Merry Christmas!!

Merry Christmas! What a beautiful day today!! Kate was the first up- a little after 6. She must of been really excited! Will woke up around 7, when I went up to get Kate for breakfast. Will was so excited. Said he was going to go down and check to see if Santa had come. I told him he had to wait. Ben wasn't up yet. So I went down with Kate and got her breakfast. While she was eating, I went to check on the boys. Ben was still asleep. We had to wake him. I don't think Will would have lasted much longer! So, down they came. What excited little faces! They saw their new castle first. Then off to the stockings. I know Santa was really good to them this year. I would have NEVER put that much candy anywhere near them! When Kate got down from breakfast, she looked at the tree and said 'WOW!' it was too cute. Then the boys recited the story of the first Christmas. Ron has been working with them and they can recite Luke 2:1-20. I can't even get it right but they did it perfectly. Just hearing their little voices say such important words brings tears to my eyes. Can't wait to show them the video when they get older!! Then it was off to open gifts. Will really wanted a new weedeater. His had broken last spring. Santas elves did the best they could and fixed his. Santa had none in his workshop this year. Those elves did a pretty good job! Ben was excited to get his football player that kicks a ball and Kate liked her new phone. After all the excitement of gifts, I made a big breakfast: belgium waffles, bacon, eggs... It was delicious. Even Cali and Molly got some breakfast- they were partial to the left over eggs!!

We have had a wonderful Christmas morning. Miss all the family and wish we were all together. We head over to our friends Jane and Chaps house this afternoon for a Christmas morning. So nice to have such great friends to share a day like this with!

MERRY CHRISTMAS!!

More Pictures

And The Stockings Were Hung...

What a great Christmas Eve. We spent the day having fun. Ron took the boys out for a while and Kate took a great 4 hour nap!! I was able to make a beautiful pumpkin cheesecake we will share on Christmas night with the Moore family. The boys watched a few Christmas shows and we made cookies. In the evening, we all got dressed and went to the Christmas Eve service at church. The boys really enjoyed it- at the end of the service, we lit candles and sang Silent Night. It was beautiful!! Ben said his favorite part was signing Away in a Manger. He learned it a preschool and just LOVES to sing!! When we got home, we had a dinner of appetizers. I just love this dinner! We had little smokies in blankets, cheese sticks, shrimp (which Will LOVED!), taquitos and mini pizzas. It was such fun! Then we got online and looked to see where Santa was. Norad is so cool. When Santa started heading our way (well, he was in Africa) Ben said he needed to get to sleep! So off they went after reading the Night before Christmas. Then, around 9pm, we heard sleigh bells outside- really loud sleigh bells. I ran up and got Will- he was not asleep yet (poor Benny was) and we went out on the front steps. There we saw Santa in a Firetruck driving around the neighborhood. It was SOOOO cool. Will was thrilled! What a great thing to see right before bed! We put cookies out and all went to bed. Waiting for Christmas morning!!

Singing Christmas Bears

Tuesday morning we all got ready and went uptown to see the Singing Bears. Every year these bears get all dressed up and put on quite a show with an orchestra and singers. We went with several of our friends, the boys had a picnic lunch, then we met Ron for lunch and ice cream (yes, ice cream- it was FREEZING outside, and Will still wanted ice cream!- Ben is more like me and thought it was much too cold- he settled for a corn muffin!!) Anyway, we had a great time- Kate really liked the bears. I think she will like them even more next year!

The Snack Goblin Strikes Again

Really, I do feed the girl! We keep the pantry locked because Kate really likes to go and scavange for food. Tonight, I was folding laundry in the living room and kept hearing something drop on the floor of the kitchen. I went in and there was Kate, sitting in the middle of a snack smorgasbord!

Gingerbread Lane

The boys made gingerbread houses this weekend (well, they were actually graham cracker houses- do you really think I have the time to make real gingerbread house???) and it was a liberating experience. This was the first time I allowed them to do it all by themselves. I had sugar crystals, icing and sprinkles all over the kitchen floor. The boys had a great time and Ron even got in on the fun. Will did the tall, skinny one and Ben's masterpiece is the short one.

What to do for Dinner on a Rainy Thursday Night

Ron had his office party tonight so I decided to take the kids to Chik-Fil-A for dinner. They were having a Santa's Workshop night with cookies to decorate and a Santa Cow for the kids. The boys really liked the Cow as we were the only ones there at 5:15 so the Santa Cow sat down to dinner with us and kept trying to sneak the boys dinner. Of course, the boys kept saying 'you need to go get your own dinner!' The boys may have liked the cow but Kate, she LOVED the cow. And I don't mean a little- she couldn't focus on eating because she was too busy looking at the cow, waving at him and yelling "GOW! GOW!!". She was so excited so I put her down to see if she would go over to him. She got about 5 feet from him and turned tail. Of course, she spent the next 30 minutes going back and forth over to the cow and waving. She, also, went up to one of the kids working (I say kid because, really, he couldn't have been 15) and grabed onto him until he picked her up. She was pleased as punch! So, after dinner, the boys made gingerbread men with more candy than they got at Halloween. They both said their tummys hurt when we got in the car. Who would have guessed!