Almost January

Isn't that weird to think?
Before January comes I thought I would blog about last week...well this week that just passed. I am glad that Christmas is over, but sad that my sister is gone. That is right SAD! We had a really great time together and my kids loved having her here. We took a ton of pictures and had a lot of fun and here are a few highlights!

Even though it didn't snow Stephanie was able to fulfill one of her lifelong dreams...
Making a snow angel! Our backyard gets little sun (which I love) so there was still about 3-4 inches back there. She also wrote Lucas's name with her boot prints! :)

We took her to Hammond's Candy Factory to see how candy canes are made and eat some too!We watched a lot of Prison Break ate WAY TOO MANY cookies and then it was Christmas Eve. Over the years I have picked up a few traditions from random families that adopted me. Opening Christmas jammies like the Bainbridges was one we did this year. After everyone opened up their jammies the kids jumped on Auntie Steph!
This picture sums up Christmas for me, my kids all dressed up and happy its Christmas time, the gathering of families and the sweet smell of cookies!After we cleaned up for Santa we headed over to the Witte's for the usual Christmas Eve party. This year was super cool because we made gingerbread houses and got to have a little fun before we ate Cindy's "Yummy Sandwiches"
Lucas and Nathan made a Lucas house (see it?) and Lucas shared all of his extra candy with Noah. He told me on the way home that he was mad that we didn't eat more candy and Gamma Witte's house.

Then it was Christmas morning. Lucas opened his door looked down the stairs and saw that the stockings were filled and he knew Santa had come! We (the adults) were all waiting in our rooms to hear what Lucas would say or do. He was just so excited it was so strange to see him so quiet and excited! You will notice in this picture that Bridget is crying, its because she had a meltdown because she wanted to color on the new art table instead of sit and take a picture. *sigh* such is life! :) the kids had a great Christmas, I had a GREAT Christmas thanks to my parents, and Nathan too. Although you couldn't tell in the pictures! The best part for Nathan was his last minute surprise gift that I had been hiding for 3 months in our basement and he almost didn't get because I forgot, thanks to Stephanie for reminding me!We ate delicious snowflake shaped pancakes made by Nathan (as usual) and then opened our stockings! Aren't they so cute? This was one of my gifts from my sister, they all match and have everyone's name on them including baby #3! After all of the fun the kids played on the art table more which they loved. (It's from Auntie Steph too) and then we revealed our share gift to them. A kitchen! Stephanie and I put it together and actually played with for a while without the kids. Haha. It is the coolest thing I've ever seen. This was a big purchase for us but I wanted to get something for them to play with when baby#3 comes because it will still be cold outside.

It was a good Christmas and I hope everyone had a great holiday!