Christmas Day

The kids went to bed around 11 ish but around 130 three of them woke up. Jackson tried to bed to be able to open things, but we weren't going for it. So they decided that 6 am sharp was a better time... 

I love how all the socks look set out and the tree looks when its still nice and neat and quiet in the house. 

Emery left a note for Santa to thank him. She is always doing sweet things like that. 

 Then the crazy started. 6am is too early for me, but the kids loved it. I woke up hearing paper and it took a  bit for me to realized that it was Christmas morning and the kids were trying to be quiet and start without us. 

 Beck and Brad joke a lot about Andre the Giant for some reason and we were able to find socks with him on them. He thought they were pretty sweet. 

 Thanks to Hastings closing we were able to get a lot (too much) for Jacks really cheap, like this toy that I think was half for him and half for Brad to enjoy. 

It was a fun, fast morning, which meant we could take a nap (by we I mean Brad and I). Camden's favorite present was his skateboard. Beckham's favorite present was Lazer x. Emersyn's favorite present was her easel.Jackson's favorite was a new Skylanders with Donky Kong in it.  

Christmas Eve

 Finally after waiting for what seemed like forever to the kids, it was Christmas Eve. We have started a new tradition of going out for breakfast in the morning. This year they chose Shari's, I think next year we'll try a new place.

Grandma and Grandpa Arrinton had a full evening of games and food for us to play. We started with appetizers at our house and a few games. The first was find the candy canes, then you had to try and pick up as many as you could using just the candy cane in your mouth. It was a lot harder than it looked.  

 Camden and Kiara tied with 11 each!

 Next was pin the nose on the snowman. 

 Next was Uncle Paul's for pizza and a few more games. We played Pie Face, which is really fun. The kids wanted to be hit in the face each time they got up and we made sure they all got hit

 Jacks was actually really happy when he got hit, which is better than I thought he could do. 

 We had to guess how many Kisses were in the jar and Jacks won. He was so excited and has already eaten a lot of them. 

Then it was home to open pjs, watch movies and wait for Santa to come. 

Last Few Projects

We are done with projects now and the kids had a lot of fun with them. The other three are now in piano lessons and have been learning Christmas songs. Since they are the only three I teach the recitals are short but still a good thing for them to have. All of them did really well. It was Emery's first, so it was fun to hear her finally play songs. 

 We made hand ornaments as well. Jacks did Santa and the rest of the kids did snowmen. 

 I loved having lights in my room when I was a kid, so every once in a while when I remember we let the kids put their own up. During the break from school the kids have had lots of sleep outs with each other and somehow the floor is the best place to do that. 

 We also went and looked at lights and watched more Christmas movies, went Christmas shopping and had lots of visits from out Elf. It was a fun month preparing for Christmas Day.

Beck's Book

In school the kids have something called 5th block where they do all sorts of arts. One of the things they did was paint paper, then once it was dry they cut it into pieces and made it into a figure. Beck made a hawk and Rock Creek. The teacher picked a few and made them into a book. Those kids who had art in the book got their own copy and Beck was lucky enough to have 2 of his in there. He was really excited to show us when he brought it home. 

Summer in December

What do you do when you want to swim but it's 20` outside? Swim in the tub. Emery and Jacks really wanted to swim the other day but it's way too cold out, so they put their suits on and swam in the tub for a while. I'm sure by the time they got out the water was cold anyways. 

Merry Christmas

When Brad makes a card it can't just be an easy card... This is our Christmas card we sent out to family. It's from "A Christmas Story", out kids faces have just replaced the others faces. 

Grinch Night

One of my favorite Christmas shows is "How the Grinch Stole Christmas." I prefer the original one over the live action one, so I decided we'd have a Grinch night. We had Grinch juice, Grinch oreos and mini Grinch snack. (It's meant to be a green face with Santa hat on) Somehow adding themed snacks to a movie makes it that much better for the kids. 

Emery's Play

Emery's reading class put on a little play this past week as well. All the kids did a really good job. Emery was a doll and had to do a little dance. She is my daughter for sure. While she did a great job you could tell she wasn't sure she liked the attention. 

Jackson Singing

The kindergartners had a Christmas recital at school the other day. It's always cute to see the little kids sing song. He has been going around the house all month singing some of these songs, so it's good he was finally able to perform them. They made the shirts in class. 

Play Dough

Saturday we had a few nephews over for the day and made peppermint play dough. I don't know if you're ever too old to play with play dough. Best part is it keeps the kids busy for a long time.