Family Pics 2010

I can finally post the family pictures we got done because we gave some away to parents for Christmas gifts. We got them done by this awesome gal who happens to live here in EM, here is her website. Thanks so much Chantelle! Here are some of our faves...

Little Avery





Big Boy Mason





The tender family moments...

Christmas Recap

So now that Christmas is all done I think I can now breathe... and maybe take a nap. But first, down with the tree! Now before you say I'm a humbug or anything, I would love to leave the tree up to New Years like most people do, but I honestly am so tired of little ornaments all over the house! Every day I would go pick them up and put them back on, and then Avery would just go right back and take the off again. It didn't make me mad cause I know she's just a baby, but I was done. So right after church today, Avery went down for a nap and so did the tree.

We did have a great Christmas this year. We spent Christmas Eve with David's family. We did a big dinner then presents from the Grandparents and cousins, then just hung out and played for awhile. Then we headed home for a pre-bedtime snack and Mason could put out some milk and cookies by the tree for Santa. We had a nice Christmas morning with presents and breakfast at home and played all day. Then headed down to my brother's for dinner and a little more fun.

A little sugar before bed...
Mason wanted to put the cookies right by the tree on his little tray so Santa wouldn't miss them! After David read Mason a Christmas story and off to bed. The next morning we could hear Mason get up, but he didn't come and get us. We sat there for a minute waiting and then he came running into our room and said, "Mommy I went down stairs and all the cookies and milk were gone and there were more presents... COME AND LOOK!" It was so funny. So down to open all the gifts from Santa we went.




Looks like Santa got his letter!
After all the presents were open I went off to fix some breakfast while David got to assemble all the toys. Mason could not wait to play with his new toys, and Avery also enjoyed her little animals that she got too.
So if you couldn't already tell that Mason loves pirates... here is one last picture! He got a pirate costume from his cousins and Santa was so kind to fill his stocking with all the little things that a good pirate needs. Hope you all had a MAARRRRY Christmas me Hearties!

Scary Claus

We took the kids to see Santa Claus and his reindeer at Thanksgiving Point on Tuesday. There was only two reindeer there. We decided that they were Comet and Dasher, but Avery thought they were just "big doggies". Mason wanted to see them fly, but I told him that they had to wait for Santa to get done seeing all the little kids and then they will take him home. I love that he is getting into this!

Mason was also so excited to see Santa and make sure he got the letter he sent. The line was pretty long, but the kids did pretty well considering how late it was too. As soon as David set Avery down on his lap, she had a complete meltdown! I thought that she would have just stared at him like "who the heck are you!", but I think that she was so tired that it was just too much! Also he wasn't the "best" looking Santa, a bit creepy... well come to think of it, I don't think I have ever seen a Santa that wasn't kinda creepy in one way or another! Luckily this year Mason was more than happy to see him!
I had been wanting to take the kids to see Christmas lights all month, but never got the chance. So Thanksgiving Point also has a little Christmas light display that you can drive through and listen to music, so I figured that would work and finish the night off nicely. I sat in the back with the kids so I could unbuckle them to look out the windows better, we were only driving like 5 miles an hour so I figured it was okay (sorry if I offend anyone!) But the kids really enjoyed it, and were shouting excitedly at every one.





It was a fun evening, and totally worth it (except next time we will go a bit earlier). I hope to maybe add this to a new Christmas tradition too.

Christmas Crafts

We have some shelves in our living room that I took all the decorations off of and was going to decorate put some Christmas decorations up there. I had it all pictured in my head and was going to make all of them, but they sat empty for most of the month! Such a procrastinator! But I am not a complete loss... I did some of then earlier this week! I had bought a nativity from the Wood Connection while ago and some vinyl from a gal that lives out here to put on some wood plaques.

Here is the first craft, and the easiest! I just put the vinyl on a 12" tile that I picked up from Lowes. So easy, but I love it so much.

Next I bought a 12" by 48" board also from Lowes and had them cut it down. I painted it off white and sanded the edges and parts of the board. Applied the next set of vinyl and done! The last one I did was just as easy but a little more time consuming because there were more pieces. Just painted them all black, and the star off white. Then sanded the figures a bit to give them some texture. Glued the star to the stable and tied some raffia on the manger.
I put some vinyl also on the wall to kind of fill in some empty wall space, I usually have a picture in the spot so it should cover it if I choose to leave it up.

SO there are my Christmas crafts that I have done this year... not everything that I wanted to get done though. Hopefully next year I will be more on the ball and get the rest done BEFORE the week of Christmas!