Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

 I have finally figured out how to get pictures from my phone to  my computer, using the good old fashioned usb cord:) I think picture-less blog posts are so boring!

I made a new tree skirt this year for our tree!I got some fabric last year and never did anything with it (story of my busy life!) but finally decided to spruce up our tree:)

Funny...I never took a picture of the actual tree! It was pretty and very tall! The tallest tree we have had yet!

Eliana got shots a couple weeks before Christmas for her 5 year check-up and this was her reaction to the polio shot:( Poor baby!

Eliana and a couple classmates waiting for ballet class to begin:) So sweet!

Speaking of sweet.....Eliana had her first ballet recital just before Christmas! It was the casual Christmas recital (and SO cute!) and the fancy recital is in June. Eliana did a great job! Actually Eliana's class did the best out of most of the younger classes, if I don't say so myself:)

We made cookies over Christmas! Ben took the week off of work and we relaxed and hung out!

I was sick with a stomach bug on Christmas Eve so I felt pretty crummy on Christmas, unfortunately and had to take most of my Christmas pictures from the couch! The kids have really been into duct tape lately and they made each other (and us) lots of duct tape presents:) Samuel is holding his present from Zakkai~a printed picture of our family in a duct tape frame:)

Christmas morning at my mom's house. I barely made it but I so hated to miss out on all the fun! (Samuel is wearing his duct tape baseball hat:)

Eliana and Cousin Evy:)

The boys with some fun educational toys!

We also got money for a COSI membership (a really fun local scienc-y museum) so we went last week with a couple of friends. I haven't been since I was a little girl and since they built the new one so it was fun for all of us. Now we know what to do during winter!

And Zakkai belt-tested this week for his purple belt! For the first time, there was no one else in his group testing so he was all by himself. He was nervous but he did such a great job! We are proud of you, Mr Z!

We are so proud of him for all that he has learned and the confidence he is gaining!!

And THIS was our best Christmas surprise of all!!! It was a fun story how God worked it all out and we were able to surprise the kids on Christmas morning with the news that we will be headed to Chicago next weekend to pick up our new baby! (just one). We are so excited to meet our new addition!

Happy New Year!

Merry Christmas!

We are very tired over here from all the Christmas festivities and poor Ben had to go off to work today. Hi ho, hi ho....

Eliana was still quite sick early Christmas Eve morning and I thought for sure we were going to be staying here at home the next couple of days. I got back in bed after getting up with her for the 2nd time at 2am and her fever was 102.5. I prayed and told God how sad I was that we would have to miss Christmas and amazingly when she woke up at 8, her fever had broken and she said, "I feel better, Mommy!" Hallelujah!

We did go to Christmas Eve services that night, although in hindsight it was a little too soon for Eliana to be out. She was an absolute mess after we got home. She ate a few bites of dinner, refused a cookie and went to bed.

I begged for a family photo while we were dressed in our nice clothes and they were gracious to me! Here I was testing out the settings. I love the boys faces!

Merry Christmas!!

 Christmas morning~our very first morning in our own home for Christmas!!! I forbade the boys from opening stockings before 7am because I was still remembering last year when they were up at 1am giggling over their treasures....This year, at 7am and 3 seconds, we heard them get up and open their stockings! Eliana slept in a little, which was good so we were all there when she opened hers.

Daddy getting a Christmas hug from Zakkai:) Z is wearing one of his new pairs of pj pants I made! I let them open those on Christmas Even so they have something cozy to wear!

Then we went downstairs and did 2 of the 3 last readings for our Jesse Tree. There was a lot of reading for Christmas Day! We did the last section in Luke 2 at my mom's with everyone. After our Jesse tree, we opened presents! The boys each got a Lego set and a big set of Roald Dahl books and Eliana got a Nutcracker book and a big coloring book and wooden paper doll set. Her Lego set isn't out in the stores yet so she is waiting patiently. Can you guess which set it is??

Then the kiddos got one big Lego set as an extra gift, thanks to a sweet person we know! Love, love their faces!

They were so surprised!! haha:)

Ben was reading through a little art book I got him on Van Gogh, his newest favorite painter! He is concentrating hard:)

Then we went to my mom's house where we had a yummy brunch! Cinnamon rolls, eggs, fruit salad, sausage, candied pecans and hot apple cider! mmm... Then we finished our Jesse Tree reading and passed out presents! Zakkai opening up a book:)

Boo, my mom's kitty got a present, too. He was sitting in the middle of the wrapping, hoping to play! The pug in the background is named Peanut and she belongs to my stepdad's brother.

Cheese! She had THE runniest nose all day, thanks to whatever sickness she had. We just tried to keep her from getting too close to people. Her nose was so sore by the end of the night!

Evy's very favorite present was an Elsa doll from her daddy! The same doll that Eliana got for her birthday from Grandma.

Samuel, having a great time!

Ben and my Grandpa:)

 My Grandma, my stepdad peeking out and his brother, Robb. Don't forget Winston doggy looking so regal from the couch!

My mom worked her fingers to the bone to make robes for all 10 of her grandchildren this Christmas! They all LOVED them. She made them big enough to last for a few years, which I am sure she is relieved about! All the pockets have some special embroidery on them like Elsa on Eliana's, a fancy Z on Zakkai's, a princess crown on Evy's, etc. Love this picture!

We hung around for a little while and then went back home for Christmas naps. (Love how on Christmas day, you can put the word "Christmas" in front of any other word and make it sound exciting. Do you want some Christmas cider? How about a little Christmas nap? Oh, here's a Christmas chore for you to do! Don't forget my Christmas hug!)

The boys ran upstairs to finish putting together their new Lego sets, I made some food for the afternoon, Ben relaxed and Eliana took a much needed nap. Then we were off to the 2nd Christmas party of the day with the whole family!

It was so nice! We were a smaller group this year, only about 21 of us this year. My aunt and uncle went fancy this year with beautiful decorations and even a long row of tables set up with china dishes and real silverware!! It was really lovely and fun for all of us to sit and talk to each other. We all loved it!

We ended with our fun gift in the middle game and got home way too late, about 9pm. Our kiddos were exhausted!! We are hanging low today, letting them play and relax before Christmas with Grandma (B's mom) tonight!

Happy Christmas marathon!
\

Sicky.

We've got a Christmas sickie over here:(  Just like Samuel's illness last week where he was fine in the morning and sick by lunchtime, Eliana was fine going to bed last night and woke up around 2:45 this morning crying. I went in and she was trying to tell me something that didn't really make sense and when I bent to kiss her forehead, realized she was burning up! She fell back asleep after I gave her Tylenol but was back up to 102 just after waking up this morning.

She was off and on all day, depending on whether the medicine was wearing off or not. She perked up later in the morning and even painted a picture with her brothers but shortly after I noticed she was really bothered by noises, etc and I went to sit with her on the couch and she fell asleep in my arms.

So sweet. She woke up halfway through her nap crying and saying her head hurt and her temp had risen to over 103 so I was able to give her something and she went back to sleep for another hour. Up down, up down all day! She is sleeping now and I am praying that she wakes up better because how sad would it be to have to miss  the Christmas Eve service tomorrow night and all the family Christmas festivities??

I still remember the Christmas when I was little and I had the stomach flu and was upstairs deathly ill (at least that is how you feel when you have a stomach virus!!) while everyone was having a great time downstairs. I ended up in the ER getting iv fluids.....ah, what lovely Christmas memories!

Here's to hoping and praying that this Christmas will be healthy and joyous!! (For us and you!!)

Homemade Love!

 One really nice thing about watching your pennies is that it forces you to be creative! We weren't able to get gifts for our nieces and nephews this year, which makes me really sad (although, yes, I know that's not what Christmas is about! I still love to give them a gift!) Even though my sisters assured me that their children would be fine with nothing, I had to send a little something. So I made ornaments! I'm so happy with how they turned out.

These are glass ornaments for my nephews. They love sports so I did sports balls. A basket ball, baseball and bowling ball. I am pretty sure none of them bowl but it was the only other round ball I could think of!

These are the backs. My mom had the glass ornaments and I had all the paints and supplies so it didn't cost me anything but labor and love:) I realized I had to spray the paint with something to protect it from chipping and learned that you can substitute hairspray in a pinch! Luckily, I had some around. Worked great!

I hand painted angel ornaments for my nieces. I found the ornaments at Joann's.

I like how they turned out! Sweet. I made some ornaments for my family, too. I'll have to take pictures!

I also finished the kids' pajama pants finally! We decided a couple years ago to make Christmas simple and for our kids we do a pair of homemade pajama pants, a book and a toy. The boys actually really needed pajama pants so I was able to get a deal on fabric and made them two! Samuel's are the red and camouflage, Z's are the monsters and planets and E, of course, gets the pink penguins! Something fun to open on Christmas Eve;)

Eliana dressed herself like a peppermint the other day. I kept calling her my little candy cane! This was taken while we were waiting for the bus. When the bus came, only Zakkai got off and he burst into tears and said, "Samuel missed the bus!" I called the school and they said he was sitting right there in the office and they had another bus come back to pick him up and bring him home. He was a little sad and it took them awhile to shake it off. I told them each that if your brother isn't on the bus, be sure to go tell the bus driver so she can wait! Thankfully, the school was so nice about getting him home.

Today my mom and niece came over and we made Christmas cookies! We both had some dough already made for the kids to cut out with cookie cutters.

They had lots of fun adding sprinkles (lots of sprinkles!) to the colored icing:)

This little munchkin decorated two cookies....and ate two cookies!

Last night I went to my friend's birthday get together. She invited her 4 closest friends to have dinner and come to a painting party at her house. It was really fun and this is my painting!! I absolutely love it:) 4 of us did the reindeer painting and the other did a Christmas tree painting. We just looked at a picture and painted on the layers and added our own little touches. I would love to do this again!

My kiddos adored the painting upon first sight this morning and they all want to do one, too:) Maybe a fun activity for Christmas break! We are also doing a Christmas puzzle, drinking hot spiced cider and wrapping up our Jesse tree for Advent.

Only 3 more days!

Eliana's special day and Lolly.

 We just got back from Eliana's special preschool concert. Oh my goodness, it was so stinkin' cute!! I'll have some videos soon:)

She has been talking about this night for weeks! And practicing, too:) I did her hair in special braids today. C.u.t.e.

She got herself all dressed up and looking so beautiful tonight!!

So excited!

She even had a matching coat! This adorable outfit was given to us by a friend whose daughter has outgrown it. Love it! She was SO cute during the performance. She just kept looking at us and giving us the sweetest smile! She almost didn't even want to sing, she just wanted to keep looking at us!

At church, we have the most beautiful nativity set I have ever seen. Not sure if you can read the paper but it was made in Italy.

It is set up in the big lobby area and it is so....holy feeling. You immediately feel hushed and contemplative.

I wish I could capture the beauty of the sculptures. It's really amazing.

Meet Lolly. She joined our family yesterday:) I've never been into the whole Elf on the Shelf thing. Have you seen the crazy, er, really excited people on facebook with their elaborate Elf schemes?? That will not be us, thank you very much! I don't have time for that sort of thing!!

My aunt found this in a good deal and gave it to us and Eliana immediately wanted it and was very happy it was a girl:) I whipped her up a little Christmas skirt because we can't have naked elves around our house! She will hide in some different spots so the kids can find her in the morning. They already adore that kind of game, especially Eliana and have been playing it with stuffed animals and toys lately. Kind of a fun little thing to do.

Now off to bed with me!