The Big Day!

Well it's over again, all the decorations are down and our house now looks empty (except for the kids rooms of course). It is always bitter sweet isn't it? We had a great Christmas and really enjoyed the whole day. I will start with Christmas eve, it was just our little family. Matt had to work during the day so I kept the kids busy helping me bake cookies for Santa and watching all the Christmas shows on the Disney channel. Matt got off a little early and so we started our party. I had to dress Sadi up in her adorable Christmas outfit, even had matching shoes! One of our traditions that I love is each person has to come up with a Christmas related game to play. It is always fun to see what everyone comes up with. I had to help Chase and Sadi this year but they love any game so it was really fun. Sadi's game was pin the nose on the snowman..

Chase had us each rip a tree out of paper behind our back, he got to be the one to say go and stop , and pick the winner.

We also played Christmas Scatergories, made some funny elves, and Kelsey had a fun game she had made up as well that involved pencil stealing, which if any of you know she and Matt are very competitive so they really enjoyed that.

The kids tracked Santa on the internet...that man is quick!

I had Kelsey snap a picture of Matt and I, this is one of only maybe 2 I have from the whole year of us together. She is getting to be a good little photographer.

After eating till our bellies were full, I remembered we still needed to frost those cookies for Santa. Sadi was all about the frosting and not about the giving any to Santa! She left that for Chase and Kelsey.

Chase dropped them on the floor but we decided Santa wouldn't mind! Matt told Chase he should call Santa on the phone and tell him to come over. Chase was ready to call him right away, I'm not sure he really believed him when he said he would come, and Chase was not that excited when Santa really did show up!! Kelsey was happy to see him and sit on his lap.

Chase was not about to sit on his lap, but he did let Santa sit by him when he told him he had something for him.

And poor Sadi, just wanted the candy cane, she could not get away from him fast enough.

After that it was time for bed! Morning came to quickly for everyone. We had to wake up the kids at 4:30 because Matt had to work early. They were excited but tired. Here they are lined up (youngest to oldest of course that's the rules). Want to know what Christmas looks like this early?

Of course these glum faces faded the second they made it to the end of the hall and saw what Santa had left. In Chase's words "Holy Moly". Once again Santa was good to them. Kelsey got her i-pod complete with accessories.

She also got clothes, and the first two books of the the Twilight series, so when she was not rockin us out to her tunes, she was behind her book!

Chase and Sadi got a sizzle and serve kitchen with a barbecue attached to it. It is really cute with two sides. Here is Sadi cooking something up in the oven and serving Chase at the bar. I was exhausted by the end of the day from eating and drinking so much of their meals they made for me.Sadi got some cute princess dolls and a tea set so she could have tea parties. Can you spot the princess?

A princess hug!

Chase got a firehouse with a fire truck, ambulance, and rescue helicopter so he was busy saving lives all day.

The day was fun and exhausting. They were excited to put on their new PJ's Grandma Smith made for them but not to go to bed. Grandma even made Chase's bear a matching pair of pj's.

It was a great Christmas, one we will remember for a long time. Hope you all had a nice Christmas, we missed seeing all of you!

Our Super Star..

Kyle's Basketball team won their championship game and had their teams picture posted in the newspaper. Kyle was the top score maker for his team. He loves to play and we wish we were able to be there to see him play. Check him out in his first newspaper debut...

Who needs Gingerbread?

Last night we helped the kids all make their own gingerbread house (even though we did not use gingerbread). I was not about to spend all day making gingerbread that probably wouldn't turn out right anyway. I was going to buy the pre-assembled house that came with everything at Wal-mart for $10 but forgot when we were there yesterday. So while I was making dinner, Matt went on a mission to buy everything we needed for under ten dollars. I seriously doubted that he could do it but, surprisingly he bought graham crackers, frosting, and wayyyyy to much candy and actually only went over budget by .28! Impressive right? Here are the kids masterpieces......Okay so Sadi had a little help.

Chase did his decorating all by himself.

Kelsey's complete with tree and all wanted to eat hers before it was even finished.

The perfect tree

This year we decided to get a real tree, I finally convinced Matt to do it and that it would be fun. It helped I guess that our artificial tree fell apart at the yard sale I had. So we got our tree permit and along with our very vague map they gave us we set out looking for the perfect tree. I had envisioned the perfect day, the perfect weather, the perfect scene. We would bundle the kids up head out in the snow and into the forest to cut our perfect tree. Well it didn't quite turn out that way, it was warm(no need for coats), the map led us to miles and miles of well, not a forest, more like the abandoned desert. No walking through a forest, more like carry the kids and listen for rattlesnakes. And try to find a tree in this..... This was zoomed photo after driving for oh an hour! See any Christmas trees? If you look close you can see the wild horses, saw lots of those. We did find a few okay ones with stumps the size of Texas!! No thanks. Guess where we found our perfect tree? The parking lot of Smith's, can you believe it? Yes, the most beautiful tree was there. It made me remember so many memories of going with my Dad down to Fred Meyer every year to pick out a tree, he would always pick the same kind of tree (Blue Spruce) no matter how hard I bugged him to buy a poofey one. He would show me how to check the needles, bending the branches back and running his hand along it to see how many needles came off in your hand. Then the torture of watching it sit in the garage because Dad didn't want to put it up to early. I do love remembering that time with Dad.

Matt making his own memories, cutting his finger while cutting the stump off.

Here it is, 8 feet of lustrous fir, oh there is nothing like the smell of a real Christmas tree, I love going outside just to come back in to smell it.

After it was all decorated.

The kids have their own little trees to decorate with all of their ornaments, here is Kelsey with hers.

Chase and Sadi's tree. I hope they have great memories as they get older as both Matt and I do.

Fun on Vacation

While in California for Thanksgiving we decided to take advantage of their beautiful weather. We took a trip to Palos Verdes to visit Matt's parents and took the kids to the aquarium near their apartment. It was really fun. Here are some pictures of the day. Here are the kids, big and small petting all the sea life in their outdoor petting pools. This was the first time taking Chase to an aquarium, and he loved being able to touch things!! Here he is petting a star fish.

Grandpa showed him how to survive a shark attack....

So now he's ready to hit the surf right?

All the kids were engulfed by a great white shark...

My favorite part(okay it was all my favorite) was walking across the parking lot to the ocean!!! Sadi took off running for the ocean just like Chase. She however biffed it hard on her head and ate a mouthful of sand.

They wish they could be California girls!!! Check out the view!!! Can't wait to go back!

Gobble Good Turkey Day

We hope you all had a nice Thanksgiving, we were happy to spend time with some of you, missed seeing the rest of you. Since I had nothing to cook this year, I took a craft to do with the kids. I used a small clay pot to make my turkey body, we cut out foam pieces for the head, feathers, and feet, and used googly eyes for the face. They turned out really cute and the kids had fun making them. Then before dinner time I filled them with trail mix, they make a cute table favor. Here is what they looked like... And here are all of the kids on the gobble day with theirs. Thanks Uncle "D" for letting us mess up your house this year!!

Pilgrims Hats

Check out our cute pilgrim hats we made out of Marshmallows, YUMM. This picture did not turn out that well but of course there are no more to take pictures of now. I thought this would be a fun thing for the kids to make to get them excited about Thanksgiving. I simply used a fudge striped cookie turned upside down, with a Marshmallow dipped in chocolate and I didn't have any yellow frosting for the buckle so I improvised and used a yellow starburst. They actually turned out pretty cute and easy to make.Sadi could not wait to dig into hers. And Chase wasted no time eating as many as I would let him.

The best part, eating your artwork! So if you need an easy idea for Thanksgiving fun, here you go!

Twilight the movie

I took Kelsey to see the movie Twilight today. I had heard everyone say how great the book was and how their daughters loved it, so when Kelsey brought the book home from school I snatched it up and read it. I have to admit I didn't really love it and could care less if I read the next book. I kept my opinions to myself however since Kelsey was still reading it.....weeks and weeks later she still has not finished it. I guess she really couldn't get into it and for her that is unusual, she was reading a book about every few days so when she never did finish she just said can't you just tell me how it ends, I told her maybe I would have to just take her to the movie to see. I have to say I loved the movie...it is almost unheard of to go to a movie of a book you have read and not like the book better, this is definitely one of those. I actually left the movie thinking I would have to read the next book. I loved all the actors they chose to play the different characters. It even had a surprise I did not see coming so if you haven't seen it yet go, and if you have, what did you think?

Coloring Fun...

I have been working on some super cute coloring books for the kids to take on vacation over Thanksgiving. I stole the idea from Laura's blog but added my own touches. I printed out all kinds of Thanksgiving coloring pages for all the books but put in some more challenging puzzles for the older kids. I downloaded the pictures from a free coloring site. I then took different colored fall scrap booking paper to make the covers, then used leaf pages for the binding and added my own touch by cutting out their names in the same leaf paper. I bought some leaf stickers also for them to decorate them with which I let Chase do already because he is dying to have his. I am hoping they keep them entertained for a long time. Here they are....

As you can tell I did not for see how little room I would have to paste their names. Kelsey's name did not fit sideways but I decided I liked the way it made them all look a little different.Chase is so proud of his sticker artwork, I may have to get some more stickers for the inside.

If the shoe fits..

Our kids love to wear Daddy's shoes, well I guess any ones shoes if they are left out (which would only be Daddy). I love to hear Matt say where are my shoes? I can only reply well where did you leave them? You would think he would learn his lesson! Here is Chase sporting Daddy's sneakers.You know they fight over everything so of course Sadi would need to wear them too at the same time. No matter how big the shoe sometimes you still have to cram your foot in....

Oh Kirby!

So, I was home last night with the kids (Matt was at work) and there was a knock at the door. I answered to a Kirby man. I don't know if I have been in seclusion to long but was unfamiliar with what Kirby is exactly. I know on countless occasions they have left a flyer on my door, however all it says is about carpet cleaning (I have always assumed they did carpet cleaning). Anyway this kid wants to know if he can carpet clean one room for free....now at this point I usually say no thank you, I am not a sucker! But he continues to say that they are opening a new store want to get more customers, and are training new employees and don't want to sell me anything would just like it if I tell people about their business if I think they do a good job. The whole time I am listening I am thinking of our rug in the family room and how I have been procrastinating getting it cleaned. So what can it hurt right, they don't want to sell me anything and I will get my rug cleaned for free. Come on in.....BIG MISTAKE! He is now putting together a vacuum system..I am not seeing a steam cleaner, etc. just lost of parts and big ones for that matter. And then the talking begins, and the let me show you this and that, and blah, blah, blah. They could not believe I have never heard about Kirby or know anyone who owns one. Anyway an hour into the demo...still hasn't started cleaning the rug, he shows me the price list for this Kirby..............$2500.00.............YES I said $2500.00! And that is just for the vacuum, not the parts!!! That is EXTRA!! At this point I was really not interested in even listening anymore. I told them politely that I really was not interested in buying one and reminded them that they had assured me they were not going to try to sell me anything. They pushed and pushed claiming this was a lifetime warranty, blah, blah, blah. Do they know how many vacuums I could buy in my lifetime for that kind of money? Anyway 2 hours later they left...with not surprisingly not a dime of my money, and I got my rug cleaned (not a great job I might add). I ended up pulling out my old vacuum after they left to clean the mess they left. So the moral....if you have not hear of Kirby, now you have been for-warned. Do not be fooled as I was, DO NOT let them in!!!!

Little Monkey

This is Sadi's latest stunt....climbing on the kitchen table!!! It makes me crazy, she does it all day (I am not at all exaggerating). She moves the chair out and up she goes.Last night she was reaching for what? The chandelier!!! I truly think she is the dare devil of all the kids and I am sure she will break something long before Chase.You know when to go running to see what she is doing because she is proud as well and will yell "Tah Dah" at the top of her lungs. She keeps me busy keeping her out of things all day!