Christmas outfits round 1

I had a wonderful plan of making the girls matching skirts and matching ties for the boys for their Christmas outfits The week before Christmas I realized that I had not started any of them, and really had no desire to do any of it. So I found existing Christmas things for them to wear. I think it was either the first time wearing them or have been worn a few time before, so they are basically new, right!
So these kids have kind of been driving me crazy over Christmas break! I usually enjoy when they are off of school and having a break from our schedule, but not Christmas break. They are just way too excited and hyper! It is better after Christmas than before, so we are doing good now. But I won't be overly sad when they go back to school next week.

They sure are cute though, and I love them so much!

Merry Christmas!

p260 week 51

December 25th to 31stThese two are such good buddies it makes me happy. They call each other their best friend. When they go to bed at night they stay up and talk to each other. I love that they love each other so much. I hope the friendship they have will continue to grow as they grow up.
Each year the kids look forward to their chocolate advent calendars. My grandma used to always have these for us at her house, and I loved them. They look forward to it each day, and the days we forget to open their window, they are excited that they get two the next day. Dallen got a hold of his one day and opened 3 or 4 of his windows, and would of kept going if I didn't stop him. I put some m&m's in the windows he opened to safe from melt downs on those days.

We also did 12 days of Christmas with Christmas books. Every night the kids took turns opening a present and Ky read them the book. It was the first time doing this, but I think it will be a new tradition.

We learned that Rylan does not like peppermint candy canes, or anything peppermint. It is too spicy. So every single candy cane he got he put on our tree. He had a little candy cane section.

Our last family picture for 2011. It is so fun to look back at our little {ok big} family over the year. Will be doing this again next year!

snow {again}

We got three snow storms in December. That might be a record for one month. The kids loved it! The last storm was unique. It started snowing around dinnertime, so the kids got to go out and play in the snow while it was snowing. Usually it snow during the night and we wake up to it in the morning. They had a lot of fun.Some fun pictures of Dallen. This one loves eating the snow.

Getting all warmed up!

When it started snowing it was just Bethany and Dallen home. Hannah and Rylan had ran some errands with Ky. When they got home, the other's joined right in.

Rylan and his giant snowball.

They started to build a snowman, but the snowball kept falling apart. So then they decided to eat them, and then throw them at eachother.

It was another fun snow day!

Ky's birthday

Ky's birthday is a week before Christmas. I keep trying to talk him into celebrating his birthday on his half birthday, but he hasn't bought into the idea yet. Although, that means it would fall on the same weekend as Father's Day. It is kind of stressful trying to plan something special when I am worrying about Christmas. Good thing he really doesn't expect much and it always works out just fine!

Being like daddy!

I made him a butterfinger pie, his favorite candy. We sang to him, including himself.

And then Rylan blew out his candles for him! He couldn't help himself!

So we lit the candles and sang to him again. This time Ky blocked Rylan so he wouldn't blow them out.

He blew out his candles, all by himself! Happy birthday handsome. We love you!!

p260 week 50

December 18th to 24thDallen comes home from church every week with a name tag sticker on his back. There are some new nursery workers in nursery, so it helps them know their names. The other kids think it is silly.

Bethany was helping me make dinner, by peeling the potatoes. She said, "I like shaving the potatoes, it's fun." So I guess that is the new term, shaving the potatoes.

We pulled out our old fashion popcorn popper, an the kids had no idea what it was! We were getting ready for our polar express party, so their first thought was I was going to make coal for the train. Then they realized that I was making popcorn, so they were saying that I was making homemade popcorn! Made me laugh. Then Bethany wrote on our grocery list dried corn, so we could make more homemade popcorn. Sometimes these kids crack me up!

We had a polar express party with some friends. They all wore their pj's, they all got their ticket and boarded the train. We read the book, then watched the movie while eating their homemade popcorn. After the movie we had cookie and hot cocoa, and did some coloring and activity sheets. I think the kids had fun, and it was my attempt at not having my kids drive me crazy. They do much better with time off from school with some scheduled things. I forgot to take pictures during the party, so this will have to do.

I think I am safe to say that Bryleigh is an independent sitter. It's so nice being able sit her down for a minute. She loves to sit and play with her toys.

I posted this picture before, but this one has a few things added. Dallen is addicted to my iphone and Ky's ipod. He loves to play them. He can navigate them pretty good too. Like he edited this picture and added the tangled stuff to it. I thought it was very fitting for this picture since he is quite tangled up in his clothes. Silly boy!

aquarium and gardens

We celebrated Ky's birthday as a family by going to Sweet Tomatoes (his and the kids favorite place, one of my least favorite places) and to the aquarium and gardens. We had a fun time as a family.

The fish in the above picture was Hannah's favorite fish. She sat and talked to it.
We always have to have a picture in this place, every time we go.

Dallen sitting on the starfish. They always complain that it is bumpy but they still always have to sit on it.

The trains. The boys love the trains. The other kids went over to the grass to play and Dallen kept playing with the trains. Everytime we are going to go somewhere and we ask the kids where they want to go, Dallen will always say the zoo, to see the trains. I think it's his favorite place.

They have these two buttons that you press to make Thomas and James go. He kept running back and forth between the two buttons. He got really upset when some other people came and started using the buttons, so we had to move on!

It is all decorated for Christmas right now.

The girls with the snowman's!

Bethany got her haircut a few weeks ago. She got it cut the length of her bangs, so it would all be the same length. Now she is wanting to grow it long. Hannah just got a trim, because she is wanting to grow out hers too.

The kids wanted a picture on the ant. It's fun when the actually ask to have their picture taken.

Some of the river of lights, that were turned on. The aquarium and gardens are definitely one of our families favorite places!

p260 week 49

December 11th to 17thWe upgraded our nativity! Not really, but at least it is childproof now. This is what we will have until our kids get older. Anyways, for Family Home Evening we had a Christmas lesson and were talking about the nativity story. We got to the wisemen and were asking the kids what the three gifts were that they brought to Jesus. Hannah answered first, "gold, frankenstein.... ha ha We got a good laugh out of that one! She was close though.
The boys got new boots. They had been wanting boots, since the girls have boots. They love them and want to wear them everywhere. I draw the line at church, they can not wear their boots to church. It is a battle every Sunday morning.

I made Rylan some quite time boxes. The idea is he gets one box a day and it should entertain him for about an hour or so during quite time. I was very excited about this idea. Each box has some books, puzzles, games, coloring book, and some toys. Rylan was really excited too when he was watching me put them together, and when he finally got to play with one. About 15 minutes into the quite time and I was feeling pretty happy about it all. Then 5 minutes later he comes and tells me that he is bored and doesn't like his quite time box. He thought it was going to be all new toys in the boxes. I was a little bummed. Then the girls get home from school and the box was still out. Bethany sat and played with it for an hour and then asked if I would make some for her. At least someone liked it! So the girls got a couple of their own, and after seeing the girls be excited about it, Rylan likes them again. Dallen also likes them and gets to use them some days.

Bethany is being silly in this picture, but do you notice her shirt? It's green and has a football on it. She is my kid that is always cold, always! She was wanting some more long sleeve t-shirts to wear to bed. It is hard to find that for girls. But I knew I had some long sleeve t-shirts for Rylan when he gets bigger, so I pulled them out for her. She was happy and I was happy not to have to buy anymore.

school celebrations

Rylan's preschool did a little Christmas concert. Each class sang a song, and then a band played a few songs. It was fun to watch him! He had so much fun!
After preschool I asked him if he had fun at preschool today. And he said, "yes, I always have fun at preschool that is why I love it!" It makes me happy to see him so happy! It will sure be a let down when he has to go to "real" school next year!

The boys watching the band play.

Rylan with all his bells. He had them on his wrist and ankles and his necklace.

The same night the girls had their art and poetry night at their school. The last few weeks before Christmas break they do a ton of art and writing poems. It's a nice break from the normal, and they love it.

Hannah with her portrait of Chief Joseph (the very top) and a poem about him.

Bethany with her portrait and poem (very top) of Muhamad Ali.

They did a lot of printing this year. Some of Hannah's (very top again).

They made katongs (not sure how to spell it). It is something they make in Thailand for their New Year's celebrations. They float them down the river with candles lit on them. It was fun seeing all the stuff they have been working so hard on!