Christmas in pictures

Just rounding the corner to see what Santa brought

Ella Catherine is looking at what Santa brought and Carter is still waking up

Digging into her stocking



And he is beginning to wake up

Cassidy oblivious to what is going on but loving the cuddles from Nana

Opening gifts from Aunt Kelly and Cousin Cori

Opening gifts from Aunt Kelly and Cousin Cori

Opening gift from Aunt Lori and Uncle Brian

Opening gifts from Aunt Lori and Uncle Brian

Cassidy slept through all the action

Her American Girl Doll from Nana and Pop

Loves construction equipment!  Way to go Uncle Doc, Aunt Carolee, Stephanie, Caroline and Nick

Loves her "teenager" dress as she calls it.  Way to go Uncle Doc, Aunt Carolee, Stephanie, Caroline and Nick

His twin size MSU blanket crocheted by my mom

LOVES Spiderman...Way to go Brian and Lori

Super excited about his new helicopter.  Thank you Becky

Showing off his Buzz Lighter Year and Woody from Toy Story, Thank you Nana and Pop

One tired baby and daddy after the chaos was over

Big sister LOVES her little sister

Nana reading some of the books Santa brought

Trying to get a family picture

And we got one!  Love the look on Carter's face

But not before there were some antics from Pop and Carter...I believe this is where the face above from Carter started. :)

Christmas Eve

We made our annual Christmas cookies for Santa on Christmas Eve.  Ella Catherine and Carter each had their separate sugar cookie dough to roll out, cut with cookie cutters  and decorate how they wanted.  Then come Christmas Eve night they could each choose 2 to put out for Santa.  Afterall, Santa visits every boy and girl in the whole world so we don't want him getting too full at our house and not being able to eat some cookies at someone elses house.

We spent the rest of the day playing and watching Christmas movies.  Typically we go to Mass Christmas Eve but with a new baby we did not venture out.  Instead we read the bible story about the birth of baby Jesus and discussed the true meaning of Chrsitmas.

Then the kids got in their PJ's, put out the cookies for Santa and Matt read Twas the night before Christmas.  Ella Catherine was terrified that Santa would come to our house and we would still be up and so he would pass us by.  She was hurrying everyone up to get in bed and turn off the lights. Matt and I made the mistake of giggling and she told us in no uncertain terms that it wasn't funny.  Love these memories!

Getting started

Rolling out the dough

Needing a little more flour

Rerolling her dough

Cutting out the cookies

Decorating with Sprinkles

Never too many sprinkles

Saved some cookies for icing

Icing cookies

Also never enough icing

Our Elf, Jess, got a little crazy her last night and put all Ella Catherine's and Carter's underwear on the tree

Putting milk and cookies, plus water and carrots out for Santa and his reigndeer

Time for Daddy to read Twas the night before Christmas

Everyone but Cassdy was interested in the book.  Cassidy was ready for some milk and bedtime

Sisters

Cassidy is 1 month old

Boxes, Boxes and more Boxes

I tried to get as much Christmas shopping done as I could before Cassidy's birth.  However, I still had quite a lot to do.  So, how do you shop with a newborn?  Online shopping!  Our house was over run with boxes and the kids couldn't have been happier.  They turned the larger boxes into hide aways.  They read books in them and watched their favorite morning cartoon in them and even tried to talk me into allowing them to take naps in them.  They turned some into cars and airplanes.  I guess the old saying that if you give them boxes, paper and bows they would be just as happy is very true.

Christmas Crafts

My mom came in town the week before Christmas to help me with the kids so that Matt could go to Georgia to do some hunting.  We usually go to Georgia for Thanksgiving and he counts on this as an annual hunting trip, but Cassidy's birth meant he had to miss his trip this year.  So when mom offered to come in town early so he could go, he jumped at the chance.  The kids and I enjoyed some time with Nana.  The weather wasn't the best and so we didn't get much out door time, but Nana and I had planned lots of Christmas crafts and baking to keep us busy.  The kids made two different types of ornaments.  We made dough ornaments, baked and painted them.  Then they made button ornaments using styrofoam balls, pins and lots and lots of buttons.  We also made a paper chain to decorate our Christmas tree.  We drank lots of hot chocolate, ate some baked goodies and even watched a christmas movie or two.  You might notice that Carter is wearing pajamas in the photos.  I believe he wore pajamas the entire two weeks he was on Christmas break. :)  It was a struggle to get him back in clothes the first day back to school.

Mommy holding the ornament so Carter can paint it

Ella Catherine painting her ornaments

Nana showing Carter how to make a paper chain

Paper chain making

Making button ornaments

Look how long my paperchain is mom

Look how pretty the completed paper chain looks on our tree