Christmas

Christmas Eve
Our Christmas eve consisted of riding bikes in the culdesac, dinner, driving around to see lights (we have several of those houses in our city that have TONS of lights are set to music etc, pretty fun to watch--Heidi exclaimed "WOW, WOW, WOW, WOW, WOW!" in her tiny high pitched voice over and over--made the drive worth it) dessert, opening pj's that I tried to make for the kids (Nicole's nightgown she can wear for the next few years since I tried to size it up a bit--woops, patterns run large and she is small) Nicole playing Christmas songs on the piano while we sang, reading the Christmas story and finally BED!! Wow were they wound up. Fortunately they were up later than usual and went right to sleep for the most part.







Here are their visions of sugar plums:




Devouring the stockings:




And present time!






Santa brought a Foosball, air hockey, pool, ping pong table for the kids.

Wagon rides

Isaac trying out his erector set
Nicole trying out my gift!
Daddy trying out Isaac's gift--those skate boarding skills still come in handy at times
Hoping all these will keep Nicole occupied for the break
And our Lego Maniac hard at work

Christmas/wedding outfits

Aunt Cady is get married in February, so the kids got wedding outfits early so they could double as Christmas outfits too! Unfortunately our camera has issues with inside pictures. One year olds also have issues with pictures after church.

Too bright, can't see their faces, sorry.



Blurry.
Done with the pictures.
One minus the baby.
A few more of the baby to make up for the others.

December Miracle

Miracles do happen . . . I posted within weeks of my last post. Don't raise your expectations though. I can't promise it will happen again--although with Christmas coming there is a good chance.

Curt took the kids sledding yesterday on the other side of the mountains (40 minutes,) and we've got one picture to prove it. Heidi and I enjoyed a nice quiet afternoon of playing littlest pet shops and reading books together.




Isaac in his Kindergarten Christmas program. I'm a little irked all my pictures turned out blurry, but I did get a video of the whole thing! So cute, with hand motions for almost every song. Isaac has been singing them around the house for the last month-ish. We all have "I want a hippopotamus for Christmas" stuck in our heads.
I feel like all we've been doing this month is trying to keep up with our advent calendars and whose turn it is for which one. We've got a lego one from Grandma S, a felt nativity one from Grandma P, and a sock one that I put up with different activities or little things in them. A few of the favorites have been the Christmas pillowcases I made, making paper snowflakes, and sleeping under the Christmas tree.
Super cool flashlights from Grandma S.
Heidi's first pony tails. I guess it is the second, but I couldn't find the charged batteries for the camera the first time.


Stay tuned for some dance move videos from Heidi . . .

November

Wow, November flew by as it always does. A few highlights . . .
A MUCH needed, NOT long enough, and VERY FUN girls weekend. We left on a Friday night to El Paso and came back Sunday afternoon after we attended church. We hiked, explored UTEP campus, contemplated crossing the border--well only a few of the crazy ones-- ate great food, stayed up too late, went to a movie, shopped, and never was there a lull in the conversation!





Isaac and one of his 100 turkey decorations he made this year. Thank goodness for kindergarten we have homemade decorations for EVERY holiday! Even Hanukkah!

Heidi the bean sorter.
After playing in the leaves with the big kids.


Curt took the week of Thanksgiving off to work on the house. He tore down all the beams off of the ceiling (don't worry we plan to patch and paint up there) --they weren't supporting the house, so off they went. He primed and painted the living room. Installed molding, door frames and baseboards throughout the house--minus the bedrooms, that will come later, and got the baseboards painted in the living room. During Christmas break he will finish the molding, do all the touch up painting and maybe patch the ceiling. The carpet will be going in the next 6 months-ish too. Exciting!! Especially when we have company coming for Thanksgiving dinner and all the bookshelves, books, couches etc. got put back Thanksgiving morning!


Aunt Cady comes to visit for Thanksgiving. Next time we see her she will be a married woman! And yes Sabrina, we did have room for her AND her ring. . . but just barely. :) She helped a ton, and played many more than her fair share of "Sorry" games with the kids. It was nice to have some relaxing time to visit with her. I just hope we didn't bore her, or scare her away from having kids. :)



Heidi playing her role as "the lone rearranger" as my Grandpa Nielsen used to say.





This picture is for my mom. She made me this sweater dress when I was Nicole's age. Nicole has been dying to wear it and I finally washed it so she could.