Christmas Wrap-Up...Pun Intended

We had a grand ole time this Christmas!! I can 't say we did a whole bunch, but we sure did spend some good quality family time together!! 

The girls made gingerbread houses at school, I bought one at the store and grandma and grandpa brought one too.  So we had plenty of gingerbread house decorating experience.  The girls loved every minute of it.

Gotta give mad props to the hubs, he did all the heavy construction AND even all the icing!!  Seriously, I think he did a better job than I could have.  ;)

The girls loved adding all the candy.  It's so funny what some gingerbread pieces,  candy and some icing can do to bring joy to these little girls!

Our gingerbread village!

We also decorated cookies.  Grandma Schafer made her famous homemade sugar cookies and grandpa and the girls decorated them.

once upon a time I would have had to decorate with them, so they would decorate them correctly and not make a mess.  Now I could care less what kind of mess they make or how they decorate them. Funny how we change as mothers the older we get and the more kids we have.  haha!

These girls insisted on sharing a chair. cute.

The cookie workshop...

so proud of herself for pouring half the bottle of sprinkles on her cookie!

Elise was trying to stop me from taking a picture of her cookie b/c she wasn't' finished.  She's such a funny little girl!

More icing the better...

Finished!!!

The girls opened their  Christmas PJ's on Christmas Eve!

Silly...

I tried my hand and the blurry tree pic.  Kinda cool!

Santa came...

I'm sure I took pictures Christmas morning, but their probably on my iphone.  I'll have to have to get to that later...probably by Valentines day. :)

Hope you all had a very Merry Christmas too!

OH!  Almost forgot! Here is our Christmas card!!

The Front...

Back...

 

Aaaaaand, I have to admit, that the first catch I ordered didn't' have Elise's name on it...ooops! Don't worry, I wrote her name in.  25 of the people on our Christmas list got the correct version!  If you got a card...what version did you get?  haha!

Getting Ready for Christmas

We start the Christmas Season the day after Thanksgiving. Last yer we started the tradition of eating lunch at waffle house then getting the Tree...only in the south, right?  The girls get so excited about it.  We don't eat there very often, so I guess they think of it as a delicacy...lol!

Then off to the Tree Farm we go.  Grandma Kim made their adorable tshirts!!

These 3 were just silly that day...

The Man...cutting the tree down for his family.

We picked a tree from the back tree lot, they were called blue icicle tree's.  The owners said we were the first to buy that kind.  We felt sorry for them back there, like they were sad b/c nobody wanted to buy them.  haha!

This is me desperately trying to be in a picture, I tried to get the fam in the background...photographer FAIL! ;)

I also love decorating the house.  I get so sad when it's time to take it all down.  My house feels so empty. :(

The Kids Christmas tree full of their homemade ornaments. We about tripled out ornaments this year as each girl made about 3 ornaments this year at school...lol!

I love having a house with a banister.  It makes me happy...silly I know!  I love even more how my kids pick off the paint...whatever!

Our Tree!!  Every year we buy a new ornament that represents somewhere we went as a family.  This years we bought a windmill ornament from when we went to Holland, Michigan.

I hope your Christmas is filled with PEACE and JOY!

Elise's 3rd Birthday

I don't know how it happened or where the time went, but my baby girl (I mean baby in every possible way) has somehow turned THREE!!! I really don't understand.  I swear, time seems to tick on faster with every passing year.  Next thing I know I'll be a grandmother!  SAD!!  Well, I guess that's really a happy thing, but not in this scenario.  LOL!

Anyway, baby girl turned three.  Nora and Audrey both had theme birthday parties, but I'm gonna be honest, I was pretty much exhausted by the time Elise's bday rolled around the DAY after Thanksgiving!!  So we just recycled her sisters bday decorations, threw some balloons on the floor, made some cupcakes (because it only cost $7 as opposed to $40 from a bakery) and called it a day.

When I started to feel guilty that I didn't go ALL out, I had to put my self in my place...I mean, she's 3!!!  She had a BLAST!  I nearly got whiplash from how fast we went threw everything.  Lunch, cake, present...I swear we did it all in about 5 minutes b/c she just couldn't wait!  I think that equals success!!

I love the look on her face here.  It says it all!! Oh! Her sister "conveniently came home from school "sick" after visiting the school nurse 3 times.  haha!

Gift time!  She got some great gifts.  I thought about making it a no gift party, but I knew she would be so excited about gifts just for her.  I thought everyone would just bring some little dollar store gifts...b/c she's just 3, but NO!  My friends ( I mean, HER friends,  hooked her up!!

Seriously, she had the BEST time EVER!  Thanks to everyone that made is great!

On her actual Birthday, she got to eata on the "birthday " plate all day!!

And she had gifts from her grandparents.  I didn't take many pics of that b/c I took video of her opening them, but here's a teaser...LOL!

She's a lucky little girl!!