Christmas With The Yentes'

Just a few early morning Christmas Pics. Somehow, I didn't get all the kids in front of the tree this year but we did snap these. It has been a crazy morning with lots of fun and happy kids. The big boys were thrilled with all their new clothes and have been playing Rock Band all day. The little ones have been riding plasma cars, trikes and pushing baby buggys all over the house. The favorite gift for Gillian is her kitchen. She has been glued to that most of the morning. It has been raining but now that there is a break in the weather, everyone is off to ride bikes, trikes, ripstiks and throw footballs until it starts raining again. I guess I had better get working on dinner. Merry Christmas to all of you!Waiting happily to see what Santa brought!Tired of waiting......We all draw names and make semi-homemade gifts for each other every year. This was my gift to Cam. A poster of him wake-boarding. He thought it was cool.We all love this kitchen. :) Gillian and Caleb have had a blast with it.Tinkerbell is gilly's favorite so I wrapped most of her presents in this $Tree paper I found. super cute! The new ripstiks.

Gillain's new pink Morgan Bike. It is all metal and the cutest bike ever. It even has a headlight in front. Check out the Fashionista's outfit. What a crack up!

Caleb loves his cowboys!

Gillian the Fashionista!

I have been meaning to post this for the last 2 weeks. Gillian is very much into "I do it mom!" You know the 2 year old girl wanting to dress herself in what she thinks looks good and matches and not what mommy wants her to wear. The boys did this to some extent but gillian takes the cake! No matter what I want her to wear, she wants to wear something else of her own creation and she wants to put it on "all by myself!!!!!" so I let her......it is either that or a big power struggle so here is my favorite style of hers. She chose the dress for the pockets, the sweat pants because she was cold and she liked the mittens and hat because they matched the pink in the "dolka dots" on her dress. At least that is how she explained it to me. :) Love that girl!

Ouch!

Gillian has a new boo boo. She burned her finger on the glass of our gas fireplace. It is pretty bad. It was a second degree burn and covers the middle section of the front of her middle finger. We had to take her to the doctor to clean and debrie the wound for a few days and now we have to do it ourselves everyday. Scrubbing it keeps it from getting infected and helps with the scaring. She doesn't like it very much but she really is a good sport. Here she is showing us her wrapped finger. Cute huh?

A Christmas Thing!

So we were running behind getting ready for church this morning but I have a tradition of taking the kids pictures before church on special days like Easter, Mother's Day or the Sunday before Christmas, etc. They all kept saying, "Is this a Christmas Thing mom?" Can you tell that they really didn't want to do it???? I threatened with presents and Santa but only my babies came over to make their mommy happy. As you can see from the first picture, Caleb wasn't thrilled but after the mention of Santa, he not only changed his attitude but began to do the "Hot Chocolate Dance" from his favorite The Nutcracker. Since you won't see the big kids in these pictures, I will have to make good on my promise of no Santa for some of my kids I guess. :) Won't my big boys be sad when they only get a lump of coal on Christmas morning? (Gary is looking for some coal. It may have to be briquetes from the BBQ but he is determined to leave some sort of coal under the tree for a few cetain boys)hahahahaCaleb is not really happy about picture time.......then I mention......Santa. So......Caleb decides to ask his sister to dance.

The twirl that Caleb is so famous for......The Thank you kiss that Gillian loved

And Ta Da! He did it. "Now can Santa bring me presents mom?"

I am finally posting pictures from Gillian's two year old photo shoot that we took a few months ago. We had so much fun with this! Gillian happily put on the dress that Mommy had made for her, she willingly let me clip a "pretty" in her hair and she posed and posed and posed. I'm including just a few of my favs. We have all noticed that Gillian looks very different in every picture. We have named this photo shoot....."The Many Faces of Little Miss Gillian."

A Thankfully Quiet and Relaxing Week!

Just a few pics from Thanksgiving. It was really quiet around here but very productive. We rested, played games, ate, rested some more, ate, decorated for Christmas and I even re-read the whole Twilight series.

Normally we have a large group either here or with other family but this year it was calm and actually very peaceful. Besides our crew of 7, only my mom and brother came to visit and eat and eat and eat with us! Gillian of course couldn't wait for Nana's doggie to get here and didn't leave her alone for a second. It is so funny to watch her with either our golden or Nana's dog.....gillian talks to them and plays with them like they are her best friends. Super cute! oh....yes, that is a diaper on the doggie. I have never laughed so hard in my life! Gillian thought the dog was one of her baby dolls and wanted to keep changing her diaper. I give up! :)

Garrett, Cam and I went to the Outlet Mall's Midnight Madness sale Thanksgiving Night. Them, to see who was there and me to supervise. It was crazy! Lines to get into the stores starting at midnight then lines to buy up all the great deals. The kids were just there to socialize while all the moms fought the crowds. We left around 3:30 a.m. and needless to say, I skipped the 5:00 a.m. Black Friday sales.

We got the Christmas tree up and most decorations. Garrett got all the outside lights up and now the real fun begins. As we always say at the end of Thanksgiving week, "Let the Festivities Begin!" Good luck to all of you!

Look! A "pretty" in Gill's hair

Gillian and Uncle "D"

Caleb....sick of pictures and begging to eat the turkey. "Is it ready now? Or do we have to take more pictures of it?"