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!!