Catch-Up Christmas

Whoo hoo!!  I finally have 2 things: 1) Time to blog and 2) a computer/picture/blog issue resolved so I can blog!  I'm so excited!

We got a new computer for Christmas and I am so happy to have it mainly because the boys love it.  There are so many websites that they can use the touch screen for and we have been having a blast trying out new sites and letting them use their motor skills to play the activities on the touch screen!

Anyway, I'm just going to pick up where I left off, because this blog is mainly for my memory keeping, so I definitely want to record our Christmas through pictures and words!

Last year we decided to make a new Christmas Eve tradition of going to Krispy Kreme to get snowman donuts!  Who doesn't like that tradition?!  Last year we also went to a movie, but it's so hard with little ones and there wasn't anything we were thrilled with, so we didn't go this year.  Maybe next year!

So, we started out our morning at Krispy Kreme!  We ran into our sweet friends there so our boys were thrilled to see their friends there.

Even though Noah couldn't eat any donuts this year, he was thrilled to be there!  He is exactly 6 months old here.  Time is flying by too quickly.

It's fun to watch donuts being made!

The boys love to get snowman donuts on Christmas Eve!  It's an awesome Christmtas treat!

Here they are last year after eating their snowman donuts.  I can't believe how tiny Matthew looks.

We ran into our friends at Krispy Kreme.  JM and Matthew were excited to see their friends there when we walked in!

After breakfast we didn't do too much. We stopped off at Walmart and then headed home for lunch and naptime.  After nap we gathered with a few friends for some yummy food and good times.  None of us had family in for the holidays, so it was nice to get together and celebrate Christmas!

Look how cute Nicole and Noah look!

Jackson loves the babies! He's so sweet with them.

After our get together, we came home and got our very tired boys into bed!  We had to get ready for Santa to come pay us a visit!

Santa came and enjoyed his milk and cookies that we left for him!

He also came bearing gifts for the boys for their Santa pile.  They were pretty good this year!

Christmas Fun!

I'm probably going to divide up our Christmas posts into a few different posts.  We did a lot of fun things leading up to Christmas.  I tried to make it a sweet, fun, and also teachable time for our boys. 

One fun thing we did was make a gingerbread house for the first time.  We've never done one and I think they loved it!  They really had a good time with it!  They tried to eat everything, but it turned out really cute!

 

Finished product, sorry the picture is sideways! I think it's pretty darn cute!

Matthew and Noah had some bonding time over the iPod.

Matthew is just a little bit obsessed with a bowling game we found for the iPod!  He loves it and walks around the house most days saying "bo-weeing" "Mama phone?...play bo-weeing!"

I have loved our manger scene.  I found it just like this early one morning!

I'm so glad they like it so much!  I'm especially glad we get to talk about Baby Jesus and why He was so important and special!  JM told me just today as he was playing it..."Mom, Baby Jesus is soooo special"!

John Michael's preschool had their Christmas play!  I was so excited/nervous, I thought I was going to throw up.  I have no idea why!  I guess I was just realizing for the first time that he's not such a little guy anymore and I've got to let him go out into a big, scary world!  Yikes!

The play was precious and he practiced his songs with us the night before.  He did a great job! 

Can you spot him in the pictures?!

I think this was my favorite one of him!

Gaga was up for a visit, so we all got to see him in his first play!

The boys got to go see Santa.  Poor Baby Noah was sacked out asleep in the car with Bop, so we didn't wake him up to see Santa.  JM got very brave and decided he was ready to sit on Santa's lap like the other boys and girls.  He did a great job and politely asked for his remote control monster truck.  I was really proud of him for deciding to go see him and talk with him! As you can tell, Matthew would just barely sit on a rocking horse in front of Santa!  He is so silly!  He also did pretty well for being terrified of Santa!

The Southern Mama in me just HATED that they weren't in matching Christmas outfits, but it was a spur of the moment thing and I guess it truly doesn't matter anyway!

Tons more Christmas pictures and posts to come if I ever get the time and energy to actually sit down and blog.  Parts of November and into December have been pretty rough on me sleepwise.  I hate complaining about it, but it's just a really hard time of year anyway and it was just truly exhausting for me getting very little sleep and have 3 little ones 3 and under.  I enjoyed parts of it, but generally I've been bone-tired exhausted for about a month now.  I'm very much looking forward to 2012 and hopefully catching up on some much-needed sleep!  Maybe we'll vacation during Christmas next year!  It's definitely a thought!

There's 3!

 

 

 

 

Sometimes....

I still can't believe we have 3 boys!  Life is a zoo around here lately!

Christmas 'Round Here

A few weeks ago I thought it would be fun to host a Christmas Open House at our house.  I thought it would be neat to just have hot chocolate, goodies, cake, and punch and have our friends drop by throughout the night.  Keeping it low-key was important for this stressed Mama!  It turned out really great!  We had a great time and I really enjoyed having our home filled with Christmas cheer, happy, smiling faces of our friends, and good food!

So, we invite you to take a peek at our house all dressed up for Christmas!  None of our family members ever really get to see it all decked out for the holidays!  Here goes...

We had more decorations outside this year than we have had any other year.  I really have loved our little set of a buck and a doe.  They're sweet together! We have our little sled with presents on it and Jordan worked really hard on getting some lights on our little bushes.  I appreciate all the work he did to connect everything into one central location so that all I have to do is click a button on a remote!  Awesome!

We had little luminaries out to welcome our guests to our house!

My favorite part of our outdoor decorations is our sweet manger flag.  Matthew looked at it and said "baby Desus!" 

We've been working on Christmas art as part of our Advent celebration (more on that in another blog post).  The boys painted Christmas trees and then we stuck them in paper towel rolls and displayed them in our front entryway.  I also put up Christmas cards from years past and a funny picture of Matthew with Santa from last year.

I decided to make a quick, super easy coffee table centerpiece that afternoon.  I put some cranberries on this cute server and put 2 leftover "fake" candles in the center.  Hey, with kids, it's the only candles we're having anytime soon!

Jordan made a beautiful picture of our Christmas tree that I love to hate.  I pretty much hate this tree, but most years I try and tell myself it's not what Christmas is about.  It's really a lesson in patience for me and also giving to others what a new, pricey tree would cost (new trees can be PRICEY!!). It truly IS better to give than to receive.  Maybe we'll get another new, beautiful tree for next year.  Maybe we won't.  Who knows.  Either way, our boys really don't care as long as we plug that tree in everyday and feel the warm glow that comes from Christmas cheer!

Our mantle with nutcrackers, berries, lights, flickering candles, and all of our stockings hung with care.  Except for Noah's.  Lillian Vernon still hasn't shipped it to us.  Jordan's mom brought him a random one to use, so his doesn't match all of the others.

Everytime I have ordered a new stocking for a new baby I get so happy and feel so giddy.  It is so surreal to hang a 3rd stocking up on our mantle!

Here's a clustering of the boys' 3 trees.  Originally, I was going to put them in their rooms, but this just worked out better, and safer as well! We all know how Matthew can destroy a tree in no time at all!

Just a fun way to display leftover Christmas balls.

Here's everything right before everyone arrived!  We had all kinds of chocolate dipped goodies, little cheesecake bites, haystacks, lil' smokies in the crockpot, green pepepr jelly with crackers, and a yummy pound cake (Jordan's mom made it, I can't claim it!) with peppermint glaze on top!

I had some hot chocolate with candy canes ready to go as well as water, sweet tea, and a WONDERFUL punch.  It was slushy, tart and just right! 

I was only able to put out part of my Christmas village because I just couldn't find room for the rest of it.  I made this little ball wreath and it's a little "special" for sure.  I need to leave that one to the professionals!

And for fun (and also to be easy) I made a table centerpiece out of fresh fruits.  I just threw in some cranberries, cinnamon sticks, oranges, and greenery along with the pineapple.  It literally took 2 minutes to do it!

I may have to have another Holiday Open House next year.  It was so much fun and I think everyone enjoyed themselves!  Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas, Y'all!

Merry Christmas.....

and a Happy New Year to you and yours!

"The virgin will be with child and will give birth to a son, and they will call him Immanuel"—which means, "God with us."