Merry Christmas 2013

We celebrated our whole Christmas on Christmas eve this year.  It was a busy, busy day full of family!  We left milk and cookies out for Santa the night before (poor baby K was too tired to join).

 The next morning it was hard to keep these kids on the stairs and not rushing down them!

When we let them come down, everyone was excited to see that Santa had arrived!  All 3 kids got new bikes!

We opened the rest of our stockings, santa presents and family gifts too.

The Little Mermaid for Baby K

Despicable Me 2!

You can't see, but he's opening his new John Deere Action movie! 

We try to limit our spending each year, but it's so much fun to see the kids so excited on Christmas morning!  We love seeing their happy faces when they get what they asked Santa for!  After we opened presents, we got ready to go to Mamaw and Papaw's house.  We got there right at Kendall's naptime, she was a little unsure for about the first hour...so this was our best attempt at a family picture!

 We got the kids to go upstairs and eat brunch with us, but immediately after we were finished, back downstairs we went!

Kinsley, Colson, Alyvia, Rylie, Reagan-crazy wound up for Christmas!

Uncle Adam getting them even more riled up!

Aaaaand GO CHRISTMAS!!!!

Little Man Brenner

Colson opens his cool JD stuff from the Walshs

Pretty Kinsely, excited about her new double stroller for her Bitty Twins

Pretty Kendall with her new scarf and necklace

Pretty girl Livi and her new scarf

Rylie & Reagan ready to whip something up for us!

Easy Bake Ovens!!

I love family get togethers with all of us!  The kids are SO much fun right now!  Wild and crazy yes,  BUT, they are so joyful it's hard not to love it :)  They love each other too and I love seeing them together.  

Counsin Love <3

After a couple hours at Mamaw and Papaw's house, we headed home to get ready for church.  Kendall was supposed to take a nap too....but she decided otherwise :(  We headed to church with my mom and dad and then to their house to celebrate with my family.  

Oh my Finny <3  Look at those beautiful eyes (and ignore the goose egg on his head, crazy boy!).  He's so happy and sweet.

Such a man in his suit and tie

My beautiful girl

Oh my Colson, at least he's looking at the camera :)

The best picture of the 3 of my kids....'nough said

My girls

Beautiful Baby Girl...she was on fire, probably from no napping!!

Our Family...we're all a little tired from the day

Christmas presents in our #Christmasjammies!

Colson LOVED his Jake book from Aunt Anne & Un Cha

We ate dinner and "wrapped up" our night...ha, ha, ha!  Alan and the kids went to his cousin's house Christmas day while I worked.  I was a little sad that I didn't get to spend the day with them, but mostly thankful that I could spend a whole day with both our families.  Merry Christmas 2013 everyone, I hope yours was as blessed as ours.

It's A, Family Tradition

I love knowing what's to come, what to expect, routine if you will.  It soothes my soul :)  I think this plays into my love of traditions, especially around the holidays.  Growing up, I remember doing the holidays a specific way.  Thanksgiving was always spent at my Grandma & Grandpa Schindel's house in Aurora (we didn't see them as often as my other grandparents, so we always went up there for Thanksgiving).  Christmas eve we went to evening church and then over to my Grandma and Grandpa Snyder's house to celebrate with all of my aunts, uncles and cousins.  It was loud, it was sometimes (probably most times) obnoxious and it was always fun.  Christmas morning we opened Santa presents at our house and by 10:00 a.m. we were on the road to Aurora to celebrate with my mom's family.  I never minded opening presents and leaving, it was our tradition and I was good with that :)  I loved (still do) spending time with our extended family and celebrating the holidays.  My husband shares those values with me.  We are starting to get into our own routines around the holidays.  With my work schedule thrown in, it tends to make for a crazy Christmas day for us.  But we get to celebrate with both of our families and that's what is important to us :)  Leading up to Christmas we have started some traditions around our house too.  Pumpkin is our "elf on the shelf"-don't judge me!

Our elf doesn't get too crazy, no great pinterest ideas here, but the kids (especially Alyvia at this point) get so excited to see where he is each morning.  Pumpkin was too tired to move a couple of nights though, lazy elf!  And we celebrate Christmas with Santa.  In our house, Santa just adds to the "magic" of Christmas (we always talk about Jesus being born and what the true meaning of Christmas is also).  Santa sends an e-mail message to the kids about a week before Christmas (thanks to the portable north pole or pnp.com) and lets them know if they are on the naughty or nice list.  Again, something fun that they look forward to!

Livi anxiously awaiting Santa's verdict!

And of course, we have a mad dash (usually the day before we celebrate Christmas) to make Santa cookies for his visit and reindeer food so Rudolph can find our house!

Oh Colson, "cheeeese!"

It took a few tries, but Livi got the hang of rolling out the dough

Who gave green food coloring to the 3 year old?!

So proud

The finished product

And that night, while it was 1 degree outside, we spread our reindeer food on our front lawn-brrrrr!

I hope my kids look back and remember these traditions leading up to Christmas as fondly as I remember mine growing up.  They'll probably not do a thing because I tried to pack in too much-ha!  Happy Holidays!