Paw Patrol Christmas House

One of the gifts Joy brought the girls was a Paw Patrol Gingerbread house.  The girls were ecstatic!!! It was another fun holiday activity the family could do together, turns out the girls were more excited about it than the boys (surprise surprise), although the boys sure enjoyed sneaking the candy off of it! :-)

The girls worked so hard to make the house look like the pup house on the box.  They took each piece of candy and put it in a special place.

Oh Candy!

Madelyn had her fair share of candy too, although if you ask her she would say she has no idea of what I was asking her about.

Dad even got to put on a few pieces of candy

Mom "attempting" to act skinny.... Madelyn said I looked crazy!

Moments I cherish now, and hopefully memories the girls will remember forever.

Until next time,

Angie

Winter Break... time to play outside!

We got to spent a lot of time back outside during the lovely holiday break.  The weather here at Christmas is definitely different than where we grew up.  While there are no snow banks to play in or snowmen to be built, there are still many fun things we can do outside.

Here are some snapshots of the kids playing...

Somehow Isabelle convinced Madelyn to pull her in the wagon.  Seems silly that the 3 year old is pulling the 7 year old but she didn't complain so I just watched and smiled.

We got to play at the park!

The three littles and I went to the playground while the big boys went to the skate park. 

Jennings watched Madelyn and Isabelle slide down the slide and swing.

We also got a chance to watch Isabelle try out her new bike.  She's now really excited about biking... for the first time ever!

Michael helped Belle 

Even on the cold days Jennings loved to be outside, it was good for all of us to get the fresh air.  

Until next time,

Angie

Madelyn's Many Outfits

Madelyn is learning how to dress herself and her fashion style is well, very much her own.  She loves, and I mean LOVES pretty dresses so everything she wears has to have at least one element that is a dress.  Now that it is cold outside she is comfortable wearing pants but insists on having a pretty dress on over top. 

And she also got to see some of Isabelle's hand me down boots that I called Anna boots.  She was sold!  Anything Anna or Frozen is good in her book. 

Here are few of her adorable fashionable outfits from the last few weeks!

She is most definitely fierce!  And still loving the boots!

Gotta cover up!

Cheese with my rainbow jacket on!

She also got a super adorable Minnie mouse dress up trunk for Christmas so she's bee mixing in those adorable outfits as well!

Oh and the headbands... can't forget the headbands too!

Sometimes it accompanied by face paint... aka colored pens!

She keeps us on our toes. :-) And boy do we love her for it!

Until next time,

Angie

Christmas Light Tour

One of our favorite activities to do around the holidays is to go around looking at Christmas lights.  This year we managed to fit it in, complete with hot chocolate and lots of fighting.  It wouldn't be Christmas without lots of family time and sometimes family times means lots of time to fight.

Anyway the night we went, Gabe was not feeling family time, so he decided to sit in the car and count down the minutes until we got home.  The younger kids loved it and we went to several places Michael looked up for places to see.  

It was a cold night so it made it feel even more like Christmas.  Here are a few shots from our adventure night out.

Jarrett had just had surgery on his knee a few weeks prior so he still wasn't very mobile.  Therefore he sat in the car with Gabe and Jennings.  

I hope when the kids are grown and gone that they remember these special times we spent together to make the holidays our own.  I know I will remember them.  I keep reminding myself to cherish the chaos, it too is fleeting.

Until next time,

Angie

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Christmas Morning

Well, being that it is closer to February than it is December, I better get around to posting these Christmas photos....

Our tradition is to open gifts from each other on Christmas eve after church.  We kept with tha tthis year too!  Here are a few shots from that evening...

The boys got to open their present first... Here's what Gabe got!

Looking good there Buddy!

Meanwhile Michael's outfit was a perfect side kick pajama!

Thankfully they thought it was funny too.  And they still use them, well at least one of the boys wears theirs!

The girls were excited to get some small stuffed animals and some play dou 

Then it was time to head to bed because, well Santa had to come and they didn't dare want to miss the chance that Santa wouldn't stop by!

In the morning they woke up at the crack of dawn and which of course meant we were all up at the crack of dawn...

Jennings wasn't quite sure what was happening but soon enough he realized there was no chance of getting any sleep so he just sat there and smiled and watched all the chaos unfolding around him.  

The girls started unwrapping their gifts and were thrilled....

an umbrella for Isabelle

and an Anna Barbie for Madelyn.

Jennings won the lottery with diapers and wipes!

Madelyn was pretty excited about her Anna doll.

Jennings and sleepy momma.... "why again are we up this early?"

The big gift the girls got was a big LOL doll thing... 

Santa must not have gotten the memo that mom thinks LOL's are the biggest waste of money!

But it sure made two little girls happy.... until they realized they now had handfuls of LOL's to fight over! 

Gabe was thrilled with his new sporty white shoes

Jennings decided mid-opening presents to go back to sleep and dream of happy things (he's smiling in his sleep)

Michael was thrilled he got all set up for his new sport of BMX bike racing, complete with a new bike and all the equipment he's been working so hard to save for.

Yes this Christmas was filled with many gifts.... mostly though the gifts I cherish the most are not found wrapped in paper or in those stockings, but in the gift of getting to spend special moments with those I love most.

I hope each of your holidays were special.

Until next time,
Angie

Costco on Christmas Eve Eve

I made the mistake of deciding we needed to go to Costco right before Christmas, because you know we'll be home for a few days and the stores will be closed.  Turns out everyone else and their mother had the same plans. 

The five kids and I ventured out together and surprisingly enough, we made it through.

I'm not quite sure what's up with Michaels pose, Madelyn picked out her own outfit, and Isabelle's just happy we were finally at peace and out of the store... oh and Gabe he's like "Mom- please don't let me be seen in public with you people! Can we go now?!"

Here's a few photos of our "after" experience, showing we survived.  '

However, I felt like Madelyn afterward... it truly was exhausting!

Until next time,

Angie