Christmas

The Sunday before Christmas my mom and dad had a family Christmas party at their house. We acted out the nativity, sang carols, opened up our new Christmas pajamas, and had a cousin gift exchange.
Afterwards all the cousins spent the night at Steve and Heather's house.

Grant hanging out in his new Christmas pj's. Drew and Brent having fun playing at Mazee's house.

CHRISTMAS EVE

Our family tradition is to go to my Aunt Suzie and Uncle Steve's house for dinner on Christmas Eve. After that, everyone moves to Mimi's house (my grandmother) to open presents and have dessert. Before the presents, the kids dress up and act out the nativity.

Soon after the nativity...let the present opening begin!

Drew and Brent loved these costumes from Grammie. They got a lot of the same things, and it made it really fun for them to play together.

Grant and Brady opened lots of Lego sets on Christmas Eve, and they immediately started putting them together. Nick loves to play legos with the boys, too.

Drew loved the remote control T-Rex that Mimi gave him.

He ran over and gave her a giant hug.

Playing with more fun toys.

The boys and I made sugar cookies for Santa earlier in the day. Drew was busted sneaking one of "Santa's cookies".

After we got Santa's cookies and milk set out by the fireplace, it was time to go to bed. Everyone sleeps over at Mimi's house. There are more people than I can even count. We have people sleeping in every bedroom, in the living room, dining room, and even the laundry room. There are bodies everywhere! We've been doing it for years, and the bigger our family gets the more crowded the house gets. It makes the best memories!

I slept in a bedroom with Mimi, my 20 year old cousin Bailee, and 6 kids. What an adventure! The kids were so cute listening for Santa as they went to sleep. They were sure they could hear bells. I can remember being that excited as I fell asleep on Christmas Eve.

CHRISTMAS MORNING

Sleepy kids started waking up and getting ready to go see what Santa brought.

They're finally all awake...barely!

They can't wait any longer. Can we please go see?

Drew could not have been more excited to get this T-Rex power wheels from Santa. Brent got the power wheels truck.

They couldn't wait to go in the backyard and race.

Grant and Brady got a Wii from Santa, and that made it the "best Christmas ever" according to Brady.

After breakfast, we headed to my mom and dad's house to spend Christmas day. It's a 45 minute drive, and Brady and Drew fell asleep immediately when we got into the car. They were energized and ready to open more presents and play with their toys when we got to Grammie's. We had a great Christmas and enjoyed all the time we got to spend with our wonderful family.

We wish you a Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas!

Snow Days

Do your kids ever go through a phase where it's hard for them to get along with each other? My kids had been having a few days like that. They were all kind of grumpy and it just seemed like things weren't quite flowing smoothly at our house. So, I came up with a brilliant parenting idea. I took away all tv/video games/computer time from my kids. Then, I gave them an empty jar and some beads. I told them that everytime that did something especially nice for each other, they could put a bead in the jar. When the jar was full, they could have their electronics back. Great idea, right?

They were actually pretty excited to get started when we instituted the program last Sunday. Good deeds were happening everywhere. Then, the unexpected happened. Oklahoma got hit with an ice storm, and school was cancelled for 3 days! I panicked....would we survive 3 snow days with no tv? Nick thought I would give in and let them watch tv, so I strengthened my resolve.

What were the results? We not only survived, but we had the best snow days ever. We baked homemade bread and sugar cookies, played Monopoly, ice skated on the sheet of ice covering our street, built lots of lego creations, and turned our living room into a giant blanket fort. And, the best part was...(drum roll please)...the kids were SO nice to each other! Yea! My plan worked.

By Thursday, they had filled their jar completely so I announced that they could have all electronics back. They looked up from playing legos and said, "ok mom", and kept building. They didn't even care. It was great!

Hope your week was great, too!

Getting dressed up to go out and play in the ice. Ice skating with the neighborhood gang of boys

On Saturday we went to see Santa at the Bass Pro Shop.

Drew did not want to be in the picture. He loved the mall Santa, but not this one.

On Monday night we dressed up and acted out the Nativity. We love this tradition every year.

Is Nick the toughest looking shepherd you've ever seen? I cracked up when I saw this picture. He looks more like a shepherd/bouncer.

Jingle Bells, Jingle Bells...

We got together with some of our friends on Sunday night and went Christmas caroling. It really put us in the Christmas spirit. We went to the Wixom's house afterwards to warm up with hot chocolate and cookies. I really hope we make this an annual tradition. It was a great night!

Tis the Season to Be Jolly!

Oh there are so many fun things to do this time of year! Here are a couple of the fun things we've done this week.

This year I decided to be domestic, and skip the gingerbread house kits or the houses made of graham crackers. Instead, I baked lots of homemade gingerbread for our gingerbread creations. It smells so good!

First, the kids drew on paper what they wanted to build, and then we baked gingerbread to match. They had some pretty unique ideas that reflect their different personalities. No plain houses here! The perfectionist in me backed off and let them build these every step of the way by themselves.

I think they did an awesome job!

Brady built OU's football stadium
I especially love the car going to the game and the marshmallow goal posts.

The gummy bear "football player" is even carrying an orange candy for the ball.

Grant built a skyscraper. That's a satellite on top.

Drew built a train complete with a track. He spent over an hour decorating his train. That's a long time for a 3 year old!

Here's the cute little house Drew decorated at preschool.

We also went to the Glenpool Christmas parade. It was windy and cold, but still fun.

We saw lots of our friends marching and riding on floats.

Even Santa himself was there!

Like I said, it was a little chilly!

Drew was happy to go inside Mazzio's to warm up and eat some pizza afterwards.

Brady's Christmas Program

Brady's class put on a Christmas program last week. It was fun to watch them sing, play instruments and have a few short speaking parts. I got some great video of the program, but my still pictures didn't turn out. These are some shots from after the performance.

State Championship Football

Today we went to watch our Glenpool High School football team win the State Championship. It was a perfect day for football, and watching them cruise to a 27-17 victory made it a great way to spend a Saturday. Go warriors!Grant and Brady have really gotten into football this year. As soon as the game was over, they couldn't wait to go home and watch the SEC championship and then the Big 12 championship on TV. With OU winning the Big 12, I have a lot of happy football fans in my house!

Even Drew enjoyed the game.

Mostly because of the popcorn...

and the skittles.