Graham Cracker Houses

The other day we had my cousin, her boys and my sister come over to make some graham cracker houses. It was a good activity to do with the kids and was a fun excuse to get together. It was quite messy in the beginning and we found that it was a little tricky to get the graham crackers to stay up for us; in the end we figured it out and had lots of fun and laughs. Kylie did a lot better than I thought she would (the first picture is her finished masterpiece). She had lots of fun putting candy on the house, though lots did end up in her mouth. We thought that she wouldn't want to put any on her house, so some was better than none. She was so proud of herself when she was done. My nephews had lots of fun too. Michael, my sister and I also made houses to go with the kid's houses. I can't wait to do it again next year!

Christmas Fun

We had a wonderful Christmas Eve and Day. We started Christmas Eve with Michael's extended family. We had a wonderful dinner and caught up with family members that, due to distance, we are rarely able to see. We got home in time to attend Midnight Mass at our church. We have been teaching Kylie that we have Christmas because it is Jesus' birthday, so during a very silent part of church she shouts out (this is a child who very rarely talks above a quiet voice) 'HAPPY BIRTHDAY JESUS'. There were many smiles and a few snickers. Kids definitely keep life interesting.
Christmas morning, Kylie slept in until 8:00...YEAH! As she came down stairs she said, "Look...Santa came... Happy birthday Jesus presents!" What a sweet little girl. Her big present from Santa was her new tricycle which we had to play with for about half an hour before we could open the rest of the presents. She got a few Jesus books, color books, kitchen food, and clothes. We enjoyed Christmas morning and then headed over to my Dad's house to celebrate with them. It was a wonderful time. Kylie was very spoiled and we headed home happy, with a tired little girl, full bellies and a very full truck. We hope everyone had as great of a holiday as we did. MERRY CHRISTMAS!

Santa

So, after missing the fire dept Christmas party and the Christmas party my mom's legion hosts due to our bad health, we broke down and took Kylie to the mall to see Santa. Mike and I always laughed at the people who stood hours in line to see this man but we couldn't go a year without having a picture of Kylie and Santa. Plus, after the hysterics last year, we wanted to see if she had warmed up to him at all this year. She has gotten to the point where she excitedly points him out everywhere we go, and was super excited to see him. So, off we went and stood for two hours in line for a one minute turn on Santa's lap. Kylie didn't cry this year, but she wasn't quite sure what to think of him. So she sat on his lap frozen for a couple seconds while I took my allotted two pictures and then we convinced her to give him a hug before she lift, which she willingly did. I think it was a successful Santa year.

As Christmas eve is upon us tomorrow, we hope everyone has a wonderful Christmas and remembers the true reason why we gather and celebrate each year.

Winter Fun

It has been a really long time since I have written, so I thought I would recap some of the winter activities we have been doing. This time of year is always crazy for everyone and we are no exception.

We started Christmas the day after thanksgiving, going to get our Christmas Tree. It is a tradition we started when it was just Mike and I. We have no desire to go out in the madness that is black Friday, so we hit the Christmas tree farm, come home and decorate. Kylie was finally old enough to understand what we were doing this year and was thoroughly excited to get her tree. We had a much easier time finding our tree this year than years past and were in and out of the tree farm in 45 minutes.

It took us the whole rest of the weekend, to get the tree up and decorated along with everything else, but once it was done the house was complete. I love how warm Christmas decorations make a house look when it is getting dark so much earlier and is so gloomy outside.

After the first accumulative snow here, we took Kylie and Shea out to the park to play in the snow and take some pictures in hopes of finding one for our Christmas cards. They had a blast. It's hard to tell who loves the snow more, Kylie or Shea. We got 5 inches of snow the other night and Kylie was so excited to go outside and play in it and to help daddy shovel it. We are expecting 6-12 inches tonight, so she will be even more excited tomorrow. She wants to go build a snowman so bad but we have yet to have enough of the right kind of snow for a snowman. Hopefully tomorrow will be her night. Some days, she looks out the window and says "Mommy. I want to make a snowman...pllllleeeeeaaaasssse" even if there isn't any snow out there.

For the last two weeks, Mike and I have been sick with everything you could think of. We started out with pink eye (who knows where we got that.. ) then killer sore throats, and now horrible colds. Luckily Kylie has managed to fare well and has only had a tiny cold.