Christmas outfit photo op!

You gotta love photo ops with 3 little munchkins... I know Kep does!!! ;)

Christmas Pizza Gang

Isn't this a lovely shot of all our children!?! We have been getting together with these 3 families for the past 3 years, 2-3 times per year, for pizza parties. The first year was very relaxing, as we each only had one child. But, now, there are 11 children 5 and under!!! So, our pizza parties are anything and everything but relaxing! They are super entertaining! We have been trying to get a cute picture of all our children on the couch, so this will have to be our "cute" picture!

This year we decided to skip the $5 toy gift exchange and exchange $5 books, instead. It was perfect as they each got a book of their interest AND it quieted them down for a good 5 minutes!!! Fun times!

Reindeer fun

Aren't these adorable!?! They are super simple for little hands, and- YES- they are from Family Fun magazine! They are supposed to look like the one on the right, but Amanda and I agreed that the one on the left is more cute and realistic! Thank you, Bacon Bits, for a fun morning making reindeers.

Here's the oldest of our 7 children. They are all smiling because these reindeers were fun to make AND because their bellies are full of M&M's, NutterButters, chocolate chippers and pretzels! Very healthy snack that sends them flying into the world of happy loudness but somehow they all landed in the world of tears! I guess every sugar HIGH has to have a sugar low!!!

Here's my little snitcher in his world of happiness. Noah's happiness was interrupted, a couple times, by falls. I don't know how this little guy manages to fall- but he's consistently clutzy. I purposefully stuck him in on a chair b/c they are lower to the ground but he still took 2 hefty falls. I try to be sensitive but, my goodness, after multiple falls per day... it is hard not to laugh or roll the eyes, instead of cuddling him! But, Noah, was the best cookie maker- he kept making cookies til the last one... because there was chocolate to be snitched!!!

Another favorite thing about Christmas

Another thing I love about Christmas are the Christmas cards and letters we all receive. I love catching up with all my highschool and college buddies' families and seeing the new years' pictures. One thing we are doing this year with all our Christmas pictures... is stapling them to a pretty Christmasy ribbon and hanging them in our dining room. I, also, clipped a cute little clothespin on the first family and the clothespin moves down to the next family- daily. Then, as we open our dinner time with prayer, we pray for the "clothespin" family. It has been a great way to reteach the benefit of praying for our friends and family, instead of ourselves! Our boys are, also, learning who our "long-lost" friends are from the NW and MidWest! I can't remember where I read of this idea (some magazine-since that is all I read!!!)... but, it has been a great one for us- this Christmas season!

Hatcher's Pass now has a rope tow!?!

Here's the sideline video crew! We sat on our sleds to watch Parker and daddy test out their new ski invention! Then, Noah tested out the sledding invention. It's probably already invented, somewhere, but it's new to our family! You'll have to see the 2 videos, below!

Savannah loved sledding in her blue throne! It is so handy as she can go down the little slopes all by herself and it never tips!

Isn't that so clever! Don't you wish you, too, were a toddler! It was so handy not to take off Parker's skis and have him hike back up the slope. This, also, gives him practice with a rope tow... for when we take him to a real ski slope!

The sledding rope tow was the best because we didn't have to worry about Noah crashing at the end and then we didn't have to pull him back up 100x! It was pretty funny/silly to watch the sled suddenly stop and then go in reverse! Yep, we sound lazy but it did help both our toddlers (and daddy) last longer and it gave Kep an arm work-out (so, I guess I'm the lazy one)!!! Once the children are all a little older and can walk up icey slopes without falling, 100x, we'll have them walk up their own sleds/skis. But until then, this rope tow makes sledding more enjoyable for all!!!

I LOVE traditions

I guess my favorite thing about Christmas are the traditions that go along with it to remember the REAL reason for Christmas... and that is Christ! Kep and I want to make sure that amidst all the cutesy and glitsy aspects of the "holiday" season- that our children grow up loving and desiring to personally make Christ the BEST tradition in their Christmas.

So, we are still including the "cutesy and glitsy" in our little family traditions, but making Christ the center of them! It just takes a little more creativity and the help of books! I am, after all, a "retired" school teacher so I have loads of fabulous children's books. But, now since I have children... I have been collecting more Christmas and Christian children's books. And, after last year's "after Christmas sales"... I now have 25 Christmas books. So, I wrapped them all up and we are using them as an advent book calendar.

On December 1st, they opened the Gingerbread Baby and then we made a gingerbread house- which was a crazy adventure, more to come!!! Then, on Christmas morning, I have a sweet little book called the Baby Jesus. Everyday, the boys get to open one book (after dinner- b/c then daddy is home to enjoy!) and we spend time, as a family, on the couch! It's super fun to watch the boys anticipate it and it makes them eat their dinner a little more speedy than normal. I love how it is getting us in a new tradition of sitting down on the couch for a family story time and then talking about the true Christmas message (in the Christian books!).

I would like to get more Christian Christmas books in our collection, so I will be shopping the "after Christmas sales", again. Here are 3+ books I will be in search of on December 26th, and I'm sharing them with you because they are awesome books that share the true Christmas message; The Legend of the Candy Cane, The Legend of the Christmas Tree, The ADVENTure of Christmas and a few more???!!!

This cute little pile of presents is also an advent calendar that my sweet Aunt Connie bought for our kiddos at Target! Each little door has a chocolate inside- mmmmm- fun way to start our mornings!

This is our first year with Savannah and all our children, so I was finally able to get their stockings embroidered with their names. This is, also, our first time using these cute stocking holders that I bought at Target's after-Christmas-sales, last year. I am soooo excited to be able to shop those same Target sales, this year, in Wasilla!!!

You'll have to read the next post to hear how our first book-opening-night went, it didn't really live up to my expectations- just a tad more memorable!

Gingerbread House adventure

Well, this was the peaceful beginning to our book advent tradition. The boys opened our first book on December 1st. Parker was extremely excited to see Gingerbread Baby as we have not read it for a year! But, after the book was over... our house became a little crazy!

The boys did such a great job decorating our little house. I don't know how it happened, but both our boys are very orderly... they carefully placed each candy on the house! Then, I made the mistake of sticking Savannah on the table, so she could be in the action and, of course, for a blog picture! Well, she was only up there for a split second but she managed to knock over the bowl of tiny little candy balls that bounced all over our dining room floor. This nearly sent our first-born to tears as he thought the candy was now going to be wasted since it was on the floor. And, I received several "I can't believe you set an 8-month old next to bowls of candy" looks from my hubby! Oops, but we got them picked up lickety-split. But, while we were on our hands and knees... Noah was comparing the size of a little blue candy ball to the size of his left nostril. Yep, perfect fit and if you take a big sniff... it flies up!!! Oh my word!

Well, Kep tried massaging the candy down but that didn't help. So, we both thought... "what could make Noah sneeze?" hmmm... pepper! Yep, we waved the can of pepper below his nose but by this time he was too upset and was crying/breathing out of his mouth- not his nose! Then, the bright thought came to me... a bath. Bath time always makes little Noah sneeze and I keep a box of kleenex next to the tub b/c that's when all his boogers are set free! Sorry, if you don't like snot pix but here's evidence that Noah had a BLUE candy stuck up his nose! The bath idea was great b/c it is one of Noah's favorite activities and it helped distract him that he had a candy lodged in the bridge of his nose. And, it helped give mommy hope that we wouldn't be on our first trip to the ER! This would have been ironic since we had just chatted about ER visits with other young families and we still have yet to make an ER visit with our children! (knock on wood!)

Here's Noah giving us a "thumbs up" because the candy did FLY out on the third sneeze, but it was now white and 1/2 the size! What a relief!

And, there's our 3 sweet children with the 2008 Kroon Gingerbread Home! It wasn't the night I envisioned but it did give us a few giggles and a new appreciation for memorable mistakes.