Fall Fun

I finally got the pictures off Andrew's phone. I forget to check his phone and so some of these are from literally months ago, like September or October! 

We went a few times to my Grandma's house to help get her yard ready for fall and to play in the leaves. She has quite a few huge mature trees in her yard and so there is always plenty of leaves! The kids loved playing in all the leaves. Looking at these makes me miss being outside, we have cabin fever!

Not sure how this got in the mix but it did!

Christmas

This Christmas was so awesome! It felt a lot different. We felt so blessed this year and we were so excited for what Santa had for the kids! We woke up bright and early at 6. I think I finally got to sleep just before 3! I was exhausted! We saw what Santa had brought us and slowly opened the rest of our gifts. We then were able to Skype my little brother. He looked and sounded great and still is just the same! We got to say hi to the family that had taken them in for Christmas Day and where they were eating. After we Skyped we went and had breakfast with my mom's family. It has been a few years since we have all been together for Christmas Breakfast. It tasted so good! We stayed until about 1 and then went home and we all crashed! The kids, Andrew, and I all slept for more than 3 hours! I felt so much better! We then spent the rest of the day at my Aunt and Uncles house for dinner and the boys played all their new board games! It was such a wonderful day! We really missed seeing Andrew's family but that Friday the 27th we got together to celebrate Christmas. We had a yummy dinner and snacked and then we all headed to the movies. Some people saw the Hobbit and the rest of us saw Frozen. The kids absolutely loved it and asked if we could watch it again (luckily we went the next week again with my family!). After the movies we went back to Andrew's mom's house and we did our gift exchange and white elephant exchange! It was really late by the time we were done but we were having to good of a time to notice how late it was! We got home just after midnight! It was such a wonderful Christmas season and we feel so blessed to be near our families and spend the holidays with them! I really failed this year at taking pictures, I'm usually so on top of it but being so pregnant and tired I didn't care! I really just wanted a family picture on Christmas but didn't get one! It was still a great day despite!

Santa got Ella the Bitty Twins from American Girl with their stroller! She also got Princess Candy Land which is the one thing she had asked for! She got some new crayons and a new outfit as well!

Easton got a train table that came with the set. We were just going to get the set but it ended up being such a good deal it really wasn't a whole lot more to get the table! He kept saying he wanted a lot of trains for Christmas, not just one! He also got a garbage truck and some clothes as well!

Playing Games on Christmas!

We took her dolls and strollers with us and she had fun pushing them around, we just need a bigger house then she would enjoy them more I think!

My mom made these yummy sugar cookies and then put them in front of me. I may have eaten a few!

Christmas Eve

Christmas Eve this year was an exceptionally long day! I was so exhausted! It started a couple days before. We were walking into church and there was ice everywhere, no way to really avoid walking on it. Well Ella slipped and I was holding her had and tried to keep her up but ended up falling flat on my stomach! Not exactly a good idea being 34 weeks pregnant. I was a little sore and decided the next morning after persuasion from my mom and Andrew to call the doctor. They told me to come in an be monitored. Well that took 4 hrs! Everything looked and sounded great. It ended up putting me way behind on everything I had to get done. I was supposed to do my laundry that day, grocery shop, etc. So the next morning, being Christmas eve I woke up at 5 and could not go back to sleep so I got up and watched TV for an hour then got dressed and headed to the grocery store. I came home and did my laundry and cleaned. We were having Andrew's family over for Christmas Eve dinner. I had a nice nap for about an hour from 10 to 11 while the kids watched TV. It made me feel rested but not for long! Luckily Andrew came home from work at about 1 to help me! We ended up having a great Christmas Eve dinner. We had yummy sandwiches, soup, veggies, and lots of snack stuff. Afterwards exchanged some gifts and Andrew's sister Becky gave us a really nice devotional and each of us a new nativity set. It was really a wonderful night and nice to relax after a long few days. I feel bad I was so tired that night during it all and didn't get a single picture of any of it! 

After they went home we went to my parents with all our gifts to spend the night. It was about 10 by the time we got there! The kids immediately opened their new jammies and each of the kids got new slippers too! We put them to bed but they wouldn't go to sleep right away! Ella fell asleep finally just after midnight and Easton it was after 1!

Jack didn't want Sarah in the picture!

Christmas Church Clothes

The Sunday before Christmas the kids wore their new church clothes! Ella was so excited for her new dress! I have had it hanging in her closet since last February when I bought it and she has asked multiple times to wear it!

Playing in the Snow

The beginning to middle of December we were really cold (like not getting above 18 degrees for a couple weeks cold!) and we got quite a bit of snow. It was a lot like January weather. Andrew had a few days off and so he took the kids out and played one day for a long time! They loved it! They were icicles when they came in but still wanted to go out for more! They did snow angels, made a little snowman, and rolled around in it! They are so lucky to have a great dad to go out with them and play!

Dance recital

The middle of December Ella had her first dance recital. She was so excited to perform! She was also just as excited to get to wear make-up (we have already had a discussion on when she can wear make up and she wasn't very thrilled with the answer I gave her!). She did a tap dance first to "Boogie Woogie Choo Choo Train." Her second dance was for ballet to "If Santa was my Daddy." She did really well and actually knew the dance pretty well. Some kids in her class didn't seem to want to move much during the dance. She has a really great memory and so learning a dance remembering it is not a problem! Ever since that night she has asked when she can dance on the stage again! Lucky for her she has a little competition this spring and then her end of year recital! 

My cousin Andrea's little girl Hannah is in her class! She danced perfectly as well! They love having each other in their class!

She came out and stood on stage with her hands in her overalls, luckily she looked our way and we could tell her to get them out!

Hannah is on the far left!

Random December

This are random, no place to be pictures from my phone in December. As soon as I can get Andrew's phone to let me upload his pictures hopefully I can catch up! 

We got a real tree this year! I love having a real tree, it smelled so wonderful and the kids loved it! We picked it out on the coldest day possible, it was probably 5 degrees out but we are glad we got it when we did because it snowed for a week straight the day after we brought it home!

My kids begged to go with me to the doctors for weeks so I finally let them. Thanks to Netflix and hospital Wi-Fi they did great and we made it off without any problems! They got it out of their systems and haven't really asked to go again!

I had a lot of energy one morning and got a lot done. The kids were left to play and did really well playing for a few hours. I went into Ella's room and this mess greeted me! I wasn't very happy but they left me alone for a long time so I'll take the mess! They helped me clean it up and they finally got dressed! I am grateful for days like this and that they play so well together (most of the time!).

This was after our Photo session with Santa we had a 30 minute wait to get our pictures so we went out and sat in the sun and had fruit snacks for being so good!

Easton more than thrilled to go to church!