De- Christmas-ing Day

I do love the Christmas spirit. And I'm the first to admit that I love decorating the day after Thanksgiving. But perhaps, the day that brings me the most joy, is the day after Christmas. The day everything comes down!

I've not always been this on top of things.... but today I just felt like getting it all put away. Karen left today (so sad!) and when Lee/Amy headed to the airport, the first thing Will and I did was hit Target. Usually you can score some good after Christmas finds. But Target decor was lame this year and aside from a few rolls of gift wrap, we didn't leave with anything. (Except a package of toilet paper which I LEFT on the bottom of the cart. I didn't notice it until this evening. sniff, sniff. Lee said that maybe someone who really needed it found it. I hope so, but I'm slightly irritated that now I have to go buy more).

After that, Will took a nap and I got to work! The kids gifts were all put away, decor came down, everything was consolidated and packaged, and the gingerbread house was thrown away (it was too disgusting to even try and eat). Lee stayed home today (headed back to school tomorrow to do more dissertation work) so I used and abused him. He put everything in the attic and took a trip to Goodwill. It's soooo nice to have everything back in order! I must be nesting- I all of a sudden feel like getting really organized.

Hello loving room.....

Hello kitchen.....

The only thing left is Frosty. He was still damp from frost last night, so I need to let him dry out before packing him away. Will is pleased, he loves playing with the stabilizing strings.

I can't believe 2012 is only a few days away! And it's hard to believe that the next time we get all this 'stuff' out, there will be a 9 month old crawling around. It's amazing all the changes that a new year brings!

Christmas Day

Merry Christmas!!

We had a great Christmas day. The kids got spoiled by Santa and Granny Santa and had a ball opening all their stuff. Will was in stimulation overload and Amy willingly helped him open his gifts.

Here was the living room this morning after Santa's visit....

Unfortunately, I don't have many pictures of the kids opening their gifts. I took charge of the video camera and that left Lee with the regular camera. Lee has many talents, but photography isn't one of them. He doesn't hold the camera still and most pictures he took ended up blurry....

Will quickly noticed all the candy and helped himself to all he could get

We have do have plenty of video though and I'm working on editing that to post.

This afternoon we took the kids outside to ride their new bikes. Amy has never really had an opportunity to ride a bike, so she's rather new to it. She did really well! And Will got a motorized car thing and he loved driving all around in it.

 playing with Aqua Sand. Some crazy stuff that forms shapes underwater and turns dry when it touches air

Will did not sleep at all last night. In fact, his screaming/crying woke up Amy and then she was also up for awhile. So we were all pretty tired this morning... and all took naps later on in the day. I'm still not up to speed, but hopefully he'll sleep good tonight and we can all get our much needed rest. We think he's getting a cold and he hasn't really wanted to eat. So hunger and illness is what we think kept him up.

But other than that, it's been a wonderful Christmas day. Granny loved watching the kids open all of their stuff. And we've enjoyed having her here.

We hope you had a wonderful day as well!

Christmas Eve

Aunt Lynn will be happy... once again I laid on the couch and did NOTHING (but watch holiday movies).  Although today I realized why I never do it- because when I do, NOTHING gets done! Sure, it's good to be lazy every now and then but wow- I certainly take it to the next level! I am a person that definitely needs to stay busy! I had to pull myself off the couch to get started on dinner!

Lately Will loves bags, he'll put any bag he sees over his shoulder and say "Bye, Bye!" Then walk to a door. Thank goodness he can't unlock them yet!

Karen brought some face paint with her and this morning her and Amy had some face painting time.

For dinner..... I made my first ham! Well... kinda. Karen bought it (I would have no idea what to get) and I re-heated it (it came fully cooked- do they all??). But it was good. And I was proud of myself. haha. Normally I'm a vegan at heart, but for some reason baby Tyler loves his meat. I have to admit, I can't wait for him to come out so I can get back to my no meat ways. Anyhow- it was good. We had ham, mashed potatoes, steamed carrots, crescent rolls and jello. What I realized about having a big dinner at your own house- is that I got to make/eat what I wanted.... things I find traditional. Like Pillsbury crescent rolls... I know I can make pretty good rolls from scratch, but nothing compares to Pillsbury!

I also love the British tradition of Christmas crackers. You pull them apart and a toy, hat and joke/riddle is inside. We all loved wearing our hats while we ate!

I like traditions, especially on Christmas Eve. So after dinner it was time for them, things like reading the Christmas story from Luke, and 'The Night Before Christmas'. We opened our Secret Santa gifts- from the Ben Nagels. They were great- thanks guys!! Tonight also is our last night of Sam and Zoey- our Elves, and they were so kind to leave us gifts! New pajamas for all!

Then Amy made some Reindeer food and filled Santa's plate. Her Secret Santa gift was some bendaroos- (wax like strings that bend) so Amy was kind enough to use them and make a gift for Santa. It's a reindeer.

Then the kiddo's were off to bed! They all all nestled snug in their beds... anxiously waiting for Santa to arrive!

Week of Christmas- Day 5.... Granny and Opryland

Granny came today! Lee and Amy went and picked her up from the airport and Will took a nap. That meant, yes- I had a few hours completely by myself in a quiet house! What to do, what to do??!! You should know, Aunt Lynn, that I SAT on the couch and watched a movie. Well, the end of one I started a long time ago. It was quite nice to sit and do NOTHING. See!?! It does happen sometimes. haha.

There aren't any pictures this time... I guess I never remembered to pull out my camera...... After Granny got here, everyone had short naps and we headed to the Opryland hotel. Karen (and us) had heard about all sorts of great Christmas lights.

Laughing at her huge jacket. Someone gave this to us and it is one size too big for her.

But it's warm, so she'll live with it this year. :) 

We got to the hotel, wandered around and for the life of us could not understand the draw of it. Sure, it's a huge hotel with a river inside, whoop de do. I was less than impressed. And lights?? Ummm... there are more Christmas lights in our neighborhood. So sorry to anyone that adores that place- we didn't find it that amazing. Maybe it's different if you spend the night?? I have no idea. It was crazy crowed too and we kept wondering what everyone was doing. But it's definitely not worth the drive and parking fee to just walk around.

The kids were troopers, Amy just walked around and never once complained. Will was mildly okay in his stroller. Although the place really isn't stroller friendly, so someone had to hold him most of the time. By the time we left it was 8pm and we hadn't eaten yet. So we went to Chili's and got it to go. Here is our Chili's dinner.... at our kitchen table...

So that's was it for the day. Wish the lights would've been more spectacular, but that's ok. It was fun to spend time with Granny.

Yesterday we had the trundle bed pulled out for Karen to sleep on. When it's out, it makes a kind of fort with the other bed and the kids would crawl under the big one and play. I guess Will didn't realize the difference because last night he crawled under the short one!

Hahaha. It was so funny. He didn't think so and cried and cried. He's so little though, so he wasn't really stuck- he just thought he was. Turns out he was going after a ball. Crazy kid.

We can't wait for Christmas Eve tomorrow!!

Week of Christmas- Day 4...... Doughnuts!

In response to Aunt Lynn, yes the boys Mom did have their baby yesterday. A beautiful little girl. Their Dad took them to see her last night and then brought them back to spend the night. This morning they were up early! Lee went to turn on the tv for them and he noticed Caleb's eye. The kid had a black eye! It was almost swollen shut and had these cuts around it. It was the weirdest thing! And I know he didn't go to bed like that. We have no idea what happened, we never heard him fall off the bed, and he certainly never cried. But we feel badly that we are returning an injured boy to his parents today! I swear we didn't beat him!

I think the 2nd 'day of service' is the hardest... that's when everyone is tired and starting to get bored. And that certainly describes this morning. I am really tired and a little more cranky than usual. Luckily the kids are pretty good, the only issues we have is keeping them quiet when Will is asleep. Both of my kids are light sleepers, and Will definitely needs his naps.

So when Will went down for a nap, I put a Christmas movie on (a new one from Netflix) and made doughnuts. I've never made them before but saw an easy idea on Pinterest, using biscuit dough. That's all you do, cut a hole in a biscuit and stick it in heated oil. I've never fried anything in my life (I may have been raised in the south, but I'm a yankee by blood and we don't fry) so I was surprised how easy it was.

The kids enjoyed them.... I should say devoured them. I had no idea they were that hungry, oops!

Will was taking a nap, but we saved some for him. Speaking of Will- he cracks us up.... lately he's been into being really "independent." He doesn't like drinking from a sippy cup (though he kind of still needs one), he always wants to use a fork, doesn't really want his crib, wants to climb on everything and refuses to sit in his booster seat. Like this morning, everyone was done eating when he woke up, but an hour later he climbed into Amy's seat and helped himself to her leftovers. Notice his seat is empty and he refused to go into it.

I guess it's time for another one! This little guy is growing too quickly!

Week of Christmas- Day 3..... Friends and Play

Today my friend Linda was scheduled to be induced and have her baby. Over a month or two ago she asked if I could watch her 2 boys should she go into labor. Then things progressed and her doctor said that inducing would be fine (she was technically "due" tomorrow). So her and her husband brought their boys here at 5am, as they needed to be at the hospital by 5:30am.

The boys were W.I.D.E awake when they got here, no going back to bed for me! I put a movie on and piled them on the couch.

My Christmas tree shaped chocolate chip pancakes were a hit!

So, it's been a day of play around here! Lee has been at school all week feverishly working to finish his dissertation. So it was just me with Amy (almost 5), Dallin (5 in March), Caleb (3) and Will (18 mos). Wow- what a loud day today was! The kids had lots of fun- running and running and running and running. I don't think my hallway has ever seen so much action.

For me it was a day of continuously cooking a meal and being the "Mom." By 8:30am, I was already exhausted. The kids were all really good though. At 10am Dallin asked if he could go to sleep, of course I said and enthusiastic "YES!!!" He and his brother slept for 3 hours. (Notice neither of our kids asked to go to sleep).

This is how I kept their cups in check.....

We were going to do something fun tonight, but I decided to save it for tomorrow.  Linda's husband decided to stay with her tonight, so the boys are spending the night as well. So I'm sure I'll need to pull out some tricks! Thankfully Lee will be home all day tomorrow and that will be a HUGE help!! (I can't wait for next year when he won't have a dissertation to complete over Christmas break... he can just have a month off to hang out with us!!)

Oh- and in case you are wondering about sleeping arrangements..... Amy is in her room, Dallin and Caleb are in the twin beds in Will's room and I moved Will's crib into our room. So there is plenty of space if anyone ever wants to come stay! :)

In other news- since this was an uneventful post (though NOT an uneventful day!) here are some pictures that I haven't posted yet.....

Will is our cuddler. When you take him out of his crib, he first hands you his blanket and pillow. Then he wants to snuggle up with you on the couch, or in this chair by himself. Such a cutie!!

This is the mantle idea I had for the stockings. Actually someone else mentioned it and I just copied theirs. I just added vinyl to a white board I found in the garage. Then bought the drawer pulls for $ .25 each at the Re Home Store. I have a 5th one, but Will wandered off with it and we can't seem to find it.... Oh, and I only found 2 stockings as well. We do have more.... but I can't find anything lately...... (plus, secretly I don't care because I want to buy some different ones for next year)

I have a video of opening this gift, but I'll post it later. Aunt Donna/Uncle Mike sent the kids a little something.... and a little surprise for me too. In Amy's gift was this book on Panda's. She won't stop looking at it. She LOVES it. Especially the page with a newborn panda. She said, "When I grow up like Taylor (Swift) and be an animal doctor, I'm going to get to hold one of these!" Thanks guys- this was the perfect book for her!!

And Will is obsessed with the Secret Santa gift. He carries it around everywhere... and it's a little heavy for him so you hear him grunting as he comes down the hallway. I put it under the tree thinking the plain box wouldn't entice him.... I was wrong. Oh- and Ben/Ashley I saw your comment about opening it up. We'll do that tomorrow when our friends leave. Don't want them to get too jealous. :)

So that was Day 3. :)