Christmas Eve & Day

(Some of these are a little dark since I haven't had time to edit them yet!)

We had a rare Christmas Eve without any holiday parties to attend to, and we took advantage of it by spending some good old-fashioned family time together. Sutton had been dying to cash out my Coke Rewards points to buy a Snapfish photo puzzle, so I surprised everyone by getting a puzzle of one of my favorite photos from our Disney trip. Mitch and the big boys spent all evening putting it together.

 They especially loved finding the puzzle pieces that contained their faces!

Christmas Morning - opening their gifts from each other. Sawyer received a Lego racer, and Sutton got a cookbook that he's been wanting (Fun Stuff: Frozen Pops). Yep, I said a cookbook. Well, technically you don't cook anything since it's all about popsicles, but still...

He completely stopped opening his presents to sit down and read through it all. He was so excited!

Look at how thrilled Sawyer was to receive his Lego mine set! It's the biggest set he's ever had!

They got some K'nex racers, but I actually chose this picture just to show off that I made all four of my boys their very own Kundin Electric shirt :)

Simon got a Cars race track from Santa, and he loves it!

Simon was SO excited to get a set of Pocoyo dolls from his brothers. He pretty much carried them around with him for the rest of the day.

Mario doll, Pocoyo dolls and a new laptop...this kid was happy!

The big boys' stockings...plus a Luigi and Yoshi doll and some candies that they'd already run off with!

Sawyer got to work right away on his mine, but then it was time to go to brunch at Gigi's...

Just what every little kid needs - a Kapow! punching glove to beat up their brothers/cousin. Actually, they're totally soft and thin plastic that doesn't hurt a bit.

Stella got Sutton a Doctor Dreadful lab kit -  make your own bug candy. He kept saying "eeew, disgusting!" LOL!

Sawyer can't wait to try out the Magic Science wizard kit that Stella got him. He's dying to make fizzy potions and his own magic wand!

Two new Leap Pad games (and we have a wardrobe change with the addition of a new Ninja Turtle shirt!).

The whole morning was quite Ninja Turtle-tastic, actually! Sawyer got two turtles and a big vehicle, and Sutton got his own stash of turtles and a chopper bike.

Simon got a new cash register since the one I bought him awhile ago at a garage sale has stopped working.

More Legos!

Did these kids get spoiled or what!?! This is the kids' stack of stuff that we brought home from my parents' house today (and this doesn't even include a few more shirts, cash, a couple of things that they were already too busy playing with or any of the presents for Mitch and I!)! We definitely need to go through all of our old toys this week and make a large donation to some less fortunate children.

The aftermath. Toys EVERYWHERE.

Happy kids everywhere, too.

I got Mitch a new travel mug and a gift card to Starbucks. I lose all sense of creativity when it comes to choosing presents for him. I swear he's so hard to shop for!

Simon got a bubble maker, so we had a little bubble dance party in the kitchen before bedtime to get the rest of our sillies out. We had such a fun day, and my family was so blessed by everyone and their generosity. Thank you so much for all the love you always show to my family! xoxo

Christmas Tree Portraits 2012

Took some photos of the kiddos around the Christmas tree tonight. Here are a few of my favorites....

Even Lulu got in on the photo shoot!

Breakfast With Santa

This morning we went to Breakfast With Santa at MMCA. Simon was crabby from the get-go, so he didn't want to participate in anything, but the big boys had a great time making crafts, chatting with Santa and running around with their friends. The lines were short, there was plenty of food, Santa was awesome (he even had that magical Santa twinkle in his eyes!), and there were lots of crafts to keep the kids busy.

The school also hosted a bake sale to benefit the garden, and the PTA was holding their twice yearly uniform swap. All previously owned uniform pieces were only $1! Unfortunately they didn't have any long sleeved shirts since we need those the most, but I did manage to snag Sawyer four pairs of pants (two that are still creased and brand new - score!).

Making ornaments for their Christmas tree

Coloring bookmarks

Visiting with Santa! We tried SO hard to get Simon in the picture too, but it just wasn't happening :(

Sawyer asked for Legos, and Sutton asked for a Wii game (surprise, surprise!).

 

"Mmmm, nummy nummy! Das NUMMY!" 

Simon managed to snag Sawyer's candy cane, and it was the highlight of the morning for him. Maybe next year I'll manage to snag a photo of all three of them!

Getting Ready for Thanksgiving...

I've always dreamed of the day when I would finally be able to subcontract out the manual labor of Thanksgiving dinner preparations, and this year my wish finally came true. 6 pounds of fresh green beans got washed, trimmed and chopped. These guys legitimately worked for over two hours today to make it happen, and I'm completely impressed! I have a feeling that it's going to be the best green bean casserole ever :)

Sawyer even perfected his technique of cutting multiple beans at the same time - Master Chef in the making, I tell ya.

Hope you all have a wonderful Thanksgiving full of family, friends and love. xoxo

Happy Halloween!

Getting ready to trick or treat! Stella came over wearing a pretty vampire tutu costume and somehow ended up in Sutton's old Mario costume instead. That totally made the boys' night, and they were SO excited to have her dressed up to match them.

Sutton gave Stelly the big kid swing and took Simon's baby swing for himself lol! He was pretty enamored with the fact that she was his "Mario twin."

Mustache time!

 

Simon had SIX costumes to choose from, but in the end this was the only one that he (just barely!) let us put on him! He started out the evening in the wagon, but by the end of the first block he was ready to join the big kids.

He didn't care so much about getting candy at first - just going door-to-door with his bucket was an adventure for him...until he realized that they were giving out candy!

I saw one of the "We've Been Booed" printables that I designed for Mom's Crafty Space on the window of a house that was quite a bit away from ours. I wonder if the "boo" from our street traveled all the way to this neighborhood or if someone else just found my printable online and used it. Either way, it was fun to see my work on a stranger's home :)
 

Once Simon realized there was candy in his bucket he wanted to eat his way through the trick or treating experience.

Total sugar coma here. He had to stop and read the letters and numbers on every street sign, stop sign, mailbox and holiday decoration that we passed. It took awhile ;)

We managed to collect enough candy to overflow two big bowls before the rain finally caught us. Luckily we were only halfway around our block when it began to sprinkle, so we were able to finish up the last few houses just in time to avoid a huge downpour. We had a SUPER fun night, and I'm already looking forward to next year!

Disney 2012

CLICK HERE to see all of the photos from our vacation (well, the 169 that I chose to share since there were over 1,200 pictures total!).