This was our nativity! Andrew gave me this the spring following our first Christmas as a married couple!
We got these trees and decorations from the dollar store and made this together when we read the book The Three Trees. The kids had a blast!
These are our trees we bought our first Christmas as a married couple! We got the lights the next year decorations from the dollar store this year! The kids had a ball decorating them and Noah decided that each of them have their own tree! The star atop the biggest tree is from Mum Gough, and the nativity at the bottom and ornament topping the middle tree are from Grandma Cherie. The gold "gift" boxes are boxes that housed the vintage ornaments Sarah and I found at Oxfam after Christmas last year!
These are the kid's stockings with the vintage ornaments from Oxfam! We took pictures of the kids Christmas morning this year to put in the frames and we painted the dollar store stocking holders gold. I am working on embroidering the kid's names on the stockings in gold.
Noah was his preschool's star of the week the week before Christmas break. On this day, he read The Giving Tree to his class all by himself (mostly from memory, he only reads a few words!) On another day he brought in the poster we made with pictures of his family around the world, and on another day he and Andrew talked about Christmas in England. On the last day he got to dress as a cowboy and wear the outfit Grandma Jane and Grandpa Brian gave him for his birthday. Boy, was he a proud little cowboy!
This is Noah waking around the circle while his friends sing the star song and clap for him! :)
The kid's got to meet Santa at the SAA Children's Social this year. The picture is a bit blurry, but they had a ball!
Benjamin was mommy's "special helper" making gingerbread boys and houses for the children to decorate during naptime!
He loved squishing the dough and cookies and even put a little in his mouth!
He was not a huge fan of the taste though! He spit it right back out!
He made a big mess and I was glad that his seat was in the sink so I could easily wash him off after we were finished!
The kids had a ball deocrating the houses with frosting and mini marshmallows!
This is beautiful Chloe!
Noah had a blast!
Ty was more interested in eating than decorating, but he had a lot of fun too!
Emma preferred the eat and decorate method as you can see from her messy mouth! :)
Ty's house!
Noah's house!
Emma's house!
We ran outside when we heard carollers coming down the street! Can you beleive it-- snow on the ground and I let the kids run to the porch with no coats or shoes! Gosh, someone call health and welfare! :)
Christmas morning! Emma is not so sure she wants to wake up!
Once she realizes that there are gifts coming though, she perks up!
The "Christmas Train" (Ben is on the floor, I swear!:) Noah did not want to leave behind the book and bear Grandma Cherie had given him as his Christmas Eve present to open!
What a fabulous Christmas Spread!
Mommy and Daddy gave Emma toy veggies and a cutting board to cut them and play with them and a book!
Mommy and Daddy gave Noah a wooden stable for his horses!
Mommy and Daddy gave Benjamin a zoo pull toy/ puzzle!
Emma loved the stable toy and put all her food inside it to "feed the horses"!
Emma and Noah played for almost an hour together with their new toys! Ben loved the wrapping to his toy more than anything!
The kids got these ballons in their stockings from Father Christmas
Eyes of wonder on Christmas morning!
The boys had fun playing together Ben would tear the train apart, and Noah would put it back together!
Yummy
The idea behind getting him a pull toy was to hopefully get him to move. No luck. He sat as still as ever and had a blast with it! Shoot.
He does love pulling it apart again and again and gets SO excited when he figures it out each time!
Noah LOVES this book, thank you Grandma Cherie!
This is the horse from Grandma Jane and Grandpa Brian. As you can see, it's a big hit with Emma and Noah. Hours and hours of imagination and fun!
Sometimes the kids even ride together... I'm not quite sure what Ben thinks of this!
Emma and Noah LOVE the kitchen Grandma Cherie and Grandpa Kirk! Thank you!!!
What a blast! Emma loves to "talk" on the phone to her friend Aryana and hold up her finger to say "shhh... just a minute". I wonder where she learned that...
We even take the phone to talk to Aryana on horse rides!
We had a lot of fun Christmas afternoon opening gifts. Ben's was from Grandma Cherie and Emma's and Noah's were from Sam and Grace! Thank you for the backpack Grandma Cherie, it's ADORABLE! Thank you Sam and Grace for the jammies, movies, and cool Disney toys. We love them!
We LOVE presents! I love this photo!
This super-cool animal book is from Grandma Harding. Noah loves it, and so do we. It's full of so many great facts, and we love the Little Einsteins! Thank you Grandma Harding!
Emmaline loves her books from Grandma Harding too. She loves to tote them around and always insists that we read both together. Thank you so much grandma, we love them!
Benajamin LOVES his colors book from Grandma Harding. Noah and Emmaline love to help him place all the magnets where they belong. Emmaline finally gets all the names of the colors straight! What a great interactive book. Thanks!
What a happy boy!
This film was supposed to be Emma opening her gift from Grace... but instead....
we got this...
and this... SHOOT... SORRY! Moral of the story... don't give the camera to mom.
Ben loves Christmas. Most of all, the wrappings!
Animal fun!
We had a fun Christmas dinner with our friends the Nugents. What a blast! We ate a great meal, played games, and watched a movie! Thanks for having us over, we had a ball!
On Boxing Day we went to Columbia and rode the carousel in the mall!
It was a blast! Mom and dad got some sweet new shades from some shady fellows for $2 each! Sweet!
Look at those eyes! He loved the ride...
Here are Andrew's super-cool shades from the "shady" dudes!
Emma and daddy had a ball on the carousel
This was from our boxing day out in Columbia. We made a list of all the things we wanted to do as a family over the holidays... Going Bonkers, Gingerbread Houses, caroling, swimming, bowling, a movie, the library, the temple, and the carousel! We did them all! :) And most of them were FREE!!! Going Bonkers had a free day the day after Christmas, so we took advantage and had a blast together!
tummy twins!
Noah's slide!
monkeys on the swing~
sliding down!
mommy and Emma swinging
Climbing Emma
Daddy and Ben
Too cute!
What cute boys! Andrew and I took turns with Benjamin in the carrier! He had a blast! We got him out in the toddler area and he really enjoyed his day at bonkers!
Climbing through the maze
You know that it's time to go when...
TOO MUCH FUN!!!
So cute!
This is what the maze is like!
This is the little kids zone! What a blast!
