Christmas 2014

On Christmas

Wow, did she get what she wants?

 Eve, we spent the whole day cleaning the house so that it would be clean for Christmas. We were going to go out caroling and then to a friends house for a big dinner. Unfortunately, one of our friends got sick so we had to move the dinner to our house. :-(  
While we were caroling, there was an elderly lady who was creeping out most of the kids with us, so we left that room pretty quickly. As we walked down the halls, I noticed that the doors had signs on them that asked you to make sure that you had no elderly people trying to escape with you. We went to the lower floor and finished caroling.
When we all arrived at our house, the fun began. immediately, all the toys were pulled out and strewn across the floor. Our clean house was a mess by the time dinner was ready. Everyone sat and ate, but halfway through the meal, the little kids were back to the toys. There was some very fun clean up afterward.

Everyone was up at 6 in the morning ready for presents.

In the night Owen and Guss had migrated from Phineas' room to sleep in their own bed. Phineas was still asleep, but he got a cool tower to race cars down that was taller than him! Lucas got a Ninjago LEGO set that had a four-headed dragon, a giant snake and a prison tower. Chloe got a drawing kit and a quilt making set. Owen got a LEGO AT-TE set that he was building all day. Guss got a LEGO Pirates of the Caribbean set that he finished in an hour and almost fell asleep. (He claims to have woken up at 3:42) We waited for Phineas to wake up to open presents. Then everyone migrated into the kitchen for breakfast and ate. We then went and opened presents. Owen and Guss got Kindle Fire HD 6s and books for them. Chloe got more art stuff including an art desk to go in her room. Lucas got a dinosaur book, and Phineas got a bouncy blue ball. As a family we got a Settlers of Catan Expansion, Ticket to Ride, Bean-Boozled, Wreck-it-Ralph and a grill to name a few gifts. The rest of the day was spent playing with their new toys.

We watched the Guinness World Records largest nativity many times (Watch Here): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PrLoWt2tfqg



Yes, We know you are good at taking pictures Guss

Is there a common theme here?



Phineas loves to crawl over here to look at the Christmas Tree.



Such Excitement For Stockings

The Big 35

This year I turned 35!  For the first time in 3 years Ben was home for my birthday.  He took the day off and let me sleep in while he got the kids off to school.  Then we went and did some window shopping and had lunch.  We got home and opened presents then we were off to the Olive Garden for dinner.  We ended the night we a yummy chocolate raspberry cake and ice cream.  It was a great day and I am so grateful for a fun family to celebrate with.

Halloween 2013

This year it rained on Halloween but it didn't stop our fun.  Ben took Guss, Owen, Chloe and Lucas Trick or Treating around the neighborhood.  Phineas and I stayed home to hand out candy.  Because of the rain I was extra generous with the candy and the rest of our neighbors must have been doing the same thing because the kids came back with over-flowing buckets and they didn't even go around the entire loop.

 

 Owen is a Zombie Ninja, Chloe is a Skeleton, Finn is a Jack-o-Lantern, Lucas is a Paleontologist and Guss is  Ghost.  They wanted new costumes but we had plenty from years past and so they just picked from what we had.

 



He was going to be Bob the Builder until I mentioned to Guss that he could be a paleontologist and then Lucas decided that he wanted to be the paleontologist.  He actually knew what one was thanks to Dinosaur Train.

Finn's first Halloween.

 

 

Christmas 2012

This year we spent Christmas the same way we have for the last few years.  On Christmas Eve we went caroling at the Newton Center, which is a nursing and rehabilitation center, with a few other families from the ward.  Then we had dinner at the VanGieson's with all of the carolers.  On the way home we stopped and looked at Christmas lights.  When we got home we acted out the Nativity Story with our Playmobile set and then it was time for bed.  The older boys woke up early the next morning and everyone else quickly followed.  After looking at what Santa brought we opened all the presents under the tree and then spent the rest of the day eating and playing with our new toys.  We had the missionaries and Bro. Moss over for brunch and to hang out.  It was a great day and we even got snow on Christmas for our very own White Christmas.

Gingerbread Houses

The kids love to make gingerbread houses but a lot of years we get so busy around Christmas that I don't get the stuff in time.  This year I found a kit on sale when I was out shopping on Black Friday and got it.  Finding the time to put them together was still a little hard but we did it.  The kids all got to make their own little house and Ben and I helped as needed.  Everyone had a good time.

Reindeer antlers instead of bunny ears.

Halloween 2012

This year Halloween came on a Wednesday, two days after Hurricane Sandy hit the East Coast.  Luckily, we didn't sustain much damage, just two shingles blew off the roof.  When the Hurricane hit Ben was back in Hawaii for work and fighting his own natural disaster.  A tsunami hit while he was there and he couldn't get to his hotel and so he had to ride it out in the mountains in his rental car.  Fortunately, it wasn't too serious and it didn't cause any damage.  So, with all of the craziness going on, Halloween seemed to sneak up on me.  I had a lot of candy because I had heard that our new neighborhood was a pretty hot spot for trick or treaters but I didn't really have costumes ready for the kids.  Luckily, we have plenty of dress-ups and friends with plenty of dress-ups and so the kids were able to find costumes that made them happy. 

Cindrella/Princess Chloe

Unfortunately, she lost her crown while we were trick or treating but we didn't notice until we were going home.

Skeleton Ninja, minus the mask because he didn't like wearing it.

The Mad Hatter, who freaked out way too many small children on purpose.

Batman. 

He would only respond to Batman that night. 

It was a great night.  The kids all got lots of candy and the seven bags of candy that I bought was all given out. 

Easter

Coloring easter eggs with the kids.

 

Guss decided to be a party pooper and play Wii instead of coloring eggs.

 

Lucas needed a little help waking up on Easter morning.

 

Can you spot the hidden eggs?

 

 

Guss easily found some eggs but finding his basket was more of a challenge.  It was hidden in one of the lower cupboard in this picture and it really frustrated him that he couldn't find it as easily as the others found theirs. 

 

The Easter Bunny couldn't fool Owen with the old egg-on-a-picture-frame trick.

 

Chloe used her shirt to carry her eggs until she finally found her basket.

 

After all the eggs and baskets were found it was time to put on their new Easter clothes and head off to church.

 

 

Chloe loved her hat and Lucas loved his new tie but the boys were not thrilled with their suspenders. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Valentine's Day

Every year we always go to Olive Garden on February 13 to celebrate the anniversary of Ben and I's first date.  It is usually not busy because most everyone is waiting for the next night to go out.  To celebrate Valentine's Day we have a candlelight dinner at home.  I like to decorate the table and leave little boxes of chocolate on everybody's plate and make it a special dinner. 

 

I decided to get really festive and make heart shaped meatloaf for dinner.

 

We finished it off with individual chocolate cakes with raspberry sauce.

They were my favorite part of the meal and I may have had one or two for breakfast the next day.

 

 

Christmas 2011

Christmas was a little different this year with the move hanging over us.  At noon on Christmas Eve I put everything dealing with the move on hold and dedicated the next 18 hours purely to Christmas.  We went caroling at the Senior Center with the VanGeisons, the Adams and some of the Hamblins.  After that we went to dinner at the VanGeisons and enjoyed some good food and good friends.  We had to forego our normal light sight-seeing trip and after dinner we went home to open our Christmas Eve present. 

The kids have always gotten PJ's to open on Christmas Eve but the older boys kept going on and on about how boring the jammies are and how they might not even open theirs on Christmas Eve.  No on needed new jammies and so I decided to switch things up on them and got them all Pillow Pets instead.

Lucas got Thomas the Tank Engine.

Cinderella Pillow Pet

Lucas helped me pick these out for the boys and he decided that they both needed at Yoda.  I was going to get something else for Guss but Lucas insisted that Guss needed one too.

The scene as the kids come down the stairs.

Chloe got to be the first one down, even though the boys woke up first.

The boys had time to shower and get dressed for church before we let them wake up the little kids.

The rest of the troops down to check out their loot.

Santa brought new chairs for Chloe and Lucas.

Lego organizers for Guss and Owen.

We waited until after church to open all the presents that were under the tree.

Chloe made herself and Cinderella very comfortable for the present opening.

Lucas was very excited about Cars 2.

Owen couldn't get enough of the fun.  He was the last man standing.

That night we packed up all our new toys and headed out to our temporary house at the beach in Wells.  It was fun to spend one last Christmas in our house in Sanford.  It was a peaceful day before the craziness of the move fully hit.  We got the house totally emptied out and cleaned over the next two days only to have the sale fall through the night before close.  It was a very stressful couple of months after that but in the end the same people were able to work out their problems and buy the house at the end of February.