GREAT grandparents

My kids are blessed to be surrounded my generations of living grandparents and great grandparents who love and serve the Lord. My four grandparents are still living and 3 of Eric's grandparents are still living. What an amazing blessing. Here are a few photos from our little Christmas celebration with my grandparents, my dad's parents.

Caleb's snow fort

It's rare the babies are "allowed" to play with the train table. They were taking advantage of their freedom! When I peaked in, and then ran to grab my camera, they were turning the knob on the clock tower to make music and then would dance to it. Adorable!

My friend and neighbor invited us to play in her son's snow fort. We bundled up and headed on our way. We had no idea what to expect.

It was amazing! The boys had a blast playing outside. Then we went in for cookies!

Indulgence

What is your after-the-kids-go-to-sleep indulgence? Yes, I ate this with a spoon!

Helper

Who says you can't have cookies for an appetizer?

As long as it's followed by some delicious salad! Emmett is ever so helpful these days. He set the table and served up the salad. Thanks little man!

Peak-a-boo tutu and follow-through

EISLEY...

When I went pajama crazy at Kohls yesterday, I got Eisley a few new pairs of jammies for next year. One of the pairs comes with a little tutu! She found them (laying on the floor) and brought the pants and tutu over to me indicating that she'd like to wear them. I put them on for her and then admired how amazingly adorable this little lady is.

And just when I thought she couldn't get any cuter, she started playing peek-a-boo with her tutu!

Apparently she likes to eat goldfish out of her dress! The yellow socks were also her request.

EMMETT...
Another night of watching my son sleep. However under different circumstances. I threatened to take away his dahtdoos (his pacifiers) if he came out of his room again. Not only did he come out of his room again, he literally told me I could have all of his dahtdoos and even came to find me with one I hadn't seen. Then came 10:45pm, when he decided he had played in his room long enough and was finally ready to go to sleep. He was beside himself that he did not have his dahtdoos. I just hate it when I make a threat and actually have to follow-through with the consequences which then means additional consequences for me! I let him cry awhile and then went into his room to rock him. Ahhhhh, I have to say, I treasured each moment. He fell asleep in my arms and I continued to rock him and pray over him. How I cherish these moments. I think I may take his dahtdoos away more often just to get the chance to rock my baby to sleep! Of course, if this became a daily thing, that is, him needing to be rocked to sleep, I would not be singing a happy tune.

Wild Animals

Yes, my son likes super heros, legos and dinosaurs. I'd even say he loves trains and Diego. And I've even go as far as to say he adores anything rock star. But there is not quite anything that compares, in the life of this 3 year old, to WILD ANIMALS (yes they have to be wild, dogs and cats just don't cut it. Even farm animals like horses and cows don't quite get the same reaction)! He LOVES wild animals. He talks about them all the time. He adores his Schleich wild animals and can often be found playing with these animals in his playdoh, in a bowl of rice, or on his legos. The night light pictured below from Nana and Grandpa along with a wild animal book (which is what he's reading in the photo below) from Grandma and Papa were a few of his favorites.

So, when I found jammies on 70% off at Kohls tonight, I called Emmett and asked him if he wanted dinosaur super hero jammies, gorilla with headphone jammies or monster jammies. He requested super hero jammies. After one last perusal through the fabulously priced jams, I spotted some arctic animal jammies so I grabbed those too. I should not have been surprised that when I got home, he didn't care one bit for the super hero jammies, he immediately asked to "look at his wild animal jammies."

So here is a picture of my sweet little wild animal lover in his arctic wild animals p-jayjays.

Reading his wild animals book with animal facts and animals noises.

And final fast asleep. I could gaze at this sleeping babe for hours. And sometimes I do which is why I'm sitting in his room catching up on my blogs. I love his company. I just can't get enough.

Christmas Day

We slept over at Eric's parent's house so that we could wake up and do Christmas morning with them.

Grandma read "The Grinch" to Emmett before bedtime.

Christmas morning we did the Christmas story with these little figurines.



Then we played outside in the snow. The snow was gorgeous and perfect for snowman building.

The building of the gigantic snowman!

Eisley fell asleep while the boys were hard at work.



Andrew, snowman, Eric

Eisley in her Christmas attire.

Playing peek-a-boo

Walking around holding chex mix while wearing her ruby slippers.

My adorable little kids.

Daddy and daughter.

Snowman at the end of the day - natural causes or foul play, we're still not sure!

Christmas Eve PM

We had a great Christmas Eve with my side of the family. We ate Veal/Lamb swedish meatballs thanks to my brother. We read the Christmas story and acted it out with stuffed characters. Two of Emmett's favorite gifts, the Animal Night light...

and "the thing that goes click click."

Uncle Eli and Aunt Kristen showing Elias their midget frogs.

Emmett loves the stuffed owl from Eli and Kristen.

And Eisley loves the elephant.

Eisley playing with the present from Grandpa :)

She loves her new little baby Stella.

Christmas Eve Morning

We started a new tradition this year. Our family Christmas will take place Christmas Eve morning. We've been wanting to start a tradition with our immediate family. We do Christmas with my family Christmas Eve and Christmas with Eric's family Christmas Day. As of this year, we do Christmas Eve morning with our family. So here goes...

The Christmas story as told by "Little People"

Our little Santa divvied out the gifts.

We ate Dutch Apple Pancakes - DELISH and SO easy!!!

And we played outside.

What a fun morning! Now it's nap time so we have energy for the rest of the day!