It's Beginning to Look a lot like Christmas!

Saturday was a busy day....we spent most of the day decking the halls, and the tree, and the roof, and the bedrooms, and, well....you get the idea!! :) I LOVE looking around at all the Christmas decorations, I love sitting by the Christmas tree & chatting with Matt at night after the kids are in bed, I love listening to Christmas music. All things Christmas are good!! So, I thought I'd share what we have adorning our house. :)

My kitchen table centerpiece (I think I need a red plate or something to layer between the charger & the glass, what do you think?):


Santa praying to baby Jesus....we've had this since our first Christmas and it means more to me each year. While I was putting it out, Parker asked about it....gave me the chance to ask Parker what part of Christmas was more important; Santa or Jesus.

New this year is this red "subway" sign. My friend, Kelly, was making this in her ward for a fabulous Friday RS activity, and I jumped in and asked her to order the stuff for me. I thought it turned out cute! I love my sparkly tree too!

These Nutcrackers were sent to us from Matt's mom....I think they bring back memories for Matt! :)

Now, onto our tree...this is just a sampling of my favorite ornaments.
I love this star...I think the star is my favorite Christmas symbol, and I love the "Believe" on it!

Can't forget about Duke!

We have a letter for each member in our family (here's one of the 3 A's)....

This ornament was sent to me from a friend a few years back....it's so unique & I love it. Every time I put it on the tree I think about her!

These boys were my super helpers setting up the tree. We worked hard all day while Daddy & Annie hung the lights outside.

What the finished product looks like!! Our star is missing, though....currently we are trying to decide if we stick with a new star (since our old one was slowly dying) or if we go with something new, such as an angel. Any advice?

Merry Christmas!! Hope your season is merry & bright!

Felix the Elf

Santa sent us a special surprise last week....his name is Felix the Elf!

Felix was sent by Santa to make sure our kids are being happy & helping at this time of year! A letter was included, letting us know that Felix would be around until Christmas Eve, but then Santa will pick him up when he stops by our house. Felix will let Santa know if Abbie, Annie, Parker & Connor have been good & if they deserve presents or coal....

But, Felix is also a little prankster...we all left to go shopping on Saturday, and when we got back, this is where we found him...swinging by the kitchen chandelier with toilet paper...

Yesterday while we were at church he threw his string cheese wrapper on the kitchen floor & climbed up the wall with ribbon...

Then, this morning, we woke up to find Felix in the kitchen getting into some of the candy I was using for Christmas baking...(Felix looks pretty proud of the messes he makes...)!

I wonder what he'll do next......whatever he does, the kids are behaving well & getting along for the most part. So, even if we have to put up with a few more pranks by Felix, hopefully he'll give Santa a good report on the kids!

Christmas Morning!

We had a fun & relaxing Christmas morning at our home! The kids all slept past 6am...Connor being the first to wake up. We have a tradition of having the kids bring down their blankets to "claim their space" on the floor around the Christmas tree...they lay them out on the floor & that is where they can sit when they look through the stockings & open their gifts.

Here's Parker on his blanket, waiting patiently!

Each of the kids had their "favorite" gift...Annie had been asking Santa for a pink radio since the end of summer...she was pretty happy about getting it!

Abbie loved getting some boots! She was so excited!!...I don't think she was expecting them, but both girls had been asking for them whenever we looked in the shoes at Target. Both girls have worn their boots EVERY DAY since Christmas!

Connor had fun crawling between all the wrappings & toys! Isn't he a cutie?!!?

Abbie was so cute helping Parker get his geotrax sawmill all set up for him to play with!!

Here's what we had to clean up when all was said & done! I love just being home with our little family to enjoy Christmas morning. I love the simplicity of it all & just watching the joy in my kids eyes!

Although this is late...I hope you all had a very Merry Christmas & know that we were thinking of you!!

Christmas Eve Celebrations!

I know I'm behind, obviously...but we had such a fantastic Christmas (both Eve & Day) that I thought I'd share some of the happenings of those days, before we move on...


Christmas Eve morning was perfect!!...we woke up to fresh snow on the ground. Before the kids could fully wake up, Matt was already talking to them about building a snowman in the front yard!! We went on the hunt for warm gloves, hats, and clothes (we already had the coats out & regular clothes, but we don't really have any "snow clothes"). Abbie, Annie & Parker bundled up warm & headed outside to help dad build "Charlie"...as our snowman would soon be named! I still don't know who was more excited, Matt or the kids....

The finish product with all 4 of our cute kids!

Around 4 o'clock on Christmas Eve, we headed over to our friends (the P family) to celebrate! We had such a fantastic time with them & our kids had the best time being together! The funniest part of the evening is when we had all sat down to have dinner, there was a "kid" table and an "adult" table, that were basically right next to each other (we still have kiddos that needed help getting their food). Anyway, we (the adults) are talking across the table & we realize we were pretty much yelling at each other because the 6 of our kids were just making so much noise! It was so funny, we just had to laugh & then took pictures of them all...

Their 4 kids line up almost perfectly with the 4 of ours, so they all just had a blast! Honestly, there was probably a lot more playing instead of eating, but that was okay...

After a lot more yummy food & a little more playing, we attempted to do a Nativity!

S boy was Joseph & Annie was Mary...aren't they cute together? I'm already beginning to plan their wedding... ;)

Parker was a handsome wiseman...

Here's all the kids (Joseph, Mary on the donkey, Abbie the sheep, and M girl was the angel) minus the wiseman!!

Thank you to the P family for such a fun Christmas Eve!

We've moved!

Oh yes, that was another thing that kept us busy through the month of November! The first week of November, our landlord called us to let us know that he had sold his house & wanted to move into the house we were living in. So, Matt & I quickly went to work trying to find another house to rent...fortunately, we didn't have to look to long or hard...we found a house in the same subdivision, same ward, same schools & that even had the same floor plan, for rent...we were excited!! So, as soon as we got back from our Thanksgiving trip we went crazy packing boxes for the big day! I don't have many pictures because the camera got packed up too...but, here's one of Park's playing on the couch cushions as I was packing up boxes one day...apparently that was loads of fun!

Here's the front room of our "new house" after I had spent the morning unpacking boxes...I mostly had to take the picture just to feel validated that I had gotten a lot done... :)

I'll try to get some pictures posted of the house & the rooms after we get the pictures hung up (hopefully tomorrow!). Until then, here is what we did on Saturday....we (mostly Matt) set up the Christmas lights outside while the kids & I worked on the Christmas tree & decorations inside. Here's some pictures of what the house looks like at night!!

Didn't Matt do a great job?....I'll let him tell the story of how he talked me into climbing up on the roof with him to get more lights hung!....

Plenty of Projects!

So...I've been MIA the last few weeks because I've been trying to work on a few things at home....here are a some things that got a bit more attention than blogging! ;)

First...I bought a sewing machine last spring & decided to try a make a few pillowcases for my kids. So, off to Wal*mart we went & they each picked out some Halloween fabric. These are what we came up with...Abbie's is on the left, Parker's is in the middle (my personal favorite out of all of them, and then Annie's...she decided she wanted some bats from Parker's on her's along w/the pumpkins & black cats!)!! It was pretty fun & I'm getting more confident in my sewing abilities...even though I'm a TOTAL beginner, right now!!

Second...my sister-in-law, Christy, is having a baby shower next week & I helped to make half of the invitations...this is what I came up with! I searched all over for the "perfect" scrapbook paper to use & finally came across this adorable pattern! I hope she likes how they turned out! If you can't guess...they'll be having a baby girl (Gabbie) sometime around the beginning of December!

Finally...I'm part of 3 different card groups. I LOVE the creative outlet & it's something that I feel I do pretty well at. So, for tonight's swap w/my ward, (which is being held here at our house, so besides working on these, I've also been cleaning, making some yummy cheesecake for dessert & all the other "mommy stuff") I made these ones. It's the same idea as ones I made last year for another group...just a bit different.

Anyway...lots of fun stuff, but it's only beginning w/Christmas around the corner...I won't tell you all the "projects" that need me attention now...let's just say I have plenty to keep me busy!! :)