To be remembered - Christmas 2011

Christmas was a lot of fun!

• Granny Gray's Christmas bingo was SO MUCH FUN! We all loved it.
• Peter did such a fabulous job singing his "If I could fly like a snowflake" song.
• Even though Caleb felt yucky he still did great singing "Away in a Manger" in Spanish.
• Willy was too shy to sing Rudolph in front of everyone but boy should you hear him do it. So cute.
• Church was wonderful with the music and sitting by my kids.
• Realizing that my kitchen is a good size for company to come over and make dinner together.
• Caleb was not sick with his stomach thing anymore. Prayer works and he was feeling great for Christmas day. Thank heaven!
• Peter made the sweetest and very cutest present for us at school. Each month has a handprint of his painted in a different seasonal shape. So much fun.

• Taking dinner over to a neighbor and helping him feel a little joy this season as he visited with the Grays.
• The Gray family is the best.
• Playing a game with the boys after everyone was gone. There we sat, in the middle of all the mess, playing together. It was a fun pause from the noise of earlier

I love the Grays, I love my little family, and Christmas time is full of so much magic and wonderful feelings. It was great. Now to the new year. We will try to make the most of it.

Making the season fun!

We have been up to some fun things to make the most of the Christmas festivities. To name a few: we decorated pine cones into christmas trees. The boys loved it and they turned out cute.

Last night we drove around and looked at Christmas lights. Haley loved all the pretty lights and we found some really great houses.

The one ugly moment of yesterday was being stuck in traffic when I was supposed to be at the doctors office with Haley. Suffice it to say we did not make it to the appointment and I was in a horrible mood and the boys felt it. For some reason I turned on the radio and what song did I find, Adam Sandler's Hanukkah song. So awesome! My season was complete as I chuckled along with the song and my boys were introduced to it. They would laugh when I did, even though they had no idea why they were laughing, and it got me out of my nasty mood. Perfect!

Now tonight the boys got to sleep under the Christmas tree. Actually the only one that ended up under the tree was William. Caleb is on the couch and Peter is in his bed. Funny kids.

Also tonight we pulled out another Christmas craft and made our own paper snow globes. Peter has a collection of snow globes and the boys all love them. So, we colored our own little pictures, painted them with some glitter glue (for the snowy effect) and placed them on their own little stand. Quite fun.

Then tomorrow night is the Christmas Eve bash at Granny Gray's house. It will be so much fun! I love it!

The sleepover

Was great! The End.

Just kidding, I will give a few details. The boys were very excited to get together. They came to our house and set up some games. Then after a lot of laughs and reading they finally settled in and slept. Saturday was the day of fun. We ate, they played, and then we did a couple of projects. The boys designed their own Santa's Workshop. We had furniture, stickers to decorate, carpeting, lamps, and a fireplace. And much to the chagrin of my boys, Jonah and Jonathan insisted that there be a restroom in the workshop. Practicality and all.

Construction

Finished!

My favorite project was making the boys into elves. They all enjoyed this. They colored their elf body and hat and then we took their picture and put it all together. I think they are Awesome!

A sweet and simple moment

Today is the day. Spencer and Addison are coming over and then after that we are having the cousin Christmas sleepover tonight. We (I) am preparing for loud noises, crazy-fun moments and possibly a few melt-downs. It will be fun, and awesome. My boys are so looking forward to the sleepover. But before wild day begins I want to remember my sweet boy Peter and how awesome he is. Wednesday was a bit challenging. But as I looked through Peter's backpack I found this little gem of a paper and it made my heart smile. He is so precious to me. He is learning so much in school and I love that he is now learning to sound out words and write them on his own. It added some light and happiness to my day.

Translation: I see Harry Potter.

I see fish.

I love mom.

I love dad.

I love my whole family.

I like Haley.

He is wonderful! Finally, one of Peter's wishes for the season came true last night as he got to see Santa at the Zoo and tell him what he wants for Christmas. He was so jovial after his visit with Santa. He could not stop talking about it. I am glad that sometimes my child's dreams can come true. Merry Christmas!

A little bit of fun

The past few days we have tired to fill our time with fun things to do together. So often these boys end up playing alone because they cannot agree on what to do together. One night the whole family got involved in a building contest. Each person had a different type of blocks (except mom and Haley, we did boxes) and they had to build something cool with their "material." It was great! The only structure we did not get a picture of was Rob's because his was accidentally destroyed by a child before it could be documented. Oops!

Mom's and Haley's, "Christmas Town"

William's, "A sure foundation"

Peter's, "The leaning tower of Awesomeness!"

Caleb's, "Of perfect symmetry"

Another day we made snowflakes out of Q-Tips and glitter glue. The boys loved coming up with different shapes and then squeezing the glitter on to make it all stick together. That was William's favorite part by far. Haley enjoyed entertaining us with her silly faces.

Finally, it cannot go undocumented that Peter and Haley were happily playing with blocks the other day. Peter loves Haley so much and sometimes it is TOO much for her. But on this day Peter got out the blocks and Haley had fun handing Peter each block as he was making something cool for her. It was a very cute moment.

Oh, tidings of comfort and joy!

My friends it is that time of year again and we started it off right! I can find no better sentiment than this song, we have found comfort in being together today and we experienced joy as well. First off we enjoyed a visit from Granny Gray and it was fun to see her and be so relaxed together. After she left the party began! I hold it as tradition in our house to decorate the trees while listening to our favorite Christmas songs and dancing along. It is very fun! Just look at these boys get with it. Haley and I were there too but I am not nearly as cute. Caleb was pulling some awesome ballet and spinning moves and great foot work. Peter was doing head stands and spinning. And Willy was jumping and spinning, it was a moment full of joy. Our trees look fabulous and the lights are so fun gaze at.

Our other tradition for the first of December is to do a gingerbread house. Mid-way through the construction of the house I was not sure if next year I should just buy the candy for the boys and forgo the house itself. Half of the time they were just interested in what candy they wanted to eat. But we triumphed and the house turned out cool. Peter requested that we do a door for the house and he also added the "steam" to the chimney. He decorated the door of the house and when he showed it to us he said it had a face and that it was Frankenstein. Perfect!

Willy requested the tree for the house and Caleb placed the ornaments. We realized the tree looked lonely so I made a person to go with it, with wild hair. Caleb said it was me. :) Then Willy said we needed presents under the tree and the star made it complete. The boys did great. I must say this is the best looking house we have ever done. And the boys did most of the decorating. Yeah! One more little detail from the super awesome house. Here you can see the smile face Caleb added, the "steam" on the chimney from Peter and the special touch of bushes that Rob suggested. So much fun!

Now for the new installment this year. I was trying to figure out what to do for our Christmas countdown/advent calendar. Do we draw one, make boxes? Then I decided to be fun and make these cute stockings for the 12 day countdown (there was no way I was making 24 of these babies). I think they turned out great.

We will hang them up on the mantel like this then as we do each activity we will turn them around to show the backs. The ones with numbers still showing on the front will be how many days until Christmas. Here is a close up:

And here you can see what some of the backs look like. I am happy with how they turned out. And this way we can use it from year to year and I think it will be another fun thing to pull out and be excited for Christmas time.

One more close up. Not to brag, but I am pleased with how this project turned out. I really enjoy the buildup of Christmas. All of the traditions and fun that come along with celebrating the birth of Christ. It is neat to see how it brings my family together and we are able to enjoy each other more. Let the celebrating continue! We are ready!