Christmas 2011

We hope everyone had as wonderful of a Christmas as we did! The Christmas weekend flew by, we went to the 'band driven' church service Christmas Eve at 5 o'clock with Gigi & Poppy. The service was great however the baby was fussy & Clint missed almost all of the service because he was walking around with the baby to calm her down. Hunter was restless and did not want to sit, I am thinking next year we should go to the children's service! After church we went to dinner at Crab Louie's, a Christmas tradition. The meal was great-crab dip being my favorite! After dinner we came home and Clint sprinkled the front yard with the 'reindeer food' that Allie had made at preschool. We tucked the kiddies into bed at 9:30 pm (very late) and left cookies out for Santa.

Christmas morning the kids slept in until 8 am and we actually had to wake Hunter up! Gigi & Poppy came over at 8:30 am. The kids came downstairs to see if Santa had been to see them. After checking out stockings, they ate a quick breakfast and then opened presents! Hunter was so excited and Allie could not stop climbing onto her new Pinkalicious bike that Santa brought her. After opening presents under our tree Clint made a big breakfast for everyone-bacon, scrambled eggs, belgian waffles & toast.

After we refueled Poppy & Clint brought in all of the presents from Gigi & Poppy & Aunt Sharon & Uncle Barry-this took several trips! haha The kids were SO excited to get to open even more presents-Hunter was running around the den saying "More Presents! More Presents!" Let's just say that our den looked like ToysRUS afterwards. Allie got a new pink pbk chair, books, "Purplelicious" book & pj's, etc. Hunter got a ride on dump truck, choo choo train, Mega Blocks, etc. Alexis Grace got "Sophie the Giraffe" (the world's top teething toy for baby's according to the website http://sophiegiraffeusa.com/) along with other goodies such as Pedi Ped shoes, etc.

Our kids were SPOILED this year to put it bluntly, but they still stopped to remember the true meaning of Christmas...."Baby Jesus' Birthday" as Hunter said. They sang happy birthday and Allie asked me "Why do we get presents if it's Jesus' birthday?" Ask Gigi I said. Haha

Santa did not forget Mommy & Daddy...Santa brought mommy a Pandora bracelet, CHI hair straightner & pink power drill. Daddy got RayBan sunglasses from Santa in his stocking & a mechanics tool set from Mommy!

We hope to use our Christmas money from my Aunts & Uncles & my parents to go to Disney World this spring (early May...possibly to celebrate Allie's 5th birthday). Thank you to everyone for thinking of us and our children this Christmas & for all of the wonderful presents, surprises & baked goodies-we love all of you!

Christmas Eve-on the way to church

Christmas morning-about to go downstairs to see what Santa brought!

Hunter checking out what Santa brought

Allie on her Pinkalicious bike from Santa

Sweet baby girl opening her stocking

Hunter & his new Choo Choo train from Aunt Sharon & Uncle Barry

Allie in her new Purplicious pj's & matching book from Aunt Sharon & Uncle Barry

Christmas Round 2

Hunter & his new grill from Granny Jan & Pop Pop

Santa's Lil Helper

Allie & her new outfits for Kanani

Kanani is stylin!

We celebrated Christmas round 2 this past weekend with Clints Dad, Janice & Uncle Ben. The weekend flew by and everyone had a great time! Allie enjoyed dressing her new American Girl Kanani up in swimsuits, flip flops, etc and Hunter was busy grilling up burgers & hot dogs for everyone :-) Allie & Hunter gave Pop Pop a hair cut (not really!) in the playroom. We discovered that Hunter loves apple pie...he ate almost all Poppy's pie and ice cream. The grandparents enjoyed opening their stockings, a new tradition that I started this year. And the kids loved playing in the playroom with Uncle Ben & Pop Pop. Music time with Granny Jan was a hit too! :-)

Christmas Round 1

I joke that each year we have three rounds of Christmas...round 1 being when we celebrate Christmas with Clints Mom, round 2 when we celebrate with his Dad & round 3 when we celebrate on Christmas morning with my parents. The kids love it and I think it is fun to space it all out this way so that we are not bombarded with so many presents to open in one day. This gives the kids time to enjoy their gifts as well.

We celebrated Christmas "Round 1" last weekend with Debbie & Walt. They babysat the kids so that Clint and I could have a date night too. We went to the shooting range & had a surprisingly fun time shooting a 9 mm and a 22mm. We also went out to dinner at my favorite place-Olive Garden.

I also hosted my first annual cookie exchange on Sunday, it was a lot of fun and I had pretty good attendance. I hope to start this as a yearly tradition! The cookies were all so yummy & did not last long in the house :-)

Allie's Preschool Christmas Pageant

Allie's preschool class sang three songs at the Christmas Pageant at the Woodlake campus this past Sunday evening. She did a great job! We enjoyed watching Allie sing & she knew every word too!

HoHoHo Merry Christmas!