Christmas at our house.

I started this blog to record our family life and keep memories alive, but I'm doing a horrible job of that lately. So I force myself now to put down on this here blog our beautiful Christmas...because it truly was. We did all of our visiting the weekend before so Christmas weekend was spent at home together. Christmas eve we watched a movie, played together and relaxed. It was nice and calm and peaceful.Got my Christmas pj's picture.

I always keep a special pair of pj's aside until Christmas eve then give them to the kids to wear so they get all excited about that. This year I almost didn't have any for Bubu, I waited to late and couldn't find any in his size, but my mom pulled through and found some at the very last minute, Thanks Mom! Atty is wearing Bubu's from last year and Spike is wearing Atty's...gotta love the hand me downs... :)

I made special cookies for Atty because he couldn't have any treats in his stocking. I didn't really do any candy this year because of Atty's special diet and the fact that he can't have any. I don't like giving the kids a lot of candy anyways so for Bubu and Spike I gave them one big candy and then things like dried fruit, corn nuts and mandarin oranges {Atty couldn't have any of those things either}. Atty got his regular nuts and then I gave him a plate of cookies while his brothers were getting into their treats. He didn't seem bothered by any of it, so that was nice. The cookies were almond flour cookies with coconut oil frosting and ground up cashews for "sprinkles" with food coloring added. I was pretty excited they turned out so well!

Hanging the stockings with care...

...and being silly...
Then we read Christmas stories {lots and lots} and off to bed for the sleepy heads.

All stuffed, my favorite part! I have to say I was so proud of Bubu and Spike for not saying a word about not getting any candy canes this year or more candy in their stockings. They were so sweet about every thing... really so very understanding.

Lala and her adorable strawberry hat. I got my hubby that shirt in the back ground, so funny! He loved it!!

Atty had a rabbit in his stocking, he was super excited about that. Bunnies are a favorite of his.

Spike all dressed up in his new monkey pj's and monkey hat, so cute.

And of course Bubu looked through every book that they got. {I've read them a million times since then...}

So there ya go...Christmas at our house. Neenee came as always and stayed the day. We lazed around in our pj's all day and did nothing. Absolutely nothing. So nice. That doesn't happen often in our household! Of course it made for A Lot of cleaning the next day but oh well...it was worth it.

They earned it...

We had so much fun the other night!
The kids have been working hard to fill up their rock jar for a reward. The reward is family based, something fun to do together. Team building. I started the rock jar idea last year and since the kids are still so young it's taken quite a while to move the rocks from one jar to the other... This was their first reward, and Bubu took it very seriously. When we were getting close to the end he made sure to always reminded me about putting a rock in the jar after helping with household chores. When they finally filled the jar he was so excited and we started planning right away. We decided to go watch a Christmas lights show that is tuned to music that plays through your car radio. We ate popcorn and black licorice and drink sparkling apple juice {bubu's new found favorite...} while watching the lights. {Atty had his favorite magic diet foods...} Then we followed it up with a special late dinner that we ate in the playroom while watching a movie {something we rarely ever do}. The kids were so happy. The light show was fun, it was just someones yard that was all decked out and all the lights went in time with the music. The kids thought it was amazing, and baby girl kept dancing and staring in awe. {For about ten minutes anyways, then she started fussing, but she's only a year old so what else can you expect right...} They had a donation box in there front yard and the donations went to Children's hospital, the same one that Atty goes too, so that was neat. We didn't have any money on us, but I'd like to swing back by. We might have to make this a regular holiday stop from now on! I didn't want to set the bar too high for the first reward. I want it to be more about what we do together and the fun we can have as a family more then how big or grand we could make it. Plus we can't do any food based things, like go out for ice cream because Atty can't have much of anything food wise right now on his magic diet. Not a lot of fun things to do out doors right now either...good thing it will take them a while to fill the jar back up again!

A beautiful mess

After the last post I wrote I thought I better post a funny and/or cute picture of the girl. She may be wild and crazy, but she's still adorable.

{She loves her yogurt!} ...and she actually is teething...so that explains a lot. *shesh*

Rough

I find the transition from sweet, innocent, can do no wrong, melt your heart adorable to {fairly} well behaved child...unbearable. That rough patch where your youngster finds there Will. Their Voice, their Independence {which is great, just hard to manage}. Where everything turns into a fight, a battle of wills, a big dramatic show. I could sooooooo do with out the drama! I'm finding it even more heart breaking this time around and I'm trying not to take it personal. It's so hard for me to keep my patience through this stage and it seems to be starting so EARLY with this one! It's been extreme for the past week or so, she got sick as well which made it even worse. But now she appears to be feeling better and is still unbearable. Screaming and crying for me to pick her up. All. Day. Long. Flailing around during diaper changes. Waking up all night wanting to nurse and then throwing these intense middle of the night fits. {We are in the process of night time weening, and she is freaking out!} Throwing horrible fits. Horrible. She's just grumpy and miserable and acting like she's teething, but I don't see any teeth coming in. I know a lot of this is tied into the night time weaning thing, she is pretty angry that I would dare deny her one of her most favorite things...nursing. But she is plenty old enough to go with out at night now, so we are going to have to come to terms on that eventually. I don't think I'm going to survive, this last one is going to be the end of me. I've even called off the potty training for now because it was taking a bad turn...Bubu and Spike were almost all the way potty trained by fifteen months, and she's fourteen months and we are not even close! {Still refusing to walk too...shesh!} I feel like I'm doing it all wrong this time around, like I've forgotten what works from the boys to her. Nothing seems the same. Girls are harder I do believe. The last few days have been so miserable it's hard to remember how cute she can be. I think I will spend some time watching her videos, looking at her cute pictures and reading through my journal for her because I need a reminder...I need some feel good feelings.

Please come back to me my sweet adorable little girl...I'm not ready for this yet.

Oh Christmas tree, oh Christmas tree, how lovely are they branches...

Oldest boy hanging up the first ornament of the year.

The boys always look forward to this part.

It's their favorite, and they take the job very seriously.

Baby girl hanging up her first ornament ever!

So cute, she was really excited to be helping. She would hang the ornament I gave to her up, then point at it, then take it back down again. Over and over again. :)

Our patchwork tree, it may not be stylish but every ornament carries a memory.

I love being able to tell my kids about every ornament, some more precious then others as time goes on. Some from people who have passed on, or moved away. The first ornament for each of the kids, or the first ornaments hung on our first Christmas tree for the hubby and I. The memories, and stories flood back to me as I look at each one and share with my children. They listen quietly as I talk, asking an occasional question as they reverently hang each one careful on the branches. It's so sweet to hear their little voices when they stop to gaze at the tree. Sharing the special stories together and pointing out their favorites. I think that decorating the tree together with our random ornaments has turned in to a lovely tradition for us, one of my favorites. I wouldn't have it any other way.

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I love hearing about other people's favorite family traditions, what are some of yours for this time of year?

*Snow* Thankful!

So I know this is a little late, but I didn't want to skip my favorite holiday!We had snow for Thanksgiving! Finally some snow, the boys were going crazy waiting for the snow that was suggested for DAYS before it actually came down. Note to self, never mention the possibility of snow...before it is actually falling from the sky.

Lala's first snow. We drove out to relatives house out by where I grew up and they had even more snow! So we all went out to play in the snow and work up our appetites.

Adorable. She wasn't to in to exploring but she did sit in it for a short bit. Her uncle tried to get her to eat some...it was pretty funny.

The boys started eating some too, and Atty asked if it was on his diet...ha ha...we told him yes, it's carb free snow, eat as much as you want...he was excited about that. :)

Cousins. Nice and warm.

I tried to get a picture of all the kids together, but that's never easy so I opted for them all being in the same frame at least.

Pretty little girl, her auntie gave her some early Christmas presents and one was this really cute red skirt. She was stylin'!

We had a kids table this year, first time ever. Pretty exciting.

Resting after filling belly to the brim with turkey and the trimmings.

Working off some calories on an exercise ball after all that good food...ha ha!

We had a wonderful time again this year. I love going over there, so relaxing. Already looking forward to next year. :)

Okay so now on to Christmas. More posts to come...