Merry Christmas

Christmas Eve pjs

We stuck to tradition and opened up new pj's, played games most of the day, watched Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer, read the Nativity Story and set out milk and cookies for Santa. We also were lucky enough to see Santa fly over our house TWO times! It was really cool and I really loved seeing my girl's faces light up when they saw it too. There have been some kids on the bus telling them that Santa wasn't real and Allie was starting to believe them. Now she has proof that they are wrong!

Christmas Morning

Why, Santa, why?!?!

Thanks for the books and stuffed animals Gma & Gpa Huber!

After this, we paused for breakfast......my burnt casserole.....and then we got ready to go greet the Royal Family as they came in for their morning church service. The kids and Derek were less than thrilled to be doing this. How blessed am I for them to take time out of their Christmas morning fun to do this for me?!!? They didn't complain too much. We got there about 30 minutes before they were to walk down the road from the estate to the church, so not really early enough to get that great of a spot to be able to see them. We just went and found the best spot we could and started chatting with some other people around us. They said it was the most crowded they had ever seen it and they come every year! I bet it was due to the fact that it was gorgeous outside! Then they took pity on us and let the kiddos sneak up to the front! So thoughtful of them....even though I don't think the kids cared too much. I was able to pass my phone off to Allie for her to get some pretty good photos.

Derek got some good video. (which has almost 5,000 views...crazy!)

We didn't see the Queen. She comes in from the other direction in a car. We did bring flowers to hand to the family but the sun was hiding behind the clouds by this time and it was starting to get a little bit colder out. I didn't know if the kids would be able to make it through the entire church service before they came out and would have the opportunity to hand them to them. I was pleased with having been able to see them so I gave the okay for us to go home and finish our Christmas fun. :)

Back home and opening the rest of their presents = very happy kids!

Thank you Aunt Natalie, Uncle Andy and Alex!

Thank you Mony & Papa!! Now I won't be afraid of my dark room at night.

I also will have no problem finding my inner Darth Vader powers to help protect me.

Later, watching the girls try out the Infinity

Oh, but don't let this fool you! He was not happy that he wasn't playing.

And, it wasn't until later that we remembered our Christmas crackers!

We were able to Skype Mony, Papa, Buddy, Kim & Hannah and then Gma & Gpa Huber, Sarah, Scott, Jodie, Gabby & Morgan later! Great to see them all! We had a wonderful Christmas and hope you all did too! <3 nbsp="" p="">

Party, Party!

Friday was a day full of parties. Both girls had their holiday parties at school.....and then that afternoon/evening was Derek's flight Christmas party. I was surprised, but the kids had a lot of fun there. There was a foosball table set up that they enjoyed playing and they also made some new friends and played a lot of hide and seek. There was a craft table set up for the kids to color and decorate cookies. This was the only picture I took all night.

There were several games played throughout the night. Allie won almost every single one! I guess that tells you how bright Derek's flight is. LOL! One of the games was the guess how many is in the jar, another was a holiday trivia game, and then they had a children's contest......which was not a good idea, but they had each of the kids color pictures and then hold them up in front of everyone and whoever got the most cheers won. Luckily every kid was a good sport about it.

The most recent party happened Monday! The kids invited several of their friends over for a gingerbread house decorating party. I was a little under the weather, but we pulled it off and I think everyone had a good time.

Avery's finished product

Allie's finished product

Blake destroyed his before I could get a picture.

We had several games planned but only got to play one, which the kids seemed to enjoy a lot! Then we did a quick photoshoot before everyone left.

Blake wasn't feeling the photo shoot. He's usually our most cheeky one when it comes to things like this. One of the little girls, you can barely see her in the picture, really likes Blake and wanted to chase him everywhere. I think he had had enough of it by this point.

I have to include a pic of Blake's buddy, Wyatt. This was the only one I got of him because he and Blake were up in Blake's room playing with the" boy toys" pretty much the entire time!

I'll be honest. Late last week I was regretting doing this. I was starting to have anxiety realizing that I was hosting this and would have to be directing the kids and parents. I'm realizing that I feel like I have to have things be perfect for people to like me (which I do believe that is true in some ways...but that's another story). I pushed through the anxiety and did it for the kids...and really for myself too. The kids had so much fun and I do love planning parties and had a great time getting to know the other parents better!

Here are a couple pics from the night before the party. The kiddos wanted to try out the photo booth area.

Last night we went to King's Lynn. I love walking around there.

This is an older pic that I guess I forgot to post. Blake was eating his apple and all of a sudden says, "Mom! Look, it's that Star Wars guy!!"

And lastly, last Sunday Blake started saying something really cute. He was running around calling his sisters "cheeky little ones!" I'm guessing he must hear that a lot in nursery at church. I'm just wondering if Blake is the one being called cheeky or if it's the other little ones. Blake assures me it's not him. :)

One more thing. We all know how much Avery loves her sweets. So, the night of the gingerbread house decorating party I woke up to the sound of someone throwing up. Sure enough it was Avery. I have no idea how many cookies she ate nor how much candy she had while decorating. Plus, during the rest of the day whenever I would go into the kitchen she was either sneaking candy off of her house or sneaking another cookie. That girl! It was extra funny because the next day the kids got cards with money from Mony & Papa and Avery's card said DO NOT SPEND THIS MONEY ON CANDY AVERY ELIZABETH!