot better than the morning!

After I spent 20 minutes rounding up 4 snowsuits, sets of gloves, hats, boots, and clothes and then putting them on each kiddo (why are boots so hard to put on??!!) I hoped that perhaps they would then spend the morning out playing happily. The above pictures occurred in the first 5 minutes. Then Avery came in crying because snow was in her boots and gloves. About 15 minutes later Alex came in crying because his feet were cold. (He did tell me that when it snowed in Haiti they never made snowmen! ☺) Throughout this time Karis came in the house about 5 different times to either get something or ask for something and tracked snow through the entire house each time.

The morning took a better turn when I took the wet stuff off the 4 year olds, made a pan of brownies, turned on the cozy fire, and read every Mickey Mouse book they owned to them. The big girls played out for hours....came in soaking wet and ate lunch and were ready for more. By that time Scott was home so we went to the lake to sled. The lake is drained so makes a perfect sled hill. Apparently we weren't the only ones with the idea....about every neighbor kid was there too! But it was soooo fun!! Oh and other picture is a little cozy spot Avery made for Fishie and for her!

Thanksgiving

We had a really nice, quiet Thanksgiving. Our friends Matt and Kristi were supposed to come but the roads were too bad. Auntie Rach however still came....she flew! We had lots of fun with her. Did crafts, ate lots of food, she made 3 yummy pies, took the big girls to Tangled (which was really good...a little scary for them but not too bad), went shopping, went downtown, played Wii, watched movies, ate pie, worked on puzzles etc etc. It was very relaxing and lots of fun. It went by too fast for sure!! She brought her precious Sevilla so Gracie was thrilled. The kiddos had a great time with her too. Thanks for coming Auntie Rach...we miss you and love you!!

In Honor Of Ramona

Every night the girls and I read a chapter or two out of the Ramona books. Well Ramona inspired them to do something. (Little side note...ever since I read Ramona as a little girl I always wanted to stand with one foot in Washington and one in Oregon just like she always wanted to. Well when I was about 22 my sister Hannah and I actually did it!! We parked down at the state park and hiked on up and stood with 1 foot in Washinton and 1 in Oregon. We even have the pictures to prove it. In fact I sent one to Beverly Cleary and she actually even wrote back she was so amazed!) Anyway....Hailey and Karis have begged to squirt a whole tube of toothpaste out just like Ramona did...so I bought the cheapest toothpaste out there and let them go crazy. It was lots of fun although it didn't look like nearly as much as when Ramona did it!!

Alex's 4th Birthday

Can't even describe how happy we were to get to have Alex here for his Birthday this year!! The last 2 Birthdays have been so hard for me, so this one was extra special. We partied it up last weekend and yesterday on his actual Birthday. My parents came down over the weekend which was really special and meant a lot to me. Apparently to him too, because he keeps requesting to "See Papa's car drive in and have my Birthday with Gramma and Papa again!".

Yesterday was all about Alex as I try to make every Birthday for the kiddos. He came down to breakfast and saw car balloons and decorations....he still call cars "machines" with emphasis on the ma pronounced like ma in mama. I think that is the only Creole word he has left. Then we went to the mall to play on the toys which he loved. The really cool thing is Santa happened to be there with no line at all. So he got to meet Santa on his Birthday! He was the best Santa ever as he spent 20 minutes talking and reading to the kiddos. It was very touching and Alex was thrilled.

On a side note...Avery who has been terrified of Santa so much that I actually told her Santa wasn't real last year and told her not to tell the big girls (and she hasn't!)now keeps saying: "Santa IS real Mom! And he's nice too! You said he wasn't real!" Oh the dilemmas we parents face with all this deception. ☺

After the mall we met Daddy for lunch at Iceberg where Alex got his favorite...a corn dog. No ice cream for him though.....he still won't eat really cold or sweet stuff! When he saw Scott he yelled, "There's my Birthday Daddy!" He loved being the rock star all day yesterday let me tell you!!

Then we went home and chilled for the afternoon. I turned on a movie and tried to get A&A to watch it. They would peacefully watch for a few minutes and then run around and play. Can't wait until the day they will watch a whole movie and just sit there and veg. Yes I actually long for my children to watch more TV!! While they sort of watched a movie, I made cupcakes for him to take to preschool today. (Side note: Alex and Avery have both started preschool. They go from 11-4 two days a week! I love having a little time to myself to get stuff done and it is really good for both of them to establish some independence from Mommy. They aren't the type of children who ever go off and play much, they pretty much are stuck to me like Velcro so a lil break has revolutionized my life and feelings on motherhood.)

Anyway when Daddy got home we opened gifts. He got lots of fun stuff including a train table which we saved until the end. Hailey covered his eyes and led him into the room where it was hiding. He's having so much fun playing with all his new stuff. Also got him the triox blocks and those are great! And my parents got him a emergency station type toy...basically a doll house for boys...and he and Avery love it!! I highly recommend it...all wood...and allows for lots of imaginative play. I put it in the family room right by the kitchen in hopes that when I am frantically cooking, cleaning, or doing laundry they could be entertained....and it's working great!

After gifts we went to Louies for dinner! Love that place...delish...and love that Wednesdays all kid's meals are 99 cents...not just one per adult but all the kids! Love that. And after the meal the waitress takes the kids to make their own ice cream cone! They love it.

It was a great day!S orry for the long post. Just a little test to see if anyone read all the way down....How many kids meals did we get for 99 cents? Put your answer in the comment section. ☺

Where's Fishie?

If you look closely Fishie is in each of these pictures. Who needs an American Girl Doll when you have a Bearded Dragon to play with? Fishie's Mama and Daddy take such good care of him....swinging him, singing to him, posing him with other toys, and putting him to bed.

And anyone want to come over for dinner.....umm...yeh...I did not OK Fishie on the kitchen table but did run and grab the camera after I screamed. I'm still the only one in the family not to lovingly hold or caress Fishie. My friend Angie tried to help but you just can't reprogram a 36 year old brain....I'm terrified of him. But thankfully everyone else in the house is in love with him!!