The rest of December

 

 

I got really behind on posting pics this month.  Hopefully, once again, I can be better at keeping up the blog now that the holidays have died down!!

 

 

I got a new camera lens (!!!!!!!!) from BJ and the kids as my Christmas/Birthday gift!  I had been wanting it for a really long time and was totally surprised by it on Christmas Eve!  It takes AWESOME pics and my goal for the year is to start only shooting on manual...it's hard with moving objects like the kids, but it makes the pictures turn out so much better!

 

On to the pics! 

 

My first few outdoor pics with the lens...See how nice?!

 

 

  Angus hates the rain...but LOVES the snow!  Good thing he's a MT dog now!

Cross-Country skiing in the backyard...

Nana's birthday party!! Ice cream cake at Aunt An's house in jammies!

 

 

Christmas Program at school.  Cash was a singing fool!!  It was adorable!  He was front and center of the half circle they formed.  He had been singing his Christmas songs all the time leading up to it, and he knew every word to every song.  I love watching him!!

 

 

 

We brought home the tree, and put the tree skirt under it...within minutes, Angus thought we had set it up for him apparently!!

 

Caught getting along!  Watching Christmas movies in our room snuggled up with Clara's blanket.

 

{christmas day}

With the excitement of Santa coming and Johnny (our elf on the shelf) reporting daily naughty and nice behavior, Christmas has been much anticipated around here!  This was "the year" for me.  Having both kids truly get it all.  They hold the magic in them and it just boils out all the time!  The magic that leaves once the believing in Santa stops as a kid, was back in full force this year!!  Makes my heart happy to see them so happy and excited.

We met up with Santa at the mall a few weeks ago.  Cash was fine, Clara cried.  Cash asked for a few dinosaurs and Clara asked for pink and purple candy.  Easy enough!  I found pink and purple candy canes at CVS last weekend and BJ had the great idea of giving Cash back his dinos that he had gotten "thrown out" for hitting us over the last few months.  Plus we had already planned to get them both new bikes. 

The pure excitement was captured on Christmas morning!  Despite going to bed late on Christmas Eve, Cash was up at 4:45.  I made him lay with me until 5 when we woke up BJ and Clara.  Our Christmas was over by 6am!  By 7am, BJ and I had devoured an entire pot of coffee!  It was exhausting however, I remember doing the exact same thing as a kid!! 


                                                              Magic Captured:

 

 

We stayed home and played with all our new things until NAPTIME....we needed it!  Then we headed out to Grandma Peggy and Grandpa Bill's for prime rib.  They had a cute little kiddie table set up for Cash and Clara that included tiny champagne glasses.  They loved pouring glasses of water and drinking out of them!  We had a nice time out there catching up with everyone while the kids played with Legos and the Doctor set that we brought out for them.  It was a super fun Christmas this year!  Currently, our tree has been taken down and all the decorations are boxed up and ready to head back to storage! 

                                         ....and a self-timer family pic!

 

Christmas with the Copes

BJ's parents went to Oklahoma this year to celebrate Christmas with Bobby and Amy, so we had our Christmas with them a few weeks before.  The kids were thrilled to get presents a tad early!  Cash got a new Leap Pad that has been a huge hit!  He even saved his chore money for 3 weeks to buy himself a new game.  Clara has been enjoying her new girlie playhut she got too!

 

 

 

 

::Christmas Eve::

Earlier in the week, we made "reindeer food" to sprinkle on the front lawn on Christmas Eve.  This consists of oatmeal (for the reindeer to eat) and glitter (which shines at night and guides Santa to our house).  Cash had made a batch of it at preschool last year and I just thought it was such a cute idea, we had to do it this year too!!  Clara is old enough this year to "get" it all.  Right before we headed to Nana and Grandpa's we went out and spread our Reindeer Food on the front lawn. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The excitement of Christmas had really been brewing all morning.  The magic of Christmas was palpable.  Kids eager to tear open presents that had been staring at them from under the trees for weeks.  Finally it was time to begin the festivities with cousins!  I can remember Christmas at my Grandma and Grandpa Spaulding's house as a kid.  My Dad is one of 4 and each has 2 or 3 kids, meaning that cousins were a plenty!  It was so much fun having everyone together all dressed up waiting to see what new toy we were going to rip open.  My kids are lucky enough to experience this kind of excitement. 

The kid table gets cuter and cuter every year!  The conversations between these four are hilarious...

Nana has made Christmas for our family so much fun.  After moving from California where we would literally start Christmas Eve off with my Great-Grandma and being full force until Christmas Night, it was strange to just stay home with the five of us.  Over time we have kept old traditions alive (like lefse making and stroganoff on Christmas Eve night dinner) and learned new traditions that can now be passed down to the kids.  We now play the pickle game every Christmas.  If you aren't familiar with this game, it's a sort of "hide the pickle" game.  Whoever finds it, wins a prize.  Being the seasoned Nana that Mom is, she gets a prize for every kid playing :)  Not to brag...but both of my kiddies won their game ;)

 

 

I am rarely in pictures...So I had Andrea snap a quick one of my sweet thing and I.

 

 

This was the BEST picture of these three monkeys I could get!!  Pretty much sums them all up though!

 

Mom always does such a festive job of dressing up the table!! 

Sitting so patiently waiting for their stockings to be passed to them!  My Grandma Marvel would always wrap our stocking stuffers that were from her and my Grandpa.  This is another tradition that has been woven into our traditions.  It started out to take up more time when it was just the 5 of us, but has just stuck over time.  I know it's a time consuming tradition but I think everyone likes it!

 

New cross-country ski's for Sis!!

 

Another fantastic idea Nana came up with...silly string!!  It lasted all of 30 seconds...but everyone was laughing like crazy!!  Look at this tough Montana dude...outside in 10* weather with no shoes!

 

 

This is Brandon, Andrea's boyfriend...welcome to the blog, Brando!

The kids in their new jammies from Nana and Grandpa...please excuse the girl on the left...she was NOT happy about sitting with the boys and getting her picture taken!!

And to finish of this post is a little comedy for you!!  Saralyn thought of this idea months and months ago, to buy adult footie jams for Andrea, her and I and surprise my Mom with them!  She was shocked coming downstairs after giving the kids baths' to find us looking like idiots!  I believe after the laughter died down her response was that she was "embarrassed for us!" ha!!  We decided that an "awkward family photo" was needed!  We drug in Dad and Angus into the pic just to make it that much more weird!!