Christmas Day

It was so nice to see the kids enjoying themselves on Christmas Day.  Of course, they should have, considering the amount of toys they received.  They had several large gifts including a spring horse for Sophie from Dave's parents and a work bench for Max from Dave and I.  I am a little disappointed that both kids don't seem to be interested in the toys Dave and I got for them.  Max is a little too young for the work bench (although he'll grow into it in a year or so I would guess) and Sophie doesn't seem interested in the camera we got her although she was constantly borrowing my point and shoot to take photos of the ground and the dogs and her fingers.  Max is loving all the trucks he got from Santa and his grandparents and Sophie is loving her spring horse and rides it quite a bit.  I'm planning on putting their new bean bag chairs in the living room so they can enjoy watching tv and hopefully stop jumping on my couch.

The crazy, insane amount of gifts they received.  Mostly is they are just really big toys.  Plus some of them are mine.  I like to wrap empty boxes of things I've bought myself before Christmas and then open the boxes and act surprised.  I'm a little crazy.

Santa delivered balance bikes, helmets and lots of little toys.

Santa got Sophie's fish a fancy new tank and a castle.

Remnants of Santa's cookies

Max taking his turn on the spring horse

Sophie loving her new horse

Sophie opening her new camera.  Notice the bandaid on her forehead.  She ran into a picture frame lying against a wall (waiting to be hung) and gave herself a nice little cut.  It's not a holiday until someone's bleeding from a head wound.

Max's new fire truck.  He loves it and it cracked along the top a couple days after Christmas.  I contacted the company and they are sending a replacement tomorrow.  I was super impressed.  Jack Rabbit Creations.  Great customer service.

Christmas Eve 2011

We were so blessed to have my parents join us for Christmas this year.  We did our traditional making cookies for Santa this year.  Although we made our own sugar cookies and royal icing.  They turned out pretty good.  In fact Santa ate all three cookies we left for him.  I found the recipe for the cookies at Bake at 350's cut out cookie recipe.  I think I just googled royal icing and choose one that looked good.  I probably should have added more powder sugar to the icing as it was a little too thin. 

For Christmas Eve dinner we had ham.  It was quite good and I'm looking forward to making ham soup tomorrow with my frozen ham bone =).  Stay tuned for the Christmas day post!

Sophie pretending there was a baby in the egg.

Sophie and Grandma

Sophie and I

Max cutting out sugar cookies

Sophie playing with leftover dough.  I read that you should only re roll the dough once or it gets tough.  So she played with the leftover like playdough

Baked and iced

Ready to eat.  Yum!

Sitting down at the table to eat dinner.

Pre Christmas Festivites

Wow... that was quite a holiday.  Sorry I'm so behind on updates of the kids.  I have to admit I had a hard time getting into the holiday spirit this year.  I don't think Sophie and Max noticed and we had some fun despite my yucky mood.  We were invited to several Christmas parties this year (we're so popular), and the kids seemed to enjoy themselves quite a bit.  We did pick up a stomach bug at one of the parties, but we're all recovered and I've decided kids are little germ machines anyways.  Sophie is a little social butterfly and is always so excited to go and see new people.  The exact opposite of me.  She must get it from Dave.  Max starts out shy, but it doesn't take him long to warm up to people.  They both have been great lately.

Sophie and Max ready for church

We had a real Christmas tree again this year.  I swear our tree gets bigger every year.  We're going to need taller ceilings next year.

Getting ready to go to party number 1.  Max had to be woken up from a nap and as you can see he was less than pleased.

He's feeling a little better now.

And he's back.  Sophie was cooperative the entire photo taking session, she just wanted to leave and see her friends.

After about a pound of cookies he was in great spirits.

Party number 2

Opening a present from the neighbor.

One of the parties we got to meet Santa.  Both kids were so excited and Santa was SO NICE. 

Gingerbread House 2011

Here the kids are ready to decorate.

The kids and I decorated a gingerbread house a week ago.  Normally Sophie decorates a house with my Dad, but since he's in Hawaii, it was Max, Sophie and I.  Really it was me decorating and Max and Sophie eating as much candy as they could stuff in their faces.  Luckily I fed them dinner before we started on our house.  I bought the house assembled from a local catering company, so it came with candy and frosting all ready to go.  That made things easier on me.

Max is intent on putting his candy on the house.

Sophie helping with the piping.

Max eating some of the candy.

Our house is complete.

Max enjoying his gingerbread man

Sophie enjoying her gingerbread girl.  We put an icing skirt on her.

Here's the kids and I today (Dec 11) before we headed to church.

Here we are before a Christmas party.  Max had just woken up so he was less than enthused about getting his photo taken.

Sophie's Fourth Birthday: Pirate Party

Dessert Table

Food

Treasure Chest

Pirate Flag

Blowing out her candles

She loves her Daddy

Sophie Turns Four

Sophie's loot

tearing into her new game.  Thanks Grammy & Grandad!

A dress with horses on it.  Cool.

From Dave, Max, and I.

Happy Birthday!

We love you!

Yum, Crunch cupcakes!