Holidays With These Two:

It's been snowing down here today, so I figured I'd put some of the kids playing in it on the blog. I also figured I'd post some of their funny things we heard from their mouths during the holidays. 

During Thanksgiving Gabe was talking to me one day and she said, 

"Mom when I grow up you can come to my house."

"Thanks Gabe. Can I come for Thanksgiving?"

"Yes! How about you come next Thanksgiving?"

 

When Daddy was on the roof putting up Christmas lights Gabe would yell up to him, 

"Dad you're way up on the roof. You're like a tiny mouse and the house is like a monster. I have to yell cause you're so small. You're like a tiny man."

 

This pose was Gabe's idea

She was wearing stick on earrings the day of our ward party. Before she left, I stayed home sick with Milo, one earring fell off. She was trying to find other stick on ones to wear. I told her not to worry about it. 

"But mom, it's a party. You have to wear pretty earrings to a Christmas party." 

Good to know. We never found any and she was bummed. 

 

They loved to play Santa and Reindeer. Especially Gabe. One day she asked Ollie, 

"Ollie can I be your Reindeer?"

"No."

"Okay, can I be your pet?"

"Mmmm, Yes."

"Okay, I'll be your pet reindeer ok?"

"Ok."

 

Around Thanksgiving time Ollie got obsessed with saying he wanted pie all the time. He didn't even like pie, so it was really funny. One morning I asked him if he wanted to help me make Daddy some eggs for breakfast. 

"Yes, and pie."

"Pie?"

"Yes Momma, eggs..pie."

He'll still occasionally tell us he wants pie. 

 

We've been having a lot of movie nights watching holiday movies lately. One day I asked Ollie what he wanted for dinner. 

"Popcorn!"

Merry Christmas!!!

Seriously, does it get much better than those excited faces? Christmas is so blasted fun with kids. Gabe was bouncing off the walls and Ollie was in awe of it all. 

 

Milo was so overstimulated so fast. Way too much noise and sights, and excitement. So he joined us in the beginning, and went back to bed a little into it. When he woke back up we opened stockings. 

 

 

Nothing beats a first Christmas. He loved the crinkle of the paper. 

 

 

We took turns opening like usual, which I love cause it makes things last longer. The kids were great about it as long as they could hold one of their presents while they waited for their turn. 

 

 The much awaited Princess Celestia. Gabe LOVES ponies, and has most of them except this one. So she was so relieved that Santa remembered to get her it. 

Santa was also nice to me. I got a new ipad mini. Adam got an iphone 5 this year, and for some reason we didn't take a picture. Whoops sorry babe. 

 

This was one of my favorite parts, when they opened the gifts they got for each other. Cute kids were so excited about it. 

 

 

Gabe told Adam on Christmas Eve that she just really wanted to see what coal from the North Pole looked like. Well Jolly, our elf overheard and brought her a piece even though she's been good. He wanted her to see how much more fun presents were than coal. She was over the coal as soon as it turned her hands black. ;)

 

This is some of our Christmas breakfast. We had some hot chocolate, scrambled eggs, and toast as well. Super yummy. We still haven't made a breakfast that we've made our traditional breakfast yet. We make something different each year, kinda whatever is easy and what we feel like eating. 

 

We let the other kids unwrap his last few gifts while he slept, they were happy to help. Then he finished up the little stuff in his stocking and enjoyed playing with his fun toys. 

 

 

It never fails, no matter what Gabe gets, dress up stuff will always be her favorite. She just loves to pretend, and we love that she has an awesome imagination. We thought about getting her some new dress up clothes, cause hers are falling apart from all the use they get, but we didn't. We thought we'd do that for her b-day. So we're glad Nana and Papa got her this. She had it on most of the day.

 

 

 

 

I did get a pic of him sitting up on his own on Christmas. Hurray! Good job Mi! He fell over soon after that, but he's getting pretty good. 

 

 

Love these three 

 

 

We don't make a big meal on Christmas day. We just munch. Ollie just got done consuming half the pickle dip Daddy made him. We aren't sure how he got it all over his pants, but at least he enjoyed it. 

I didn't take pictures the whole rest of the day. We were too busy playing with all the fun new stuff. It kept us super busy. Thanks to all, for the fun stuff. My kids got soooo spoiled. (too spoiled) That's what happens when you have so many loving grandparents, and aunts and uncles. Love you all. Merry Christmas!

Elf on the Shelf

This is Jolly our elf. I didn't take pictures every time. Just when I remembered. Gabe believed in him more as the month went along. We think? Still not sure if she totally was convinced, but she enjoyed finding him. Here are some of the places he hid. 

The elf seeds he brought that we planted in sugar and tree cookies grew a few days later. 

Ollie eating the elf seeds. :)

He brought his own stocking

He left Gabe a note telling her to stop being naughty, it didn't really work honestly. It did make her nervous she wasn't on the nice list though. 

This was her favorite. He turned our milk a festive green for Christmas time. She LOVED it. She asked him to do it again. He did red and green the next time. He didn't answer her request right away, cause she was naughty. When she was nice again, he did it for her. (this helps when you don't hear the request or forget) He also left it for her one more time Christmas eve. 

He went in a few different blinds. One night he took a picture with the kids while they were sleeping, and had a picture for them the next morning when they woke of him sharing their pillows. 

She thought it was funny he went in our room, don't mind my unfinished decor. I need a few more things. :)

Taking a nap the week we were all sick

The day it snowed he made a snow angel too, and built us a snowman from cotton candy. Then he let the kids eat the rest. 

He left the kids lots of notes, and even a video email from Santa, which Gabe LOVED. Especially since Santa told her she was on the nice list. She was a little worried. 

Christmas Eve

These were the jammies Aunt Laurel got Ollie a few years ago. They are a tad too small, but I had to put him in some for his first Christmas. He didn't mind as you can clearly see. I would have liked to get all the kids some, but it didn't happen this year. 

Our dinner took a little longer to get ready than normal. It didn't help I was trying to help a very sad Milo who is having new different ears issues. He was very unhappy. So Adam took over. Thanks babe, you're awesome! So we decided to read in Luke and sing, and talk about Christ's birth before dinner this year. The kids were a little hyper, but still got something out of it. We also watched a short nativity story clip from the church website. It helped seeing it as well. 

I kept making Milo smile for the pictures and he'd arch and Gabe would get mad at me cause he's big and would squish her. Oh these big-little brothers of hers.

Cute reindeer bum

We always have salad, corn, twice baked potatoes, and ham. We turn off the lights and light our candles on our silver tree. The kids love it. And we drink sparkling cider. 

The kids were so ready to go to bed. They were so tired. It doesn't matter how much we prepare, Christmas Eve always seems super busy for us. Gabe wanted to give Santa like eight cookies. She wasn't happy we only let her put out two. It seems to get trickier with Gabe getting older. We really have to watch what we say and do, cause she catches EVERYTHING. It is amazing. Makes me realize I need to enjoy these believing years as long as I can, cause we won't always have them. Luckily she's still young enough to fall asleep fast, and stays asleep. We were talking about how we need to enjoy it, cause in years to come we might be waiting until four or something to get things done.