the day after Christmas

What to be done the day after Christmas except play with all the new toys?! Samuel thought he'd help Daddy blow up his new ball pit. He's just imitating but it was so cute.

Noah worked so very hard getting his new Lego Gunship put together. He didn't even want to stop building to shoot his first BB gun the day before! Last year Terry helped but Noah put together his Millennium Falcon but Noah didn't need him this year. Noah put all 1,175 pieces together all by himself. 

Evie finished making faces (with stickers) and hung them around the house. It was a little surprising to go into a room and find a new, somewhat distorted face smiling blankly up at you. 

Completed ball pit / fort / mosquito free zone. 

Ezra got some new easy to grab baby toys. He really likes the yellow string to his new singing turtle...when Samuel isn't dragging it around. Could have just got the kid some yarn!

Daddy is showing Samuel how to build stuff on the outside of his new truck. And Evie is taking over. 

Later that afternoon the kids got their favorite two-wheeler (Daddy) all warmed up for pulling them around the back yard on a sled. He mentioned this event in his sermon at church yesterday. They left obstacles in this path and made little hills for him to pull them over. 

Look! A snowball! Watch out Daddy. 

Noah got some pretty good air on their last pass.  

those don't go there

On the day before Christmas I was in some kind of hurry (couldn't have been the baby, laundry, Christmas cookies and lunch that I was trying to handle at the same time) when I discovered Samuel's latest shenanigans.

He likes to carry around that little bit set of Terry's and pretend he's fixing stuff like daddy. But somehow he got a hold of my pump as well...

Noah looks really pleased.

Guess he thought that would be a good place for those bits.

And just a little while later while we were making Christmas cookies (Noah and Evie were decorating and Samuel was eating sprinkles), Samuel dumped out all the sprinkles for easier eating. I was right there and didn't even notice. He's such a stinker! 

Sharp Samuel

The Sunday before Christmas I thought it would be nice for Samuel to dress up. Then I remembered this old 3T suit of Noah's in the closet that Samuel hadn't worn yet. How sharp does he look?

Since he had some bed hair Terry wet it down and attempted to tame it. You know, make it lay down. But, just like Harry Potter, that's impossible. He's SO cute!

Like I said, this suit first belonged to Noah. HOW CUTE WAS NOAH?! GAH!

This photo is from February 2, 2008, when we lived in the parsonage in Gothenburg before Evie was even born. Seems like it never happened! Though I had this photo framed on our wall for a long time.  

cereal for Ezra

I introduced Ezra to his first solid food one week ago when he was six and a half months old. I have been lazy about starting him on food. Nursing is so much easier when I already have to prepare everything for the other three punks. Plus I'd like to eat at some point too. Also I was worried that he'd refuse it like Samuel did. 

Poor unsuspecting baby.

And the first bite goes in! At first he was just confused. Though he doesn't look happy at all does he?

Then he started tipping his head back. Initially I thought this meant that he was into it, like a baby bird. But no, alas, he was not into it. He started refusing it though I did get some down. I tried again a few days later and he was even more against it. I tried applesauce today and he didn't like it either. I guess I will just keep trucking on. Samuel eventually ate. I just wish he'd go for it right away like Noah and Evie did.

ranch Christmas 2013

Every single night I thank God that we live near family and Terry can work at our home church. I never stop feeling blessed. It's just wonderful that we can drive 30 minutes down the road to visit Terry folks and a mere 10 minutes to see mine. So that's what we did after our own family Christmas yesterday - we went to the ranch.

After a yummy lunch of ham and ribs, we opened a few gifts. Grampa and Gramma had already given us a wonderful year pass to Watiki but the kids were given some small things so they had something to open. Evie made fingerprint art and girl faces all day long.

Samuel got a ball pit! 

Noah got his first bb gun, which he tried out later. As soon as he was done opening it though, he went right back to putting together his Lego gunship he got that morning. 

Gramma and Grampa checking out their gifts. 

Grace got a baby to take care of since she has a new baby sister. 

Ezra had more things to open since he had napped through the first Christmas. He didn't get much of a chance to play with this turtle! 

Ezra loves grabbing faces. 

Shari and 12 day old Sarah! 

A new chew toy for baby Ezra that's super easy for him to grab. 

Shortly after opening gifts Terry took Noah outside for his first bb gun lesson. They started out with Terry helping Noah to stabilize the gun. 

After a few tries he hit his can! See the water coming out? Wahoo! 

Evie followed me out. 

Even though my brother grew up with a bb gun and went hunting with my dad yearly, I had never even shot a bb gun. So Terry gave me a lesson and I hit my can on the first shot. I think I could get into shooting stuff! 

Evie didn't really care but we had her try just one shot. 

She preferred to moo at the cows. She came running back to us "Mommy! Daddy! I was mooing at the cows and one of them pooped!" She's a cow whisperer.

We went back inside to play cards, eat pie and watch some TV. We watched our first Duck Dynasty episode since they have cable TV. I must say, I didn't care for it. I couldn't get into it!

Once it was dark we went outside to use up the leftover fireworks from this last summer. It was Terry's dad's idea since we didn't have to wait until 10pm for it to be dark. Though it was pretty cold and icy it was worth it.

Silly Evie was so scared. Apparently Jesse was safer to stand by than me. 

Grace - smiling. Evie- grimacing.

Everyone else was watching from inside and every time Samuel looked out they were in between explosions. He kept missing it and yelling for more. He had Shari and Gramma laughing until they cried. 

Sparklers

Jesse said Terry was Lord of the Dance since he was getting his groove on with those sparklers.  

our Christmas 2013

This will come as surprise to no one:  The kids have been so excited about Christmas. They kept going over their toy lists with us and asking us what we got them and how the day would unfold. Evie, for one, made sure we knew how these things were supposed to happen, "You get me up at 8 o'clock and then we get our stockings. And then we get our presents." She wanted to make sure we didn't forget. Apparently they can't count on us!

Here they are after having dumped their stockings. My mom completed last year's start on the stockings with new additions for Terry, Samuel, Ezra and I. They're great. And I forgot to take photos. Oops! Noah is sitting on his I guess. Even Snap scored this year. He got a new collar and name/address/phone tag (b/c he's been known to run away).

After stockings was a breakfast of eggs ("yay!") and coffee cake ("oh no!" but this year they finally liked it). You can see out the back door that we had a white Christmas, though thankfully it was melting after some really nasty, unpleasant, freezing cold weather.

Next Terry read the Christmas story straight of the Bible I gave him last year. 

We opened family gifts first. This Charlie Brown Christmas dvd was given to us by our new staff guy's (Paul) family. I had to share because I'm so funny. :P

"AHHHHHHH!" Apparently he's excited about the annual photo book. 

This Star Wars clock was a Black Friday super cheap find. It's going on the boy's orange wall (though I am a little jealous)! 

We thought it was high time for Noah to have his own real big boy Bible. So we got him one! 

How awesome are these?!!! I'm going to be that mom, part of that totally annoying trend of people putting up family member decals on the back of their mini-vans. I don't care what you think or if you have your own decals of zombies eating our decal family, my Star Wars decals are SO cool and I love them.

Samuel got a truck with tools, two things he's into right now. 

And this Star Wars Lego gunship is the crown jewel of Noah's Christmas, the one he was sure to remind us he wanted over and over and over. He's quite happy with it.

I love my punk kids. 

I was very much looking forward to Evie opening her gift. She's been really wanting some dress up gowns. Just last weekend she was at a friend's house who had a lot of dress up clothes and she told us how she wished she had more than her too-small, ripped-up Tinkerbell costume. I couldn't wait for her to see the beautiful gown and matching doll we got her! She's incredibly happy with it. I even teared up a little seeing her pleasure. It's so fun to give our kids good gifts. 

Terry was not left out. He got a new coat and jeans. I've been saying how his old brown puffy one with too short of sleeves made him look like a gorilla ("YOU gave it to me!" he always quipped back) and it was high time for a new one. 

After Ezra's nap we all headed to the ranch to continue the festivities...