Family Christmas Party!

On Dec. 26th we had a chance to get together with Matt's side of the family( well all of his step brothers & sisters). It was a ton of fun. It is nice to live so close to family, and to have our kids to get to know their cousins. It was day filled with food, fun & games. Every year they also do the story of the birth of Jesus. The kids were so excited to participate, and bring to the story to life. Mckayla got to be an angel, and Isaiah was one of the sheep.

Here is a group shot of the whole nativity gang.

Thanks everyone who made this event so much fun!!

Country Lights!

This holiday season we took the kids to Country Lights. What a fun place!! It was an evening filled with lots of holiday fun. This place is amazing. We enjoyed a horse drawn wagon ride through a winter wonderland of a quarter of a million christmas lights. Here we are after our wagon ride.

They also had an assortment of model train exhibits. The highlight of this whole place was Santa's workshop. Santa's workshop was awesome. This place is decked out with the cutest decorations. They truly made it look like what you imagine the North pole to look like. Here is Mckayla & Isaiah standing in front of one of the many ginger bread houses.

Here we waiting in line to get into Santa's workshop. It was a little bit of a wait, but it was sure worth it.

The kids get to choose from about 30 different wood toys to make. Mckayla chose a princess castle, Isaiah chose a helicopter, and Seth we picked out a race car. As you enter in, you are greeted by one of santa's elves, who take you personally to a table and help you assemble or build your wooden toy. Here is Mckay and Isaiah putting there toys together.

Here is Seth with his toy before it gets painted.

So when you enter into the workshop you go to the building area first, and once it is put all together, you go to the painting area, where the kids can paint their toy any way they like. Here is Mckay and Isaiah with an almost painted project.

Here is mom working intently on Seth's race car.

After painting, you can go to the glitter station, and glitter your toy all up, and then next is the drying station. While you are going through this whole process, the elves stop and sing and make the atmosphere so much fun. While the toys were drying the kids wanted to go and see Santa. So for a second time the kids got to make sure Santa knew what they wanted for christmas!! Hopefully he will pull through with all of their expectations.

After our visit with Santa we picked up our handmade wooden toys, and headed for home. The kids absolutely loved the evening. Hopefully we will be able to do this next year.

Breakfast with Santa!

Every year Matt's company has breakfast with Santa. The kids love it, and I love it, because I don't have to fix breakfast in the morning. They cater the breakfast with eggs, pancakes, sausage, doughnuts, and orange juice. It is pretty tastey. Then they have pictures with Santa, and a ton of games for the kids, where they win one big prize, and lots of little ones. They also had decorating paper christmas trees with stickers, and christmas tattoos. The kids were really excited to tell Santa what they wanted, and Isaiah was excited to give Santa a big Santa HUG!!!

Our Christmas Gingerbread House

We have tried to start some new traditions in our family, and this one was a hit with the kids last year. So for a 2nd year in a row we put together the family gingerbread house. We bought a kit that helps you put it all together, and with this kit it gave you several ideas of what you could do. The kids chose the Evergreen gingerbread house. It was called the Evergreen gingerbread house, b/c of the evergreen trees on each corner of the house. I say we did a pretty good job!! We had a lot of fun doing it, and hope to keep the tradition alive.

First tooth lost!

We have finally have a child who has lost her first tooth. Mckayla is getting so big, where has the time gone. Her two bottom teeth have been loose, and finally with enough playing and pulling she succeeded to shake it loose. She went for a ride with dad, and while stopped at the gas station it fell out. Needless to say she was ecstatic, and couldn't wait for the Tooth Fairy to come. Two weeks later her other bottom tooth fell out. We joked around with her that all she wanted for christmas was her two front teeth!

Christmas concert!

Mckayla's kindergarten class combined with two other classes performed in a christmas concert. They showed off all the songs that they have been learning in music class. They had the concert held at the high school, and also had it televised on the local tv station. Mckayla was very excited to perform, and sang her heart out. She shows no reservation while being up there. She did a great job!!

Parties, Parties, Parties!!!

Both Mckayla and Isaiah had birthday parties this year. Isaiah wanted a Knight party!! So we invited a few friends. They were the Knights of the round table, and one princess. I think Isaiah had a great time. After his friends arrived we played pin the sword on the Knight. After the game they each received their own sheild to decorate with stickers, and then we were off on an adventure for the King.

The king had lost his gold and needed the Knights and the princess to find it and return it back to him. We scattered fake gold coins all over the back yard, and when they found all they could they returned the gold back the treasure chest.

As part of the party favors they each got a sword. With the swords they got to fight the dragon(pinata).

Overall I think they all had a good time. Isaiah opened his gifts, and loved everything he received. Oh, I can't forget that Isaiah wanted to have a sword cake. Thank goodness for Walmart, and them willing to be a little creative by deviating from the book selection they offer, and do something completely made up!

We had two parties back to back, with 1 hour in between( just barely enough time to switch from a Knight party to a Barbie ballerina party). Not highly recommended. It was a little stressful, but when we were done, we were all done.

Mckayla had the Barbie ballerina party. Her party consisted of a lot more kids. I think 11 total. Anyway we started the party out with a craft. I found these make your own scrapebook kit that included stickers and two markers for 50 cents a kit. The girls loved it. They were so quite and intent working on their books.

We then played pin the crown on the princess, which I might say was a big hit. All the little girls loved this game.

We then played musical footsteps, where the girls twirled and danced from foot step to foot step, and when the music stopped they got a price. We then had relay races outside. They were divided into 2 teams and had jewels that they carried in a spoon and had to dance across the lawn without dropping their jewel in the grass, and placing their jewels in the bucket. The team with the most jewels won.

Mckayla also wanted a pinata, which all the girls pulled a string, and all the candy came out. It was very chaotic with so many little people but it was sure fun to see them all so happy.

When Mckayla opened her gifts, it was like a huge clump of little girls. Mckayla kept moving around the room to open her presents to try to get a breather, and they were all attached like glue. It was really quite comical. Kids are so funny. Next was cake time. Mckayla ordered the Barbie diamond castle cake, only b/c the Barbie ballerina cake was not available.

All in all I think the kids had a really great day!!!