Christmas

We had a lazy morning then headed over to the grandparent's house for gifts and dinner. Lucy was so sweet and snuggly for her first Christmas!

Lyla was THRILLED with her kitchen! She's call it "Lyla's house"

Aunt Lyndsay helping the girls with their gifts

All three boys got new bikes!

We were so excited to see snow on Christmas day in GA! So rare and made Lucy's first Christmas even better!

My Aunt Lee was in town from FL and helped the kids make this awesome relish tray tree! ha!

We got home after dark, but Jeff and Brodey still were able to build a snowman! (I obviously wasn't out there or that boy would have had his jacket zipped up!)

Christmas Eve

We spent Christmas Eve laying around the house and finishing up some gift wrapping. That afternoon we went to the Christmas Eve service at church, then picked up dinner on the way home.

We told the kids they could open their gifts from the neighbors after we finished dinner... they were done eating in 5 seconds flat. Amazing. Then they waited like this for us to finish....

Then we laid down and watched a Christmas show! Merry Christmas!

Done! And just in time!

This year for Christmas we were looking for a kitchen for the girls. A friend who knows how we like to make things sent me a picture of a kitchen she saw online made out of a nightstand. We just so happened to have a sad old nightstand taking up space in a closet! So for very little money we went from this....

To this.... !!!!

The lighting in our workroom wasn't the best for pictures.. but you get the idea. I found the window looking mirror at the thrift store for less than $4 and painted it with some left over paint I found in the basement. The burners are old scratched up CD's with red sharpie drawn on them, the faucet is a wood letter "J" from Michael's, all the knobs were from the original nightstand with some silver spray paint on them and all the hardware we got at Home Depot for cheap! Sooooo fun to make!

Random things that still need to be documented :)

Every year we take the kids on a "tour of trees" to see every family members Christmas tree. I only had my camera for our stop.. but I'll get more pics from my sister from the other stops.

While making cookies one night Lyla was upset that I was too busy to paint her fingernails. I turned away from the oven for a second and found Jeff painting them! Daddy of the year.

This is our Elf. Brock affectionately named him "Mr. Hunkel" ?????? Brodey is a little freaked out by him and hides from him. Brock will sit in front of Mr. Hunkel all afternoon carrying on the funniest conversations. In particular I overheard him say, "Mr. Hunkel, will you please tell santa to put some candy in my "sock-ing", my mom ate all mine." :/

Again.. daddy of the year. All four in his lap is not an uncommon occurrence.

Lyla and I were baking cookies AND popping popcorn one morning.. she was so excited she found this little spot to sit and watch both! (I know.. very odd outfit)

School Parties

Look at those sweet girls getting ready to hang out at school.

The girls and I ran through Brodey's class real fast and waved, then ran down to Brock's class just in time for the feast (their parties were at the same time AGAIN).

After the feast and handing out teacher gifts we all (Brock too) ran down to Brodey's class for the rest of his party. I only got one picture once we got in there because I was trying to keep up with all my stuff, all their stuff, and all those kids! (Both of Brock's teachers came in separately with things I had forgotten in Brock's class.... arrrggg. Can't take me anywhere) ;)

I'm very thankful for the very helpful teachers and parents in both their classes. (side note.. at least FIVE of the families in Brodey's class... out of 15... have four kids! So I was in good company with my traveling circus.)

Kindergarten Christmas Program

Brodey's school put on a FANTASTIC Christmas program this year (and every year). The 4 and 5 year old classes sang several songs and the the Kindergarten class came out and acted out the story of Jesus' birth. Brodey was a wise man and did a wonderful job. And he was sooooooo adorable on stage. ;)

We got there early so we would get great seats. And had a few extra minutes so we took a few pictures in front of huge tree in the foyer.

Lucy loooooved the program and didn't make a sound for the whole thing. All the kids did really watching and being quiet.. it was amazing! Lyla was hilarious. When the younger kids where filing on the stage she yelled out "there's Cooper! I see him!" (Cooper was not on stage... he was actually sitting right next to her). A few seconds later she yelled out.. "Look! There's Lyla!"... She obviously wasn't on stage, and we don't know any other Lylas.. so I'm not sure what that was all about.

Brodey's little class is so cute.

Adorable little wise man

After the program we had refreshments in his class and got to tell him what a good job he did.