Christmas Craziness Part 10

Well, the day has finally arrived. COOKIE DAY!!!
Yep, here it is!

Still going!

Here's the finished product! Looks good enough to eat, right?

Sugar Cookies...

No Bakes...

And my personal favorite...

Peanut Butter Cookies with Reese' Peanut Butter Cups on top! YUM!

Special!

Conversation with Slick at bedtime tonight...

Me: "Goodnight Baby!"
Slick: "Goodnight Mommy. Will you be home ALL day tomorrow?"
Me: "Yes!"
Slick: "Can we do something special tomorrow?"
Me: (thinking, "Oh man, I was really hoping to not have to leave the house for ANYTHING tomorrow!") "What would be special for us to do tomorrow?"
Slick: "Um, play, eat...!"

Well, if that's special, what does a NOT special day look like?
Oh to be 4 again! Gotta love this kid!

Christmas Craziness Part 9

So here's where it really gets crazy!
We attempted gingerbread houses again this year. Only this time I invited ALL the cousins. Actually, for me it was GREAT! Each of the older ones were paired with one (or two) of the younger ones and they went at it. They had a blast doing it! I took a bunch of pictures but won't bore you with them all. Here are just the highlights!
This one, well, this was what the table looked like when they were done! (This is mostly for my sisters to see. I know Fave, you just can even look at it.) Don't worry, we got it all cleaned up. Yes, it took a while, but it was so worth it. The kids had a great time and I loved watching them all work together!
Here are the finished products.

Good job guys! I loved watching you!

Christmas Craziness Part8

So here we are at Spike's Christmas Party at school.
What a good sport he was here. SUFFERING through the craft!
And here, such a GREAT big brother he was. Of course Slick was with us, but didn't get to participate in the little gift exchange. Spike was SO GOOD to him through the whole party. He included him in everything. He was just as excited about having Slick help him open his gift as he was finding out what was inside! This I think is my most favorite picture of the day!

Can't go wrong with this! Lots of fun!

And we've got to finish the day off with a gift and picture with his teacher! She's a FABULOUS teacher. We just love her! Thanks for all your hard work!

Christmas Craziness Part 7

So of course, part of the holiday tradition is to take as many "family pictures" as you can, right? Well, that's what we attempted to do one Sunday morning. The platform was just a perfect backdrop. So here's a sad attempt. Actually, this first one of the boys is great!

Then Spike had to have a turn. As you can tell by the blurriness of the pictures, that we're still working on those "ants in his pants!" I've never seen a kid move as much as he. His poor teacher. She deserves some sort of reward!

Slick's turn! Don't you love the thumb in the corner! Just priceless!

And this is the best we got! Love our little family!

Christmas Craziness Part 6

One night we grabbed another family and headed up to Christmas Village! The boys were so excited! Didn't get many pictures of the "village" itself, but got a few good ones of the kids.

Even daddy got in on the fun tonight!

Here's just a LITTLE taste of the lights! And notice the cars to the left? Yes, they are all waiting to get in! The traffic waiting when we left was about a 5 mile back up! AMAZING and so worth the wait!

Breaking news!

I'm interupting our "Christmas Craziness" to report that we have FINALLY reached our first milestone in the blogging world! Right now, you are witnessing our 100th post! WOW!
So, in honor of this very exciting occassion, there would be NO other way to celebrate in this house, with out cars! That's right, 100 CARS! (and trucks, well, anything with wheels really!) So here they are, 100 CARS cars! Of course they ALL talk you know! As you can see, Slick can't stop talking to them long enough to take a picture!
Enjoy!

Christmas Craziness Part 5

Every year, the Friday before Christmas, we get together with my mom's extended family. Here are a few pictures from it this year.
Three boys waiting oh so patiently to see who picked their names.
Then before we could get a real family picture, Slick had to have a turn with the camera.

Ah, there we go!

Christmas Craziness Part 4

Christmas Craziness part 3

Next came our visit to Santa! Thanks to our gracious hosts for the tree lighting, we've found a new place to go, with out having to go to the mall! This place was great. We walked right up to him, no waiting! He took as much time with the kids as they wanted. He would have talked all day! Even gave the boys candy canes! They thought it was great.

Although I have to add that we went for a little walk down the street to the bakery and on the way back Slick said, "Do we HAVE to go see him again? He's creepin' me out!"

HAHA! You would have never known it when he was talking to him. Don't know where it came from either!

Christmas Craziness Part 2

So after we thawed from the parade, we bundled up again and headed to the oldest tree lighting in America. This was our first time, but will not be our last. We're thinking it's going to be a new tradition, thanks to our gracious hosts for the evening.
Below is only part of our fantastic group!
Slick and his little friend "Snow Princess" had to do some thing to keep themselves entertained while waiting for Santa's arrival. These two could be trouble someday! Keep a look out for some more stories I'm thinking!

Spike and daddy try to keep warm! It was very very cold!

Here he is!

Before...

After!

Christmas Craziness Part 1

So, I'm going to try to catch you all up on what we've been doing to celebrate Christmas this year.
We "kicked off" our festivities with a parade, that is if you don't count putting up the tree (the night before Thanksgiving so I could watch that parade by the light of my tree!) Those of you who know me, know I LOVE a parade! So as you can see, we bundled up the kids, grabbed a few friends and headed out!

Here it comes! The horses start it off each year. Always a treat for the boys

There were a few floats this year. Of course Slick liked the doggie one!

But a parade just would NOT be complete with out a couple of John Deere tractors!

And of course lots and lots of fire trucks!

And last but not least, Santa!