Christmas Eve

Christmas Eve morning we went and saw Santa vs. the Snowman Imax at the Pink Palace. We stopped for some Chik-fil-A for lunch. Before we headed out for church that afternoon I took a few pictures in front of the tree.

Our children are natural goof balls! This is the first pose they came up with, all on their own, when I said let me get a picture of all three of you. Each of them gifted in the art of the funny face!

Church was so good! We ran into Chris and Mandi who we hadn't seen in forever and it was so much fun to share the service with them. The whole service was awesome, but when we sang Silent Night by candlelight, I had goosebumps! It's a horrible picture, but if you can imagine thousands of people holding candles and singing about the birth of Jesus, it was amazing!

We went home, changed into our new pajamas and played Just Dance (thanks Mymom!) The kiddos were quick to go to bed, they didn't want Santa to skip our house and have to circle all the way around the world again!

Our sweet sleeping babies....

Cookies for Santa

After making our goodies, we had to make a few cookies for Santa.

These handsome boys know how to work the camera!!!! Love the head tilts......

Canon's cookies in progress

Aidan's works of art

And then there was Quinn....just add a few sprinkles

until your cookies are completely covered....

I have no idea why her mouth is RED!!!

So much fun!

Goodies

Christmas Eve Eve, we made our goodies for our neighbors. I attempted to make these very cool cannoli like cookies and FAILED, so in a rush attempt to find something easy and yummy I went to the internet. I came across, brace yourselves, Brownie Covered Oreos!!!!! Are you kidding me? We had to make them. We used the mint oreos because "It's chocolate, it's peppermint -- it's delicious!" (10 points if you know where that quote is from) Aidan was my taste tester.....I think they passed his test!

We Wish You Merry Christmas!

and a Happy New Year!

House Part-ay

Gingerbread houses that is....well technically graham cracker houses, but whose keeping track? We decided that we needed to have a fun party with Aidan and Canon's friends to celebrate Christmas and it ended up being really fun! I constructed 20 graham cracker gingerbread houses the day before, we loaded up on icing and candy and we had a party in the making. We ended up with 15 kiddos and we had a great time. I sugared them up and sent them home :-) I think it was a win-win situation! The set up......

The little kiddos table

Decorate your own hot chocolate mug station.....

Pre-party pics

Coloring mugs, waiting for all the guests to show up

This is Canon and Cooper (Canon is on the left and Cooper is on the right) They are in school together and they are the CUTEST! They didn't plan to dress the same, but they sure looked super handsome! They were so excited to see each other and were proclaiming that they were "best friends" the whole time. So Sweet!

Quinn has never decorated a gingerbread house before, but turned out to be a PRO!

Canon demonstrated the proper etiquette in gingerbread house making......LICK

AND RUB....

His house.....

Aidan's house.....

The finished products...pretty cute...very sweet!

They decorated in super sonic speed mode, so luckily, it was almost 70 degrees that day! I sent them out in the backyard to run off their energy. What a fun day. Maybe our annual thing....maybe!

Grandma and Grandpa......the Pink Palace

We went to the Pink Palace as plan B from the sold out play. We ended up having a great time looking around the museum and then headed into the Enchanted Forest. We looked at all the pretty trees and even did a scavenger hunt. Grandma and the kiddos posed in front of one of the trees for me!

Grandpa helping Aidan with the scavenger hunt.

A few pictures outside of the pink palace.....you never know what you will get with 3 kiddos!

Todd took us on an awesome tour of downtown Memphis in the car mostly....it's cold! We did hop out real quick to take a look at the Mighty Mississippi River and of course to get a picture!

Grandma and Grandpa we had a great visit with you both. Thanks so much for coming to visit and for the goodies and presents. We can't until next time!

Grandma and Grandpa.....hanging around the house

After the train building day we headed to Shelby Farms to see the Starry Nights light display. It was worth the wait in traffic. The lights were really neat and they had themes that were surprising and beautiful. We woke up the next morning with plans to go see a play, but it was sold out (bad planning on my part!) We hung around the house that morning and used all our technology! Grandpa and Grandma hooked up their camera to our tv and showed us a slide show of pictures from there trip to Canada (I want a home on Thousand Islands!!!!) Then Grandpa took some pictures around the house.

Todd and the boys killed me in "cut the rope" It's addictive! I'm horrible at it....

Canon showed "Grandmother" as he kept calling Grandma, how to play on a Leapster.

We all sat and admired the stockings that Grandma has hand crafted each of us. They are the most special part of our Christmas decorating and I can't imagine a mantle without them. I may have to learn how to make them so my grandchildren will have the same amazing stockings.

Todd loves that he was the first person who wasn't a grandchild to get one!

We had fun going out, but just as much fun staying in and enjoying each others company.