Dec. 27, 2008 - Christmas Celebrations

I thought I would just post some slide shows of pictures to share from our Christmas Celebrations.  We get together with my side of the family on Christmas Eve and then went over to Jay's dad's on Christmas day.

For Christmas Eve my family (my parents, sister and her family) came over we had a ham dinner and our traditional Oyster Stew (yummy!)  Then the kids were so excited to open gifts from one another.  After everyone left we got ready for Santa by putting out cookies and reindeer food.  Then the kids all slept together in Savannah and Alexa's Room.  I read "The Night Before Christmas" and then they all pretty much went to sleep.

Anastasia was the first to wake up Christmas morning.  Actually if truth be told I was and I patiently  impatiently waited for them to wake up.  As soon as they were all up daddy led the way (video taping) downstairs.  They were so excited.  I was so excited having 5 kids Christmas morning is awesome.  We were a party all by ourselves!!  Santa had placed their stocking by their gifts and they each took turns opening their gifts. A funny gift Santa left each of them in their stockings was  a can of olives.  He must have known how much my kids love olives.  They have to put one on each finger anytime we eat them.  Daddy thought it was pretty silly and then he saw how excited they were and he couldn't belive it!  LOL  Oh the best story though is with Joshua.  In the middle of opening Santa gifts he said "Mom, I guess Santa doesn't really care who is naughty or nice"!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  I couldn't belive it, Jay and I just about died laughing and yes it is on video tape for years to come.  So next year I do believe that the magical Elf on the shelf will be coming to visit. (Thanks for the idea Kymberly and Tina)

After Santa gifts the kids opened gifts from one another.  They drew names and then we went to the dollar section at Michaels (which was great by the way with pencils and glue sticks and little toys) and they each picked out 3 gifts for whose ever name they drew.  Anastasia was also very excited.  Her My little Ponies have been packed away in the garage and she wrapped them for her sisters and they loved it.

Then lastly they opened Daddy and Mommy's gift to them which was a Wii and they went crazy they were so excited!  Of course though this was not caught on video as we had set up the video on the tripod and didn't realize the tape had run out!

Christmas afternoon we went over to Papa and Grandma's house.  Uncle Danny, Aunt Nicole and Uncle Ben joined us and thanks to great technology Aunt Jutem and Uncle Brian & kids were able to be a part of the fun via skype.  We opened gifts and then had a delicious prime rib dinner!  Then we all had to share a talent (Grandma told us a few weeks in advance so everyone had a chance to practice.)  It wa so much fun and silliness.  I got a few pictures but not many I was too busy laughing and watching.  But we did get it all on video--- Here is everyone's talent: Natasha-crawling, Alexa-singing Jesus loves me, Savannah-front flip, Joshua-singing Five Fat Turkey's are we and breakdancing, Anastasia-ball rolling/balancing on hand that she learned from the rennisance fair, Jay-singing Mary did you know, Me- multitaksing, nursing a baby, talking on the phone, teaching reading to Josh, answering Anastasia's math questions all while the other two run in circles around me!  Nicole- Playing jingle bells on the piano, Ben-yo yo tricks (then he gave each of the kids a yo yo so they could try it was hilarious especially to watch Alexa) Danny- read a book report in different character voices, Grandma ate a cherry including the stem and then we watched the computer and Aunt Jutem ended up with the stem in mouth and tied it in a knot with her tongue!  Papa made music with his mouth! 

Jay unfortunately wasn't feeling that well and before we headed over he took benadryl instead of sudafed and it practically knocked him out most of the afternoon! 

We eneded the evening with decorating ornaments.  Grandma bought clear glass ornaments and acrylic paint.  You take the top off the ornaments, squeeze in several colors of paint, put the top back on and roll the ornaments around.  These turned out so cool and all ages had fun making them.

Merry CHRISTmas Everyone!!!

Dec. 27, 2008 - Bartholomew's Passage

This was our Advent Story for this year.  I love these books!  There are 3 in the series and they are written by Arnold Ytreeide.  We have Jotham's Journey and Bartholomew's Passage and this summer I am wanting to get Tabitha's Travels to read next Christmas.  The books have been out of print and very hard to get but Tabitha's Travels is being reprinted this summer.  The other two are already back in print I think.  You can rotate every year between them.  The books are each intertwined but also stand on their own. 

They are very exciting stories and each chapter leaves you "hanging".  I however would caution they can be pretty intense for younger listeners.  They are set in the time of Jesus's birth and there are Bible characters intermixed with fictional characters.  Each section ends with a breif devotion and Scripture.

Jay reads these aloud each year and we try to stay on track and read one part each night with finishing on Christmas Day.  This year however we finished a couple of days after Christmas.

These are a great addtion to to anyones Christmas book library.

Dec. 26, 2008 - Natasha's First Christmas

I wanted to do a special entry just for Tasha for her first Christmas.  She is 6 mos. old and just started CRAWLING ALREADY!!!  (Mommy is not ready for this yet!)  She loved getting into all the Christmas "stuff" and I think that movtivated her to get to crawling faster.   Here are some pictures I wanted to share:

The kids each get special ornaments on Christmas and on their first Christmas they get one from grandparents and other family as well.  This pony one is from Grandm and Papa Pearce. 

This gift is from Papaw and Grandma Carson.  They got each grandkid a musical Christmas animal.  This one however is special for Natasha because Papaw has always said everytime he hears Natasha's name all he can think of is the old cartoon Bullwinkle with Borris and Natasha so they got her a Bullwinkle Moose.  Natasha loves the bell on top of his head.  She keeps trying to suck on it!  So we will need to put this up till next year.  No choking babies.

Rudolph and Grandma

Motivation for crawling!

Big sis and little sis

Nothing like a baby in your arms at Christmas!

Tasha trying to open her gifts

Santa brought her the yummy, extra messy gerber cookies

Natasha and Papa

Merry Christmas Everyone!

Dec. 26, 2008 - 12 Days of Christmas continued

Here are the rest of our things for the 12 days of Christmas

This has been so much for our whole family.  We can't wait to choose a family next year to share this with.

5 Golden Rings

 6 Geese a laying

 7 Swans a Swimming  (a book)

8 Maids a Milking

9 Ladies Dancing

10 Lords a Leaping  (a cd)

11 Pipers Piping

 12 Drummers Drumming

This was a such a cute and creative idea.  Thank you to who ever blessed us with this.

Dec. 23, 2008 - Christmas Cookies

We love making sugar cookies with all the cookie cutters.  In my opinion you can never have enough cookie cutters.  It is serious business around here.  We usually bake the cookies one day and then decorate on a different day.  I think this year however more dough was eaten than made into cookies! 

Tasha wanted to get in on the action

We didn't get to do all the fancy decorating like we usually we I think we got in over our heads with the family baskets.  But they decorated a few for Santa and have been snacking on the rest.

Dec. 22, 2008 - Christmas Gifts and Treats

I have a 2 inch, 3 ring binder that I have filled with Thanksgiving and Christmas ideas and articles.  I have pulled out magazine articles especially from  Family fun and put them in page protectors.  Each November I pull this binder out and start pouring through it for things we want to do.  This year with budgets being tight we wanted to make special treats for family.  So as it all came together we focused our theme around some coasters that Anastasia learned to make.  We bought baskets and decorated them with ribbon.  Then in each basket there were lots of yummy treats, handmade coasters (from Anastasia) and family calendars.   The treats included, cookies, bread, snowman soup, cup cake mugs, fudge, chocolate covered mugs and spoons and even homemade doggy treats.  Everything turned out really cute and we had a lot of fun putting it all together.

 Homemade dog treats

 I love this picture!  Alexa had way too much fun making the chocolate covered pretzels.  We put hers in her own special bag  but I included this picture with the pretzels for her grandpas and said she made them special just for them!  HA HA!

 I will post a picture of the coasters as soon as I find one.

Dec. 22, 2008 - Visiting Santa

This year we went to a new mall to visit Santa.  This mall is mainly outside so near the kids play area Santa's special place was set up.  While we were waiting in line it "snowed" (Only in the valley do we have to have fake snow for the kids to play in!).  This was a good year for Santa as all the kids were eager to greet him.  No crying or screaming pictures this year. 

Dec. 22, 2008 - The Jesse Tree

Dec. 19, 2008 - Night in Bethlehem and Christmas lights

A few years ago there was a church near by that did "A Night In Bethlehem" complete with a marketplace, Roman soldiers and a live manger scene.  It was awesome.  They haven't done it the past few years and we have missed it.  Well this year we heard about another church hosting one and decided to go.

This was a lot of fun and the kids really enjoyed traveling back in time.  We had to visit each booth and get a stamp on our passport.  Here are some of the places we visited: 

The Herb and Spice shop where the kids got to touch and smell all the different herbs and spices.

At this shop the kids also got to make a potpourri sachet to take home.

The Carpenter shop (Joshua's favorite)  

The Bead shop where they each got to make a bracelet.

At the bread shop they got to taste their choice of a flat or raised bread and then they got to play with some dough.

The kids favorite spot was the Manger Scene complete with all sorts of animals they got to go and pet and hold.

My favorite part was inside the church where they had people and groups performing different music ensembles and there were tables and tables set up with all kinds of Nativity scenes.  I loved looking at all the different and unique ones.  We also got to dress up in clothes of the time and have our family picture taken.  I will post a copy as soon as we get one.  I can't wait to see how it turns out. 

Afterwards we went to our favorite street to see Christmas light- Cherry Ln.  This is another tradition for us.  This street is a long cul-de sac of at least 12 houses and they all decorate.  There are probably hundreds of people a night that come and walk their street to see the lights.  I am also fascinated with their garages as they are completely done up as additional rooms (some even bars and tv's).  My favorite house it the one at the far end.  You are even able to walk through their backyard and it is set up with wooden cut outs like you are walking through Bethlehem and they have the audio playing of God speaking from 9-11 if you have ever heard that it is incredible.

(Yes in AZ people decorate their Cactus.  They actually look really neat but it is hard to see the red lights with my flash)

Dec. 17, 2008 - The 12 Days of Christmas

Another Christmas blessing we are receiving this year is from another "secret family"  It started about three days ago and has been so much fun!!!!  Jay went outside to turn on the Christmas lights and right by our front door was a basket of goodies.  In the basket was a bag full of pears a book, coloring pages and a note.   This family loves to do this each year following the song/book the 12 Days of Christmas.  The book is great and I have been reading a section each day to the kids while they color their page.  It explains the biblical meanings behind the song.

This is from the first day "My true love gave to me a partridge in a pear tree"

Well the next morning the kids couldn't wait to see what we would find waiting for us...

"Two turtle doves"  We found dove body wash, turtle candies, crayons and our coloring sheets.

The excitement is building each day.  Jay and I get just as excited to check the door as the kids.

For Three French Hens we found all the makings for a wonderful french toast breakfast including the eggs and french bread!!!!

Today we got up and found a giant bag of bird seed for..  Four Calling Birds!!!

I will keep you posted as to what this wonderful family brings.  This is such a neat idea and we are already thinking of who we could bless with this next year. 

Dec. 15, 2008 - Christmas Blessings

We have been so blessed already this Christmas!  About a week or so ago we received a Christmas card from our "secret friend" and inside it was a gift card to Wal-Mart.  I was so shocked, I called Jay at work right away and he didn't know who it could be from.  I know we aren't supposed to know but we are very curious!!!  So incase you are that person or family "Thank you very much we were truly blessed by your gift"

Dec. 14, 2008 - How we count down the days

The kids are so excited about Christmas and I must say I am too.  With having 4 kids of a young age the excitment is defiently contagious and I love Christmas.  We always count down the days to Christmas and these past two years we have used a special Nativity calendar.  I like it much better this year because it is already put together!   Last year Anastasia and I had to glue all the pieces together the others were too little to help since we needed to use the hot glue gun.  But they are really cute and I will have to get another one next year for Tasha. 

The kids each keep their pieces in a ziplock bag.  Each morning I have marked on the calendar which piece they should put up.  They know when they start putting the "people" up it is getting closer and closer to Christmas.

BTW we got these from a friend who got them from Oriental Trading.

Dec. 8, 2008 - Our Annual Gingerbread Houses

The kids love to decorate/eat gingerbread houses each year.  Anastasia gets her own to decorate and the other three share and I help them.  Here are this years creations:

I usually have to fight these guys to put more on their house than in their tummies!

Anastasia is very detailed about hers and knows exactly how she wants it!

The masterpieces!

Dec. 7, 2008 - Ornament exchange

I received my ornament from the exchange.  It is from Candace MommyMatters.  I love getting packages in the mail and was excited to open it.

I opened the large mailing envelope and this is what I found....A cute piece of Christmas material with the ornaments wrapped up inside.

Inside were 5 snowflake ornaments, one for each of my children!!  How precious

Here is a better picture of one.  Aren't they beautiful!     

 The kids were so excited to hang them on the tree!!

Thanks Candace!!  Merry Christmas!

Dec. 5, 2008 - Hometown Christmas

Our town hosted a "Hometown" Christmas at the new library.  There was entertainment, crafts for the kids, vendors, "snow" and of course Santa.  We had a good time walking around and the kids loved the snow (which was just bubbles from a special machine! )

Can you see the snow?  LOL

Tasha's first Christmas!

They were so excited to see Santa and could hardly contain themselves in line!  Alexa even sat with Santa this year and gave him a hug.  A far cry from last year!!! 

Dec. 5, 2008 - CookieSwap

My Friend Anne-Marie hosted an annual cookie swap.  I love participating in cookie swaps because I only have to make a bunch of one type of cookie but come home with so many wonderful different cookies.  My original goal was to save a lot of these cookies to add them to gift baskets we are making for family this year.  But with four cookie monster kids I don't think they are going to last!  And to be honest my hubby and I have had our share!  (but we are still counting our points)  So I think I will be doing some more baking this next week.

Anne-Marie made these great boxes for us to each have one to bring our cookies home in.  I put it on top of my fridge but it hasn't helped the cookies from disappearing!  Oh well I like watching the excitement of the kids as they pick which one they are going to eat each time.  LOL

This is the inside of the box!

Here is a sample of each cookie but 2 types are already missing.

Nov. 30, 2008 - Elf Yourself

 I wanted to share a fun site that you will love doing with your family.  It is called:elfyourself.com  We did it last year and my niece made one for us and sent it to us for this year.  You will crack up laughing and the kids will love it.

Nov. 26, 2008 - Zoo Lights

Another tradition of ours is to go to Zoo Lights each year.  "When the sun goes down and the animals go to sleep, the Phoenix Zoo transforms into one of the largest holiday lighting events in the southwest with 2.5 million lights and more than 400 light sculptures from small stars to life size giraffe, elephants and orangutans." (quoted from the zoo web site)  The funny story is how this tradition got started.... Jay and I met in December 15 years ago and he thought it would be a quiet, romantic date to go see the zoo lights.  Well it was one of the first years for the lights and while it was fun it was anything but quiet and romantic.  There were so many people we were herded through like cattle!!!  This year we joked that with 4 of our kids we brought our own crowd along!   

I really enjoyed this year as we have a membership and were able to go on a special preview night.  So we chose the night before Thanksgiving, hoping everyone else would be home cooking.  It was crowded but not bad.  The kids had a great time and even got to ride the carousel for free!!

 This section is really cool the lights flash to the music and it puts on a great show.

This is Jenga the talking Giraffe.  She will even call out the kids names.  The kids couldn't believe she was talking to them.

Watching the tree display.

Along came a spider and sat down beside her...

Treasures of the Southwest Saguaro Cactus and a scorpion

Nov. 23, 2008 - The Polar Express

 I am finally getting to post about our trip to Williams to ride the Polar Express.  It was a wonderfully, magical time.  The kids loved it.  We drove up on Friday afternoon and the temperature changed over 30' it was great.  The kids were so excited that they were going to get to stay at a hotel and ride a train to the North Pole to see Santa Claus.  We checked into the hotel, changed into our jammies and went to get on the train.  We were riding the 8:00pm train.  As soon as we got on the train the magic began.  The chef and elf served us hot chocolate and cookies then we had a read aloud of the book and soon we arrived at the North Pole and as we looked out the window, Santa was standing in his sleigh waving at us.  We had a breif stop so Santa could get on the train.  He visited through all the train cars and gave each child a bell.  While we were waiting we sang Christmas carols all the way back.  It was a delightful way to start the holiday season.  (BTW we went early because this trip books quick every year and when we went to book it this was the only weekend left.)  We stayed the night in the hotel which also thrilled the kids as they have been asking to stay in one since our trip to SD this summer.  We drove back home Saturday morning and dropped Anastasia off at her grandparents so she could then ride with them to San Diego.

Nov. 20, 2008 - The Polar Express

I am so excited that tomorrow we get to go up north to Williams, AZ and ride the Polar Express. The kids can't wait!!! It is a magical ride complete with cookies, hot chocolate, a reading of the story and then of course arrival at the North Pole and a visit from Santa. We will stay at a local hotel afterwards and then come home on Saturday.

We are starting the season early with this adventure as it books up quick and this was the only weekend spot left. They have these rides through out the country so you should see if there is one near you. Just google "The Polar Express" to find out.

For fun activities to go along with the book check out my Christmas blog:  http://christmascreativityandcreations.blogspot.com/