Merry Christmas #2

A few days later, we headed to Becki's parents to celebrate Christmas with them. We had lots of fun playing Catch Phrase, eating yummy food and opening presents.

Maddie got a baby doll, Will got 2 trucks and Katie & Alex got a Barbie & 3 Musketeers Doll.

Merry Christmas

I won't put up a bunch of pics from Christmas morning, but I wanted to post of few of the kids to show their excitement over their new toys. We have decided to limit our gift giving to 3 presents. They also get a stocking with some fun stuff in it and Katie & Alex both earned points to shop at the Awana store this year. We got lots of presents from them as well...

The kids opening up their stockings

Will opening his new Nerf guns (yes, mom & dad love playing with these more than him!!)

Alex showing us her new fingernail polish (from Katie) and keeping her new doggie away from the gift!

Thought this was a neat perspective...

Katie with her first diary - with Tinkerbell!!
Maddie loves to carry a purse and play dress up - this Barbie purse was perfect for her!

The Gift that Keeps on Giving

Brad & Matt have a continual gift exchange related to their respective dislike for Pepsi (Matt) and Coke (Brad)...

This year, Matt gave a photoshopped picture of Brad riding a Polar Bear (rodeo style), wearing a Coke shirt and holding a bottle of Coke.

Brad's gift arrived in the mail...to look at it, you would think it is a traditional Pepsi cooler...WELL, we have found that it is a very useful item!! Take a look...

THANKS BRAD!!! THIS IS THE BEST GIFT EVER!!

A First For Everything!

I am embarrassed to say that I have never made a gingerbread house before! Maybe I did when I was younger, but it wasn't something that we did as a family tradition. I found a kit at Aldi's yesterday for 1/2 price so I grabbed it, thinking the kids would enjoy making it. I must admit that I wasn't looking forward to the whole thing. I didn't know how hard/easy it would be and I knew that the kids would want to be front and center to decorate...all at the same time! I decided to put the twins down for their naps and then put the house together. I figured once the twins were awake, I would allow the 4 to do their decorating. But in the end, the house was super easy to construct and all 4 kids were able to decorate right away.

Here are all of the kids taking turns at decorating...minus Katie. I took a few pictures of her but she was decorating the little tree and I couldn't get a very good angle!

I am not sure what happened, but Will was upset with me when I took the picture and he told me that he didn't want to have his picture taken!

Sugar Cookies

I am too much of a perfectionist...and a clean freak...to do this kind of stuff!! However, I want my kids to have good, fun memories of doing things together with Mom...SO, the other night, I had them help me make sugar cookies...that was the start of the "fun", let me tell you!! We ran out of time (and energy) to work on decorating the cookies until today. I set out cookie sheets for each child and included a bowl of sprinkles and such. I also frosted the cookies to save on time (and frosting!). Here are the kids...That is where the "cleanliness" stopped...Don't worry...if you received cookies from us, you did not receive ones that Maddie & Will made!!

Not wanting to be outdone by her brother...

4 proud kids showing off their beautiful masterpieces...

Hart Family member #7

Did you take a deep breath, Did you do a double take?? : ) Luckily this new family member is not a big eater and doesn't make noise!! He won't need a big space to sleep either!!

Katie brought home "Flat Stanley" yesterday...he is going to be doing some family activities with us and it is suggested that we include him in pictures too...all for the sake of 2nd grade journaling! So, welcome to our family Flat Stanley...hopefully you will still love us after living among us for a few weeks!!

Katie is showing Flat Stanley some of her favorite ornaments.

And the Winner Is....(drum roll)

Matt's office held an ugly Christmas sweater contest yesterday. Matt went to Goodwill the night before and found this sweater...I don't think he even looked at the size! I told him that he looked like Cousin Eddie...he told me that others commented on that in the office!! He won the contest by 1 vote!! Here he is with his bounty!

More House updates

We continue to plug away at the house. I made a list the other night and showed Matt. He glanced at the list and said, "wow, are those all the things we've done the past few months"..."No, those are the things that still need to be done to complete the rooms!". That was rather disheartening! Luckily, most of these things are small...like ordering and putting up pictures, wipe down walls (from windows installed, etc) & sew curtains.


We "finished" the girls room (again, I have about 3 or 4 things left to do) last weekend and the girls have LOVED sleeping in their new beds/new room. I just ordered their area rug and will include pictures of the rest of the room once that is in place (pictures have been updated)!!. Until then - here is their new triple bunk bed...not a fun thing to put together in a small room.



With the girls in their new room, I was able to get Will situated in his room in the basement. He loves Thomas, Cars & trucks...so here is his new room...Our new windows are installed!! They are still drafty due to the fact that the siding isn't in place yet. Once that is installed, the windows should be air tight!! We anxiously wait for that day to come!!

Decorating & Singing

I looked back over the last few posts and realized that I never added the pictures of the kids decorating the tree with their ornaments...So, here they are. I must say that they were wonderful helpers this year. We had the tree decorated within 30 minutes!!

Today was a big day for us. We started our day with Maddie & Will's first ever preschool program! There is something so special & innocent about watching 3 year olds singing songs! Maddie & Will didn't sing too much. Will was busy being a ham while Maddie just stood there. She didn't seem scared, just not sure what to sing or do!

We grabbed lunch (Matt was able to take the day off from work) and then headed to Katie & Alex's school for their Christmas program. The room was pretty dark so it was hard to get good pictures, but did get a few. We couldn't get a good picture of Alex (during her songs) due to a taller boy being in front of her. I am sure that both Alex & Katie...as well as most of the auditorium...heard Maddie & Will as they were saying "Alex, Agus (Will calls alex Agus), Alex, Agus, Agus!!!"....and...."Datie, Datie, Datie, Datie, Datie!!!"Everyone got home in time for naps, homework and a little down time before heading back out again for Awana. It was a very exciting night at Awana - Awana Christmas Store!!! The girls get to spend all of their points on presents for family & friends. Both came home with a big black garbage bag of gifts! Maddie & Will made 2 crafts too which are now under the tree.

So, now I guess it is my turn to get some presents out and start wrapping. This is the only thing on my "to do list" that I would like to get done tonight...but it is almost 10, so we will see if I get a second wind...

Cookie Day!!

Every year, the preschool has a cookie day. Parents bring in sugar cookies and the kids get to decorate them to their heart's delight! Today was the day for Maddie & Will...they just finished their lunch and are in the process of gobbling down one of these masterpieces!!

Visiting Santa

We went to visit Santa at our local Happy Joes (pizza) last night. While the visit wasn't as festive as we had hoped, it was still fun...we ate pizza & ice cream (special thanks to Becki's mom for having the waitress sing happy birthday to Becki!), met Santa & play in the game room. The evening was "sponsored" by the local humane society...so there were 2 little kittens to hold and love on. They were very cute.

Maddie ran to Santa and sat on the extra chair...she was the first one! She totally shocked us since she is generally quiet and shy when it comes to meeting other people.

Will ran up as well & loved seeing Santa but let Santa hold the cat (after watching the cat climb up Maddie!)

Katie - tentative but still sat for the picture...

Alex would only go up if I went (on Grammy's suggestion). I have many pictures where she is missing - she is generally shy about this kind of stuff.

More Home Stuff

We are ending 2009 with a whirlwind of house activity! The past few weeks, we have taken up the old carpet, sanded the floors (living room, dining room, hallway & second bedroom), stained and finished with polyurathane. It has been a long, tedious (and very dirty!) process...but we are nearing the end! Becki has been adding the polyurathane after the kids go to bed so it will be dry by morning. We have 3 more nights of hallway & 2 more nights of second bedroom to go. They are beautiful floors but we are tentative to use them too much right now! The polyurathane seems to be sealing them okay - it is just slow! For that reason, we have been having picnics in the kitchen!

We ordered triple bunkbeds for the girls (we are moving the three girls into the 2nd bedroom and Will downstairs). We will be purchasing two mattresses for the twins beds - maybe this weekend? I will post pictures once their rooms are done. Here is the big truck delivering the beds.

We are still waiting for our main house work to start - new windows, siding and enclosure of front porch. The windows should be delivered today and hopefully put in sometime next week. After that, everything should move fast!