Christmas Morning

Christmas morning - Katie & Alex were having a sleep over in Alex's bed. Alex woke up at 5:30 to use the bathroom, so Katie woke up too. Katie came in to wake us up...to which we promptly told them to go back to sleep. We understand the excitement, but the kids didn't go to sleep until almost 10 on Christmas Eve and we knew that it would be a long, crabby day if they were up that early. It proved to be the right thing! They fell back to sleep and slept until 8:45 (when Maddie & Will woke them up!).

We sat down in the front room and listened to Matt read the Christmas story from Luke. We then prayed and sang Happy Birthday to Jesus. Alex was the first to find the hidden pickle ornament - resulting in her opening this package for the family (Despicable Me).

Katie & Alex took the job of passing out the gifts very seriously and were done in no time at all! Maddie was the first to open a gift. She loved her Dora doll...Will opened his present from Katie (a miniature Woody figure). Both Katie & Alex used their hard earned points from Awana to purchase presents for all of the family. It is a fun night when they go shopping at Awana! Next year all 4 kids will be shopping!

Alex opened one of her princess sets.

Maddie & Will - this box had two big piggy banks inside. One was a pumpkin (Will giggled the whole time he opened it!) and the other was a pink ghost.

Alex was pretty excited to open her zumbuddy and little horse playset.

Katie was surprised to open this present - Barbie Video Girl. Barbie has a built in video camera! She says that this is going to help her detective business immensely! This prompted a little talk about not spying on people with this...

This year I used a lot of boxes to package things (that were hard to wrap...or multiple things that needed to be wrapped together). Will was the first to open one of these gifts...in a box of a sewing machine. I made a big deal out of it, "Oh, yes!!! I have been needing a sewing machine. Oh, Will, can I please use it sometime?" He looked disappointed, but said "this I use when I bigger"...and then put it aside!! He was pretty happy that we made him open it up to see what was inside!

Maddie didn't want a ceiling fan - I told her that it would be perfect in their room. Alex said, "but Mom, we already have one in our room". We had them going for a while!

Katie had help from Rapunzel opening this present - 2 theater kits from American girl. I think she'll be performing the plays soon!

Each of the kids received two presents from Grandma & Grandpa Hart (in Oregon). All received a mini-magna doodle and these...

Will - opening his big present. Imaginext Space Shuttle.

Alex received this dolphin from Katie. Katie told her, "I got the dolphin for you so you will never forget our trip to Brookfield Zoo and the dolphin show".

The last present was saved for Matt. I didn't label it, but I told everyone that it was for him. Matt had the kids help him tear off the wrapping paper and then he opened it..."Hey, I don't think these are mine!" (He knew what was inside all along). The kids were SO excited to find their new pillow pets!!!

Another Christmas come & gone - full of blessings! We spent the afternoon with Becki's parents and then drove around looking at Christmas lights. It was a good day.

Playing in the Snow

The kids played out in the snow for a bit today. Unfortunately, Will got hit in the face with a snowball, so he came inside with me. I checked on the girls and was surprised to see these snowmen! They worked fast!

Christmas Eve

Our annual tradition for Christmas Eve is to head out to a small country town, Rio (IL), to celebrate with the Barman side of the family (Becki's dad's extended family). We woke up Christmas Eve to a few inches of snow on the ground and more forecasted for the day. It snowed all morning. We left to drive to Becki's parents to visit with family and caravan to the big family gathering. Early in the afternoon we received a call from one of Becki's uncles saying that the country roads were really bad and that they were considering cancelling. This is the first time that Becki can ever remember having it cancelled (and we've travelled out there on some horrible roads)...but we have to trust that it was a wise decision (although sad, considering we see most of the family once a year!). Since we were all at Becki's folks, we decided to stay put for the evening.

Here are the kids watching a movie - intently!!

Alex with cousin Casey

Cousin Beth holding Casey and Maddie
We celebrated Andrew's 17th birthday too! Wow - 17!!! Where has the time gone?

This is what we woke up to Christmas morning - we got 7 inches Christmas Eve!

Gingerbread Sleds

I am the first to admit that I am not a craft minded person. My Type A brain cannot handle the disorder that comes with crafts!! I don't have the patience for crafts either...all this to say that we made gingerbread sleds this past week. It was not pretty. All 4 kids wanted to make their own, so I found a kit that had 4 sleds rather than 1 house. Once we started making the sleds, I asked Katie & Alex to patiently wait for me to help them put the sled together. I am so thankful that they listened and didn't test my patience! However, Maddie & Will were ready to dive in before I had emptied the box! To make matters really bad, the sleds didn't want to stick together (as you can see in the pictures). So, we decorated what we could...took pictures...and ate til our tummies hurt!!

The Show Must Go On

We were pretty excited to hear that Will & Alex had put together a play for us to watch. After dinner, we headed downstairs to see their performance. Here's Matt sitting in one of the seats...if you've ever watched Chris Farley, you'll understand why we chuckle at this picture...Big guy on a little chair, Big guy on a little chair...I can hear Chris singing it as I type!

So, the show starts and we quickly find out that the show consists of running. They ran in circles around the basement for 5 minutes before we decided to put an end to the show. By that time, all 4 kids were involved and we knew that someone was going to get hurt!

Mr. Peanut

Katie's class has a money system for discipline issues (good & bad). The day before Christmas break, the class had an auction. Katie used the majority of her money to buy Mr. Peanut. He turns peanuts into peanut butter. After a stop at the grocery store to purchase peanuts, we gave it a try. I was pretty impressed by how much peanut butter was made by a few peanuts. We used a 1/4 of the big bag and had enough peanut butter to make 3 sandwiches (Alex doesn't care for peanut butter & jelly).

Here's Maddie & Will eating their sandwiches. Katie had the first sandwich and was done with the process at this point...I think she found a book to read!!

This is the mess...

I'll have to take a picture of Katie with Mr. Peanut to include in this post...

Christmas Programs

All 4 kids had their school Christmas programs the week of the 13th. It was a busy week, made longer by the fact that the kids KNEW this was their last week of school for a while!

Unfortunately, Alex was standing on the same side as me and I was in a corner (literally...it was a packed house!) so my pictures of her didn't turn out too well...

Katie stood front & center (in the middle of the stage), cupped her hand over her eyes and searched for us. It was very cute and endearing...
Maddie & Will both seemed shy during their performance, but enjoyed themselves. Many smiles and laughs throughout the show.

Here's my little rudolph, Alex, showing off her reindeer antlers and her gingerbread house she made at school.

It touches my heart to hear all 4 of my children singing songs about Christ's birth - God's gift to us. We had a few nights of driving around to look at Christmas lights and enjoyed singing many carols together. I pray that we'll have many more of these nights.

Mississippi River Eagles

We live in a wonderful part of the country! We are blessed to live a few miles from the Mississippi River. In the winter time, this means up-close viewings of Eagles!! We have seen a few flying along the river, or a few perched here and there...but we hit all of the usual hot spots with no luck in finding a bunch of eagles. We finally headed an hour north last weekend and found some! Unfortunately, the birds were across the river, but we were able to see them clearly!