Afternoon at the park

It was a pretty day today and we needed to get rid of some energy so we loaded up our bikes and scooters and headed to the park. It was fun to just run and allow us to laugh as a family. 

 

Cole dressed himself today and picked out some 2T pants. He is super skinny and 18 month clothes will fit him in the waist but he needs 4T for length. I love his little high waters! 

Look at my ham in these pictures! It's hard to not laugh at him!!

Merry Christmas!!

Christmas morning came early!! Claire was the first one up and we had to wake Cole up. We had a great time taking the morning slow. We let the kids play with their Santa gifts while breakfast baked. We had breakfast and then opened gifts. We made the kids take turns opening gifts so we could all watch and enjoy. After gifts I took a 2 hour nap on the couch while the kids played and Michael watched movies. After my nap we started on Christmas dinner. The kids ate cheese dip for lunch. We had dinner around 4:30. And it was WONDERFUL!! We spent the rest of the day lounging around the house just enjoying our time together. 

Christmas Eve

We started out our Christmas Eve with a candle light service at our church. Michael gave a children's sermon and did an excellent job. I love these services. It really brings our focus into the real reason we celebrate. 

After the service we went home and got into our PJ's. When Michael and I celebrated our first Christmas Eve together 11 years ago we had frozen pizza and IBC root beer. We have continued that tradition ever year. We even let the kids have some IBC this year and Claire LOVED it. After we read and watched the Polar Express. 

  We took a slight break and baked some cookies for Santa. 

Claire sprinkled reindeer food out on the lawn. 

We put out the key for Santa. During the movie we got out Cole's new Lincoln logs and built a little village. 

We were tracking Santa and when we showed Claire where he was she ordered all of us into bed! 

We have homemade cinnamon rolls on Christmas morning!!! They are one of our favorite traditions!! Santa came!!! He left Claire a bed for her new American Girl Doll, a ballerina outfit for her, and a Pocahontas doll (she asked Santa for that doll because "obviously mommy and daddy can't find one for me!") 

Cole received a Batman cave and a plane for all his action figures!