New Year's Eve was a quite one for us this year. We went to Cafe Rio for dinner and it was yummy! We came home and had a pajama night while watching movies and having treats. I was scheduled to work the next morning, so we were all asleep by 10:30 that night. I didn't see the New Year until I fed Hailey at 4:20 in the morning! The kids enjoyed "pajama night" and that's all that counts!

3 Months

My little one is already 3 months. She is still as sweet as can be. Loves to eat and will eat about every 2 hours during the day, but at night she only wakes up usually once to eat and then goes right back to sleep. She is "talking" to us, loves to give everyone she sees a big smile, loves sucking on her fist, loves taking baths and loves snuggling with a blanket and LOVES BEING HELD.


I sat her up and then she threw herself back while she gave me a big smile. The smile was too much for her to handle!

Watch Out Girls!!!

Nothing better than drilling holes in your sister's underwear!

Merry Christmas

We had a wonderful Christmas this year. The kids were so excited to walk out and see what Santa left them. There was so much excitement in their little faces that you couldn't help but smile. And with each squeal of excitement, laugh or a big WOW, my smile grew bigger. It is so much fun having little kids on Christmas. The kids got up about 7:15 so not too bad for them. Tyler opened up his tool work bench and some tools and he was good. He just wanted to play with the toys. Kali would open hers up, play with the toy for a little bit and then was ready to open up another one. Makena just wanted all of her gifts opened. She would get super excited about what she opened, but it aside and was ready for the next. Santa left the kids a note telling them how good they have been this year and so he got them something extra special. Santa left the kids a bell from Rudolph's harness. It was so awesome to see their eyes light up and Makena couldn't put that bell down. She thought that was the neatest thing. She showed everyone and told them where it came from. It was a wonderful Christmas. But by 8:00, I felt like the Grinch saying "noise, noise, all the noise" that we put the kids to bed. They were so tired by then and Jarel and I needed some quiet for a minute. Hope everyone had a very Merry Christmas!

Kali went right to her stocking and started to open the gifts that Santa put inside.


Makena super excited that she got princess books.


Kali got bedtime books and she loved them.


Hailey looking a bit sleepy. She was up with the rest of them (7:15) and lasted until about 8:30 and then was ready for bed again.


Tyler with his tool work set. He LOVES this thing! It was a hit and Tyler didn't want to open up any of his other presents. He just wanted to play with this. Eventually he opened up his other gifts, but they got pushed aside and he still went back to the tool set.


Tyler did eventually open up other gifts...


and was happy to have Buzz and Woody.



Makena and Kali both asked Santa for cameras. He pulled through and they had big smiles on their faces when they opened up their cameras.




Kali and Hailey


Tyler chasing the girls with his saw...it was the funniest thing to watch. The girls screaming and Tyler with a big grin on his face.


Hailey


A big thumbs up for Christmas!


Tyler coming after me with his drill.


Makena opening up her "Barbie" LIV doll. She thought it was cool that you could change the dolls hair.


Tyler drilling away


Hailey - she got some pacifiers, a star stacking toy, leggins and some soft books.


Makena with her princess umbrella


Tyler with his NERF gun. Tyler and Jarel both got one and one didn't work so we had to take it back to the store. This particular one was a little hard for Tyler to work, so I got him an automatic one that shoots darts. Now Jarel and Tyler can have a NERF war.


Kali


Hailey


Kali working trying to fix things


Here Kali has Woody going into the crank thing. Might start having to call Kali "Sid" from Toy Story.


This year, instead of going to Grandpa and Grandma Hathaway's house, they came over to ours. It was nice to visit with them and we enjoyed their time in our home. The kids got spoiled and each got a gift they really wanted: Makena got a wii petshop game, Kali got a camping set so she can sleep in a tent, Tyler got a whole bunch of blocks that he is building and knocking down and Hailey got some baby dolls. It was fun to see them! Today we went over to their house to eat and play with cousins and play games. We enjoyed ourselves and the kids had fun playing with cousins!


Kali got a microphone from Grandpa and Grandma Boyack. She LOVES it and loves to hear her voice sing to the songs!


Makena got some beads to make necklaces and a razor scooter from Grandpa and Grandma. She has been making necklaces for everyone and has been riding her scooter in the house and loving it!


Hailey - she was spoiled as well and got a cute dress and a Minnie Mouse doll.


Tyler got a Buzz racer and a fire truck. We have been having races all day seeing who can win! When he wins he shouts really loud "I WIN"

Christmas Eve

Wow...Christmas came fast this year. It seemed just yesterday we were on day 25 of our countdown to Christmas and now it is tomorrow. The kids are so excited and have been bouncing off the walls. Makena has been telling me every day how many days are left until Christmas and now she can't believe that Santa comes tonight. We have been tracking Santa on our computer seeing where he is at. The kids have enjoyed that, but Makena is a little scared that Santa will actually be coming in our house. I told her not to be afraid, he is nice and he comes in and leaves very fast because he has lots of houses to visit. She was more calm after I told her that. We made our magic reindeer dust a couple of days ago so that we could spread it on the lawn for the reindeer to see and to attract them to our house. It was cute to watch them carefully spread it on our lawn. Tyler had no idea why he was throwing chocolate/glitter oats on our lawn, but he enjoyed it! We have been baking cake pops, rolls and chocolate chip cookies while Dad and Grandpas worked on the basement. It has been a fun, festive day!


Hailey ready for the festivities


Kali sprinkling reindeer dust


Makena and Kali throwing the reindeer dust. They wanted to make sure it was all over so the reindeer could see it.


Makena, Kali and Tyler


Tyler and Kali


Makena


Makena, Kali, Tyler and Hailey before we left for Grandma and Grandpa's house.


We spent Christmas Eve at my parents house. We enjoy going over for good company, good food and lots of fun. We always do a white elephant exchange...something we look forward to every year. This year there were dog ornaments, a huge trophy, treats, money and more that I don't remember. It was fun...but next year we need to be more mean and take presents away from other people!!!

Molly, Jon and Tyler


Tyler, Kali and Grandma


Grandpa, Ryan and Makena

The kids did the Nativity while Grandpa read the story of Jesus birth. We had to do it twice because the kids wanted to play different parts. It was cute!

Kali as an angel



The shepherds - Gretchen and Tyler




Makena as Mary. She kept telling me all day how she was going to be Mary!


Shepherd - Gretchen


Love that "Joseph" is sucking his thumb.


Ryan and Gretchen...notice Tyler pulling off his costume!


Ryan


Gretchen as Mary


Ryan as Joseph


Tyler was done with his costume and wanted it off.


Kali as a shepherd with her sheep...a dog! Best we could do!


Makena as an angel. I'm pretty sure back then, the angel had a headband just like that!

We played games. One of the games was to see who could get a cookie from their forehead to their mouth the fastest. It was quite the scene and I was laughing hard when people were doing this. It is quite hard to do. Our cookie champion was Jacob!





We also played the M&M sorting game!


After the games, Grandma read the kids the Santa Claus story. Then we came home and put out milk and cookies for Santa, carrots and oats for the reindeer and M&Ms for Ellis! It was a fun evening!